Chapter 24 Faith Confronting New Challenges

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Chapter 24Faith Confronting New Challenges

• Elizabeth Frimel

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Greece

• Persia kept city states at odds by offering
  bribes to one city state against another
• 459-404B.C.
• Wars b/w Athens and Sparta
• Cultural life of Athens flourishes
• The time of Sophocles and Socrates

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Greece Continued.

• Many Greeks were great soldiers and often fought
  as mercenary troops for Persia
• Greek city states formed a military league
• Made successful by Philip of Macedonia
• 338 B.C. Philip expanded his power through the
  league and forced Greeks to accept him as the
  head of the national league
• 336 B.C he was assassinated and Alexander became
  King

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Alexander the Great

• Had a love of Greek culture and wanted to
  transform the East
• 334 B.C. he began the war with Persia
• Defeated Persia in three battles in three years
• By 326 B.C his empire consisted of Greece,
  Macedonia, and the entire Persian Empire
• In 323 B.C., he died of a fever in Babylon

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After the Death of Alexander

• His Generals divided his empire into 4 parts
• Lysimachus Thrace
• Cassander Macedon and Greece
• Antigonus and Seleucus Syria and the East
• Ptolemy Egypt and Palestine
• Ptolemies and Seleucid kings continually fought
  for territories in Palestine

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The Achievements of Alexander

• Declared Pharaoh in Egypt
• King of Babylon
• Established Greek as the common language for
  communication
• Built harbors for commerce
• Replaced Persian money with Greek money

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Hellenistic Culture

• Hellenism- the love of things Greek
• Alexanders policies established practices to
  turn Jewish way of life more towards a
  hellenistic culture
• Towns established with temples for foreign gods
• Promoted taxation to foster trade with Greek
  cities in the West
• Promoted Greek knowledge, that stressed
  scientific and philosophical knowledge were
  better than the Israelite way of thinking
• Sometimes forced marriages between Greek soldiers
  and the local girls of conquered lands
• These policies created a great tension between
  those who believed in a future under Hellenistic
  culture and those who resisted it as pagan and
  unfaithful to Israelite faith (496).

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The Hellenistic Period and the Old Testament

• The Book of Wisdom uses Greek words and ideas
• Allowed other cultures to influence Old Testament
  writing, especially oriental ideas
• Apocalyptic writing, concepts of heaven and hell,
  and positive views of the afterlife
• Gave rise to books in the Old Testament that
  resembled short novels
• The Books of Esther, Judith, Ruth, and Tobit

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The Book of Esther

• Setting Persian period under Xerxes who ruled
  from 486 B.C. to 465 B.C.
• Who Esther, a beautiful young Jewish maiden
  chosen to be Xerxes queen
• What
• Esthers guardian does not show the Prime
  Minister the appropriate sign of respect
• The Prime Minster, Haman, convinces the King to
  destroy all of the Jewish people in a day of
  slaughter b/c they do not obey Persian practices
• Esther changes the Kings mind
• The Feast of Purim is established

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Purpose of Esther

• Gives the reason for the Feast of Purim
• Delivers a message to the Jewish people
• Keep separate from pagan practices and pagan
  governments
• Defend their faith

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Characteristics of the Book of Esther

• The spirit of vengeance is seen throughout the
  book
• God is never directly mentioned

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The Book of Judith

• Setting A small hill town of Judah
• Who Judith, a heroic widow
• The Story
• Nebuchadnezzar and the Assyrian army are getting
  ready to invade the land after the exile
• Judith fools the General of the army, Holofernus,
  into thinking she wants to sleep with him
• She gets him drunk and then beheads him and the
  Assyrian army becomes headless

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The Message of Judith

• God will give even a woman enough strength to
  defeat armies if trust is placed in Him
• The main message is that having faith in the Lord
  will lead to salvation

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The Book of Ruth

• Who Ruth, a heroin and ancestor of David
• The story
• Naomi marries a Moabite man and has two sons
• Her husband and two sons die, so she decides to
  return to her homeland in Israel
• Ruth, one of her daughter-in-laws, decides to go
  with her and serve her
• Ruth meets Boaz, a leading figure in Naomis
  town, and they marry
• From the marriage, the House of David arises

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The Message of Ruth

• The story shows filial respect
• Reveals that faith is most important
• It does not matter if one is Jewish or a Gentile

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Interesting Facts about the Book of Ruth

• It begins once upon a time
• This shows that it was written long after the
  period of the Judges
• It is an allegory
• Ruth companion
• Boaz strength
• Orpah disloyal

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The Book of Tobit

• The Story
• Tobit performs acts required by Jewish law, but
  are banned from practice during the exile
• Bird droppings fall in his eyes and he becomes
  blind
• He prays to the Lord
• During the same time, Sarah has been married 7
  times, but on her wedding night a jealous Demon,
  Asmodeus, kills the groom
• She Prays to the Lord

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The story continued..

• God decides to send Raphael, an angel, to answer
  both of their prayers
• At this time, Tobit sends his son Tobias on an
  errand to Medes, where Sarah lives
• Tobias meets Raphael on the journey,and Raphael
  teaches him how to heal blindness and keep evil
  spirits away
• They stop where Sarah lives and Tobias falls in
  love with her
• Sarah and Tobias marry
• Tobias is able to defeat the demon because of
  what Raphael taught him

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The story Continued

• Sarah and Tobias return to Tobit and cure his
  blindness
• Raphael reveals he is an angel and God is praised
  by all
• Tobias and Sarah become the ideal Jewish couple
• Love
• Devotion to God
• Give thanks to God

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The Message of Tobit

• Shows eagerness of God to help those that are
  faithful to him
• Teaches by example
• Models the ideal Jewish way of life
• Shows power of fasting and prayer

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The Book of Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah

• Written in Greek, but uses many Hebrew
  expressions
• Claims to be written by the secretary of Jeremiah
• Many believe it to be from between the 3rd and
  1st centuries B.C.
• Written to encourage the faith of the Jewish
  people being forced to adopt Greek ways

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The Jewish Struggle for Freedom(175-160 B.C)

• 200-199 B.C. Antiochus III from Syria defeated
  the Greek kingdom and took over Palestine
• Antiochus III died in 187 B.C.
• Seleucus IV took over and raided the Jerusalem
  Temple
• 175 B.C. Antiochus IV Epiphanes became King
• Had two prong policy
• Rebuild the military in the empire
• Hellenization of all ethnic people in the empire

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The Plan and the Jewish People

• The military campaign
• Raided the Jerusalem Temple twice to finance
• 169 B.C and 168 B.C
• Hellenistic Policy
• Forbade circumcision
• Forbade abstaining from pork
• Forbade sacrifice in the temple
• Set up alter to Zeus in the Jewish temple
• 167 B.C Revolt broke out in Modein under
  Mattathias

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The Struggle in Two Sources

• Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus
• Written around 100 A.D.
• The First and Second Book of Maccabees
• First book written around 100 B.C.
• Historical
• Second Book full of heroic stories

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First Book of Maccabees

• About the battle for freedom through the eyes of
  Mattathias and his sons
• Judas Rededicates temple to Yahweh in 164 B.C.
• Jonathan Made many gains in battle and played
  off rivals for the Seleucid throne
• Simon Continued the policies of his brothers
  and had great success

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The importance of 1 Maccabees

• Revealed the tensions that did exist between
  those that willingly accepted the Greek way of
  life and the Israelites who wanted to preserve
  their faith
• Lesson Fidelity to the law and trust in God
  always wins through (505).

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The Importance of the Dedication Ceremony

• Showed the peoples commitment to Yahweh
• Became the feast of Hanukkah
• The Feast of Lights
• Given its name by Josephus

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The Second Book of Maccabees

• Who Claims to be written by Jason of Cyrene
• Summarizes events of struggle b/w 170-160 B.C.
• Book of persuasion
• Divided into 3 parts
• 2 letters to the Jewish people in Egypt directing
  the Feasts of Booths and Hanukkah
• Summary of Jasons account to the dedication of
  the temple by Judas
• The remainder of Judas life up to 160 B.C.

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2 Maccabees

• Stories of Jewish martyrs
• Stresses that God made the world from nothing
• Describes an afterlife for the just and right
  person
• Jewish culture broadens their understanding of
  the world and is influenced by other cultures
  abroad

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The Book of Daniel

• Daniel is the 4th major prophet
• Contains dreams and visions
• The Hebrew Bible does not consider it prophecy
• Instead it is a story similar to the Books of
  Ruth and Esther
• There are 3 parts in the Catholic Bible and only
  Two in the Hebrew Bible

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The Book of Daniel Continued

• Chapters 1-6 Romantic stories called Court
  tales. Purpose
• To teach the proper religious practices
• To Show God blesses and saves those that are
  faithful
• Chapters 7-12 Daniel learns about what is to
  come in dreams and through angel visitations.
• Chapters 13-14 Stories about Daniel
• Daniel uncovers lies of two elders
• Daniel refuses to worship a statue of Baal
• Daniel is thrown into a lions den, but saved by
  God

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When was the Book of Daniel Written?

• Claims to take place in the 6th century B.C.
• Some do not believe this to be true because the
  author gets many facts wrong
• There are two possibilities in explaining these
  bloopers
• The author lived long after the exile
• The author purposely did it because he intended
  it to be a story of faith, not a historical
  account of events

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Pagan Myth and Religious Themes in Daniel

• Ugaritic Literature
• The Tale of Aqhat contains a King Daniel
• The Book of Ezekiel
• Daniel is a great ancient figure full of holiness
  and wisdom
• In the Book of Daniel, he is a young captive of
  the Babylonians
• Major Prophets
• Pagan kings are proud and arrogant and rebelling
  against God, which leads to destruction

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Understanding The Purpose of Daniel

• Vaticinium ex eventu (prediction after the
  fact)
• Author creates a character from long ago and has
  him predict events that have already happened
• Coded using symbolic animals, colors, and numbers
• Coded to protect from persecuting authorities
• To answer questions
• Why did Israel suffer?
• Why did God allow the people to be martyred?

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Daniels Most Notable Aspects

• Many connections to wisdom literature
• Exemplifies piety for post-exilic period
• Often pray and fast
• First explicit teaching on rising after death
• Tells of a time of when the Kingdom of God will
  be brought to earth by a heavenly human figure
• Reveals apocalyptic literature

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Apocalyptic Writing

• Greek word apokalypsis means revelation
• Major characteristic of Apocalyptic literature is
  that it is a revelation of a secret about the
  future
• Written for people under active persecution to
  give hope and consolation
• Use symbols to hide message from persecuting
  authorities

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Elements of Apocalyptic Writing

• Major Elements
• Use famous names from history
• Revelation is a secret
• Language highly symbolic
• Uses prophetic prediction
• Real authors are anonymous

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Elements of Apocalyptic Writing

• Other Elements
• Pessimistic about world
• There is a dualism in the world
• Belief that there is a divine plan already set
  into motion that involves the battle b/w good and
  evil
• Belief of divine intervention on behalf of the
  just
• Struggle involves entire universe
• Intermediary beings are involved
• Prophecies will be fulfilled
• Hope for resurrection
• Hope for a new kingdom in heaven with God

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The Value of Apocalyptic Writing

• What was learned form Apocalyptic writing?
• God is never indifferent or powerless
• God can act in new ways
• The power of evil over our lives is rejected
• There has to be a strong trust in Yahweh
• It is important to have devotion to the kingdom
  of God
• Imagery of the last judgment, heaven, and hell
• Hope in the Resurrection