Monday, December 15, 2025

It is the 15th of December 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- as is our custom, we will head to the mailbag- a quick note: I’m doing a Christmas mailbag for the lead up to the big day, and so you can send me your questions at danv@1517.org

Jeremy in Vancouver- but Vancouver, Washington…. That’s the home of KVAN, where Willie Nelson got his start… he sent me an email with a question about Hanukkah- by the way, you can spell it with a ch or an H- there is no single letter for ch in English as there is in Hebrew… you may spell and pronounce as you wish…

Jeremy writes, “I know that some Christians celebrate Passover. Is there any tradition of Christians that also celebrate Hanukkah? It doesn’t look like there are any contradictions in celebrating”.

Well, Jeremy, Hanukkah has some different names- like “the Festival of Dedication” which we read about in John 10: “Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.”

Wait- did Jesus celebrate Hanukkah? Seems like it. What was it? Well- it’s the Festival of the dedication of the temple after it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes who had desecrated it by turning it into a pagan temple, sacrificing pigs, etc… and it’s the Maccabees- led by Judah the Maccabee who is the son of the priest Mattiyahu who overthrows the Seleucid ruler and sets up a Jewish independent state-  this is the Hasmonean dynasty that will rule until right up to around the time of King Herod. Another reason Herod is so unpopular- he’s the Roman Jewish turncoat, unlike those heroic Hasmoneans.

So, this re-dedication or “Hanukkah” took place in 167 BC and was celebrated by the time of Jesus, such that he was there for the winter celebration.

What’s interesting is that the story of the Maccabees’ revolt comes to us from 1st and 2 Maccabees- which are deuterocanonical books- Protestants don’t see them as authoritative, but neither do… the Jewish people! It’s in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Ethiopian canons. But in the Talmud- part of the Rabbinic tradition we get the story told, and it is there that the story of the oil that wouldn’t run out gives us the basis for the common Hanukkah story today.

The early church was keen on celebrating the Maccabees as they were Jewish martyrs prior to the time of Christ. We have evidence of feasts being held to honor the Maccabees.

But what is curious is that any recognition of the Maccabees and the feast of Dedication, which Jesus himself celebrated (and thus, you could see a certain reading wherein we should!), fizzled out in the early church.  

As we get to the mailbag question about Christmas, someone will undoubtedly ask- why December 25th? By the 330’s, we are celebrating on the 25th (although some still like the 6th of January). Why December 25th, though? Perhaps because some other theological math put the annunciation and “conception” of Christ on March 25th. There was an idea that you were conceived on the same date you died on- so, we know the date of the crucifixion and you can go on from there… Oh, or maybe it was that the 25th of December was also the Roman holiday to Sol Invictus- so, counter-programming the pagans may have been a reason.

But there is something else, which is at least interesting in all of this-  the date of Hanukkah. It’s in Winter- yes. And it’s the Jewish calendar that dates the dedication to the 25th of Kislev. And Kislev can correspond to November or December on our calendar- it’s lunar, so not exact. But the parallel is worth noting. So- why no Hanukkah for Christians? There is an argument to be made that it was largely supplanted with a commemoration of the new temple of God, his dwelling place amongst his people as Emmanuel. If Hanukkah is anything for Christians, it can be a kind of Advent story.

Is Hanukkah not that big a deal with Jewish believers? It’s not Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) or Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), but it is a key, if not short-lived, triumph of the people of God over their enemies. It’s not historically been celebrated by Christians because the temple wasn’t the ultimate goal- rather, it was the location of God, not within a new holy of holies,  but rather the location of God in a manger that we celebrate in the winter.

Thanks, Jeremy, in the other Vancouver… send me your Christmas questions or otherwise- I collect them all to danv@1517.org.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and another instance of Solomon’s Colonnade in Acts 5:

12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of December 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who loves a good colonnade- a portico, veranda, maybe a peristyle… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who just saw that the colonnade apartments next door in Irvine have 1-bedroom units starting at three grand a month… this place is ridiculous… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.