Hanukkah festival of Dedication or the Festival of lights event. How relevant is the Hanukkah to Judeo Christians World view?
Yeshua from Nazareth and his disciples observed the Festival of Dedication, as described in the Gospel according to John, chapter 10, verse 22.
Verse 22-30.
“Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!” Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf, but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father’s hands. I and the Father are one.”
Celebrate Messiah quote:
“John 10 takes place in the Temple courts, while Jesus observes the feast of Hanukkah. His teaching gathered the Jewish people around him and with great anticipation, they asked Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24 Interestingly enough, the literal Greek translation reads: “How long will you lift up our souls?” The Jewish people at that time lifted up their souls in hopeful, anxious anticipation for the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies! Today, believers all around the world lift up their hearts and souls to Jesus as we longingly anticipate the day when Jewish people around the world embrace Jesus their Messiah.”
“We can also marvel at the fact that Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, actually celebrated Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication. This is truly poignant considering that this means Jesus celebrated the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple, which essentially was a grassroots Jewish movement to preserve Jerusalem and the Jewish people from absorbing into the pagan, Hellenistic culture of their time. If the Maccabees had not reclaimed and rededicated the Jewish Temple, Jesus would not have been able to come to a Jewish Temple or a Jewish people!”
“So in essence, when we celebrate Hanukkah, we also celebrate the divinity of Jesus. During a holiday that celebrates the miracle of light, we celebrate the fact that Jesus came and brings light to the world and to our souls!”
Source: https://www.celebratemessiah.com.au/hanukkah-in-the-nt/
Books of Maccabees
The story of Hanukkah is preserved in the books of the First and Second Maccabees, which describe in detail the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem and the lighting of the menorah. These books are not part of the canonized Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) used by modern Jews, though the Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider them part of the Bible.
The eight-day rededication of the temple is described in 1 Maccabees 4:36–4:59, though the name of the festival and the miracle of the lights do not appear here. A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees 1:18–1:36 according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee.[citation needed] The above account in 1 Maccabees 4, as well as 2 Maccabees 1:9 portrays the feast as a delayed observation of the eight-day Feast of Booths (Sukkot)”; similarly 2 Maccabees 10:6 explains the length of the feast as “in the manner of the Feast of Booths”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
Cleansing and Dedication of the Temple
1 Maccabees 4:36-59
“Then Judas and his brothers said, “See, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.” So all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion. There they saw the sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned. In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a thicket, or as on one of the mountains. They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins. Then they tore their clothes and mourned with great lamentation; they sprinkled themselves with ashes and fell face down on the ground. And when the signal was given with the trumpets, they cried out to Heaven.”
“Then Judas detailed men to fight against those in the citadel until he had cleansed the sanctuary. He chose blameless priests devoted to the law, and they cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled stones to an unclean place. They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned. And they thought it best to tear it down, so that it would not be a lasting shame to them that the Gentiles had defiled it. So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until a prophet should come to tell what to do with them.”
” Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one. They also rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the temple, and consecrated the courts. They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. Then they offered incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple. They placed the bread on the table and hung up the curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken.
“Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year,[b] they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals.”
“All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings; they offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering.
They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and fitted them with doors. There was very great joy among the people, and the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed.”
59 Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.
1 Maccabees 4:36-59