Page 36 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

[Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, Chapter 7, Part 7]

Josephus wrote this account of Hanukkah around 100 A.D., nearly three centuries earlier than the
Talmudic account. Again, we find no mention of the miracle of the oil. Even more puzzling, if the
story of the oil were true, is that Josephus confesses ignorance regarding why this Jewish festival is
referred to as “Lights.” Had the story of the miracle of the candlestick burning for eight days on a
single day’s supply of oil been known, he surely would have suggested it as a possible explanation
for the name of the festival.

There is, however, an explanation for Hanukkah being referred to as “the Festival of Lights,” that
Josephus, a Jew whose father was of priestly descent, would have been reluctant to disclose. It is that
this “Hebrew” festival was actually a Jewish adaptation of the much older Babylonian celebration
of Saturn. The Saturnalia, as the Romans called it, was from ancient times also called “The Festival
of Lights” and “The Feast of Dedication,” as the Romans traced it back to the dedication of the
Temple of Saturn in 497 B.C., on the precise date which the Roman Festival of Lights begins. This,
and other evidence of Hanukkah’s true origins will be set forth in the following chapter.