It's no surprise that most people think of Hanukkah as the Jewish alternative to Christmas. We tend to experience them in American culture as an either or--"Jews celebrate Hanukkah because we/they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah." I suppose this is indeed the way most Americans, whether Jewish or not, experience Christmas/Hanukkah.
It is, however, needless. Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights, was around before Jesus was. It celebrates the rededication of the temple in 164BC after it was desecrated by the minions of Antiochus Epiphanes IV (Dan. 11:31) in the Maccabean crisis. The story has of course grown over time. In the later form of the story in the Talmud, oil that would normally only last one day miraculously lasts eight days. This part of the story isn't in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, which date over 500 years earlier than the Talmud.
From a Christian perspective, this story is in the Old Testament period. That makes it no different in theory than the story of Esther or of Passover or of Jonah. Do Christians believe that God can perform miracles and did for Israel? Indeed, Jesus attends this festival in John 10:32, and Hebrews 11:35 seems to allude to the story of 7 martyred brothers during the Maccabean crisis.
So why do some Christians have an adverse reaction to Hanukkah?
1. Because it has become a religious boundary line in later Jew-Christian cultural marking. It's an artificial line historically, but real as a socially constructed reality.
2. Because this story is in the "Catholic" books, 1 and 2 Maccabees. Come on guys, the Reformation's been over for 500 years. Get over yourselves. As far as history goes, which is not at all the touchstone of theological truth, but nevertheless, as far as history goes, there's more historical evidence for this rededication than for the overwhelming majority of stories in the Old Testament!
3. Ignorance of history
4. Can't think of any more.
I'm not suggesting that Christians should start celebrating Hanukkah. But I believe we can if we want to.
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2 comments:
Thanks Ken. Do you think as Christians we can observe Hanukkah. Not on the scale as the Jewish do but at least acknowledge the holiday?
I think we certainly can if we want to. I personally have a hunch that God used the Maccabean crisis to keep Israel from blowing away into the melting pot of the Hellenistic and then Roman world. God of course can find alternative routes to similar destinations, but I don't think Christianity could have arisen in the way it did if these events hadn't have happened. I have a hunch that the ideological consequences of the Maccabean conservativization may have had a greater impact on the specific ideological context of the New Testament than the entirety of the Old Testament--because this context provided the lens through which the Jews of the time read the OT.
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