The Bridge Builders Forum 2nd Maccabees and Paul: Did He Celebrate Hanukkah?
Did the Apostle Paul celebrate Hanukkah?
As more Christians become interested in the Jewish roots of their faith and in learning about Jewish holidays, this question is being asked more often. And it’s an important one. Exploring it helps us step more fully into the world of Jewish life in the time of both Jesus and Paul.
Paul never mentions Hanukkah directly in his letters, and the festival doesn’t appear in the book of Acts. But that silence doesn’t tell the whole story.
In this episode, we turn to 2nd Maccabees, an ancient Jewish text that preserves some of our earliest traditions about Hanukkah and shows that Jews living outside the Land of Israel were encouraged to celebrate the festival. This source helps us better understand how Hanukkah was observed in the Jewish diaspora and what that likely meant for a Torah-observant Jew like Paul.
We explore how Hanukkah functioned differently inside and outside Israel, why it remained a relatively minor festival in the first century, and how Paul’s consistent participation in Jewish communal life makes it reasonable to think that Hanukkah was part of his yearly rhythm.
More importantly, this conversation helps correct one of the most persistent misunderstandings about Paul: the idea that following Jesus required him to abandon Judaism. As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul remained deeply Jewish, continued to observe the Torah, and celebrated Jewish festivals, likely including Hanukkah.
Whether in Jerusalem or in diaspora communities like Corinth or Thessalonica, Paul very likely joined other Jews this time of year in remembering the rededication of the Temple and celebrating God’s faithfulness.
If you want to better understand Paul within his Jewish world and why that matters for Jewish-Christian understanding today, this episode is for you.
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