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When Jewish Hanukkah Inspired Early Christians
Hanukkah story is not in the Jewish Old Testament, and barely mentioned in the Talmud. It is in Catholic and Orthodox Christian Bibles.
The eight day holiday of Hanukkah is not in the Jewish Old Testament. It is barely mentioned in the Talmud. The Talmud merely tells Jews to light candles to remember the miracle of a one day supply of pure oil burning in the Temple menorah for eight days.
The complete Hanukkah story is found in the two books called “Maccabees I and Macabbees2” which are only found in Roman Catholic Bibles. Why?
The Hanukkah story began when Alexander the Great died, and divided his massive Greek Empire among his three top generals.
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Years later, one of their descendants ordered each of the different nations in his part of the Empire to adopt the language, culture, and religion of the Greeks. Everyone complied except most Jews in Israel. Although they loyally supported their Greek Emperor in every other way, they refused to stop teaching and following the laws of the Bible.
As a result, the Greek Emperor Antiochus outlawed the Jewish religion. Any Jew caught teaching the Bible or observing its laws was arrested, tortured, and put to death. The Book of Maccabees describes the torture and execution of Hannah and her seven sons, and of Eleazer, the old scribe in gruesome detail.
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When the future of Judaism seemed hopeless, one father and his five sons started a rebellion. They became known as "The Maccabees", Hebrew for "The Hammers". During the next 30 years, they raised an army that defeated the Greeks and saved their religion.
The biggest miracle of Hanukkah was a handful of Jews defeating one of the most powerful armies in the ancient world. It was the triumph of "the few against the many, the weak against the strong, the pure against the corrupt”.
The Books of Maccabees tell compelling stories of politics, human nature, and military tactics. They were part of the classical literature that was well known and applied by educated Americans in colonial times, including our Founding Fathers. You can read them online at Maccabees 1 and Maccabees 2.
About a hundred years after that Hanukkah miracle, Rome defeated the Greeks, seized most of their empire, and occupied Israel. Then the evil Roman Emperor Nero and later Roman Emperors declared Christianity to be an outlaw religion. Any Christian who refused to publicly renounce Jesus was arrested, and publicly tortured and executed.
During these persecutions, early Christians were inspired by the Hanukkah story. They included two Books of Maccabees in their Bibles. The Hanukkah story gave early Christians hope that God would remember them as He remembered Jews who had been persecuted by Greeks 220 years earlier. Those Christians rapidly grew in numbers. Within three hundred years, Christianity was the dominant religion of the whole Roman Empire.
Hanukkah falls on the 25th day of the first winter month in the Jewish calendar. Is it coincidence that early Christians picked the 25th day of the first winter month in the Roman calendar to celebrate the birth of Jesus?
Meanwhile, Jews had a far worse experience with the Hanukkah story. The same Emperor Nero who persecuted Christians appointed a series of corrupt and brutal governors to rule over the Jews living in most of what is now Israel. When peaceful appeals to the Emperor failed to improve things, a group of radical Jews, inspired by the miracles of Hanukkah, organized an armed rebellion against Rome. However, they were poorly trained and led. They never had a chance against the Roman legions and their Greek allies. Jerusalem and the Holy Temple were destroyed, tens of thousands of Jews were killed in battle, executed or died of starvation. Most who survived were sold into slavery.
Perhaps rabbis removed the Maccabee books from the Jewish Bible so they would not inspire future rebellions. Perhaps the Romans demanded it. Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday that was saved by Christians.
As we enjoy the holiday season, we should take a moment to tell our children and grandchildren of the struggles, dangers, sacrifices, and suffering that our ancestors went through for more than two thousands years to achieve the level of freedom, safety, and comfort we enjoy here in America today.
