Feast of Dedication

Biblical Text

In the New Korean Revised Version, the Feast of Dedication appears once, in John 10:22: "And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter." At that time Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon's porch. When the Jews said to him, "If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly," Jesus answered, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), and the Jews took up stones to stone him (John 10:22–39). The New Korean Standard Version renders the name of this feast as "Feast of the Temple Dedication."

Background

The Feast of Dedication is not one of the feasts commanded in the Old Testament Pentateuch; it arose during the intertestamental period. Around 167 BC, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV introduced pagan sacrifices into the Jerusalem Temple, defiling it. Judas Maccabeus and his followers rose up in resistance and recaptured the Temple, and around 164 BC, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, they built a new altar and rededicated the Temple. This event is recorded in 1 Maccabees 4 and 2 Maccabees 10, which state that it was celebrated for eight days. Second Maccabees records that the feast was kept in the manner of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The meanings of its names are as follows:

• Hebrew Hanukkah: "dedication."
• Greek enkainia, used in the Gospel of John: "renewal, dedication."
• Sino-Korean sujeon (修殿): understood to mean restoring the Temple and offering it anew.

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus called this festival "Lights."

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Gospel of John frequently presents Jesus' teaching against the backdrop of Jewish feasts such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of Dedication scene is one such instance. Many interpreters note that on the day commemorating the Temple's dedication, Jesus spoke of himself as the one "whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world" (John 10:36). They read this scene in connection with John's theme of Jesus himself as the true temple (John 2:19–21). This is an interpretation, however; the text itself does not make the connection explicit.

Another widely known interpretation links "the abomination that maketh desolate" in the book of Daniel (Daniel 11:31) to Antiochus's desecration of the Temple. Matthew 24:15, where Jesus cites this expression, is often discussed alongside it. Scholars and traditions differ, however, on when the book of Daniel was written and on how this prophecy should be understood.

Interpretations and Issues

The status of the books of Maccabees, which recount the origin of the Feast of Dedication, varies by tradition. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church include the books of Maccabees in the Bible, whereas Protestants regard them as apocryphal and exclude them from the canon. For this reason, the books of Maccabees are absent from the New Korean Revised Version but included in the Common Translation.

The popular story that "one day's supply of oil burned for eight days" does not appear in the books of Maccabees. It is a tradition preserved in later rabbinic literature (the Talmud).

The Gospel of John states only that Jesus was in the Temple during the Feast of Dedication; it does not say whether Jesus observed the feast. Some appeal to this passage in discussing whether feasts not prescribed in the Law may be observed, but the text itself does not address that question.

In the Korean Church

Korean Protestant churches do not keep the Feast of Dedication as a church festival. It is, however, introduced as background in sermons on John 10, and it is sometimes mentioned as the Jewish "Festival of Lights," which falls around the same time as Christmas.