DEDICATE,DEDICATION,

DED'ICATE,DEDICA'TION, a religious ceremony by which any person, place, or thing is set apart for the service of God or to some sacred use. Num 7; 2 Sam 8:11; 1 Kgs 8. Cities, walls, gates, and private houses were thus dedicated. Neh 12:27. The practice of consecration was very common among the Jews, and was suited to the peculiar dispensation under which they lived. Dedication, Feast of the, mentioned only once in the canonical Scriptures, John 10:22, was instituted to commemorate the purging of the temple and the rebuilding of the altar after Judas Maccabaeus had driven out the Syrians, 1 Macc 4:52-59, b.c. 164. Like the other Jewish feasts, it lasted eight days, but, unlike them, attendance at Jerusalem was not obligatory. In general, it was kept like the feast of tabernacles. The Hallel was sung every day. It was a time of rejoicing. It began upon the 25th day of Chisleu (December), the anniversary of the pollution of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, b.c. 167.