Chanukah in the Gospel of John - Part One

My second re-posting, so this time I am a little behind but I will catch up.

It is my intent over the next couple of days, and during Hanukkah, to post on the the feast of Chanukah in the gospel of John. John is full of structures. The seven signs (and elsewhere) and the seven 'I AM' sayings are well documented (The links here are just to make the point. I hold no brief for them and there may be better ones lower in Google's listings). I hope to show that there is also another structure in John. and it is a Chanukah menorah, an Chanukiah of revelation about Jesus the Christ (Yeshua ha Moshiach).

Below is a picture of an Chanukiah. It is not in a window because none of the candles have been lit and thus it is not a witness to the world.

Copyright G.I.Goodson 2013

The Chanukiah differs from the standard menorah as it has eight branches instead of seven. Yes, I know, it has nine but the ninth doesn't count. How did that happen? It all has meaning.

For Jews, Chanukah remembers the rededication of the Temple after Judas Maccabeus had , temporarily, freed Israel from foreign rule. The Syrians had been overthrown, but the Romans were soon to follow.

Chanukah celebrates a miracle of provision and not a victory. When rededicating the defiled Temple, there was only enough oil for one day, but it lasted the full eight days needed for rededication, see here.

The gospel of John records sayings of Jesus during a celebration of Chanukah. Please note that the term " The Jews" refers to the Jewish Authorities of the time and should not be used as an excuse to persecute modern-day Jews. It is a similar usage to our "The Yanks" or "The Brits" etc.

John 10: 22 - 42

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

 Jesus makes some very big claims on this day, but that is hardly surprising as it is the day of His Incarnation - of which, more tomorrow.