Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication)

Hanukkah — "dedication" — is not commanded in the Torah but commemorates an event in the Maccabean period (1 Macc 4:36–59; 2 Macc 10:1–8). In 167 BC the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes profaned the Jerusalem Temple by erecting an altar to Olympian Zeus over the great altar and sacrificing a pig on it. Three years of guerrilla revolt under Judah Maccabee ended with the recapture of the Temple Mount. On 25 Kislev 164 BC Judah and his brothers tore down the defiled altar, built a new one of unhewn stone, made new sacred vessels, and rekindled the lamps; they celebrated the rededication for eight days with songs, palms, and praise, and decreed that Israel should keep the festival every year. Later tradition tells of a single cruse of consecrated oil — enough for one day — that miraculously burned for eight, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply; this is the source of the nine-branched hanukkiah, with its central servant-light (shamash) and one new flame each night. The festival is called the Feast of Dedication in John 10:22, set in winter, where Jesus walks in Solomon's Colonnade and is asked plainly whether he is the Messiah.