In 242 B.C., Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Ruler of Syria, invaded and conquered Jerusalem. Taking it without difficulty he killed many and plundered the city after which he returned to Syria. Two years later, Antiochus returned to Jerusalem with his army. He treated the Jews with great cruelty, dismantling the walls of Jerusalem, burning the finest part of the city, and taking all the golden vessels and treasures from the temple, and stopping all sacrifices and worship. He defiled the altar by sacrificing a pig on it and erected an altar to Zeus in the temple. Jews were ordered to stop worshiping the G-d of Israel, cease all Jewish religious practice, and were ordered to stop circumcising their children. Those who defied these orders were tortured, mutilated, crucified, or hung. A Jewish priest named Mattathias gathered a large force and rebelled against the Syrians, overturning the pagan alters and killing those who sacrificed on them. He also ordered all the male children circumcised. They then fled to the desert with their families and lived in caves. The Syrians marched against them and killed over 1,000 of them by burning them in their caves. Mattathias became ill after commanding for one year and died, leaving his son Judas Maccabeus as commander.
Judas Maccabeus, with his brothers, continued the fight and drove the Syrians from the country in 164 B.C. Judas told the Jewish people that after these victories that G-d had given them they should go up to the Jerusalem and purify the Temple to offer sacrifices. Rebuilding the altar and restoring sacred implements, they rekindled the Temple Menorah with one druse of oil that would only last one day. This one day supply of oil miraculously lasted eight days until new oil could be processed. This is the 8 day Miracle of Lights. Messiah Yeshua, King of the Jews and Savior of the world, who shed His blood for our sins, celebrated Hanukkah as we read in Yochanan (John) 10:22-23- ” Then came Hanukkah in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking around inside the temple area, in Shlomo’s (Solomon’s) Colonnade.”
Yeshua is the “Light of the World”. Many believe that our Messiah, Yeshua was conceived during the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah. Yeshua was not born during the winter months as the sheep were in the pasture (Luke 2:8).Yeshua was born six months after John the Baptist. John the Baptist was conceived about Sivan 30, the eleventh week (Luke 1:8-13, 24). Using forty weeks for a normal pregnancy places Johns birth on Nisan 14 , or Passover. Six moths after Passover is the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth which is in the approximate month of October when Yeshua was born. Six months after Johns conception Yeshua was conceived which places us in the month of Kislev, Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev. Was the Light of the World conceived on the Festival of Lights?