User:Pedant/CaHBJv1
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Version notes: copied existing article, applied Grutter's overview & substituted compromise Messiah section. Two passes attempting to apply consensus votes, excised paragraph from "After Jesus" section as per discussion (but no specific vote) to keep on article time frame. Probably some consensus votes this version is not in compliance with as I did this in a bit of a hurry. Edit notes commented in text.
Unable to comply with vote regarding "at the time" vs. "at the time of Jesus/Christ" at #Political_life Paragraph 1 sentence #1, and Paragraph 2 sentence #5 without sentence edits - untouched at this time.
[edit] Article
A series of articles on |
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Jesus Christ and Christianity |
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Non-religious aspects |
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Perspectives on Jesus |
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Jesus in culture |
The main record of the life of Jesus are the Gospels, in the Christian New Testament. These sources place Jesus in what became Roman Palestine (modern Israel and Palestine) during the early 1st century. The article Historicity of Jesus covers debates regarding the existence of Jesus, but if so then it is agreed by most Christians and academics who hold this view that it is necessary to understand the cultural and historical background in which Jesus is thought to have lived.
This was a volatile period marked by cultural and political dilemmas. Out of the Roman occupation of Palestine sprang two of the modern world's religions: Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
[edit] Culture
Culturally, Jews had to grapple with the values of Hellenism and Hellenistic philosophy, which threatened to replace the traditions handed down from the past. Bath houses were built in Jerusalem, for instance. Most Jews tended to accept the good that came from their various conquerors (they were in succession dominated by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans), but many yearned for freedom from foreign domination.
Moreover, as many Jews lived in the Diaspora, and Roman Palestine itself was populated by many Gentiles, Jews had to confront a paradox in their own tradition: their Torah applied only to them, but revealed universal truths. This situation led to new interpretations of the Torah, influenced by Hellenic thought and in response to Gentile interest in Judaism.
Several languages were used in Palestine at the time, 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 Palestine, and indeed in the entire eastern portion of the Roman empire. Pontius Pilate, as a Roman from Rome, would most likely have spoken Latin privately with his wife, but would probably have used Greek to handle day to day business in the province, though it is also possible (though perhaps improbable given his character) that he used Aramaic for this. Scholars debate whether Jesus himself spoke any other languages than Aramaic. In favor of his knowing at least some Greek is the notation in the Gospels that he worked as a carpenter. In a wood-poor land such as Galilee, he would have had to deal with caravans from the wider Middle-East in order to obtain the raw materials for his work.
[edit] Political life
At the time of Jesus' birth, Palestine was ruled by King Herod the Great in the name of the Romans. An Idumean by birth, his rule was marked by alternating acts of cruelty and kindness toward his people. It was he who funded the rebuilding of the Second Temple. At the same time, he built up the city of Caesarea on the coast to be a model Roman city, complete with pagan temples. Several stories of Herod's cruelty have reached us via Josephus, and the Gospel of Matthew adds the incident of the massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem. As a result, Herod was very unpopular.
After Herod's death, the regions of Palestine were combined under the rulership of a temporary procurator, Varus, who quelled rioting by putting thousands of Jews to death by crucifixion. After Varus, the territory was divided among Herod's sons: the southern part of the territory (Judea and Samaria) was given to Archelaus, who ruled under the title of ethnarch, while Herod Antipas received Galilee and the southern transJordan territories and Philip received the northern Transjordan. Archelaus antagonized the Jews as his father had, and in 6 a delegation was sent to Rome to request his removal. Augustus acceded to the demand by combining Judea and Samaria into the province of Palestina, under the rule of a line of Roman procurators, beginning with Coponius (6 - 9). At the time of Jesus' public ministry and death, the procurator was Pontius Pilate, who ruled from 26 to 36.
Pilate's administration was marked by many antagonistic actions toward the Jews. Some have suggested that this was at the behest of Sejanus, who held was the strong man in Rome during much of Pilate's career. Sejanus certainly had an anti-Jewish cast to his politics. Sejanus died in 32, and Tiberius repealed most of the anti-Jewish policies instituted by Sejanus. Pilate was finally recalled to Rome for his excessive cruelty, at which point he vanished from proven historical sources.
Most Jews were desperately poor and resented having to pay tribute to Rome. Although Jews were relatively autonomous, ruled by a Jewish high priest and tetrarch, these officials were appointed by Rome and thus had questionable legitimacy.
[edit] Religious factions
During this time the religion of the Jews centered on the Temple in Jerusalem, but no particular form of Judaism was established as the predominant and correct one. Several movements arose among the leading Jews, with various opinions on the issues of the day. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were the most important, followed by the Essenes and the Zealots. Most Jews, of course, did not belong to any faction, but were more or less affected by the preaching of the various groups.
[edit] Sadducees
The Sadducees were primarily composed of aristocrats and priests and occupied most of the important posts in what self-government the Jews were permitted under the Romans. The Sanhedrin was largely, though not exclusively, populated by Sadducees. They tended to be disliked by the common people, partially because of their "collaboration" in the Roman occupation.
Religious beliefs of the Sadducees stressed the Hebrew Bible as the sole source of moral obligations. They rejected later doctrines such as the afterlife, angels, demons, and direct intervention of God in human history. When these traits were taken to the extreme, there was the danger of falling into skepticism.
The office of high priest was theoretically a life-long post. However, the Romans regularly deposed the high priests to make way for new leadership. Due to the manipulations of Annas, however, the temple remained in control of one family for most of Jesus' life. Annas was high priest from 7-11. His son-in-law Caiaphas was high priest from 18-22 and 24-36. His sons Eleazar (23-24), Jonathas (37), Theophilos (38-42), Matthias (42-44) and Ananias (63) all became high priests. The Gospel of John reports a separate trial of Jesus before Annas, perhaps because many considered him to be the legitimate high priest.
Jesus, as a believing Jew, had great devotion to the temple. Most of his preaching in Jerusalem was carried out in the temple precincts. The Gospels report that his family made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem every year. Jews were required to offer sacrifices at the Temple three times a year: Passover, Sukkot, and Shavuot. Due to the large distances involved, many Jews did not complete all of these pilgrimages, though most attempted to do so.
[edit] Pharisees
The groups of "scribes" and "lawyers" mentioned in the Bible come largely from the ranks of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, along with most of the people, resented Roman rule, but at the time of Jesus, they were not overtly political.
Pharisees accepted the various instructions and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible as binding, as well as many traditions that remained unwritten. Furthermore, they accepted many new doctrines, such as the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, angels and demons. The Pharisees taught further that a Messiah was coming, who would unite the people under one rule. Most held that this Messiah would be raised up by a direct act of God, so they did not preach revolt against the Romans. If their various beliefs were taken to extremes, there was the danger of entering into extreme fanaticism and legalism, even entering into hypocrisy.
Many of Jesus' teachings coincided with the Pharisees, but the New Testament reports many disagreements with them. Most scholars believe that these were created by the evangelists and reflect more the situation between Christians and Jews after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, when Pharisaism emerged as the hegemonic form of Judaism. Jesus' primary complaint against the Pharisees in the Gospels is their hypocrisy, which Jews today consider an unfounded slander.
[edit] Essenes
The third group, the Essenes, is never mentioned in the Bible. They were an ascetic group, including many members from the priestly classes. They lived in small communities in isolation from the social life of the Jewish people. They too awaited the Messiah and sought to purify themselves for his coming. When the Romans under Titus came to destroy Jerusalem, they carefully sealed their writings into clay jars hidden in caves. These writings, which were discovered at Qumran between 1947 and 1956, are called the Dead Sea scrolls.
The Essenes practised a sort of ritual bath, which has led many commentators to suggest that John the Baptist was a member of the Essenes, or at least had significant contact with them. A few have suggested that Jesus himself was an Essene.
[edit] Zealots
The Zealots sought political freedom from the Romans through exercise of military force. The uprisings of 67 AD that led up to the destruction of the temple in 70 were under the leadership of the Zealots. It is still debated whether the Zealots were an active political force at the time of Jesus. No record exists narrating organized uprisings among the Jews of this time, though some of Pilate's acts against the Jews could well be in answer to seditious behavior. One of Jesus' Apostles, Simon, is given the attribute "the Zealot" in the Gospel of Luke. This may indicate membership (or former or later membership) in that party, or simply be a statement that he was full of zeal in the literal sense.
[edit] Messiahs
In Judaism, "Messiah" means "annointed one", the symbol of high office. (See: Messiah) Two officers were annointed this way - the High Priest and the King of the Jews. Under the Roman occupation many Jews hoped for a messiah who would replace the Romans. A common belief for many Jews was that God governed their destiny, and the Roman conquest was a divine act which would only be changed by further divine intervention.
In this environment, individuals claiming to speak for God, in the prophetic tradition of Isaiah and Jeremiah, or claiming to be able to heal people, in the prophetic tradition of Elisha, developed followings who believed their leaders to be messiahs. Some of these groups, including those following Jesus, added the concept of a godhead, a unique being who would save them in the sense of salvation, and by "Messiah" it was this role to which they referred. Even though this was not a part of the Judaic tradition of the time, they connected some Jewish prophecies with their "Messiah" which were not generally associated with the term in Jewish thought at that time.
A few of the messianic organizations would develop into religions which continue to this day such as the Mandaeans, who believe John the Baptist is the single messiah, and most faiths of Christianity, who believe Jesus is the single messiah. But the majority of the messianic groups disappeared quickly, or were obliterated after the uprising of 67.
[edit] Jesus and the religious groups
Jesus seems not to have belonged to any particular party; Jesus was special (perhaps even unique) in combining elements of many of these different – and for most Jews, opposing – positions. Most academics and skeptics see Jesus as working in the prophetic tradition, both as a mouthpiece for God and as an itinerant healer. However, many of his teachings echoed the beliefs of the Qumran community (which was probably a branch of the Essenes); he may have engaged the Pharisees on matters of Jewish law; and his declarations that the kingdom was at hand echoed the Zealots. Many scholars argue that it is more likely that, like most Jews, Jesus believed that the restoration of the monarchy would be accomplished by God, not by any movement of Jews. However, he did believe that this restoration was imminent. Jesus was enigmatic at best about his claim to actually be the presumptive monarch. That he speaks of twelve disciples is probably symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel, and thus a metaphor for "all Israel".
Talk of a restoration of the monarchy was seditious under Roman occupation, and Jesus entered Jerusalem at an especially risky time. Although most Jews did not have the means to travel to Jerusalem for every holiday, virtually all tried to comply with these laws as best they could. Thus, during these festivals, such as the Passover, when Jesus came to Jerusalem, the population swelled – and outbreaks of violence and riots were common. Critical scholars argue that the high priest feared that Jesus' talk of an imminent restoration of an independent Jewish state would likely spark a riot. As maintaining the peace was one of the primary jobs of the high priest, whom the Romans held personally responsible for any major outbreak of violence, he had Jesus arrested and turned him over to the Romans for execution.
[edit] After Jesus
Originally the intent was to preach to the Jews. Some but not all requirements were removed, as it was felt that the new emphasis was on faith and not detailed laws. Thus there were 'Jewish Christians', Jews who believed in Christ Messiah. When the Jews as a community rejected this, the Christian message was taken to the gentiles instead. To make it palatable, and draw a line separating them from the Jews (who were by now becoming politically dangerous associates) many more of the restrictive laws were removed and the emphasis was shifted. The mesage that reached the gentiles was therefore a more universal one, in the sense that it was easier to digest, its appeal was more emotional than legalistic, and it did not contain many of the practices beliefs and rituals by which the Jews kept themselves separate from others.
