Okay, so here we have all seven parts of my teaching series on Hannukah and why it is so important to understand. We start with the significance of the Temple, and the offerings that were given on feast days. Then we cover the events leading up to the Maccabean revolt and end up with the story of the first Hannukah. In the final video, I read from numerous accounts of Hannukah from I and II Maccabees, Josephus, and i even talk about the famous Hannukah argument between Hillel and Shammai in the first century BCE. If you want to just get the whole playlist on YouTube, here it is

Okay, here are the links to some of the resources:

I Maccabees (starting with Chap 1)

II Maccabees

Josephus

The Hannukah Anthology by Philip Goodman

and here are some of my favorite fun videos from the Maccabeats, a Jewish acapella group (I love acapella)

So here is part 2 and 3 of my Maccabean Revolt series. There will be one more installment before the beginning of Hannukah where we will talk about the very first Hannukah and what we know about the celebration in the following years. 

And here are some online versions of the resources I mentioned in the video – I am using different sites to let you know what is out there:

I Maccabees (starting with Chap 1)

II Maccabees

Josephus

The Hannukah Anthology by Philip Goodman

Did you know that when Christians talk about the Maccabean Revolt, they focus entirely on the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes who defiled the Temple, but when the Jews talk about it they often focus on the Hellenized Jews? Why is that? Well, the historical accounts make it clear that without the meddling of the Jews who wanted to be Greeks, even at the expense of the rest of the nation, Antiochus most certainly would have left Jerusalem and the laws of God alone! Antiochus was a pawn in local political wranglings that had been going on for some time – he still gets a lot of the blame, but he was instigated by traitors who had little or no love for God and so they are considered to be the true villains.

For fun, I am going to include a Hannukah song video that I enjoy. It is based on a Midrashic legend (meaning it isn’t true but is a story people tell to convey a concept of God’s miraculous provision) written hundreds of years later. The candelabra you see in the video is called a hanukkiah and is entirely different than a menorah. In the time before Yeshua (Jesus), the heads of the Pharisaic schools of thought, Hillel and Shammai, had an argument over how the lamp should be lit. Hillel argued that each night, a new candle should be lit, working up to eight on the last night. Shammai insisted that they should start with eight and work their way down to one on the last night. As in most things, Hillel won out in the end!

And here are some online versions of the resources I mentioned in the video – I am using different sites to let you know what is out there:

I Maccabees (starting with Chap 1)

II Maccabees

Josephus

The Hannukah Anthology by Philip Goodman

So this week is our fourth installment in the Backgrounds of the New Testament series but it is also the second installment in our series on Hannukah and the Maccabeean Revolt. We are going to talk about the pilgrimage olah, which is an important piece of Bible context from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and we are also going to explore what exactly is meant by the phrase “coming before the Lord empty-handed.” It is a much misunderstood and abused verse because, like most laws in the Bible, no specific instructions are given as to how to fulfill that. So where do we find our answers? Well, interestingly enough, Paul gives us the exact definition in the Book of Acts – once we see that, you will be able to spot it hiding in plain sight throughout the Bible.

For those of you who never caught it last year, please take the time to watch my teaching on Vayikra last year – “What were the sacrifices really about?” Understanding how the ancient Israelites viewed the sacrifices is crucial to understanding the reasons for the Temple, and why it is being rebuilt – it is not for the reasons that most people think because they do not understand the purpose of the sacrifices!