According to The Lexham Bible Dictionary, the festival of Hanukkah is
The eight-day Feast of Dedication or Feast of Lights celebrating
the reconsecration of the temple in Jerusalem (165 or 164 BC). Hanukkah is the
only major Jewish festival that does not originate in the Hebrew Bible. It
commemorates an event described outside the Bible, but outlined extensively in
1 and 2 Maccabees. (“Hanukkah,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John
D. Barry et al. [Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2016], Logos Bible Software edition)
According to Raymond E. Brown, this festival
was a feast celebrating the
Maccabean victories. For three years, 167–164 b.c., the Syrians had profaned
the Temple by erecting the idol of Baal Shamem (the oriental version of
Olympian Zeus) on the altar of holocausts (1 Macc 1:54; 2 Macc 6:1–7). This
pollution of the holy place by the “abominable desolation” (Dan 9:27; Matt 24:15)
came to an end when Judas Maccabeus drove out the Syrians, built a new altar,
and rededicated the Temple on the twenty-fifth of Chislev (1 Macc 4:41–61). The
feast of Dedication was the annual celebration of the reconsecration of the
altar and Temple. (Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII):
Introduction, Translation, and Notes [AYB 29; New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008], 402)
The relevant texts from 1-2 Maccabees are 1 Maccabees
4:36-59, which
states that Judah Maccabee, after
defeating Lysias, entered Jerusalem and purified the Temple. The altar that had
been defiled was demolished and a new one was built. Judah then made new holy
vessels (among them a candelabrum, an altar for incense, a table, and curtains)
and set the 25th of Kislev as the date for the rededication of the Temple. The
day coincided with the third anniversary of the proclamation of the restrictive
edicts of Antiochus Epiphanes in which he had decreed that idolatrous
sacrifices should be offered on a platform erected upon the altar. The altar
was to be consecrated with the renewal of the daily sacrificial service,
accompanied by song, the playing of musical instruments, the chanting of *Hallel,
and the offering of sacrifices (no mention of any special festival customs is
made). The celebrations lasted for eight days and Judah decreed that they be
designated as days of rejoicing for future generations. Ḥanukkah, as the
festival that commemorates the dedication of the altar, is also mentioned in
the scholium of *Megillat Ta’anit, as well as in the traditional *Al
ha-Nissim (“We thank Thee for the miracles”) prayer for Ḥanukkah.
In II Maccabees (1:8; 10:1-5),
the main aspects of Ḥanukkah are related as in I Maccabees. The book adds, however,
that the eight-day dedication ceremony was performed on an analogy with
*Solomon’s consecration of the Temple (2:12). The eight days were celebrated “with gladness like the Feast of Tabernacles remembering how,
not long before, during the Feast of Tabernacles, they had been wandering like
wild beasts in the mountains and the caves. So, bearing wands wreathed with
leaves and fair boughs and palms, they offered hymns of praise” (10:6-8). Ḥanukkah is, therefore, called *Tabernacles (1:9),
or Tabernacles and Fire (1:18). Fire
had descended from heaven at the
dedication of the altar in the days of Moses and at the sanctification of the
Temple of Solomon; at the consecration of the altar in the time of *Nehemiah there
was also a miracle of fire, and so in the days of Judah Maccabee (1:18–36, 2:8–12, 14; 10:3). (Moshe David
Herr, “Ḥanukkah,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. Fred Skolnik and
Michael Brenbaum, 22 vols. [2d ed.; Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2007], 8:331)
We know that Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication or
Hanukkah (see John 10:22-23). However, this festival is not found in the
Proto-canonical books. So why is this problematic for the Reformed understanding
of Sola Scriptura?
. . . the acceptable way of
worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own
revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and
devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satna, under any visible representation,
or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.
In other words, this principle states that
. . .the corporate worship of God
is to be founded on specific directives of Scripture. Put another way, it
states that nothing ought to be introduced into gathered worship unless there
is a specific warrant of Scripture. (Derek W. H. Thomas, “The
Regulative Principle of Worship,” Tabletalk [December 2022])
According to Beeke and Smalley in their Reformed
Systematic Theology:
The axiom of Reformed worship has
come to be known as the regulative principle of worship, an
application of the sufficiency of Scripture. . . . The Reformed
principle of worship opposes the Roman Catholic principle that the church may
base its elements of worship on its authoritative traditions and magisterial
decrees, even if they are not founded in the Holy Scriptures. . . . God revealed
his regulation of public worship from the beginning. When Cain and Abel brought
their offerings to the Lord, he made known his pleasure in Abel’s offering,
which included the firstborn of his flock and their fat, but displeasure at
Cain’s, which did not (Gen. 4:2-5; cf. Num. 18:17). (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M.
Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, 4 vols. [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway,
2024], 4:412, 413, emphasis added)
It is clear that Jesus did not hold to the “regulative
principle of worship,” which, according to the Reformed understanding of
sola scriptura, is “an application of the sufficiency of Scripture.”
For more against Sola Scriptura, see, for e.g.:
Not
By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
