Jesus at Hanukkah
The “disciple whom Jesus loved,” known as John, either John the brother of Zebedee (the Apostle), or John the Elder, was writing his recollections of his experiences with Jesus so that those who hear or read would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and would find eternal life in His name (cf. John 20:31). He began by speaking of the Word of God, the Creator, the life and light of men, who took on flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-18). He then described the calling of the first disciples, Jesus’ first sign at the wedding in Cana, the events which took place while Jesus was present at the Passover in Jerusalem, and Jesus’ return to Galilee via Samaria (John 1:19-4:54). John the Evangelist then set forth Jesus’ healing of a lame man at Bethesda and the storm of controversy it engendered, Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand, and His challenging description of Himself as the Bread of Life (John 5:1-6:71). Most recently John the Evangelist described a long series of engagements and instructions of Jesus around Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, featuring the healing of the blind man and Jesus’ teachings as the Light of the world and the Good Shepherd (John 7:1-10:21).
In John 10:22-23, John the Evangelist abruptly transitioned to a new time context: it was the Feast of Dedication, in winter, and Jesus was walking in the Solomon’s Portico area of the Temple.
We generally speak of the Feast of Dedication as Hanukkah. Hanukkah commemorates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in the days of the Maccabees around 164 BCE. In 167 BCE the Macedonian Greek Seleucid ruler over Judea, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, issued a series of decrees against the practice of the customs of Moses in order to encourage the Jewish population to Hellenize. A pig was offered on the altar of YHWH in the Second Temple in order to desecrate it, and the Temple services were suspended for three years. These decrees and their enforcement spurred on the Jewish revolt headed by Judah the Maccabee which ultimately proved successful. Judah made provision for the cleansing of the Temple, the tearing down of the desecrated altar and the erection of a new one, and an eight-day observance beginning on the 25th day of Kislev. This eight-day observance was the original Feast of Dedication. It was also reported that the menorah only had enough oil for one day, and yet by God’s miraculous provision the oil endured for all eight days; to this end Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of Lights. Judah the Maccabee exhorted Israel to continually observe the Feast of Dedication/Lights afterward, and it has thus been observed ever since. This historical information was preserved in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. The author of 1 Maccabees reported how the Maccabees set the desecrated altar aside until a prophet should arise and inform Israel what to do with it, and it was so until the author’s day, indicating the author did not number himself among the prophets. To this end we have no confidence in any claims of inspiration for 1 and 2 Maccabees but should maintain every confidence they generally preserve the historical record of events.
Thus Jesus went up to Jerusalem during the Feast of Dedication. Jesus was walking in that very same Temple; Solomon’s Portico was a large colonnaded section of the Court of Women on the eastern side of the Temple, and of some size, since Peter and the early Christians would meet there according to Acts 5:12. The Hanukkah story, and even the matter of waiting for the prophet, should be kept in mind when considering what would soon take place.
Jesus was accosted by the Jewish authorities who declared an ultimatum: they wanted Him to clearly identify Himself as to whether He was, or was not, the Messiah (John 10:24). Jesus well perceived the lack of good faith in their ultimatum: He spoke of how He had already told them but they did not believe (John 10:25). They did not believe because they were not His sheep; those who were His sheep listen to Him and follow Him, and Jesus would give them eternal life, for His Father was greater than all, and none would snatch the sheep from His hand (John 10:26-29). In this way Jesus continued using the line of argument and thought expressed a couple of months earlier in His “Good Shepherd” discourse of John 10:1-22.
Jesus concluded by identifying Himself strongly with God, saying He and the Father were one (John 10:30). The Jewish leaders picked up stones to stone Him; He asked them for what good deed would they stone Him, and they responded it was because He blasphemed, associating Himself with God (John 10:31-33). The Jewish leaders correctly understood Jesus’ association; He used the language of the Shema of Deuteronomy 4:6, how YHWH God of Israel was one, to speak of the unity of the Father and the Son. Thus for a second time Jesus directly associated Himself with YHWH, and for a second time the Israelites were ready to stone Him (cf. John 8:31-59).
In response, Jesus made an argument on the basis of Psalm 82:6: if Asaph could speak of those to whom the Word of God came as “gods,” how could they condemn Jesus for blaspheming by declaring Himself the Son of God (John 10:34-36)?
Jesus’ argument proves challenging for many reasons. Jesus spoke of Psalm 82:6 as “in the law” of the Israelites, even though it is a psalm and thus part of the Ketuvim, or “Writings.” We can best understand Jesus as using “law” accommodatively to refer to all the revelation of God within the covenant between God and Israel. While Jesus’ argument remains quite comprehensible on its own terms, it remains difficult to reconcile it with any kind of contextual understanding of Asaph’s message.
Psalm 82:1-8, by common confession, remains an esoteric psalm, one which leads to more questions than it answers. The thrust of its exhortation can be easily discerned: the authorities whom God has placed over the order of things has proven craven and oppressive, and God chastised them in His heavenly council, demanding they execute justice and righteousness; they profess to be mighty beings, but they would die like humans and be greatly humbled. In this way Asaph asked God to execute judgment among the nations. But who are these “gods,” Elohim in Hebrew? Some translations basically add a new definition to the term for this passage and speak of them as “judges,” perhaps attempting to consider them as humans. Yet where else do we have any expectation of humans sitting in the heavenly council of YHWH? If they were human, dying like humans would be expected, not the dramatic reversal declared in Psalm 82:7. “Gods” remains the best translation, and we can perhaps make sense of them in terms of the “powers and principalities” of which Paul spoke in Ephesians 6:12. The witness of the Scriptures is ambivalent about the “gods” of the nations: some passages speak of them as if they did not really have any existence, but other passages speak of them as if they were demons or some other kind of spiritual power installed by God but often and easily corrupted. It is never wise to prove dogmatic about matters relating to the spiritual realm, for God has revealed just enough to let us know more is going on behind the scenes than we can imagine, but not nearly enough in order to be able to make much sense of it. True understanding is most likely beyond our understanding or quite unprofitable for us. We thus recognize the challenges presented by Asaph and Jesus regarding Psalm 82:1-8: more questions remain unanswered than answered, but we can understand the general thrust of the argument of each, and should recognize that neither Asaph nor Jesus is suggesting humans can become gods.
Jesus continued His response: He did not expect anyone to believe in Him if He did not do the deeds of His Father; even if they would not believe in Him, they should at least believe in those deeds, so that they might come to an understanding of how the Son and the Father share in perichoretic relational unity, mutual interpenetration without loss of distinctive identity (John 10:37-38). Through miraculous intervention Jesus again escaped their clutches, for His time had not yet come (John 10:39; cf. John 7:58-59).
John the Evangelist then related how Jesus left Jerusalem for the region immediately east of the Jordan River, the area in which John the Baptist was active (John 10:40). In contrast to Jesus’ experiences in Jerusalem, the people near the Jordan River confessed how John the Baptist had done no miraculous sign, but everything he had said about Jesus was true; many there thus believed in Jesus (John 10:41-42).
Israel celebrated the re-dedication of their Temple, and yet One greater than their Temple was present. The authorities, at least in theory, were waiting for prophetic insight about what they should do; yet they rejected Jesus the Prophet because they reckoned His claims about His relationship with God to be blasphemous. In a few years all of the Temple would become as that desecrated altar, torn down never to be rebuilt again. Yet Jesus was vindicated as the Son of God in His death and resurrection, and thus we all do well to humbly submit to Him and live as His sheep. May we find life in God in Christ through the Spirit!
Ethan R. Longhenry
The post Jesus at Hanukkah appeared first on de Verbo vitae.
