[Wood Engraving: "Mattathias and the Apostate" by Gustav Dore]
During the Christmas and Hanukkah season, the Israeli-owned kiosks in NJ and PA's indoor malls are selling aromatic pillows and wraps, and creams and lotions from the minerals of the Dead Sea (supposedly). As you walk through the malls to do holiday shopping, young Israeli men and women won't wait until you stop to look; they'll stop you! Israelis tend to be very aggressive salespeople, and for a prepared evangelist who comes at the right time, this presents a special advantage. The CHAIM team will be talking to some of these young people this holiday season.
Most Jews, and even Christians, have no idea that Hanukkah's only mentioned in the New Testament. What connection are readers supposed to make from this? Why are we even told by John, for example, that on this particular day Jesus was walking in the Temple and being questioned by his countrymen:
"And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, 'How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.' " (John 10:22 ff)
For Jewish people, connection with the past has great significance. A First Century Jew would've seen the connection right away, because on Hanukkah he would've remembered how the old priest Mattathias of Modein had slain the apostate Hebrew who dared offer sacrifice to a Greek idol at the command of the Seleucid governor, and how his son Judah and his band of brothers put to flight the armies of the whole Seleucid Empire and their tyrant king Antiochus IV, fighting for freedom and winning against insurmountable odds.
Judah Maccabee was seen as a "messiah" of sorts, and a national savior of his day, and the people of Christ's day were questioning Jesus about whether he was the kind of "Judah Maccabee" who'd rescue them from the corrupt rule of Herod and the oppression of the Romans. The Maccabees gave Israel back its freedom and Judah indeed cleansed the Temple and gave the people back their dignity. But all this was temporary. Judah Maccabee was only a temporary savior. Yet the prophet Isaiah ("Yeshayahu" to the Jews) spoke of a coming permanent Savior in his 53rd chapter. Isaiah 53 is part of the canon of Hebrew Scripture but is never read in the synagogues. Yeshayahu said the Messiah and Savior would be disbelieved by His own people (verse 1), despised and rejected of men (verse 3), would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (verse 3), yet wounded for the transgressions of his people (verse 5), and suffer a substitutionary punishment for the guilty (verse 6), be led to the slaughter as a lamb is led to be sacrificed (verse 7), that his life would be offered as an offering for sin (verse 10), that he would justify (i.e. "pronounce as righteous") many, and make intercession for the guilty (verse 12).
Though Hanukkah's not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (the "Old Testament"), the historic events that surround this holiday are indeed mentioned: and not by an historian recalling the past, but by a prophet, prophesying the future! The prophet Daniel, writing in 540 BC, spoke in detail about a series of events occurring 370 years after his death, specifically Daniel 11 and 12.
Definitely worth the reading!
Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy Hanukkah!
During the Christmas and Hanukkah season, the Israeli-owned kiosks in NJ and PA's indoor malls are selling aromatic pillows and wraps, and creams and lotions from the minerals of the Dead Sea (supposedly). As you walk through the malls to do holiday shopping, young Israeli men and women won't wait until you stop to look; they'll stop you! Israelis tend to be very aggressive salespeople, and for a prepared evangelist who comes at the right time, this presents a special advantage. The CHAIM team will be talking to some of these young people this holiday season.
Most Jews, and even Christians, have no idea that Hanukkah's only mentioned in the New Testament. What connection are readers supposed to make from this? Why are we even told by John, for example, that on this particular day Jesus was walking in the Temple and being questioned by his countrymen:
"And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, 'How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.' " (John 10:22 ff)
For Jewish people, connection with the past has great significance. A First Century Jew would've seen the connection right away, because on Hanukkah he would've remembered how the old priest Mattathias of Modein had slain the apostate Hebrew who dared offer sacrifice to a Greek idol at the command of the Seleucid governor, and how his son Judah and his band of brothers put to flight the armies of the whole Seleucid Empire and their tyrant king Antiochus IV, fighting for freedom and winning against insurmountable odds.
Judah Maccabee was seen as a "messiah" of sorts, and a national savior of his day, and the people of Christ's day were questioning Jesus about whether he was the kind of "Judah Maccabee" who'd rescue them from the corrupt rule of Herod and the oppression of the Romans. The Maccabees gave Israel back its freedom and Judah indeed cleansed the Temple and gave the people back their dignity. But all this was temporary. Judah Maccabee was only a temporary savior. Yet the prophet Isaiah ("Yeshayahu" to the Jews) spoke of a coming permanent Savior in his 53rd chapter. Isaiah 53 is part of the canon of Hebrew Scripture but is never read in the synagogues. Yeshayahu said the Messiah and Savior would be disbelieved by His own people (verse 1), despised and rejected of men (verse 3), would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (verse 3), yet wounded for the transgressions of his people (verse 5), and suffer a substitutionary punishment for the guilty (verse 6), be led to the slaughter as a lamb is led to be sacrificed (verse 7), that his life would be offered as an offering for sin (verse 10), that he would justify (i.e. "pronounce as righteous") many, and make intercession for the guilty (verse 12).
Though Hanukkah's not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (the "Old Testament"), the historic events that surround this holiday are indeed mentioned: and not by an historian recalling the past, but by a prophet, prophesying the future! The prophet Daniel, writing in 540 BC, spoke in detail about a series of events occurring 370 years after his death, specifically Daniel 11 and 12.
Definitely worth the reading!
Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy Hanukkah!
