Jesus’s position on Rome could not have started a rebellion during the reign of Tiberius.
Jesus did not take the lead against Pilate for taking money from the Temple for aqueduct building.
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Pharisees can be traced back to an Anti-Hellenism stance. (I’ll tell you why in a later post, or my next post.)
Jesus was intensely against Pharisees.
Well, with resurrection being so important to the New Testament, why couldn’t Jesus win their support ? ? ? ! ! !
The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, whereas the Pharisees did. In Acts, Paul of Tarsus chose this point of division to attempt to gain the protection of the Pharisees (around 59 CE). The Sadducees rejected the notion of spirits or angels, whereas the Pharisees acknowledged them.
Why did Hellenists follow Jesus (although mentioned in Acts, they must have been audience members during gospel times)?
Stoicism was one of the dominant philosophical systems of the Hellenistic period. The name derives from the porch (stoa poikilê) in the Agora at Athens decorated with mural paintings, where the first generation of Stoic philosophers congregated and lectured. The school of thought founded there long outlived the physical Athenian porch and notably enjoyed continued popularity in the Roman period and beyond. This entry introduces the main doctrines and arguments of the three parts of Stoic philosophy – physics, logic, and ethics – emphasizing their interlocking structure. We also review the history of the school, the extant sources for Stoic doctrine, and the Stoics’ subsequent philosophical influence.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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So, to the extent that stoicism and other Hellenistic philosophies are found in the gospels–and since the gospels were written in Greek–the gospel Jesus was not anti-Hellenistic. There is no account of Jesus telling the disciples to get naked and wrestle or let’s go to the gym.
“The guardians of the traditional ways, notably the ultra-pious Hasidim, who were the forerunners of the Pharisees, sought to discourage and repel Hellenizing incursions. But what they dismissed as alien intrusions became attractive to increasing numbers of urban Jews. A split deepened in Judaean society between those who considered Hellenization a welcome, invigorating modernization of Judaism and traditionalists who saw it as destructive of Jewish identity. It was a division roughly comparable to the rift between Reform and Orthodox Jews in modern times.”
Norman Gelb
author of Herod the Great: Statesman, Visionary, Tyrant
Chapter 5: Cultural Divide, p. 99
The gospels were written in Greek.
The gospel of Matthew contains stoic philosophy.
The gospel of John contains platonic philosophy.
The gospel of Mark contain Homeric themes.
The Acts of the Apostles contains Hellenists.
“The guardians of the traditional ways, notably the ultra-pious Hasidim, who were the forerunners of the Pharisees, sought to discourage and repel Hellenizing incursions.
But what they dismissed as alien intrusions became attractive to increasing numbers of urban Jews. A split deepened in Judaean society between those who considered Hellenization a welcome, invigorating modernization of Judaism and traditionalists who saw it as destructive of Jewish identity.”
Norman Gelb, author of Herod the Great: Statesman, Visionary, Tyrant
Chapter 5: Cultural Divide, p. 99
Even though the Pharisees approved of resurrection, Jesus went on a tirade against Pharisees, “brood of vipers.”
Bart, as a response to the Jewish Revolt, the Jesus movement was not rebellious and the gospels show contrary to being rebellious, the Jewish movement of Christianity could assimilate into Greco-Roman culture?
Steve Campbell
author of Historical Accuracy
Submitted to
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It seems there was a constant struggle against Hellenism in the name of Judean identity. The story of the Maccabbees is a prime example. Even though it seems to have been a Judean leaning toward Hellenic worship, The authors blame the Greek leaders. The Maccabees eventually take on Greek names themselves. When Pompey is called in to intervene between two brothers vying for Judean supremacy, he also meets with a third group that some speculate were Pharisees seeking to rule as well.
Russell Gmirkin has yet another book out trying to show Pentateuch dependency on Greek literature, this time using Timaeus to create the God of early Genesis.
While it seems some Judean groups postured themselves as anti-greek, often even those groups were hellenistic at some level. I find the idea of Christianity as “hellenized Judaism” hilarious. The Jewish works we have from the first century CE are written in Greek. Bar Kockba’s letters seek help were written in Greek.
The idea of disentangling Judaism from Greek ideas really finds success in the the later Talmuds.
Adding to the complications are the various pretenders to the throne.
After Antiochus iv Epiphanes disturbed the natural order of events by usurping the Seluecid throne, there were often more than one person who could be dealt with as the Seleucid king. The same thing happened to the Ptolemys to a lesser extent. (To me it seems the Romans had something to do with this, sending their royal hostages out to contest the throne, destabilizing their enemies, but I have never read any studies on that topic.)
John Grainger notes that the greatest extent of the Hasmonean (Maccabean) kingdom was achieved under Alexander Jannaeus, who never won a battle against a foreign military unit. He simply negotiated pieces of land from each of the claimants of the Seluecid and Ptolemy thrones in exchange for loyalty.
There may have even been an invasion led by two claimants to the high priesthood, and Cleopatra Thea’s two generals were grandsons of the Onias iv who fled from Jerusalm and built a temple to YHWH in Leontopolis.
Very complicated.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert