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Festival of Dedication
The “Festival of Dedication” is an eight-day festival. During this festival, the Jews celebrate the time when their army defeated a foreign army and when the Jews dedicated the second temple to God. The second temple was the temple that the Jews built in Jerusalem after they returned from exile in Babylon. This festival is now called Hanukkah.
See: Israel; Temple; Exile; Hebrew Calendar (Seasons in Israel)
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Between the time of the Old Testament and the time of the New Testament, the Jews were ruled by a foreign empire. This empire was called the Seleucid Empire. When a man named Antiochus IV Epiphanes was leader of the Seleucid Empire, he did not allow the Jews to worship God by obeying the law of Moses. Instead, he wanted the Jews to live the way the Greeks lived. He killed many Jews. Antiochus also killed a pig on the temple altar in Jerusalem. The Jews considered pigs unclean. Killing a pig on the temple altar was a terrible insult. This defiled the temple.
A Jew named Judas Maccabeus led a rebellion against Antiochus. The Jews defeated Antiochus and the Seleucids. The Jews cleansed the temple and dedicated it to God. This was the beginning of the “Festival of Dedication” or “Hanukkah.” This happened about 160 years before Jesus was born.
God did not tell the Jews to travel to Jerusalem for the Festival of Dedication in the way he told them to attend the other festivals. However, many Jews went to it. Jesus went to the Festival of Dedication in the temple (see: John 10:22-23).
See: Old Testament (Law and Prophets);New Testament; Worship;Law of Moses; Altar; Clean and Unclean;Rebel (Rebellion); Festival of Shelters; Festival of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost