The Light of the World--by Linden Malki

       It is fitting that the celebration of Christmas, the coming of the Christ Child, happens very near the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year (in the northern Hemisphere). A major part of this celebration is lights—in our houses, on our houses, our streets, our churches. Yes, it is possible that the actual birth-day may have been at some other time of the year, but it was God Himself who created the seasons and the cycle of the year, and the symbolism is appropriate—the coming of the Light of the World as we use more lights, and look forward to the longer daylight.

     Lamps were an important part of the worship in first the Tabernacle in the desert, and later the Temple in Jerusalem. We find the instructions for the lamps in Exodus 25, and the design was used until the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. These were oil-burning lamps, most commonly olive oil. These lamps had a stand with seven branches, each topped with a pot for the oil. We see the lamp mentioned in I Samuel 3, in the sanctuary at Shiloh, and it would have been part of the furnishings of the Temple of Solomon. We find the lampstands mentioned as having been taken when the Temple was looted by the Babylonians. We know they were replaced when the Temple was rebuilt after the return from Babylon, around 400BC.

     The lamps have an important place in a major historical event in the period between the Testaments. At the end of the historical and late prophetic books, we see the rebuilding happening under the rule of the Persian Empire, which was conquered by Alexander the Great, in 332BC. Unfortunately, Alexander did not live to actually rule his empire; he died of a fever in Babylon, on his way back to Greece. His generals split the empire between them, with Ptolemy based in Egypt, ruling Judea. There was a large Jewish diaspora community in Egypt, and the Ptolemies got along with them reasonably well. The Seleucids, who ruled from Syria eastwards,  took over Judea in 198BC, and were determined to bring Greek culture to their dominions, and wipe out the worship of God. It got to a point where the Temple in Jerusalem was defiled by the sacrifices of pigs on the altar. When a 

Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a sacrifice to a pagan god, the Jew

murdered the man. There were reprisals, but in 167BC the Jews rose up behind Mattathias and his five sons (known as the Maccabees) and fought for their liberation. It turned into a guerilla war, and in 164BC they were able to liberate Jerusalem and the Temple. When they were preparing a ceremony to purify the Temple, they found that there was only enough consecrated lamp oil for one day, and no way to provide more without the Temple up and running. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. This is still celebrated as the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, with the central symbol a nine-branched lamp: eight days for the festival, and one to light the others.  (In John 10:22-23, we see Jesus at this Feast.) The original menorah in the Temple was a seven-branched lamp, but when the Temple was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans, the golden lamp was taken to Rome as loot, and has disappeared. There is a legend that the Temple menorah’s central branch, which was always filled first, burned longer than the others up until 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, which would be 30AD. I wonder if that is related to the triumph of the Light!