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How many times does Hanukkah appear in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament?
060
Answer: Once
Hanukkah appears only one time in the New Testament: John 10:22. Jesus celebrated the Festival of Dedication (Hanukkah) in Jerusalem: “At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon” (John 10:22-23). The Greek noun used literally means “the renewals” or “the consecrations” (Greek: τὰ ἐγκαίνɩα; ta enkaínia). The same root appears in the apocryphal book of 2 Esdras 6:16 to refer specifically to Hanukkah. This word was chosen because the Hebrew word for “consecration” or “dedication” is “Hanukkah.”
Although Hanukkah appears nowhere in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), it is described in detail in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. Lasting for eight days and nights, Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple during the Maccabean Revolt. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes had profaned the Temple and stopped the daily sacrifices, which contributed to the Jewish uprising. The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees detail the revolt, the Temple’s eight-day rededication ceremony, and the establishment of a festival of rededication (Hanukkah) to celebrate these events. This is summarized in 1 Maccabees 4:59: “Then Judas, his brothers, and the entire community of Israel decreed that the rededication of the altar should be celebrated with a festival of joy and gladness at the same time each year, beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev and lasting for eight days.”
References to Hanukkah also appear in the Mishna and Talmud, as well as in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities (12:325), where it is called the Festival of “Lights” (Greek: φῶτα; phōta).
How many times does Hanukkah appear in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament?
060
Answer: Once
