12/08/2023
Should Torah-observant Believers keep the Feast of Hanukkah?
1. Celebrating the Feast of Hanukkah is not commanded in the Scriptures.
2. The Books of First and Second Maccabees are not part of Scripture. If they were, the Feast of Hanukkah, which is recorded in the Books of First and Second Maccabees, would be included in the feasts outlined in Leviticus, chapter 23.
3. The Books of First and Second Maccabees do not fit into God’s plan of salvation, which is outlined in Leviticus, chapter 23.
4. The only words that were recorded at the Feast of Hanukkah were part of a very short conversation Yeshua had with the Jews (John 10:22-30), which had nothing to do with the meaning of Hanukkah. In fact, the conversation about His sheep was so unrelated that it began at the Feast of Tabernacles about two months earlier (John 10:1-21) and was carried over to the Feast of Hanukkah (John 10:22-30).
5. Yeshua sat down and taught in Solomon’s Porch at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 8:2), but He didn’t do so at the Feast of Hanukkah. Instead. He walked in Solomon’s Porch (John 10:22-23) searching for His sheep who had strayed away (John 10:25-29) due to the lies that were told about Him at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 10:19-21) so He could bring them back home.
6. In New Testament times, Yeshua’s congregation, the Body of Messiah, is a spiritual temple, not a physical temple.
7. Matthew Poole's Commentary on John 10:22, under c. 11.) reads, “Some make a question, Whether Judas Maccabeus did well in appointing this annual feast, neither Solomon nor Ezra having, that we read of, before done any such thing: and that our Saviour was not at this feast in any honour to the feast, but only to take advantage of the multitude of people that met, to preach the gospel.” I couldn’t agree more.
For the reasons I listed above, I believe that Torah-observant Believers should not keep the Feast of Hanukkah. We need to focus on the task at hand, sharing the good news (gospel) of Messiah Yeshua, who declared, "This good news of the Kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come."
