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| The '''Pre-Roman history of ancient Israel and Judah''' covers the ] Era (c. 1000 BCE) to the capture of Jerusalem by the ] (63 BCE), under whom it was also known as the ]. | |||
| As well as a significant historical period in its own right, and in ], it is also relevant in studying the life of ], since the historical background of Jesus is the history of the Jewish people leading up to the 1st century CE. Many concepts and factions that are relevant to the understanding of the historical Jesus date back a thousand years or more before his birth. | |||
| ==First Temple Era== | |||
| {{Hebrew people}} | |||
| The ancient land of Israel (also called the land of ], Palestine and ] and ]) is situated on the easternmost coast of the ], the westernmost part of the ]. Historically a crossroads for intercontinental trade, it was situated between the ancient empires of ] to the south, ] and later ] to the northwest, and ], ], and later ] to the east. The settlement of this area by various groups, including ] and ], and the origins of the ancient Israelites is a complex and much-debated topic; see ]. This geographical area is relatively small, perhaps only 100 miles north to south and 40 or 50 miles east to west. | |||
| In the 1st century, when Jesus was supposed to have lived, most ] were impoverished and politically marginalized. Various Jewish elites and social movements, grappling with both their own heterogeneous beliefs and practices and Hellenistic culture, and in competition for secular and religious power, argued over religious and politically significant issues such as the status of the ], laws and values embodied in sacred scriptures, the restoration of a monarchy, Jewish sovereignty, and the ]. These institutions and issues had their origins some centuries earlier, around ]-], in the so-called "First Temple Era".<ref>The history of ancient Israel/Palestine (in the context of ]) is often divided by historians into two periods - the time of the ] (from its construction by Solomon around 1000 BCE through to its destruction by the ]ns in 586 BCE, and the time of the ] from its construction around 536 BCE until its final destruction by the Romans around 70 CE. According to ], ] will be built at some future time, either by the ] (future Jewish messiah) or as part of the ]; to attempt to build it before then without divine direction would be presumptive and a great violation of ].</ref> | |||
| ===Priests and Kings=== | |||
| The religion of ancient Israel, like those of most ancient Near Eastern societies, centered on a Temple, served by a caste of priests, who sacrificed offerings to their god. Priests (]s) claimed descent from ] of the tribe of ], who was believed to have been appointed by God to care for the ] and perform the priestly ]s. During the First Temple Era the priests were limited to their work in the Temple; political power officially rested in the hands of a ] who was believed to rule by ]. | |||
| In ancient Israel, as in most societies at that time, the priesthood was closely tied with the monarchy. According to the Hebrew Bible, the first Israelite king was ], of the ], although the ] anointed Saul's protegeé and son-in-law, ] as their own king after Saul's and his son's death in the battle with the Philistines ({{bibleverse|1|Samuel|31:2-10}}; {{bibleverse|2|Samuel|2:4}}). After David reigned over Judah seven years and six months, he became king of ] for thirty-three years ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|5:1-5}}). | |||
| According to the Hebrew Bible, God told the ] of his love for David and his descendants, and had Nathan convey these assurances to David: | |||
| :Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; but I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever. (II Sam 7:11-16) | |||
| Psalms 2: 7 and 89: 26–27 refer to David as the ]; most interpret the word "son" in these contexts metaphorically, in accordance with usual ancient Hebrew poetic style, to mean that God loved David and that there would be a descendant of David who would be as a son to God, either spiritually, or in terms of love, or pleasing to God, rather than literally. ] has argued that the term "son of God" was often used to refer to the monarch. | |||
| The religious authority of the priests was also formalized at the time the ] was constructed, around ], when the high priest ] anointed David's son ] king, and was legitimized and limited by the monarchy. | |||
| After the death of Solomon, his kingdom fragmented in civil war into two kingdoms, being the ], which was destroyed by the ]ns in ] in the North, and the ] (capital Jerusalem) in the Center and South. (The terms "United Kingdom" and "Divided Kingdoms" are often used respectively when discussing this period, to denote respectively the united kingdom in the time of David and Solomon, and the twin separate kingdoms that followed) | |||
| Both the Temple and the Davidic Monarchy were destroyed by the ]ians in ], when most Jews were forced into ]. | |||
| ===Prophets=== | |||
| In most ancient Near Eastern societies sacrifice was the primary form of worship, and many such societies also had myths about gods as well as laws which they believed were given to them by gods. The Children of Israel similarly had sacred texts (which would later be ] into the ]), which they believed were written by ]s under divine inspiration, or dictated by God himself. | |||
| In addition to being lawgivers and ]ers, various prophets also forcefully criticized the king, elites, or the masses and provided visions of a better life (stories about, and writings purportedly by, these prophets were eventually ] into the ] in the Second Temple Era). In the south (the kingdom of Judah, or Judea), the tradition was epitomized by prophets like ] and ], who primarily addressed issues of collective (national or communal) concern. In the north (the kingdom of Israel), it was epitomized by ] and ], who healed people and performed other miracles, and who primarily addressed issues of individual (private or personal) concern (Crossan 1992: 137-167). These prophets were a potent political force. | |||
| Orlinsky, in W.H. Allen's ''World History of the Jewish People'', comments: | |||
| :The seer-priests located at shrines and the roving bands (of the kind associated with ] and ]) depended for a living mainly on the relatively stable agricultural elements, the landed gentry and the petty farmer; and when the monarchy came along they were anti-monarchical in principle... The seer-priest began to lose ground as first the United and then the Divided Kingdom established itself. This was true far more in Judah, where the Davidic dynasty became firmly established, than in Israel to the North where different circumstances prevented any dynasty from maintaining itself for more than a generation or two. Thus "] the prophet" was David's "visionary" just as Nathan served Solomon as prophet and ], ] and ] were his visionaries. It appears the reign, and even the very person, of Solomon dealt the power of the seer-priests a very heavy blow. The Bible makes clear that this monarch himself constituted priest and diviner (as well as merchant, government head, etc), as witness his central role in offering sacrifices to God and in receiving dream-messages from Him. | |||
| ==Second Temple Era== | |||
| ===The Persian Period=== | |||
| In ] the ]ns conquered Babylon and in ], inaugurated the Persian period of Jewish history. In ] ] allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple (completed ]). He appointed ] (the grandson of the second to last Judean king, ]) governor, but did not allow the restoration of the kingdom. The influence of ] on monotheism, Judaism, as well as Christianity are still the subject of academic debate. | |||
| Without the constraining power of the monarchy, the authority of the Temple was amplified, and priests became the dominant authority. However, the ] had been constructed under the auspices of a foreign power, and there were lingering questions about its legitimacy. This provided the condition for various sects to develop within Judaism over the coming centuries, each of which claimed to represent "Judaism". Most of these typically discouraged social intercourse, especially marriage, with members of other sects. | |||
| The end of the Babylonian Exile saw not only the construction of the Second Temple, but, according to the ], the final redaction of the ] as well. Although the priests controlled the monarchy and the Temple, scribes and sages (who later became the '']s'') monopolized the study of the ], which (starting from the time of ]) was read publicly on market-days. These sages developed and maintained an oral tradition alongside of the Holy Writ, and identified with the prophets. According to Geza Vermes, such scribes were often addressed using a basic term of respect, "lord." | |||
| ===The Hellenistic Period=== | |||
| ] | |||
| The ] period of Jewish history began in ] when ] conquered Persia. Upon his death in ], his empire was divided among his generals. At first, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic ], but in ],the Syrian-Hellenic ], under Antiochus III, seized control over Judea. | |||
| The Hellenistic Period saw the canonization of the ] (Hebrew Bible), and the emergence of extra-Biblical sacred traditions. The earliest evidence of a Jewish mysticism tradition surrounds the book of ], written during the Babylonian Exile. Virtually all known mystical texts, however, were written at the end of the Second Temple period. Scholars like ] have discerned within the esoteric traditions of the ](Jewish ], which were restricted to sages), the influence of ], ] and ]. | |||
| ] 14:45-46, which was written in the second century CE, declares: "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people." This is the first known reference to the ], and the seventy non-canonical texts may have been mystical; the ] suggests other mystical traditions which may have their roots in Second Temple Judaism. | |||
| The Near East was cosmopolitan, especially during the Hellenistic period. Several languages were used, and the matter of the ''lingua franca'' is still subject of some debate. The Jews almost certainly spoke ] among themselves. ] was at least to some extent a trade language in the region, and indeed throughout the entire eastern portion of the Mediterranean. Judaism was rapidly changing, reacting and adapting to a larger political, cultural, and intellectual world, and in turn drawing the interests of non-Jews. | |||
| Historian Shaye Cohen observed: | |||
| :All the Judaisms of the Hellenistic period, of both the diaspora and the land of Israel, were Hellenized, that is, were integral parts of the culture of the ancient world. Some varieties of Judaism were more hellenized than others, but none was an island unto itself. It is a mistake to imagine that the land of Palestine preserved a "pure" form of Judaism and that the diaspora was the home of adulterated or diluted forms of Judaism. The term "Hellenistic Judaism" makes sense, then, only as a chronological indicator for the period from Alexander the Great to the Macabees or perhaps to the Roman conquests of the first century BCE. As a descriptive term for a certain type of Judaism, however, it is meaningless because all the Judaisms of the Hellenistic period were "Hellenistic." (Cohen 1987: 37) | |||
| ====Cultural Struggles with Hellenism==== | |||
| Many Jews lived in the ], and the Judean provinces of Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee were populated by many Gentiles (who often showed an interest in Judaism). Jews had to grapple with the values of ] and Hellenistic philosophy, which were often directly at odds with their own values and traditions. Broadly, Hellenistic culture saw itself as a civilizor, bringing civilized values and ways to peoples they thought of as insular or either backwards or degenerate. | |||
| For example, Greek-style bath houses were built in sight of the Temple in ], for instance, and even in that city the '']'' became a center of social, athletic, and intellectual life. Many Jews, including some of the more aristocratic priests, embraced these institutions, although Jews who did so were often looked down upon due to their ], which Jews saw as the mark of their covenant with God, but which Hellenistic culture viewed as an aesthetic defacement of the body. Consequently, some Jews began to abandon the practice of circumcision (and thus their covenant with God), while others bridled at Greek domination. | |||
| At the same time that Jews were confronting the cultural differences at their door, they had to confront a paradox in their own tradition: their Torah laws applied only to them, but their God, they believed, was the one and only God of all. This situation led to new interpretations of the Torah, some of which were influenced by Hellenic thought and in response to Gentile interest in Judaism. It was in this period that many concepts from early ] entered or influenced Judaism, as well as debates and sects within the religion and culture of the time. | |||
| ====Political Struggles with Hellenism==== | |||
| Generally, the Jews accepted foreign rule when they were only required to pay tribute, and otherwise allowed to govern themselves internally. Nevertheless, Jews were divided between those favoring hellenization and those opposing it, and were divided over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids. When the High Priest Simon II died in ], conflict broke out between supporters of his son Onias III (who opposed hellenization, and favored the Ptolemies) and his son Jason (who favored hellenization, and favored the Seleucids). A period of political intrigue followed, with priests such as Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood, and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title. The result was a brief civil war. | |||
| Huge numbers of Jews flocked to Jason's side, and in ] the Seleucid king ] invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. Jason fled to Egypt, and Antiochus imposed a program of forced hellenization, requiring Jews to abandon their own laws and customs under threat of slaughter. At this point Mattathias and his five sons, John, Eleazar, Simon, Jonathan, and ], priests of the Hasmon family<ref name="Hasmon">Josephus traces the term "Hasmonean" to the great grandfather of Mattathias, known as hasmon.</ref> living in the rural village of Modein (pronounced "Mo-Ah-Dein"), assumed leadership of a bloody and ultimately successful revolt against the Seleucids. | |||
| Judah liberated Jerusalem in ] and restored the Temple. Fighting continued, and Judah and his brother Jonathan were killed. In ] an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the ] dynasty. When Simon was killed in ], his son (and Judah's nephew) ] took his place as high priest and king. | |||
| ===The Hasmonean Period=== | |||
| After defeating the Seleucid forces, John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean<ref name="Hasmon" /> dynasty in ] — thus establishing priests as political as well as religious authorities. Although the Hasmoneans were popularly seen as heroes and leaders for resisting the Seleucids, their reign lacked the religious legitimacy conferred by descent from the Davidic dynasty of the First Temple Era. | |||
| ====The Emergence of the Sadducees, Essenes, and Pharisees==== | |||
| The rift between the priests and the sages grew during the Hellenistic period, when the Jews faced new political and cultural struggles. Around this time the ] party emerged as the party of the priests and allied elites (the name ''Sadducee'' comes from ], the high priest of the first Temple). | |||
| The ] were another early mystical-religious movement, who are believed to have rejected either the Seleucid appointed high priests, or the Hasmonean high priests, as illegitimate. Ultimately, they rejected the Second Temple, arguing that the Essene community was itself the new Temple, and that obedience to the law represented a new form of sacrifice. | |||
| Although their lack of concern for the Second Temple alienated the Essenes from the great mass of Jews, their notion that the sacred could exist outside of the Temple was shared by another group, the ] ("separatists"), based within the community of scribes and sages. The meaning of the name is unclear; it may refer to their rejection of Hellenic culture or to their objection to the Hasmonean monopoly on power. | |||
| During the Hasmonean period, the Sadducees and Pharisees functioned primarily as political parties (the Essenes not being as politically oriented). The political rift between the Sadducees and Pharisees became evident when Pharisees demanded that the Hasmonean king ] choose between being king and being High Priest in the traditional manner. This demand led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees, although at his deathbed the king called for a reconciliation between the two parties. Alexander was succeeded by his widow, whose brother was a leading Pharisee. Upon her death her elder son, ], sought Pharisee support, and her younger son, Aristobulus, sought the support of the Sadducees. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| <references /> | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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