Loading...I often get asked about what Judaism was like in the time before and up to Jesus. It’s a vital question, since whatever else you might want to say about Jesus, he was definitely Jewish and the Judaism he was born into, raised in, and accepted was the Judaism of his time (not medieval and not modern!). Here’ I’ll say something about a major period in the history of the history of Judea over the four hundred years from approximately 540 BCE, when the Persians were in control, up to 63 BCE, when the Romans came in and took over.
I’ve taken the sketch from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction.
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The Later History of Judea
In the Persian period (starting in the late 6th century BCE), the land of Judah came be a province called Judea. This will be its name in the time of the New Testament. So too, as we have seen, inhabitants of this land, and descendants of former inhabitants who maintained their ancestral religious and cultural traditions, were called Judeans, or Jews.
The Persian empire was to last for about two hundred years. In the mid- to late-fourth century, Greece, to the west, rose to prominence, especially under the leadership of Alexander of Macedonia, otherwise known to history as Alexander the Great. We will learn more about Alexander in chapter 9, as, somewhat ironically, his conquests proved to be more important for early Christianity than they were for the Hebrew Bible. Here suffice it to say that Alexander and his armies went on a massive campaign to the east, conquering Egypt and the Levant, and eventually the entire Persian empire, by 330 CE. Eventually they got as far east as the eastern edge of modern day India, before turning back.
Alexander was himself, culturally, Greek (although he was himself from Macedonia). He actually had the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (disciple of Plato, disciple of Socrates) as his private tutor when he was young – he considered Greek culture to be superior to all others. One of his goals was not simply to establish a worldwide empire, but also to
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Do you think it would be accurate to cast this in conservative/progressive terms and say that, ironically, progressive forces in the Roman Empire would co-opt the very conservative Jesus movement, which was trying to “Make Judea Great Again” under a Jewish, messianic leader, to use that movement as a vehicle to spread progressive, Hellenistic culture, by thoroughly Hellenizing the movement into a religion that reflected many Pagan influences?
I don’t think non-believers saw Xty as a way to promote their political and social agendas within the empire, or that it was ever seen as a toold for heightened Hellenization, but rather that Hellenized Romans accepted Xty and then, possibly unknowingly, adapted it to the perspectives they held prior to conversoin.
Typo alert: “Here suffice it to say that Alexander and his armies went on a massive campaign to the east, conquering Egypt and the Levant, and eventually the entire Persian empire, by 330 CE.” (Should be 330 BCE)
Now if I was a fundamentalist I would say “it’s not a mistake” since, well, they did conquer all those lands by 330 CE. 🙂
Typo. Western edge of modern day India.
Scribal corruption of the text….
Has anybody made the case that Daniel was not written at Qumran, or conversely was written at Qumran? I asked Dr Tabor this question and he said that it wasn’t in the style of Qumran. The commentary on Daniel by Carol Newsom made a good case for chapters 1-6 being redacted from documents that were found at Qumran, and that chapters 7-12 were written between 167 and 164 BC. It would have to have been written by an apocalyptical group; Qumran was but not sure about Alexandria which seems like the other likely candidate. The temple scroll and the war scroll of Qumran seem to align with Daniel.
Qumran as the source of Daniel would not have been considered prior to 1950, and I’m wondering if anybody was thinking of anyplace other than Babylon or Persia. I’m looking for books that explore whether Qumran was the source of Daniel.
It is usually thought that Daniel wsa composed prior to the formatoin of the Qumran community; it was almost certainly written while Antiochus Epiphanes was alive, since it predicts that he will soon be kiled. I should think it was written someplace in Israel, in its final form. I haven’t studied Newsom’s argument and so am not able to comment on it.
Bart, I notice that you refer to the Hebrew Bible, rather than the Old Testament. Along the same lines, why isn’t the New Testament referred to as the Greek Bible? I’ve always felt the term New Testament suggests that it’s the “New and Improved” Testament.
I’ve seen the argument that part of the NT is written in Aramaic, so it can’t be called the Greek Bible. But part of the OT is also written in Aramaic, yet it’s called the Hebrew Bible.
The only valid argument I can see is, “It’s not a bible for the Greeks, it’s a bible for us god-fearing Americans.” And I don’t think that’s a valid argument.
But seriously, why not refer to the second part of the Bible as the Greek Bible when speaking non-confessionally?
In part because the Greek Bible also refers to the Christian Old Testament (used by the authors of the New Testament themselves). I’m fine with “Old Testament” when we’re talking about it in the context of Christianity and CHristian use.
Old Testament is God’s covenant with the Jewish folks.
New Testament is … Exactly what is the New Covenant?
In Shanghai, an effective former missionary preacher said the Bible is written by men 20 years ago to me.
wow! transporting me to another era!
The new covenant in early Christianity is the new arrangement that God has made to save his people through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Dr Ehrman, this is fascinating! Is The Maccabees that are found in the apocryphal text of the nrsv reliable source text? I ask because when you started talking about the maccabean Revolt here in this article I recall this information from I think First Maccabees
1 Maccabees in particular is considered largely historical.
The family martyrdom story in 2 Maccabees is fascinating!
And haunting.