The Maccabean Revolt and Hanukkah (Festival of Dedication)

The Maccabean Revolt was a major Jewish uprising between 167-160 BC, led by the Maccabean family, against the rule of Antiochus IV and the Hellenistic cultural assimilation. Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Dedication, the Festival of Lights, or the Maccabean Festival, commemorates the victory of the Jewish people in 165 BC against foreign (Greek) attempts to eradicate Judaism, the recapture of Jerusalem, the cleansing of the Second Temple, and its re-dedication to God.

After Alexander the Great of Greece conquered the region of Palestine, it was later taken over by the Seleucid dynasty of Syria. In 186 BC, during the reign of Antiochus IV, he began to force Jews to worship idols and accept Greek culture. He defiled the Temple by sacrificing pigs on its altar, brought many prostitutes into the Temple, forbade circumcision and Sabbath observance, and erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple, leading to the martyrdom of many Jews.

Antiochus IV invaded the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt between 169 and 168 BC but was forced to withdraw due to Roman intervention. Afterwards, on his way back to Syria, he suppressed a Jewish revolt and plundered the Jerusalem Temple, enslaving over ten thousand Jews. Antiochus IV’s attempt to Hellenize the Jews and dedicate the Jerusalem Temple to Zeus led the Maccabean family to initiate the Maccabean Revolt. In 165 BC, they successfully used guerrilla tactics to retake the Jerusalem Temple, preserve the Jewish region from Hellenization, and achieved relative independence, with non-Davidic priests serving as kings.

After Judah Maccabee recaptured Jerusalem, he ordered the cleansing of the Temple and an eight-day celebration of the “Festival of Dedication.” When they prepared to resume sacrifices, they discovered that the Greeks had defiled the holy olive oil in the Temple. At the time, they found only one jar of lamp oil with the High Priest’s seal, intended for lighting the golden menorah. The Jews used that jar of consecrated oil to light the golden menorah in the sanctuary, but they worried it would soon go out, as one jar typically lasted only one day. It would take eight days to either produce or procure new specially purified lamp oil from outside. However, a miracle occurred: the golden menorah not only did not go out on the second day but continued to burn brightly for eight consecutive days until new oil was prepared, solving all their problems.

The Jews witnessed all this and believed the miracle was tangible proof of God’s approval of their newly established kingdom. Therefore, in subsequent generations, Jews continued to observe this festival in winter, naming it the Festival of Dedication. And because the jar of oil that should have lasted only one day burned for eight days, to commemorate this event, the main ritual of Hanukkah is the lighting of a nine-branched menorah, with the middle lamp used to light the other eight lamps, adding one more lamp each day until the eighth day. This is why the “Festival of Dedication” is also called the “Festival of Lights.”