From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 03:55:53 +0000
Subject: Celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas
From: Findlay Austin
To: <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Subject: Re: Hanukkah's origins
You're so right about Christmas and the syncretism that has occured,
and will get worse till true believers will have to make a stand
But what are the origins of Hannukah?
I read some years ago that in fact Hanukkah - not found in the OT -
traditionally arose as a counter to the 'Christian' Christmas.
Is this so?
Findlay
>From Eddie:
**************
There is NO relationship between Hanukkah and Christmas.
As a reminder of the history and reasons for the holiday of Hanukkah,
I will re-post the background and history of Hanukkah which was
posted earlier in the week.
>
> From: Uri Marcus
> To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
> Subject: Hanukkah
>
>
> 1. Why is Hanukkah celebrated?
> ------------------------------
>
> On the evening of the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev (which
> usually falls in early December), Hanukkah is celebrated which recalls
> the victory of Yehuda HaMaccabee and his four brothers, all members of
> the Hashmona'im family, over the Syrian-Greeks in the year 165 BCE. At
> that time, under the oppressive rule of King Antiochus IV, Jews living
> in Israel were forbidden to perform our most basic religious customs.
> The reason for this was because the Greeks sought to impose the
> paganism of the Hellenistic world of their day, upon the Jews. The
> scenerio is a familiar one in our own day, as Greek mythology,
> paganism, and idolatry seek to influence and overtake the minds and
> hearts of G-d's people in the Body of the Messiah.
>
> But Yehuda HaMaccabee and his brothers, recognizing the danger of this
> oppression to the Jewish people, rebelled against the Syrians, which
> only made them more determined to destroy Jewish identity. The climatic
> act of insult that could not be tolerated without direct confrontation
> was when the Syrians took control of the Temple and coverted it into a
> pagan shrine. The result was a launched Maccabeean offensive which
> defeated the Syrian army in 165 BCE. Once the Temple Mount and Temple
> were back into the hands of the Jewish people, there was need to
> cleanse and rededicate the Temple. Hanukkah means "dedication." Three
> additional dedications took place in Jewish History. They were:
>
> 1. When Moshe dedicated the Mishkan or the Tent of Meeting.
>
> 2. When the dedication of the First Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) was
> carried out.
>
> 3. When the Second Beit HaMikdash was inaugurated along with the
> Menorah at the time of Yehoshua, the Kohen HaGadol, and the nation's
> leader, Zerubavel, who is referred to in Ma'oz Tzur - the traditional
> Hanukkah song.
>
> In addition to the rededication of the Temple, the commemoration of
> this great military victory over the Syrian-Greeks was assigned a place
> in Jewish liturgy and this serves to focus our attention on G-d's
> miracles, wonders and deliverances of our people not only during the
> days of the Maccabees, but throughout the ages. However, little fuss
> was made over this liturgy until only recently when, to counteract the
> strong influence of "christmas" and its festivities on the lives of
> Jewish children, who might otherwise feel left out, Jewish parents
> began to celebtate Hanukkah more elaborately through gift giving on
> each of the nights of Hanukkah. It would seem, in retrospect, that
> Greek influence staged a counter-offensive, only this time, it won.
>
>
>From Eddie:
**************
The victory and celebration of the victory by the Jews from
the influence of the Greek culture in the land of Israel around 167
BCE and the rededication of the Temple back to God from
the abomination of desolation by Antiochus Ephiphanes IV who
sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Temple happened over 150 years
BEFORE the birth of Yeshua/Jesus.
Hanukkah was celebrated in the days of Yeshua/Jesus and
Yeshua/Jesus celebrated it as recorded in John 10:22 as it is
written:
"And it was at Jerusalem the FEAST OF DEDICATION (1456) and it
was winter"
The word "dedication" is the Strong's Word number 1456 and is the
Greek work, "egkainia". This word is defined as follows in the
Strong's Greek dictionary:
"a renewal of religious services after the Antiochian (Ephinanes)
interuption - dedication"
As mentined earlier from the Catholic Encyclopedia article on
Christmas, there was no record of Christmas ever being celebrated in
the Roman Empire until almost 500 years after the birth of
Yeshua/Jesus. It only came to be celebrated from the
"Christianization" of the birthday of the sun god in the Mithraic
religion as was also documented in the Catholic Encyclopedia article.
Therefore, you can see from this that Hanukkah was NOT a
reaction to the celebration of Christmas. It was celebrated HUNDREDS
of years before any non-Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah
celebrated Christmas.
It is only the most RECENT custom of gift giving by the Jewish people
during the celebration of the 8 days of Hanukkah in reaction to the gift
giving at Christmas by Christians in the Western world that has any
similarities between the two holidays.
Most people in the United States don't even realize that the
BIG commercialization of Christmas and the universal "hoopla"
surrounding it has only occurred on the SCALE that it has in the last
75 years in the United States. Some of the early Christian settlers
who came to the USA from Europe to seek religious freedom in the
founding days of the USA were strongly opposed to the celebration
of Christmas. Some of those like the Puritans embraced their Hebraic
Heritage. Most people in the USA don't even realize that the US
congress voted on Hebrew being the official language of the USA and
was defeated by only ONE VOTE in the early days of the republic. This
is how much influence our Hebraic Heritage and the embracing of it
had in the early days of the USA and how close the USA came to
speaking Hebrew today !!!
The MERCHANTS of BABYLON LOVE Christians who stuff their
wallets with big profits during the Christmas season. The rest of the
year the merchants of Babylon (big business), the media and our
politicians try their hardest to distance themselves from Biblical
values in our society. To Christians, the merchants of Babylon say,
Thank You for celebrating Christmas!
********************************************************************
From: Heather Montalbano
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah
Personally I'm confused. Chanukkah is at the same time as Christmas
and gifts are exchanged for 8 days - that means 8 presents for each
person, many people don't get that many for Christmas. What does it
matter whether you say you are celebrating Christmas or Chanukkah? The
lack of a tree is no big deal. I want to please the Lord above all
else, but I think He looks on the heart. If you give your gifts to
others to honor Him and celebrate the GIFT that He gave to us, then
does He really care that we are celebrating Jesus' birth on a day that
is most likely not His real Birthday? Please, someone explain this
all better.
Thank you.
Heather
********************************************************************
>From Eddie:
**************
In the Bible, God commanded HIS people to NOT practice the
ways of the culture around them because if they did they would
compromise themselves and accept the ways of that culture. Most
Christians find it hard to understand how the nation of Israel in the
Biblical days could do the things they did and reject doing the
things that God told them to do. However, just as the eyes of the
children of Israel were blinded to their ways toward God as recorded
in the OT (Tenach / Jewish Bible) , today's Christians suffer from
the SAME blindness. We have committed the SAME sins as the children
of Israel. Rather than separate ourselves from the influence of our
culture surrounding us, we have accepted and practice their ways.
The children of Israel accepted the MIXTURE of the worship
of the God which incorporated some of the pagan practices around
them (the golden calf system of worship) and Christians accept the
MIXTURE of the worship of God with incorporates practices that
originate from paganism (Christmas and Easter).
Our Lord and Savior, Yeshua/Jesus HaMashiach/Christ was a
Jew. He celebrated Hanukkah. He did not celebrate Christmas. How many
Christians have asked themselves this question. When Yeshua/Jesus
returns and rules and reigns on the earth during the Messianic Age
for 1,000 years, will HE celebrate Christmas and require the rest of
the earth to do so? Consider what the scriptures say what will be
done during the Messianic Age. It is told to us in Isaiah 2:2-4 and
Zechariah 14:16-17. In Isaiah 2:2-4 it is written:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and
shall be exalted above the hills; and ALL NATIONS shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come, ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of HIS WAYS and we will walk in HIS PATHS: for out of ZION
shall go forth the LAW and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And
he shall judge among the nations, and shall REBUKE MANY PEOPLE:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: natinos shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war anymore"
In Zechariah 14:16-17 it is written:
"And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the
nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from YEAR TO
YEAR to worship the King, the Lord of hosts and to KEEP the FEAST OF
TABERNACLES. And it shall be that whoso will NOT come up of all the
FAMILIES of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of
hosts, even upon them shall be no rain".
As we discussed this fall during the days of the Feast of
Tabernacles, Yeshua/Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles.
In Isaiah 2:4 when Yeshua/Jesus REBUKES MANY PEOPLE and in
Revelation 19:15 when HE rules them with a ROD OF IRON, will HE
rebuke those who want to celebrate Christmas or rebuke those who
don't keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech 14:16-17) which is also the
season of His birth?
Will Yeshua/Jesus keep Hanukkah as He did in John 10:22 or rebuke
those who do so?
As believers in Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah, let's do what HE would do.
Isn't that what it means to be a FOLLOWER of Messiah?
When Yeshua/Jesus rules and reigns during the Messianic Age, will HE
keep Christmas and Dec 25th? Will HE tell stories about Santa and the
reindeer? Will HE put up a Christmas tree in HIS house? Or will HE
keep the Feast of Tabernacles? Or will HE keep Hannukah?
************************************************************************