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Background of the New Testament Period
Epistles in the Ancient World
The Greek word ‘epistole’ (“epistle” or
“letter”) originally referred to an oral communication sent by
a messenger. The term letters was a broad
designation for different types of documents in the ancient world, and
could include a great variety of commercial, governmental and legal
documents, as well as political and military reports, along with other
sorts of correspondence, especially of a personal kind. Paul adapted the Greco-Roman letter
models for Christian purposes. His
letters, which have fascinated people for generations, were usually
constructed along lines similar to that of Hellenistic letters. But the apostle, who has a sense of
freedom in literary matters, was not tied to fixed models, and he often
combined non-Jewish Hellenistic customs with Hellenistic Jewish ones.
The Form of an Epistle
The Form of the Pauline Letters: The general model of the Hellenistic
letter included an opening, a body and a closing. The basic Pauline letter form, in which
there was a normal progression rather than any stereotyped or mechanical
framework, contained the following elements: Opening- “Grace and
Peace”, indications of his apostolic authority sent from Jesus
Christ; Introductory Thanksgiving or Blessing- Paul gave thanks to God in
comparison to the Hellenistic epistolary model which gave thanks to their
own personal gods; The Body- The apostle used very much his own style in
the body of the letters; Closing- Paul used the typical closing greetings
of Hellenistic letters in order to link the congregations with his own
traveling ministry. He ended with a
benediction and doxology.
The persuasive modes of the classical
rhetorical handbooks were well known during Paul’s day, and one did
not have to be formally trained in rhetoric to use them. Each type of speech could consist of four
elements:
1)
Exordium (introduction)
2) Narratio (statement of facts)
3) Probatio (argument)
4) Peroratio (conclusion)
The Making of Books
Literature in the pre-Christian
centuries employed the papyrus scroll; from the fourth century AD it was
commonly preserved on the parchment codex.
The preparation and use of the Egyptian papyrus plant for a writing
material is described by Pliny the Elder in Natural History 13.68-83.
Parchment was made from skins of sheep
or goats, and vellum from the skins of calves. The skins were washed, scraped to remove
hairs, rubbed with pumice stone to make them smooth, and dressed with
chalk.
The universal form of a book in ancient
times was the roll (Lat. Volumen). Papyrus
rolls were made by gluing sheets of papyrus together.
The codex or book form (liber, libellus)
originated with binding wax-covered wood tablets together with rings or
leather cords. The word codex is
from caudex, a trunk of a tree, and then a block
of wood. The codex proved its
usefulness for Christians- - it was more compact because it permitted
writing on both sides; it gave easier reference; and it was better suited
to a collection of volumes.
Zenodotus of Ephesus,
one of the librarians at Alexandria, invented
textual criticism by comparing manuscripts.
The Alexandrian scholars handed down the texts of the Greek classics
and introduced accentuation. They
laid the foundation of philology.
Inscriptions and Papyri
The inscriptions and papyri have a
twofold importance for the student of Christianity: 1. The provide much of
the source material for the history, customs and daily life of the times,
and 2. They provide primary data for the meaning and usage of words in
early Christian literature.
Two major classes of inscriptions:
epitaphs (grave monuments) and official decrees (by governments or
associations). Most of the papyri finds have come from Egypt, where the dry
climate has been conducive to the preservation of this writing material.
Languages
Although the first century was a more
important period in the history of the Latin language than of the Greek,
Greek remained the dominant language in the eastern Mediterranean and the
principle language of commerce throughout the Roman world.
Following the conquests of Alexander
the Great, throughout the east Greek was the official language, the
language of communication between those of different races, and the
language of settles in the Greek cities.
Palestine was
multilingual in the first century- - Greek, various Aramaic dialects,
Hebrew, and some Latin- - Greek was clearly the language of choice in order
to disseminate a message as widely as possible.
All of the New Testament was written in
Greek. Attic Greek had developed
into the so-called “koine” (common or
everyday) Greek of the Hellenistic Age.
This developed into Byzantine Greek and finally modern Greek.
Philosophers and Poets
Heraclitus and the Logos
(Ephesus, 5th
– 4th c. BC)- “It is wise to
listen not to me but to the word, and to confess that all things are
one.”
Plato: the Philosopher’s Mission and the
Doctrine of Ideas (Athens, 5th
c. BC)- Socrates “mouth piece” and
disciple. In his
‘Apology’ he writes about Socrates’ death because
“he had corrupted the young men of the city, and did not believe in
the gods believed in by the city but had introduced other new
divinities”. Socrates said:
“You, my friend, a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of
Athens, are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and
honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the
greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at
all?”
The Earlier
Stoics- Stocism was materialist; much more
important than this, is the fact that in spirit it was deeply religious and
thoroughly moral. The universe was
not a meaningless place, nor was man’s place in it fortuitous. Man’s duty was to live in accordance
with Reason or Natural Law (kata logon) indeed a
spark or seed of the universal Reason resided within man (logoj spermatikoj). The founder of the school was Zeno (c.
336-263 BC) who taught in the Painted Porch (stoa)
at Athens. “The element of all the things
which exist is Fire, and the origins of the Fire are Stuff and God. Both of these are bodily substances: God
the active substance, and Stuff the passive substance.”
Chrysippus (Stoic Philosopher)-
“There can be nothing more inept than the people who suppose that
good could have existed without the existence of evil. Good and evil being antithetical, both
must needs subsist in opposition, each serving, as it were, by its contrary
pressure as a prop to the other. No
contrary, in fact can exist without its correlative contrary. How could there be any meaning in
‘justice’ unless there were such things as wrongs? What is justice but the prevention of
injustice? What could anyone
understand by ‘courage’ but for the antithesis of cowardice?…the same may be said of good and evil, felicity
and inconvenience, pleasure and pain.”
Posidonius- “The cause of the passions- - the cause,
that is, of disharmony and of the unhappy life- - is that men do not follow
absolutely the daemon that is in them, which is akin to, and has a like
nature with, the Power governing the whole cosmos, but turn aside after the
lower animal principle, and let it run away with them.”
The Two
Greatest Ethical Stoics- Epictetus, a slave who
was emancipated and ended up living in Rome (c. AD 89) and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome from AD 161 to 180.
Marcus
Aurelius- ‘To Himself’ xii. 35ff: “Not even death can
bring terror to him who regards that alone as good which comes in due
season, and to whom it is all one whether his acts in obedience to right
reason are few or many, and a matter of indifference whether he will look
upon the world for a longer or a shorter time.”
Aristotle (4th to 3rd c. BC)- From Nicomachean Ethics V,
iv. 7-12: “Now the judge restores equality: if we represent the
matter by a line divided into two unequal parts, he takes away from the
greater segment that portion by which it exceeds one-half the whole line,
and adds it to the lesser segment.
When the whole has been divided into two halves, people then say
that they ‘have their own’, having got what is equal. This indeed is the origin of the word dikaion (just): it means dicha
(in half), as if one were to pronounce it dichaion;
and a dikast (judge) is a dichast
(halver).
The equal is a mean by way of arithmetical proportion between the
greater and the less.
Epicurus (c. 342 – 270 BC)-
though often called an atheist, he did not deny the existence of gods, but
taught that as beings who themselves enjoy continual bliss they will never
cause harm or suffering to men; there is nothing to fear from them, but
neither can they be placated or cajoled- - if they listened to all the
prayers men offer the whole race would come to an end, so foolish and
contradictory are the petitions they would hear. Pain can never hurt us if our minds are
abstracted from them. Pleasure is
the chief good; and it can be attained by those who seek it wisely. Epicurus was a
savior FROM religion. “When,
therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the
pleasures of profligates and those that consist in sensuality, as is
supposed by some who are either ignorant or disagree with us or do not
understand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind. For it is not continuous drinkings and revellings, nor
the satisfaction of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of
the wealthy table, which produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning,
searching out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banishing mere
opinions, to which are due the greatest disturbance of the spirit.”
The philosopher
became a street-corner orator, and the Cynics in particular preached their
‘gospel’ to all who would listen, and it was often
delivered—and received—less as a reasoned system of beliefs
about the universe than as a divine revelation. Epictetus
writes: “The true Cynic when he has ordered himself thus cannot be
satisfied with this: he must know that he is sent as a messenger from God
to men concerning things good and evil, to show them that they have gone
astray and are seeking the true nature of good and evil where it is not to
be found, and take no thought where it really is: he must realize, in the
words of Diogenes when brought before Philip
after the battle of Chaeronea, that he is sent
‘to reconnoitre’ (a spy).
The Greeks knew
how to erect columns and the Romans knew how to bridge space. Thus may we briefly characterize the
major architectural glories still to be seen at classical sites: columns
around Greek temples, marketplaces, and public buildings; arches supporting
Roman aqueducts, bridges, theatres, triumphal monuments, and at city
gates.
Classical sites
around the Mediterranean show what were the important public buildings:
every city had its temples, marketplaces, theatre, town hall, and gymnasium
or baths.
Private houses
in the eastern provinces were one-family dwellings up to four stories
high. The dining room on the top
floor was the only large room and often opened on a terrace. This is the “upper room” of
Acts 1:13; 9:37; Mark 14:15.
Hellenistic-Roman
Religions
The Epic Age:
Homer- The Iliad is the story of the Trojan war between Greeks (under
Agamemnon, king of Mycenae) and the city
of Troy; the Odyssey
relates the adventures of one of the heroes on his return from the
war. The Homeric poems are a
deliberate attempt to reproduce conditions of about 1200 BC at the final
stage of Mycenaean civilization just before the Dorian invasions brought
the interruption of a “dark age” in the Greek cultural development.”
The Greek gods
were the most anthropomorphic of the gods of any people with the exception
of those in Scandinavian mythology.
The differences between the gods and humans were: they were ageless
and deathless; they were not limited by physical restrictions and so could
take any shape and go anywhere quickly and invisibly; they could do things
(morally speaking) that humans could not do (there mode of operation was
amoral). In Greece the
“measure of all things” was man.
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Greek Name
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Roman Name
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Description
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Zeus
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Jupiter
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Father
of gods and men in a patriarchal sense.
The sky and weather god represented by the thunderbolt.
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Hera
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Juno
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Wife
of Zeus, associated with marriage and women.
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Poseidon
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Neptune
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God
of sea, water, and earthquakes. Subduer of horses and brother of Zeus. Symbol the trident.
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Apollo
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The
“all Greek boy” who was the ideal type of young manly beauty,
associated with music, archery, prophecy, medicine, flocks and herds, law,
civilization, and later the sun.
Lyre and bow his attributes.
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Artemis
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Diana
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Twin
sister of Apollo, chaste goddess of the countryside and wild animals, who
also presided over childbirth.
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Athena
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Minerva
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Virgin
goddess of wisdom, fine and skilled arts, protectress
of Athens. She sprang forth fully armed from the
head of Zeus.
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Hermes
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Mercury
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Messenger
of the gods who presided over roadways and all who used them. God of herdsmen, conductor of souls to Hades,
divine rogue and trickster who embodied the Greek respect for cleverness.
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Ares
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Mars
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God
of war.
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Aphrodite
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Venus
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Goddess
of love, beauty and fertility—the personification of the sexual
instinct and mother of eros.
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Demeter
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Ceres
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Grain
goddess.
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Dionysius
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Bacchus
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Wine
god.
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Hephaestus
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Vulcan
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God
of fire and so of crafts.
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Mystery
Religions
The Object of
the mystery cults was to secure salvation for men who were subject to moral
and physical evil, dominated by Destiny, and unable by themselves to escape
from the corruption that beset the material side of their nature. Salvation accordingly meant escape from
Destiny, release from corruption and a renewed moral life. It was effected
by what may broadly be called sacramental means. By taking part in prescribed rites the
worshipper became united with God, was enabled in this life to enjoy
mystical communion with him, and furth was assured of immortality
beyond death.
The following
are among the most important features of the mystery religions:
The Myth- The
saving cycle of events in the experience of the god were
recounted in a tale conveniently described as a myth. Ex. Plutarch’s
Myth of Isis and Osiris.
Initiation- Rites
of initiation opened the way into membership of the cults, and generally
seem to have consisted primarily of some ceremonial by means of which the initiand was incorporated into the divine action of the
myth, and so achieved life by virtue of the resurrection of the god. Ex.
The rite of taurobolium, in which the worshipper
was drenched in the blood of a bull (maybe an institution of Mithraism).
Worship- The
Mystery cults ranged from the licentious to the truly spiritual.
Greek
Philosophy and Early Christianity
Philosophy in
the Hellenistic and Roman periods was not just a mere theoretical study,
but a way of life. The various
schools of philosophy in the Roman world provided the worldview and
practical guidance for life and practical guidance that religion does for
many today. Ethics was the principle
concern of the leading Hellenistic philosophies. Their aim was to teach people how to
live.
Plato’s
Division of the Soul: In three
parts- 1. The intellectual, or ration; 2. The vibrant, or spirited; 3. The
desirous, or appetitive. Wisdom for
the intellectual, courage for the spirited, and self-control for the desirous part.
Four Virtues of
Plato: Justice, Courage, Self-Control, and Wisdom, these four were given
prominence during the Hellenistic Age and became the four natural virtues
to which were added the three supernatural virtues: faith, hope, and love
to form the seven cardinal virtues of the Middle Ages.
Aristotle’
Thought- Aristotle saw himself as the true successor of Plato. Plato moved from forms then to specifics,
Aristotle started with specifics and tried to group them into ever higher
genera. “By understanding the
parts, one may understand the whole.”
Aristotle divided things two ways: as substance, when we see nature
in a moment; and as motion, when we see it as a world of change. Moreover, we may analyze nature into
potentiality and actuality.
Substance is what something is in itself; its “accidents”
are its attributes, how it is perceived.
Substance is divisible into form and matter. A statue is marble to which the sculptor
has given a shape. It is matter that
has been given a form. Matter does
not exist without form, nor form without matter.
Aristotle’s
Understanding of Change- Change is a fact that all observe. There are four causes of motion or
change: 1. Material Cause- the matter out of which something is
produced’ 2. Efficient Cause-the active, producing cause. Ex. Parents
who produce children; 3. Formal Cause-the technique or way of doing
something, the pattern followed. In
nature this is the law of development; 4. Final Cause-the goal or purpose
intended. Everything in nature has
an end or purpose. Ex. A kitten to become a cat, an acorn to become an
oak. The sculptor: the marble on
which he works is the material cause,
the sculptor himself is the efficient
cause, the pattern for the statue is the formal cause, and the purpose for which the work is undertaken
is the final cause.. Ultimately, change is the development or
transition from potentiality to actuality.
Aristotle on
the Soul- He found three kinds of souls: 1. Nutritive or vegetative
souls. These lowest souls simply
possess the principle of life: nutrition, repair and reproduction. This is
sheer biological life shared by all living things. 2. Sensitive or animal
souls. In addition to possessing the
principle of life, the middle level possesses sensations: senses, impulses,
instincts. The sensitive faculty is
the source of desire and motion, which separates animal life from plant
life. 3. Thinking or ration souls.
The highest level of life possesses reason or intellect, in addition
to all the faculties of the lower souls.
This level is found in human beings alone.
The scientists
that eventually came from Aristotle’s teaching,
went to Alexandria the greatest
center of scientific knowledge in the Hellenistic world. The school of Alexander became known
as a research institution. As soon
as his followers lost sight of Aristotle’s conviction of a goal (telos) toward which each of the sciences moved, their
efforts became knowledge for its own sake—encyclopedianism.
Skepticism- The
Greek word for dogma meant opinion or view, and was the position to which
one came after examining something.
To examine without necessarily coming to a decision is skeptesthai.
Plato and Aristotle after examining, dogmatized. But
if one cannot come to a conclusion, then that person suspends
judgment. Skepticism never became
and effective school, for it was always negative. It was not influential on a continuing
basis, and the last flowering came at a time when the world was turning to
religion.
The two
principal philosophical schools of the Hellenistic Age were the Stoics and
Epicureans (cf. Acts 17:18). Both were primarily interested in ethics
but developed comprehensive explanations of reality that were influential
beyond their own circles of adherents.
Zeno was the
founder of Stoicism. He started the
scientific study of Greek grammar and vocabulary. He developed a philosophical system of
three branches: logic and theory of knowledge, physics and theology, and
ethics. His main concern was
securing humanity from fear and disturbance. According to Zeno, the goal of life is
virtue; everything else is indifferent.
Since no one can deprive the wise person of virtue, that person is
always in possession of the only true good and is therefore happy (Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Aratus of Soli). Everyone read Homer and Aratus. When the
Romans translated something from Greek into Latin, Aratus
was one of the first. He expressed Stoicism
in a popular poem that was read by all in that time. The logos became another word in the
Stoic system for god, since it maintains order. This impersonal reason that gives order
to the world is thus unlike the Christian conception found in John 1.
Roman Stoicism-
Had an exclusively ethical and practical concern. Seneca- gave guidance to the government
under Nero. Tertullian
described him as “always our Seneca” (On the Soul 20), and the
similarities in thought at places to Christianity prompted the Christian
invention of an apocryphal correspondence between Paul and Seneca. Epictetus-
tried to reach the masses with his message.
He taught that the universe is the product of Divine Providence,
which continues to be manifest in the world’s unity and order. He saw the philosopher as an ambassador
of the Divine with a mission to teach people how to live, as a physician of
souls, a witness for God, a scout.
He emphasized indifference to all things that are not within
one’s own self and will as the way to inner freedom. Marcus Aurelius- He wrote Meditations as
emperor (lit. To Himself), the last great written expression of the Stoic
view of life. The reign of Marcus
Aurelius was a difficult time for Christians, and the emperor could not
understand their readiness for martyrdom, although his own Stoic belief
allowed for suicide. What was of
value in Stoicism was absorbed into the Neoplatonic
synthesis.
Stoicism and
Christianity- Christianity used some of the same terminology that was at home
in Stoicism: Spirit, conscience, Logos, virtue, self-sufficiency, freedom
of speech, reasonable service, etc.
Despite some of the language (as in Epictetus),
Stoicism did not have a fully personal God; it knew only an immanent
god. The God of the Bible is the
Creator of the world, never equated with it as in Stoic pantheism. In Christianity the universe has a
beginning, purpose, and end; Stoicism none of these. For Stoicism, as for all Greek philosophy
before Neoplatonism, the goal of humanity is self-liberation,
and this goal is attainable. It did
not know the redemptive love of a merciful God.
Epicureanism- Epicurus admitted women and slaves to his community,
and this along with his professed hedonism probably was the source of some
of the stories that circulated about his school; he was very unpopular and
controversial with some of that society.
Epicurus’ philosophy promoted the
placid pleasures of the mind, friendship, and contentment. For him there was no reason to eat,
drink, and be merry today if you are going to have a headache from it
tomorrow. Poor health imposed on Epicurus himself a frugal life. Lucretius- The
most important and influential exposition of the Epicurean system has come
from the Latin poet Lucretius. Epicurus was a
materialist. The physical world
comes from atoms that operate according to law (Democritus). Therefore, nature has no purpose. There is no creation—the world is
eternal, for atoms are indestructible though they may be changed. For Epicurus
this physical theory was the fall of religion. Epicurus’
goal was to achieve peace of mind and tranquility (ataraxia)
for all. He wanted to save humanity
from the darkness of religion.
Oracles, divination, magic, etc., are humbug. He saw religion as a source of fear; therefore
the banishing of the gods brought peace and the possibility of a good
life. Diogenes
the Epicurean: “Nothing to fear in God; Nothing to feel in Death;
Good (pleasure) can be attained; Evil (pain) can be endured.”
The Epicureans
and Stoics were the chief rivals for the allegiance of educated people in
the Hellenistic Age (cf. Acts 17:18): A group of
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them
asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked,
"He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because
Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Both Epicureans
and Stoics sought to liberate humans from fate, to make them
self-sufficient and indifferent to externals. Their major concerns—undisturbedness (atarxia) in
Epicureanism and passionlessness (apatheia) in Stoicism—were similar, but Stoicism
was more stolid. Stoicism said in
effect, “Let us neither eat nor drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Eclecticism- to
pick and choose. It refers to the
tendency to select elements from different philosophical schools and
integrate them into one’s own system of thought or to put them
together in new combinations.
Middle
Platonism- The Platonism from the first century BC to the second century AD
is called Middle Platonism. The
development had been prepared for in the move from skepticism to
eclecticism by Antiochus of Ascalon. The first century BC saw a revival of the
teaching of Plato and Aristotle.
Middle Platonism proved the intellectual background for the work of
the Christian apologists of the second century: Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagorus, and
Clement of Alexandria. Plutarch was a Middle Platonist. Whereas philosophers from the fifth
century BC onward had kept a certain distance between themselves and
religious tradition, even when friendly toward it, from the end of the
first century AD they increasingly looked to religion as a source of
enlightenment. Cicero, Philo of Alexandria, and Plutarch. For Plutarch, the crown of philosophy is to form true and
worthy conceptions of God and to give him pious worship. His description of God sounds like that
of the Christian apologists, but he supported the traditional religion and
sought to resolve its contradictions.
JEWISH HISTORY
The Persian
Period
Cyrus and the
Dispersion- Cyrus reversed the policies of the Assyrians:
II Ki 17:1-41
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea
son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.
He did evil in the eyes of the
LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser's
vassal and had paid him tribute.
But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king
of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute
to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser
seized him and put him in prison.
The king of Assyria invaded the entire land,
marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.
All this took place because the
Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up
out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh
king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods
and followed the practices of the
nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that
the kings of Israel had introduced.
The Israelites secretly did
things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to
fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns.
They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every
spreading tree.
At every high place they burned
incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done.
They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger.
They worshiped idols, though the
LORD had said, "You shall not do this."
The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and
seers: "Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in
accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and
that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets."
But they would not listen and
were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their
God.
They rejected his decrees and
the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given
them. They followed worthless idols and themselves
became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD
had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things
the LORD had forbidden them to do.
They forsook all the commands of
the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of
calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to
all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal.
They sacrificed their sons and
daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold
themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his
presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left,
and even Judah did not keep the commands of
the LORD their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced.
Therefore the LORD rejected all
the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave
them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.
When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they
made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam
enticed Israel away from following the LORD
and caused them to commit a great sin.
The Israelites persisted in all
the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them
until the LORD removed them from his
presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the
people of Israel were taken from their homeland
into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.
The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah,
Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They
took over Samaria and lived in its towns.
When they first lived there,
they did not worship the LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed
some of the people.
It was reported to the king of Assyria: "The people you deported
and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of
that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them
off, because the people do not know what he requires."
Then the king of Assyria gave this order: "Have one
of the priests you took captive from Samaria go
back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land
requires."
So one of the priests who had
been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship
the LORD.
Nevertheless, each national
group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set
them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.
The men from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah
made Nergal, and the men from Hamath
made Ashima;
the Avvites
made Nibhaz and Tartak,
and the Sepharvites burned their children in the
fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
They worshiped the LORD, but
they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as
priests in the shrines at the high places.
They worshiped the LORD, but
they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the
nations from which they had been brought.
To this day they persist in
their former practices. They neither worship the LORD nor adhere to the
decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the LORD gave the
descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
When the LORD made a covenant
with the Israelites, he commanded them: "Do not worship any other gods
or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them.
But the LORD, who brought you up
out of Egypt with mighty power and
outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down
and to him offer sacrifices.
You must always be careful to
keep the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do
not worship other gods.
Do not forget the covenant I
have made with you, and do not worship other gods.
Rather, worship the LORD your
God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."
They would not listen, however,
but persisted in their former practices.
Even while these people were
worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their
children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.
Cyrus reversed
the policies as well of the Babylonians (2 Kings 24-25) by encouraging
peoples to return to their homelands and by supporting local institutions
under the oversight of the royal administration. Many Jews chose to remain in Babylonia. They had followed the advice of Jeremiah
(Chap. 29) and settled down and sought “welfare of the city” to
such an extent that they prospered, some even becoming high government
officials (as were Daniel, Mordecai, and Nehemiah). The Babylonian Talmud shows the great
prestige later attained by the rabbinic scholars there.
Temple and
Torah- The two great accomplishments of the returned exiles were the
rebuilding of the Lord’s house in Jerusalem and the collecting and
studying of the law (Torah) with a view to regulating the life of the
people by it. Those who returned
from captivity under the leadership of Zerubbabel
the governor and Joshua the priest were encouraged by the prophets Haggai
and Zechariah to finish the Second Temple and dedicate it finally in 515 BC
(Ezra 1-6). This began the
“Second Temple Period” or the “Second Jewish
Commonwealth.”
The Scribes-
With the return of Ezra, we are introduced to a new class of religious
leaders who were to assume great importance in the subsequent period (Ezra
was described as “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses”). A different kind of “wise
man” arose, scholars in the sacred writings. Scribes replaced priests as the
interpreters of the law in the absence of prophetic revelation, scribal
interpretation became the authority.
The post-exilic community was dedicated to the study of the law, and
its piety revolved around the law so that Jews were a unique people in the
ancient world in their effort to educate a whole nation in a book religion.
The Province of Judah- It formed a very
small area extending no more than twenty miles in any direction from Jerusalem. It would have appeared to the outsider as
simply another one of the temple-states so numerous in the near east. The local government was
“oligarchic and aristocratic” according to Josephus, an the high priests were at the head of affairs. Satrap’s
were the titles given the governors of large administrative areas. The high priest remained the leader of
the Jewish community in Judea through
Ptolemaic times.
Samaritian Schism- The exiles who returned home felt a social
superiority to the “people of the land” who remained around Jerusalem (Jer. 24; 2 Kings 24:14) and a religious and racial
superiority to their neighbors to the north around the old capital of the
Northern kingdom, Samaria. Authorities in Samaria opposed the
rebuilding of the temple and city walls.
The grandson of the high priest at the time came to Jerusalem and
married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor
of Samaria, and that he drove out this Samaritan sympathizer (Neh. 13:28).
Josephus says that Sanballat promised the
grandson (Manasses) a priesthood and temple on Mt. Gerizim. A reform movement purified the Samaritan
religion, perhaps at the same time as Ezra and Nehemiah, for later the
Jewish-Samaritan rivalry had to do with the place of worship, not its
ritual, and the Samaritans have continued to recognize the same law book as
the Jews (the Pentateuch).
The Greek
Period
The Coming of
Alexander- The coming of the Macedonians accelerated a process of Hellenization already under way in the eastern Mediterranean. Not only did the Greeks penetrate Palestine, but during
the Hellenistic period the Jewish dispersion expanded.
The Rule of the
Ptolemies- On Alexander’s death (323 BC)
his empire was divided up among his generals. Ptolemy I transported many Jews to Egypt, and Alexandria became a major
center of Jewish dispersion. During
the Ptolemaic period the Old Testament was translated into Greek.
The Rule of the
Seleucids- Antiochus III the Great brought the period of peace to an end in
219. He was over Palestine but eventually
defeated by the Romans in 190 BC. Onias III, his brother Jason secured appointment as
high priest from Antiochus IV (175-163 BC).
The process of Hellenization accelerated
under Jason, in fact the city was renamed Antioch. The high priest was now a Seleucid
official. Menelaus
who represented the extreme Hellenizers was not
content with Onias Jason and offered a higher sum
of money for the high priesthood.
Antiochus IV, escorted by Menelaus
plundered the temple at Jerusalem in 169
BC. Antiochus IV in 168 BC issued
decrees prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion: the Scriptures
were to be destroyed, the Sabbath and festivals were longer to be observed,
the food laws were to be abolished, and circumcision was no longer
practiced (1 Macc. 1:41-64). Antiochus IV (called “God
Manifest” or Epiphanes) desecrated the
temple and offered a swine on the altar in light of the Feast of Dionysius which included the sacrifice of pigs, an
unclean animal in the Jewish religion.
The Maccabean Period (167-63 BC)
Mattathias- Representatives of the government came to the
Judean village of Modin to persuade
the priest Mattathias as the leading citizen to
set an example by sacrificing to the pagan gods, he refused and killed a
Jew who stepped forward to comply; in addition he killed the king’s
officer. Mattathias
and his sons fled to the hills of Judea and called
upon all those zealous for the law of their fathers to rally to them.
Judas- After Mattathias’ death leadership was given to his son
Judas Maccabee (“the hammer”). The pious cast their lot w | 
