Hanukkah has long been the festival commemorating the Hasmonean victory over Antiochus IV and the Seleucid Greeks, but it is not obvious why or how Hanukkah came to occupy this position, given the length of the war and its twists and turns.
Judah Maccabee’s victory over Antiochus IV and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem came three years after his father Mattathias announced the war. The victory was not nearly so clean-cut as we are often led to believe. Soon after this celebration, the Seleucids were again in charge of Jerusalem, with their general Nicanor as governor. As the story is told in 2 Maccabees, Nicanor sought to capture Judah Maccabee, believing he was going to lead another revolt:
He (Nicanor) stretched out his right hand toward the sanctuary and swore this oath: “If you do not hand Judah over to me as a prisoner, I will level this shrine of God to the ground and tear down the altar and build here a splendid temple to Dionysus.” (2 Maccabees 14:33)
Nicanor didn’t succeed in capturing Judah Maccabee. Instead, Judah defeated Nicanor in battle, dismembered him and brought the pieces to the Temple:
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Judah hung Nicanor’s head from the citadel, a clear and conspicuous sign to everyone of the help of the Lord. And they all decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved but to celebrate the 13th day of the twelfth month — which is called Adar in the Aramaic language — the day before Mordecai’s day (Purim). (2 Maccabees 15:35–36)
This is the climax of 2 Maccabees, which is much more interested in this incident — later celebrated as Nicanor Day — than it is in the rededication of the Temple on Hanukkah.
But this too was not the end of the war against the Seleucid Greeks, which continued for two more decades. Judah was killed the year after this victory, and his brother Jonathan Apphus took the lead in the revolt. He was also killed, after which their brother Simon Thassi took over. It was Simon who finally established the independent Hasmonean kingdom in 140 B.C.E., 27 years after the rebellion began, and 24 years after the events that Hanukkah celebrates.
Hanukkah, therefore, is only one of multiple holidays the Hasmoneans instituted to celebrate milestones in a decades-long war. As described above, Nicanor Day (13th of Adar) celebrates Judah’s defeat of Nicanor. Another is Hakra Day (23rd of Nisan), celebrating when Simon removed the Seleucid garrison from Jerusalem in 141 B.C.E. Both, of course, took place after the original Hanukkah.
For this and other reasons, several scholars (me included) have argued that Hanukkah as a festival was likely instituted long after Judah’s death, and its significance, ironically, stands not on the military defeat of Antiochus IV but on the establishment of the Hasmonean priesthood. The key is to keep our eyes on the high priesthood — the top job at the Temple.
Before the Antiochian persecution began, the Temple was run by the Oniads, a traditional family of high priests. But their cousin Jason bribed the Seleucid king to give him the job, ousting Onias. Soon after, Menelaus, a man from a different priestly family, paid even more and replaced Jason. Meanwhile, Onias, the legitimate high priest, escaped to Egypt, where he built his own Temple. (But that is another story.)
As historian Daniel Schwartz has noted, when the Hasmonean revolt began, it was almost certainly taken as a given by their supporters that if they were to defeat the Seleucids, the Oniad family — the legitimate high priests — would regain their position. It had not yet occurred to anyone that the Hasmoneans would occupy this role (despite the fanciful claim in rabbinic liturgy that Mattathias or his father Johanan served as high priest).
It was Judah’s brother Jonathan who was the first Hasmonean to take the position of high priest (153 B.C.E.), when he was appointed by Alexander Balas, a contender for the Seleucid throne. We can see how controversial this was when we read the Dead Sea Scrolls, which speak disparagingly about “the wicked priest,” a likely reference to Jonathan.
Following Jonathan’s death, other Hasmoneans occupied the position of high priest, which became the equivalent to head of state. It was only then that Hanukkah — which commemorates an event early in the rebellion — became a major festival. It is likely the holiday was amped up as propaganda for the family. Though it is ostensibly about the purification of the Temple, Hanukkah really marks the political achievement of the Hasmoneans, whose eventual success established their right to be high priests and, ipso facto, kings of Judea.
Hanukkah is, therefore, in essence a religio-political holiday. The symbolic lighting of candles mimics a ritual act in the Temple but, at the same time, the festival’s significance lies in how it marks the beginning of Judean political independence under the Hasmoneans. This achievement should not be minimized. The Hasmonean period was the only time in the Second Temple period where Judeans had self-rule. Indeed, it is the only such period in Jewish history between the destruction of the First Temple and the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
