Note 1 at Jn. 10:22: The feast of the dedication was an annual festival instituted in 165 B.C. by Judas Maccabaeus to celebrate the renewal and purification of the temple exactly three years after it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, who polluted it with Greek idolatry.

Also called the festival of lights, it was celebrated for eight days in much the same way as was the feast of tabernacles (see note 1 at Jn. 7:2, p. 222). Beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Chislev (which approximates our month of December), it was a winter festival which the Jews still observe today.