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1.
Political-Social
Background of Palestinian Judaism
Alexander
Diadochoi
Maccabeans
Herods
Provinces
Languages
The following material draws from several sources:
Bruce, Frederick F.
New Testament History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980
(1969).
Metzger, Bruce M. The New Testament: Its Background,
Growth, and Content. 3rd ed. Nashville: Abingdon,
2003.
Ferguson, Everett.
Backgrounds of Early Christianity.
2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.
Roetzel, Calvin J.
The World That Shaped The New Testament.
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002. |
Alexander the Great
After defeat and exile by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar,
in 597 and 587 BC, the Judeans are officially freed from their
exile in 538 by Cyrus, king of the Medo-Persians. Though the
Persians maintain sovereignty over Judea, he permits those who
so desire to return to their homeland in 538 BC. The temple is
rebuilt around 516 BC, and the city walls of Jerusalem are
rebuilt around 445 BC.
Cyrus' son, Cambyses adds Egypt to his realms. The third
king, Darius, consolidates and expands the empire, too, so that
the Bible says his son, 'Xerxes ... ruled over one hundred
and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia' (Est
1.1).
After a rebellion by the Greek cities of western Asia Minor, in
which their cousins on the Greek mainland colluded, Darius
decides to punish and annex Greece, or Hellas as it was known.
But his army is defeated at Marathon, near Athens in 490 BC.
Xerxes also tries to subdue Hellas in 480 BC, but this time his
navy is repulsed at Salamis, near Athens.
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Through the next century and a half the vigor of Persia
gradually wanes, while the Greek city states flourish, but then
wear themselves out in murderous rivalry. By the mid fourth
century they begin to fall under the sway of Macedonia, whose
king, Philip II, has forged his rustic countrymen into the most
cohesive fighting force (the Phalanx) the world has seen
till that time. Philip nurses dreams of invading Persia in
repayment of the suffering they had caused the Hellenes in the
past, but he is assassinated before he can act. His son,
Alexander, however, inherits his dream and his military prowess.
It was Alexander who had fearlessly led the Macedonian cavalry
in his father's defeat of the Greeks at Chaeronea in 338 BC.
In 334 Alexander crosses the Hellespont and defeats the Persian
satraps at Granicus. After campaigning through Asia Minor,
he meets Darius' far superior force at Issus and defeats him in
333. He then 'liberates' Egypt before returning up to
Mesopotamia, where he again defeats Darius' numerically superior
force at Gaugamela, in 331. Taking Babylon, Susa and
Persepolis, he grabs the wealth of the Persian Empire, and
spends several years, first hunting down Darius, and then
subduing the north-eastern part of his new empire all the way up
into the high country of modern Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
In 326 we find Alexander winning pitched battles in India, but
his Macedonians are now weary and homesick, and he is forced to
turn back toward home. The march through the Gedrosian
desert back to Babylon costs him more men than any battle had
done. And in Babylon, in 323 BC, Alexander succumbs to
drink or disease and dies. His half brother, Arridaeus is
mentally incompetent, his Bactrian wife, Roxane, is only just
now carrying his unborn son. Neither, of course, can meet
the urgent need for strong unifying leadership.
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Prominent Diadochoi (Successors)
Alexander’s commanders immediately begin to vie over who will
succeed
him as King.
1. Antipater and his son, Cassander, initially rule Macedonia, but
disappear from the scene by the end of the century, leaving no
dynasty.
2. Lysimachus lasts the whole generation in Thrace, the
Hellespont, Asia Minor and Macedonia, but leaves no dynasty after
his own death.
3. Antigonus, at first a power in Asia with his son, Demetrius, is
defeated and killed by his rivals at Ipsus in 301 BC, after which
Demetrius and his son Antigonus Gonatus become a dynasty
(Antigonids) in Macedonia until the Romans overthrow them.
4. Ptolemy establishes a dynasty (Ptolemies) in Egypt lasting into
the Roman era. It is
centered in Alexandria, cultural center of the Hellenistic lands.
Here, the Jews become cosmopolitan Hellenists as much as their
ancestral traditions will allow. Their Hebrew Bible is
translated into Greek (Septuagint, LXX), devotional
literature is written in Greek rather than Aramaic/Hebrew, and
Jewish thinkers begin to adapt their distinctive religious outlook
to the thought forms of Hellenistic philosophy. Cleopatra,
the famous lover of Julius Caesar then Mark Anthony, is the last
of this dynasty.
5. Seleucus establishes a dynasty (Seleucids) in
Asia/Mesopotamia/Syria, eventually centered in Antioch, also
lasting into the Roman era. Antiochus III restores and expands
this empire to include Palestine by 198 BC, but also provokes the
Romans by crossing into Greece. They severely curtail Seleucid ambitions, soundly defeating
them at Magnesia in 190 BC, and subjecting them to a huge
indemnity in 188 BC.
These last three are the enduring dynasties of the Diadochoi.
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Judea, in a somewhat familiar scenario, is caught between
Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Mesopotamia/Syria, subject first to
the relatively benign Ptolemies (3rd
C. BC),
then to the malignant, overbearing and cash-hungry Seleucids
(first half of 2nd C. BC). Under the Ptolemies and Seleucids
large numbers of Greeks immigrate into the cities of Egypt,
Palestine, Syria and Cilicia. The Jews in their hill
country feel surrounded by a sea of Greeks (non-Jews came to be
so called, cf. Paul's letters). Additionally, many Jews
are encouraged or sometimes coerced to settle in regions and
lands throughout the central and eastern Mediterranean, as they
had already done in the near eastern interior under previous
imperial regimes, e.g. Assyria, Babylonia and Persia.
These Jews of the Dispersion, for the most part, are much more
at home among the Greeks than their homeland brethren, who tend
to feel more threatened by such intrusion. We see this
same tension still in the New Testament accounts. Under
the Ptolemies, the Jews in Palestine are already experiencing
what it is to be a self governing Hellenistic client state, as
they would later be again under the Romans, policing their own
people and collecting taxes for themselves and their patrons.
168 BC is a key year to remember. In this year, within the
space of one week in late June, the Romans decisively defeat
Antigonid Macedonia at Pydna, and step into the war between
Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt to protect the Ptolemies by
ordering Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler out of
Egypt. Antiochus' subsequent plunder and oppression of the
Jewish temple state leads to the Maccabean Revolt.
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Maccabean/Hasmonaean Dynasty
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After Mattathias' death Judas continues the guerilla war against
the Seleucid forces till his death in 160 BC. After him,
first Jonathan (160-142), then Simon (142-135), are increasingly
drawn into playing rival claimants to the Seleucid throne off
against each other, and accepting the title of High Priest from
them. Judea becomes officially independent in 142 BC, and
Simon's family is declared, 'High Priest in perpetuity until
a trustworthy prophet shall arise.' That this title should
be given to a non-Zadokite family is a source of deep revulsion
to some of those devout Hasideans who had previously fought
alongside the Maccabees (1 Macc 2.44).
After a brief period when the Seleucids sought to reestablish
control, John Hyrcanus (135-104) begins to aggressively expand
the borders of Judea, annexing and forcibly converting the
Idumeans, and annexing (but not converting) the Samaritans. His
son, Aristobulus I (104-103), conquers and annexes Galilee in
his one year rule. He also assumes the title, 'king.'
If the Maccabees/Hasmonaeans arrogating the title High Priest to
themselves had been deeply offensive, this is even more so, for
that title properly belongs to the sons of David alone.
The Hasmonaeans are becoming more and more like the very
Seleucids they had so vehemently rejected! The sectarian
and political divisions we find in the New Testament can be
traced to this period.
Aristobulus' widow, Salome Alexandra then marries his older
brother, Alexander Jannaeus (104-76), who assumes the throne and
rules corruptly and despotically. So alienated are the
devout that they ally themselves with a Seleucid king to
overthrow Jannaeus, but at the last moment they cannot bear to
see the Gentiles enter Jerusalem in triumph, and Jannaeus
survives. He shows his gratitude by having 800 Pharisees
crucified while their wives and children are slaughtered in
front of them.
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After his death, Salome Alexander rules as Queen in her own
right, with her very mild tempered son, Hyrcanus II as High
Priest. She rehabilitates and favors the Pharisees.
But at her death another, more aggressive son, Aristobulus II
challenges his mild brother, whose claim and forces are
sustained by the leadership of an Idumean soldier politician,
Antipater, and his sons, Herod (to be the Great) and Phasael.
After four years of civil war, both parties invite Pompey, the
general who has just subdued the north-eastern Mediterranean
basin for Rome, to mediate their dispute. Pompey decides
for Hyrcanus II, but when Aristobulus II refuses to accept the
verdict, Pompey storms the Temple and annexes Judea, installing
Hyrcanus as High Priest and ethnarch, but later giving civil
jurisdiction to Antipater and his sons.
Antipater, to his death by poison in 43 BC, and his sons after
him, manage to switch allegiance to every successive leader on
the rapidly changing scene of the Roman civil wars (Pompey,
Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Octavian/ Augustus). In 40 BC the
Parthians, the perennial threat to Rome's eastern flank, invade
and install their own puppet High Priest and ruler, Antigonus,
son of Aristobulus. Phasael chooses suicide over torture,
and Herod flees to Rome, where the Senate declares him rightful
'king of the Jews.'
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Herodian Dynasty
(actual rulers in bold)
It takes Herod three years and Roman military aid to secure his
realm, which he then rules jealously, having even wives and sons
executed on suspicion of treason. Augustus is alleged to
have wryly played on Greek terminology, when he observes that he
'would rather be Herod's pig (hus) than his son (huios).'
For all his inability to win over the Jews (he is after all an
Idumean), Herod is an able soldier and administrator, who
shrewdly manages to navigate the treacherous waters of Roman and
Jewish politics, and is well trusted by the Romans as a seasoned
client king of a border state on their flank. Apart from
his paranoia, his main claim to fame is as a patron and builder
of elegant public edifices, in various cultural centers of the
east, although the most well known is the Temple in Jerusalem.
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Vacillating on the succession until days before his death, Herod
has his older son, Antipater executed, and divides his kingdom
between Archelaus (to be king of Judea), Antipas (to be tetrarch
of Galilee and Perea), and Philip (to be tetrarch of a north
eastern area that includes Gaulanitis, Batanaea, Trachonitis,
and Auranitis. While the brothers are in Rome pleading their own
worthiness and attacking each other's, there is a major uprising
in Judea, brutally put down by Roman Legions from Syria,
something which lingers in the people's memory. When
Augustus ratifies the will, he allows Archelaus only the title,
ethnarch.
Archelaus is soon impeached by his subjects, and Augustus
deposes and banishes him to Gaul in AD 6. Antipas (whom
Jesus calls 'fox' [Lk 13.32]) rules long and cannily, but when
he seeks the title, 'king,' his nephew, Agrippa I, accuses him
behind his back of treason, and Augustus banishes him, too, in
AD 39. Philip alone of Herod's sons is appreciated by his
masters and subjects alike. At his death in AD 34, his
territories are briefly annexed to Syria, before being restored
to Agrippa I, who also receives Antipas' former realms. In AD 41
he receives Judea itself, so that he rules over the whole realm
of his grandfather, Herod the Great. But not for long.
In AD 44 he dies in great agony, which Acts 12.23 attributes to
his arrogance in persecuting the Apostles.
The whole of Palestine reverts to Roman governorship, until his
son, Agrippa II is of age to assume the rule of first Philip's
former realm (AD 53), then of Antipas former realm (AD 56/61).
Since by this time Judea is becoming restive, it remains under
direct Roman rule.
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Facing impoverishment from taxation by both their own temple
state and Roman agents, the people are increasingly susceptible
to the call to revolt. An unwise provocation by the Roman
Governor, Florus, in AD 66, lights the flames of rebellion,
which are not finally extinguished until the destruction of the
Temple in AD 70, and the annihilation of the Zealots at Masada
in AD 74. Vespasian, who began the crushing of the
rebellion is called away to Rome in 69 to eventually claim the
imperial throne. His son, Titus, completes the destruction
and subjugation. Palestine is reorganized as the province of
Palaestina, governed by a Legate who rules from Caesarea.
Pharisaic Jewish rabbis regroup at Jamnia, and provide a base
around which post-Temple Judaism is able to coalesce. In
AD 132 there is one last revolt against Roman domination, under
a 'messiah,' Simon bar Koseba. This is a particularly
bitter and nasty guerilla war, which ends in the banishment of
Jews, under pain of death, from Jerusalem. There will be
no Jewish state again until AD 1948.
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The Roman Provincial System
The Romans manage to achieve what Alexander had only dreamed of:
the uniting of various nationalities and ethnicities into an
effective imperial identity. The original Roman Empire
endured for half a millennium. The idea of it captured
allegiance for another millennium and a half after that: in the
east as Byzantium until 1453; in the west as the Holy Roman
Empire, which actually survived, at least nominally, into the
early twentieth century. Metzger says that, 'The secret of
Rome's success where others had failed lay in its wise provision
for differing kinds of local provision and control' (36).
In 27 BC the Emperor Augustus had reorganized the existing
provinces into two kinds:
1.
Senatorial Provinces: these are the older, established and
tranquil provinces of the empire, where there is little threat of
revolt or invasion, and where the main responsibilities will be
administrative and fiscal, carried out by appointees under the
supervision of the Senate.
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2.
Imperial Provinces: these are the newer, frontier lands,
where there is a threat of rebellion within, or invasion from
outside. These provinces will require military, as well as
administrative and fiscal oversight, and are under the direct
supervision of the emperor and his appointees. There are also
two categories of imperial provinces:
a.
Larger Imperial Provinces: these are ruled by a Legate
(Legatus), usually a military governor, the commander of legions
stationed in his province, as well as chief magistrate.
Under him is a Procurator for conducting the fiscal affairs of
the province. Syria is such a large imperial province.
b.
Smaller Imperial Provinces: these are ruled by a
governor, who bears the title Prefect (Praefectus, e.g. Pontius
Pilate) or Procurator. After the dismissal of Archelaus,
Judea is organized into such a province, a division of the
larger province of Syria. While the Prefect/Procurator of
Judea is supreme in his province, the Legate of Syria has a
certain amount of military and administrative oversight in times
of emergency, e.g. uprisings.
3.
Client States: But, as well as provinces organized under
direct rule from Rome through appointed officials, the Romans
are shrewd enough to allow some states, especially where there
are peculiar historical, cultural or religious circumstances, to
rule their own affairs under native client rulers. Judea
is this kind of client kingdom under Herod the Great.
When, as under Archelaus, things get out of hand, the Romans
will step in to assume direct rule, and if things settle down
enough, will relinquish it again, as under Agrippa I.
Judea, however proved to be a particularly troublesome case.
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The Languages Current in Palestine
One might hear any one of three or four languages spoken in
Palestine:
1.
Aramaic: this is the mother tongue of the great majority
of Jewish inhabitants of Palestine. It is the Semitic language
of southwestern Asia, including Syria (Aram) and Mesopotamia.
It has become the first language to the Jews during their exile
in Babylon, just as Greek has to those Jews of the Dispersion in
Hellenistic lands and cities like Alexandria. There are
several regional dialects of Aramaic current in Hellenistic
Palestine.
2.
Greek: this is the lingua franca or koiné of the
Hellenistic world, including the Roman Empire. It is used in
commerce and culture throughout the empire, especially the east.
Aramaic speaking Jews who had any relations with their
Hellenistic neighbors know Greek.
3.
Latin: this is the official language of a foreign
administration and its soldiers and bureaucrats, known to few
outside the cities where their military and administrative
centers lay.
4.
Hebrew: by the first century this is seldom heard outside
the walls of the synagogues and schools.
Most likely, Jesus spoke Aramaic as his first tongue, but also
spoke some Greek, read Hebrew, and probably understood some
Latin.
Go to 2. Cultural & Religious Background
of Palestinian Judaism
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