Surprisingly, the seeds for both Christmas and Hanukkah were sown in the same year, 323 BC, when illness unexpectedly took the life of Alexander the Great.
Born a prince in the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon in 356 BC, Alexander studied with Aristotle before, at age 16, assuming his first military command. Four years later, when his father was killed, Alexander — only 20 years old — assumed the title “king” and set out to conquer to the world.
And he succeeded. In twelve short years, he expanded his empire to include what is now Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and more. This is why cities ranging from Alexandria in Egypt to Kandahar in Afghanistan bear his name.
Yet for all his success, Alexander's most lasting contribution lies not in what he did, but in what he failed to do: He did not plan for his own succession.
So when Alexander died unexpectedly at age 33, chaos erupted, and generals and other power brokers violently wrestled for control.
The geography of the Ancient Near East defines two natural axes, and, therefore, four natural points of interest where these axes either terminate or meet. This is why Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Persia (Iran) keep popping up as focal points, both in antiquity and now. This is also why strongholds were established in these four locations after Alexander died.
In the conceptual middle of these four locales lies a city called Jerusalem, whose fate depends upon what happens in them. After Alexander's death, the holy city was left at the mercy of new, unstable, and competing rulers.
The power center that interests us most here is Syria, because Syria's Antiochus III (“the Great”) took control of Jerusalem around the year 200. Then, urged on by the famous Hannibal, Antiochus tried to take on Rome, too. He lost. As part of the terms of his surrender, Antiochus III sent his own son, Antiochus IV, to Rome as a prisoner.
Antiochus IV eventually escaped and returned to rule Syria. But while Antiochus III was dubbed “the Great,” his son Antiochus IV was nicknamed “the Insane.” This was not good news for Jerusalem, which now found herself under the rule of a madman.
That former Roman prisoner is the Antiochus of the Hanukkah story, the one who converted the great Jewish Temple in Jerusalem into a shine for the Greek god Zeus. And this is the Antiochus against whom a group of people called the Maccabees rose up in rebellion.
In 165, Judah Maccabee recaptured the Temple and rededicated it to the Jewish God. This is the triumph celebrated to this day on Hanukkah.
The Maccabees, unfortunately, were skilled fighters but incompetent and even cruel rulers. A few decades later, Judah's militaristic nephew John Hyrcanus I seized power. He invaded and occupied Idumaea, the site of the Bible's Edom, where he forcibly converted the locals to Judaism.
The reason we care about Idumaea is that, less than 100 years later, the dictator Julius Caesar usurped control of the Roman Empire, which at the time included Jerusalem. Caesar wanted to reward a man named Antipater by giving powerful positions to his kids. One obvious position was ruler of Jerusalem, but that post had to be filled by a Jew. As it turns out, though, Antipater was from Idumaea, and his father had been forcibly converted by the Maccabees. So Antipater was technically Jewish. And so were his sons, Phasael and Herod. Phasael was given Jerusalem. Then eventually Herod took it.
This is the Herod of the New Testament. Matthew (2:1) says that wise men, or magi, came to Jerusalem looking for Jesus “in the time of King Herod.”
Matthew was not merely reckoning time. Herod was a particularly vicious tyrant whose disregard for the population all but destroyed Jerusalem. The phrase “in the time of King Herod” for ancient readers was akin to “in the time of Stalin” or “in the time of Hitler” for modern readers. Matthew's point is that Jesus's birth as the Messiah took place just when the inhabitants of Jerusalem needed Him most. And this is the event that is celebrated to this day on Christmas.
So, Alexander the Great's failure to plan for his own death paved the way for Antiochus the Insane to defile the Temple in Jerusalem, which opened the door for the Maccabees to rise up and retake Jerusalem.
The Maccabees then converted Herod's grandfather to Judaism, paving the way for Herod to destroy Jerusalem, which opened the door for Jesus to be born in a period of hopelessness.
Connected by this common historical thread, the winter holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas boldly proclaim the same timeless message: Even in the darkest days of desperation lie hope and light and joy and God.
Dr. Hoffman is author of The Bible's Cutting Room Floor, which opens by expanding on these themes. His latest book is The Bible Doesn't Say That: 40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions, and Other Misunderstandings. He can be reached through his website at www.lashon.net.