The Misunderstood Origin of Chanukah

PIKESVILLE, Maryland — There are two non-biblical books about the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids in the 2nd century BCE. They differ in style and purpose. 1 Maccabees is more chronological and focuses on the military fight and initial victory. In contrast, 2 Maccabees addresses the religious aspects. It focuses on martyrdom, divine intervention, and the purification of the temple. Both show that there was more than a fight against the Seleucid Empire. It was also a Civil War—Jews against Jews, Cains against Abels.

The war that led to the holiday of Chanukah was a civil war that began in 167 BCE, when a Jewish priest, Mattathias, refused to offer a sacrifice to the Greek gods as demanded by the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Many other Jews agreed to perform the service. Mattathias killed the royal official and a Hellenized Jew and then fled with his five sons into the wilderness, sparking the uprising.

In 165 BCE, after successful guerrilla warfare, the Maccabees, led by Mattathias’s son Judah, defeated the Seleucid forces and entered Jerusalem. The Temple was cleansed and rededicated in 164, and Chanukah, a word meaning dedication, was celebrated on the 25th of the Jewish month Kislev to commemorate the event.

The main phase of the revolt ended in 160 when Judah died in battle. The Seleucids regained control of Jerusalem for a time, but Judah’s brothers continued the resistance. In 141, the Seleucid Empire exempted Judea from taxation and recognized its independence under the leadership of Simon, a brother of Judah, who established the Hasmonean dynasty.[1]

The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. The name Hasmoneans refers to the dynasty founded by the Maccabees. The origin of the name is traditionally linked to an ancestor of the family named Hasmon.

The story that we are taught in schools is misleading. It is a sanitized narrative, one depicting mere religious freedom in triumph over overt oppression. The narrative covers the deeds of the Maccabean warriors: the defeat of the Seleucid Empire, the reclamation of the Temple, and the miraculous oil that burned for eight days.

The addition of the miracle is not in the description of the events written near when they occurred in the book of Maccabees. It is a tale first told centuries after the event to give the victory a religious significance. It also overlooks the fact that not all Judeans supported the Hasmoneans before, during, and after the revolt.

According to the books 1 and 2 Maccabees, the eight-day festival of Chanukah originates from the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees recaptured it from the Greeks in 164 BCE. The festival is described as a joyful, eight-day celebration that includes building a new altar, lighting the menorah, and offering sacrifices. The eight days were declared to be observed annually, beginning on the 25th day of Kislev. Why eight days? The Maccabees chose eight days to recall the festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), which they had been unable to celebrate properly the year before. Judah decreed that this eight-day observance should be an annual festival to be honored by all the Jewish people.

Although the story we were taught highlights universal themes such as the underdog’s victory, religious liberty, and divine intervention, it overlooks many significant events. The books of Maccabees reveal, in far greater complexity, the true nature of the Maccabean revolt. We find that Chanukah represents not only the victory over foreign oppression, but internal strife among Jews, the violent rejection of cultural assimilation, and religious reformation in favor of true Jewish identity.

The Chanukah story that most people know focuses exclusively on the conflict between the Jews and the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the tyrannical leader of the Syrian-Greeks, banned Jewish practices such as circumcision, desecrated the Jewish temple with pagan symbols, and engaged in an ideological onslaught against Jewish teachings and identity.

In response to the persecution, the Maccabees, led first by Mattathias, later by his son Judah, and still later by Judah’s brothers, first Jonathan and then Simon, engaged the Seleucids with guerrilla warfare tactics. This culminated in victory with Jerusalem’s liberation and the temple’s rededication in 164 BCE.

By focusing almost entirely on the Jewish resistance to foreign dominion, this conventional tale reduces the complex religious and cultural conflict to a simple story of national liberation. While such means undoubtedly simplify the extraordinary breadth of the complexity at hand and further rally the people of Israel under one people, they inherently distort the true meaning of Chanukah and why we celebrate it in the first place.

The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees provide insight into the true story of Chanukah. They confirm that conflagration began when “certain renegades came out from Israel and misled many, saying ‘Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles around us, for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us.’”

The “renegades” were not Seleucid oppressors but rather Jews. In the rise and expansion of the Seleucid Empire after the fall of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Hellenistic cultural influences were seen by many Jews as modernization programs—ideals to strive for by both Jews and non-Jews.

Adopting Hellenist practices—Hellenization—had been a gradual, albeit voluntary phenomenon in Judea. However, by the time of I Maccabees, troubles arose. The true story began when Jason, brother of the High Priest Onias III, bribed the Seleucid King Antiochus IV to have his brother removed and himself installed in the office.

Upon attaining this rank of High Priest, Jason, according to 1 Maccabees, “at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life.” Such measures included the establishment of a gymnasium (a sporting, training, and pagan dual-use facility) in Jerusalem, the encouragement of Jewish involvement in Greek rituals and athletic proceedings, and even advocacy for the grotesque and sacrilegious procedure of reverse-circumcision.

After three years in this role, Jason was eventually outed from his office by another upstart, Menelaus. Although Jason had worked to introduce many concrete Hellenistic practices, Menelaus adopted a more fervent stance in his pursuit of power. Accusing his predecessor of not being Hellenistic enough, Menelaus promised more tithes to Antiochus, attempted to rob the Judean treasury, worked to align Judean practices more closely with those of the Seleucids, and failed to show even minimal restraint or tolerance for traditional Jewish practices.

This created a three-way conflict among the traditional Jews loyal to the deposed Onias III, the moderate Hellenists supporting Jason, and the radicalized assimilationists steadfast in their support of Menelaus. II Maccabees tells us that there was “no small disturbance among the people” as each group fought for control over Jewish political and religious institutions.

The internal Jewish conflict becomes clearer when examining the battles of the later Maccabees themselves. Although the Maccabees engaged in battle with the Seleucid armies, considerable effort was also spent in combat with the Hellenized Jewry. I Maccabees describes one instance in which Judah and his followers “went around and tore down the altars; they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel.” This was righteous fervor directed against external enemies and internal assimilationists.

This internal Jewish struggle, its civil war, demonstrates a critical, distinctive method of thinking that continues to this day. The Maccabean revolt was an impetus to challenge not just Seleucid rule, but also competing visions of Jewish identity and structure. The Hellenists, including the typical wealthy urban elites, believed that Jewish practice required an unambiguous, straightforward adaptation to modernity. While, in itself, such is not inherently a heretic concept, their notions discarded any rational critique of specific Jewish practices in favor of the outright abandonment of Judaism, aiming instead to adopt Greek tradition.

On the other hand, the Maccabean faction felt that the Hellenistic ideals represented a fundamental betrayal of the covenant between God and Israel. The survival of Jewry depended not on assimilation with heretical practices, but on fidelity and the maintenance of traditional heritage. This does not require Jews to be overzealous and radical. People can be traditional Jews and also work to improve themselves and all that has been created.

The Maccabees did this. When the revolt ended and Judea had national autonomy, there was not only a re-emphasis on traditional Jewish practices, the rededication of the temple, the purging of idolatrous practices, the Hasmonean leaders of Judea worked to establish an expansion of territory, friendly relations with Greece and other nations, and a robust system of defenses to ensure the freedom of Judea from external actors for decades to come.

While today Chanukah represents a celebration of Jewish resilience and the triumph over adversity, it must also be recognized that a deeper theme is at work. What Chanukah truly represents is the ability of the Jews to stand firm in their traditions, to cherish their rich heritage and relationships, and foremost, to fight back against overzealous attempts to assimilate and erase our collective identity from within.