John 10:22
in John 10At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem:
KJV
And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
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This verse in John 10
Commentary
3 notes on this verseThe feast of the dedication - This was a feast instituted by Judas Maccabeus, in commemoration of his purifying the temple after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes. This feast began on the twenty-fifth of the month Cisleu, (which answers to the eighteenth of our December), and continued for eight days.
This site's exposition
the feast of the dedication, and it was winter
on John 10:22-23
The feast of the dedication, and it was winter names Hanukkah, instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 164 BC to commemorate the temple's cleansing and rededication after Antiochus Epiphanes had defiled it, a feast with no basis in the Torah itself but kept faithfully by Jesus all the same. The note it was winter is not incidental detail but explains the setting of the next scene, Jesus walked in Solomon's porch, a covered colonnade along the temple's east side offering shelter from the cold. The bench reads the feast's own theme, the temple purified and rededicated to God, as a fitting backdrop for the identity claims about to follow.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas Maccabeus, 1 Macc. iv, 59, when he purged and dedicated the altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our Lord observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least, innocent for us to do the same?
How the passage was read
On John 10:22-39On John 10:22-39
The feast Jesus was keeping
“The Feast of Dedication” is the festival modern Jews call Hanukkah: an eight-day winter feast, beginning on the 25th of the month Kislev (falling in December), that remembers the cleansing and rededication of the Temple in 164 BC. Antiochus IV, the Greek-Syrian king, had defiled the altar; Judas Maccabeus and his brothers retook Jerusalem, rebuilt the altar, and ordained the annual celebration (1 Maccabees 4:36–59). Today it is kept by lighting one more candle each night on a nine-branched lampstand, which is why it is also called the Festival of Lights; the lamp-lighting custom is discussed in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b).
Two things follow for the reader. This feast is not commanded anywhere in the Law of Moses: it was instituted between the Testaments, and John records Jesus walking in the Temple courts during it without a word of censure. And the setting is loaded: at the feast that celebrates the Temple's rescue from a ruler who claimed divine honors, the crowd asks Jesus plainly whether He is the Messiah (John 10:24).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: 1 Maccabees 4:36–59 (the feast's institution; studied on this site) · Shabbat 21b (Babylonian Talmud, the lamp-lighting custom) · The Maccabean Revolt (this site's study of the history)
The words behind it
9 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ἐγένετο | egeneto | Took place | G1096 → | 667 times |
| τότε | tote | at the time | G5119 → | 160 times |
| τὰ | ta | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἐγκαίνια | egkainia | Feast of Dedication | G1456 → | |
| ἐν | en | at | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| τοῖς | tois | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| Ἱεροσολύμοις· | hi'erosolumois | Jerusalem; | G2414 → | 62 times |
| χειμὼν | cheimon | winter | G5494 → | |
| ἦν, | en | it was, | G1510 → | 2333 times |
ἘγένετοTook place
egenetoG1096 →667 times
τότεat the time
toteG5119 →160 times
τὰthe
taG3588 →19766 times
ἐγκαίνιαFeast of Dedication
egkainiaG1456 →
ἐνat
enG1722 →2738 times
τοῖς<the>
toisG3588 →19766 times
Ἱεροσολύμοις·Jerusalem;
hi'erosolumoisG2414 →62 times
χειμὼνwinter
cheimonG5494 →
ἦν,it was,
enG1510 →2333 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies25
On this verse
On this chapter
- The Animal Apocalypse
- The Major Prophets
- Eternal Life
- Eternal Security, and the Five Warnings of Hebrews
- Ezekiel, the Study Guide
- Hearing God
- Jesus on Himself
- Jesus on Salvation
- Miracles of Jesus
- Moses Wrote of Me
- Names of God
- Parables of Jesus
- The Son of God
- I Am the Door
- The Door & the Gate
- The Good Shepherd
- The Narrow Gate
- The Shepherd
- The Valley of Dry Bones: Ezekiel 37
- The Righteous One Condemned
About John
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on John and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.