Does this day mentioned in Haggai 2 correspond to the Hanukkah festival?
Is this the divine desired blessing of prosperity that purified the Second Temple, or is it not related at all to the Hanukkah festival taking place the following day?
Haggai 2:18 - 19
NKJV - 18 Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid - consider it: 19 'Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.'"
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Asked December 23 2016
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Anonymous
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Tim Maas
My understanding of the timing of the Hanukkah observance in 165 BC is that it was based both on the date in the Jewish calendar given in the passage from Haggai noted in the question (due to the perceived connection between the re-building of the temple in the sixth century BC and the re-dedication of the temple in 165 BC after its desecration by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes), and the fact that that same date was also the date on which Antiochus IV Epiphanes had desecrated the temple exactly three years earlier (168 BC). However (again, by my understanding) the celebration of Hanukkah was meant to be commemorative of miraculous events that took place in connection with the re-dedication of the temple in 165 BC (such as a one-day supply of oil lasting for eight days), and (other than the date being the same) was not primarily an observance of the re-building of the temple mentioned by Haggai, nor was the date given in Haggai meant to be a prophetic foreshadowing of the future observance of Hanukkah.
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