History of ancient Israel and Judah (1000-63 BCE)
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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.
This article covers the First Temple Era (c. 1000 BCE) to the capture of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire (63 BCE), see also Iudaea Province.
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[edit] First Temple Era
The ancient land of Israel (also called the land of Canaan, Palestine and Judea and Samaria) is situated on the easternmost coast of the Mediterranean, the westernmost part of the Fertile Crescent. Historically a crossroads for intercontinental trade, it was situated between the ancient empires of Egypt to the south, Greece and later Rome to the northwest, and Assyria, Babylonia, and later Persia to the east. The settlement of this area by various groups, including Canaanites and Phoenecians, and the origins of the ancient Israelites is a complex and much-debated topic; see History of ancient Israel and Judah. 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 Jews 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 Temple in Jerusalem, laws and values embodied in sacred scriptures, the restoration of a monarchy, Jewish sovereignty, and the Kingdom of God. These institutions and issues had their origins some centuries earlier, around 1000-586 BCE, in the so-called "First Temple Era".[1]
[edit] 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 (Kohens) claimed descent from Aaron of the tribe of Levi, who was believed to have been appointed by God to care for the Tabernacle and perform the priestly rituals. During the First Temple Era the priests were limited to their work in the Temple; political power officially rested in the hands of a king who was believed to rule by divine right.
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 Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, although the tribe of Judah anointed Saul's protegeé and son-in-law, David as their own king after Saul's and his son's death in the battle with the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:2-10; 2 Samuel 2:4). After David reigned over Judah seven years and six months, he became king of all the tribes of Israel for thirty-three years (2 Samuel 5:1-5).
According to the Hebrew Bible, God told the prophet Nathan 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 son of God; 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. Geza Vermes 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 First Temple was constructed, around 950 BCE, when the high priest Zadok anointed David's son Solomon 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 Kingdom of Israel, which was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE in the North, and the Kingdom of Judah (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 Babylonians in 586 BCE, when most Jews were forced into exile.
[edit] 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 redacted into the Torah), which they believed were written by prophets under divine inspiration, or dictated by God himself.
In addition to being lawgivers and social reformers, 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 redacted into the Tanakh in the Second Temple Era). In the south (the kingdom of Judah, or Judea), the tradition was epitomized by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, who primarily addressed issues of collective (national or communal) concern. In the north (the kingdom of Israel), it was epitomized by Elijah and Elisha, 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 Elijah and Elisha) 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 "Gad the prophet" was David's "visionary" just as Nathan served Solomon as prophet and Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun 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.
[edit] Second Temple Era
[edit] The Persian Period
In 539 BCE the Persians conquered Babylon and in 537 BCE, inaugurated the Persian period of Jewish history. In 520 BCE Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple (completed 515 BCE). He appointed Zerubbabel (the grandson of the second to last Judean king, Jehoiachin) governor, but did not allow the restoration of the kingdom. The influence of Zoroastrianism 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 Second Temple 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 Documentary Hypothesis, the final redaction of the Torah as well. Although the priests controlled the monarchy and the Temple, scribes and sages (who later became the rabbis) monopolized the study of the Torah, which (starting from the time of Ezra) 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."
[edit] The Hellenistic Period
The Hellenistic period of Jewish history began in 332 BCE when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. Upon his death in 323 BCE, his empire was divided among his generals. At first, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies, but in 198 BCE,the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire, under Antiochus III, seized control over Judea.
The Hellenistic Period saw the canonization of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and the emergence of extra-Biblical sacred traditions. The earliest evidence of a Jewish mysticism tradition surrounds the book of Ezekiel, written during the Babylonian Exile. Virtually all known mystical texts, however, were written at the end of the Second Temple period. Scholars like Gershom Scholom have discerned within the esoteric traditions of the Kabbalah(Jewish Mysticism, which were restricted to sages), the influence of Persian beliefs, Platonic philosophy and Gnosticism.
2 Esdras 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 canonized Hebrew Bible, and the seventy non-canonical texts may have been mystical; the Talmud 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 Aramaic among themselves. Greek 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)
[edit] Cultural Struggles with Hellenism
Many Jews lived in the Diaspora, 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 Hellenism 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 Jerusalem, for instance, and even in that city the gymnasium 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 circumcision, which Jews saw as the mark of their covenant with God, but which Gentiles 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 Greek philosophy entered or influenced Judaism, as well as debates and sects within the religion and culture of the time.
[edit] 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 175 BCE, 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 167 BCE the Seleucid king Antiochus IV 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 Judah Maccabee, priests of the Hasmon family[2] 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 165 BCE and restored the Temple. Fighting continued, and Judah and his brother Jonathan were killed. In 141 BCE an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty. When Simon was killed in 135 BCE, his son (and Judah's nephew) John Hyrcanus took his place as high priest and king.
[edit] The Hasmonean Period
After defeating the Seleucid forces, John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean[2] dynasty in 152 BCE — 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.
[edit] 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 Sadducee party emerged as the party of the priests and allied elites (the name Sadducee comes from Zadok, the high priest of the first Temple).
The Essenes 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 Pharisees ("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 Alexander Jannai 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, Hyrcanus, sought Pharisee support, and her younger son, Aristobulus, sought the support of the Sadducees.
