8 miraculous women of Chanukah

The eight days of Chanukah (Festival of Dedication, John 10:22–39), historically parallel the eight days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles). But there is a startling parallel to eight women in the Bible for whom having children would have been miraculous — including the mother of Yeshua (Jesus) — yet these women dedicated themselves to God’s mission to restore the Earth.

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The word Chanukah comes from the verb חָנַךְ chanuk (Strong’s lexicon No. 2596), which means to train up, dedicate. It is the commemoration of the military victory of a small Jewish army, lead by Maccabees against not only the Antiochus IV of Selucides but also against Jewish Hellenists. It was largely a Jewish civil war, in which those who were for God and His Torah won. None of these books or historical books make any reference to oil at all, even though the miraculous provision of oil for the Temple menorah(s) is profoundly connected to the celebration of Chanukah (1st Macc. 1:1-64; 2nd Macc. 10:1-8).

Time references in Luke 1-2 point to Yeshua’s being born at Sukkot and conceived in His mother’s womb at Chanukah [see these Bible studies on the timing of the birth of Yeshua (Jesus)]. The miracle was not that Mary gave birth, many women do that. The miracle was her virginal conception.

Chanukah was written about before and after Moses.

These eight women, including Mary, who experienced impossible conceptions. The eight other women foreshadow the prophesy the conception of the Messiah. All eight of these women gave birth to sons. These women did nothing, all of this was God’s work.

They were all willing, dedicated women. All of them were willing to raise these sons God’s way, not their way. He chose these women because they would not deviate from their promise. They proved they were dedicated, which is what Chanukah is all about. They are all great women.

Six of them are in the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings, i.e, Hebrew scriptures), and two are mentioned in the Apostolic Writings (aka New Testament):

Sarah (Gen. 18:9-15; 21:1-7)
Rivkah (Rebekah) (Gen. 25:19-26)
Raqel (Rachel) (Gen. 30:1-2, 22-24)
Manoah’s wife, mother of Shimshon (Samson) (Judges 13)
Khannah (Hannah) (1st Sam. 1:8-28)
Shunammite woman (2nd Kings 4:8-37)
Elisheva (Elizabeth), mother of Yokhanan the Mikvah (John the Baptist) (Luke 1:11-56)
Miriam (Mary), mother of Yeshua (Jesus) (Luke 1:26-56)

All these sons fulfilled a part of the Messianic role in their lifetimes. For example, the Shunamite woman’s son died and prophet Elisha resurrected him. Samson, the son of Manoah and his wife was a warrior-savior of his people.

Summary: Tammy.