Hanukkah and Community Identity in 1–2 Maccabees and John

CHAPTER 16 Hanukkah and Community Identity in 1–2 Maccabees and John

Michael W. Duggan

1 Introduction

While the Festival of Dedication is an essential component of 1 and 2 Maccabees and the Gospel of John, it is not mentioned elsewhere in either the Septuagint or the New Testament. The unique focus on this festival points to a distinctive cluster of concerns for the Temple in Jerusalem that places these texts in conversation and debate with each other. 1 and 2 Maccabees celebrate the purification and dedication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in late 164 BCE as a highpoint of Jewish history in the Hellenistic era (1 Macc 4:36–59; 2 Macc 10:1–8). By contrast, the Gospel of John depicts the festal commemoration of this event as the occasion when the differences between Jesus and the Temple authorities reach a crescendo in the Roman era (John 10:22–39). The dissonances between the Maccabean literature and John are accentuated by the dating of the texts. The authors of 1 and 2 Maccabees, who completed their respective works perhaps late in the second century BCE, contemplated the Temple as the vibrant center of Jewish life. By contrast, the final editor who completed the Fourth Gospel around 100 CE viewed the Temple as a memory, the terminus of an era that had ended some three decades earlier in 70 CE, when the armies of Rome invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the sacred precincts. The Temple and Torah observance were the primary forces that shaped Jewish identity in Israel throughout the Hellenistic and Roman eras until 70 CE. Even though Torah observance was the more influential resource throughout the diaspora, Hellenistic Jews habitually oriented their conscious- ness toward Jerusalem and the sanctuary through prayer and customs such as those deriving from the Deuteronomic legislation on festivals (Deut 16:1–17). The various authors of 1 and 2 Maccabees and the Gospel of John direct attention to the Festival of Dedication for a common purpose, namely, to focus on the Temple in order to forge a distinctive identity in the community each one addresses. In 1 Maccabees, the cleansing and dedication of the Temple marks the first step toward the establishment of Israel as a Jewish

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��6 | doi ��.��63/9789004324541_017 Hanukkah and Community Identity in 1–2 Maccabees and John 285 independent state (1 Macc 4:36–59). In 2 Maccabees, the Temple cleansing represents the inauguration of an era in which divine mercy replaces wrath, certified by the demise of the oppressor Antiochus IV Epiphanes (2 Macc 10:1–9; cf. 8:5). Moreover, the two letters that introduce the story describe the purification festival as making the Jerusalem Temple the point of convergence that draws Jews in the diaspora into unity with their kinsfolk in the holy land (2 Macc 1:2–6, 9, 27–29; 2:7, 18). The comparatively minor reference to Hanukkah in the Gospel of John indirectly serves to endow the resurrected Jesus with both the preeminence associated with the Temple and also the related capacity to ultimately unite all people in God (John 10:22–23, 30; cf. 2:13–22; 11:45–53; 12:32). I examine issues of community identity in the presentation of Hanukkah first in the Maccabean books and then in the Gospel of John. I concentrate exclusively on the origins of Hanukkah according to 1 and 2 Maccabees and its earliest reinterpretation in Christian tradition. I do so by providing liter- ary examinations of these texts. My analysis of 1 Maccabees highlights the distinctive features of the Temple dedication narrative against the background of the author’s concern to credit the Hasmonean dynasty with establishing the foundations of Israel as a Jewish state (1 Macc 4:36–59). My discussion of 2 Maccabees consists of two parts: first, an examination of the Temple purification narrative in light of the author’s focus on the Temple and divine inter- vention, which represent a contrast to the realpolitik of 1 Maccabees (2 Macc 10:1–8); and second, an examination of the eschatological features associated with the festival of Temple cleansing in the prefatory letters (1:1–9; 1:10–2:18). Against the horizon of the Maccabean corpus, I describe the radical reinterpretation of Hanukkah in the Gospel of John by focusing on how the Temple rhetoric shapes the interpretation of Jesus and his destiny for the Johannine community (John 10:22–39). In conclusion, I point out some implications of the study, which may serve as focal points for the advancement of Jewish- Christian dialogue in the 21st century.

2 1 Maccabees: Temple Dedication as a Celebration of Israel, the Jewish State

A historian loyal to the Hasmonean dynasty composed 1 Maccabees around 100 BCE, early in Alexander Janneus’ tenure as high priest (103–76 BCE).1

1 The concluding reference to the annals of John Hyrcanus (135–104 BCE) suggests that the historian completed 1 Maccabees shortly after the death of this high priest in 104 BCE