In all my years of teaching the Bible, I've never needed to teach about Chanukah, which is also spelled Hanukkah. This is because I've never seen it as noteworthy. Now I find it necessary to explain why I see it that way. In short, that comes from the many problems I see with it.
The problems I see can be grouped as I've done below:
- It's origin
- It's symbology
Origin
Not One of God's Feast Days
Chanukah is not one of God's appointed days. Many of my points are founded in this difference between being an appointed day and being any other day.
Becomes, and Became, a Major Feast
Although Chanukah is classed as a minor feast, it is a major feast in it's popularity. That it should become a major feast is a problem and being a major feast is a problem.
There is a solid pattern in the world, and even in the church, that God's holy days are hated. We don't have to look any further than the Sabbath to see the truth in that. It's no surprise the world would have no interest, but the majority of Christian churches have no interest either.
Instead they have a pile of different reasons why the Sabbath was canceled. Bacchiocchi focuses on this in his book "Sabbath Under Crossfire." The point can be taken as two questions. If you don't think it is for Christians, why do you go to so much trouble to hate it? Why can't you just ignore it?
So the world also hates God's holy days … but they love the man-made days. They love Christmas and they love Easter. They are not completely comfortable with Jesus being mentioned in them but they've added lots of things they do love to paper over that.
Strange as it may seem, the world's acceptance of it is an indication that God is not in it. This also relates to the concept of the narrow way and the few that travel it.
For this reason man-made feast days have a habit of becoming major feasts no matter how they start.
Obscures the Meaning of God's Feasts
Being a major feast is a problem because it takes the light off of God's feasts and because it confuses the meaning that is in God's feasts. Each feast, in succession, beginning with the spring feasts, sets out the steps in God's plan to restore a people to himself.
- Passover - Jesus, the Promised Messiah and Son of God, would die as the atoning sacrifice for our sins
- Unleavened Bread - Jesus kept himself sinless and we are to do the same
- First Fruits - Jesus is the first fruit of the new covenant
- Shavuot (Pentecost) - Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe
- Trumpets - Jesus returns to reap the harvest of the new covenant
- Atonement - Jesus atoning sacrifice removes sin from the world
- Tabernacles - Jesus comes to stay with his people
Dubious Origin
Chanukah is said to have been created as the result of the successful overthrow of Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean Revolt during the Intertestamental period (after the Old Testament but before the New Testament). Its significance comes from the rededication of the Second Temple from the defilement that Antiochus had caused.
It is claimed in a Talmud entry that, after the revolt, there was only enough oil in the temple for the menorah to burn for 1 day but God caused it to burn for 8 days.
This claim is dubious for a few reasons. The books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees do not make any reference to this happening. You would imagine that a miracle like this would be worthy of recording. Instead there is this.
The problem with this reference is that Nehemiah does not record such a miracle. The books of Maccabees are not included in the Bible because they are not considered to be inspired by God.A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev [the date of Chanukah]. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
The Jews are far from God at this time, so far, in fact, that in only 160 years, Jesus will be arriving to bring in a new covenant. During this time, the Pharisees and Sadducees come into existence, these whom John the Baptist will refer to as vipers. Shortly before Jesus is born, the Jews will start a civil war among themselves and the Romans will step in to take control. These were not a Godly people that God should visit a miracle on them.
God had not commanded them to revolt against Antiochus nor had God commanded them to fight against any of the other conquerors that came upon Israel. As Maccabees says, God had not sent them a prophet for a very long time. They were doing things on their own and God was not glorified by any of it.
Who is Honored and Obeyed?
What God wants from us is obedience. When we do the things that God has asked us to do, we honor him. If we do the things we want to do, we have not honored him, even if we tell ourselves that we are honoring him.
When we observe a man-made holy-day like Chanukah and light the candles, sing the songs, say the prayers, eat foods fried in oil, eat dairy foods, play dreidel [a game], and give gifts, we are obeying the people who made up these activities. So we are honoring them.
The same thing is true of Christmas, Easter and all the holy-days in American culture.
Symbology
Adding Candles to the Menorah
To my mind, the abomination of Chanukah is the addition of 2 candles to the menorah to give 9 candles. Doing this is like saying, I have no idea what message God put behind those 7 candles. I'm glad to be able to quote from the Bible finally.
Yohannan to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from the one who is, and was, and is coming, and from the Seven Spirits which are before his throne. (Revelation 1:4)
And to the Messenger who is in the assembly of Sardis write: Thus says he who has the Seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works and the name that you have, and that you are alive and are dying. (Revelation 3:1)
And from the throne proceed thunders and lightnings and voices, and seven lamps were burning before that throne, which are the Seven Spirits of God. Revelation 4:5)
The seven spirits are aspects of the Holy Spirit who inhabits us in the same way the seven branched menorah inhabits the holy place in the temple.And I saw in the midst of a throne and of the Four Beasts and of the Elders, a Lamb, which was as if it were slain, and it had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent into the whole Earth. (Revelation 5:6)
Purim and The Others
The same general problems with Chanukah also exist with Purim and the other minor feasts. Ultimately they are man-made and not from God and therefore they are nothing in God's sight.
These minor feasts were decorated by men with foods and things to do, all to make them appeal to men. Many of them claim to celebrate great things that God has done, when God's part in them is, at best, unclear.
They also have the bad habit of becoming as important as God's feasts and when they are as important, they confuse the message that God has in the feasts that he has appointed.
Summary
Because Chanukah is not one of God's feasts, I cannot see a reason why any one would observe it, Jew or Christian. There is nothing to gain that couldn't be gained in a better way.
The Intertestamental Period is a huge gap in the Bible's narrative. At the end of the Old Testament books, we see Israel back in the promised land but struggling after returning from Babylonian captivity. The next sequential chapter takes us into the New Testament where we find Israel controlled by Romans. What happened? Understanding that period helps us understand the culture of Jesus' time and how it came to be. Some of that has been discussed in this study.
That period is also important because it contains fulfilments of Old Testament prophecy. Daniel refers to the coming of the Greeks. That isn't mentioned in the New Testament because they have come and gone by then. So Daniel's words might seem unfilled without knowing the events of that period.
Daniel also mentions Antiochus as the prophetic type of the coming anti-Christ. Antiochus has also come and gone by New Testament times where we see Jesus refer to those verses of Daniel, but then only as a reference to the future anti-Christ.
These are important things to understand but they are better taught in Bible Studies or Sermons. There is no need for the repetition of an annual feast day and all the things that go along with it.