1. The Political World of Jesus

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1. The Political World of Jesus

• The Greek Domination of Palestine
• Alexander the Great (ruled from 336-323 BCE)
• Born in Macedonia, north of Greece in 356 BCE
• Became king when father Phillip II died in 336
  BCE
• He had conquered most of the Mediterranean area
• Alexanders Empire Divided
• When Alexander died (age 33 in 323 BCE) the lands
  he conquered was divided among his generals
• The area of Palestine was divided among 2
  generals
• One in Eqypt
• One in Syria

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2.

• Alexanders Empire Divided (contd)
• The area of Palestine was caught in the middle
  between the two opposing generals for 150 years
• The Greek Influence
• The first 100 years after Alexander, Palestine
  was controlled by the general in Egypt
• There was little interference in Jewish affairs
• Greek culture and language began to creep into
  the Jewish life style
• The Assyrians and Greeks from Syria influenced
  the north so much so that the region seemed
  almost like it was gentile

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Side Note

• The result of the Assyrian and Greek influence on
  the northern region was brought out in the story
  of the Good Samaritan
• Samaria is in the northern region. Alexander the
  Great had allowed the Samaritans to build a
  Temple at Mt. Gerizim
• The remnant Jews had considered the rituals and
  practices of the Samaritans to have been
  corrupted by the assimilation of Greek and
  Assyrian cultures
• The Southern Jews destroyed the Temple at Mt.
  Gerizim and looked down upon the Samaritans as
  second class Jews and by the time of Jesus had
  such a hatred between the north and south that
  the Samaritans were despised by the Jews of the
  south.

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3.

• The End of Tolerance
• The Egyptian influence diminished until in 198
  BCE the Syrian Greeks were able to take complete
  control of Palestine
• The Romans had defeated the Syrian Greeks in a
  naval battle and they made the Greeks pay a great
  deal of tribute this caused the Greeks to
  heavily tax the Palestinians
• The Jews began to be resent the Greek occupation

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4.

• Reactions to Greek Rule
• There were 2 reactions to Greek rule
• The wealthy landowners and important leaders
  tried to get along with the Greek overlords
• The pious Jews the Hasidim felt any acceptance
  of the Greeks was a betrayal of their Jewish
  faith
• An Incredible Victory
• When there was a Jewish uprising, the Greeks in
  Syria put down the rebellion and desecrated the
  Temple in Jerusalem
• They built an altar to Zeus in the Holy of Holies
  of the Temple
• The Greeks underestimated how this would turn the
  Jews against them

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5.

• An Incredible Victory (contd)
• An order came from the king that all Jews were to
  offer sacrifice to the pagan gods and if not they
  were to be put to death (I Macc 154-63)
• The priest of Modien 7 mi NW of Jerusalemand
  his family were ordered to comply and instead
  killed the ones forcing them and ran off to the
  hills and
• formed an army. Judas Maccabeus (the Hammer)
• led the army of 7000 against three generals
  and
• 50,000 men. Prayer and luck gave Judas the
  victory

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6.

• An Incredible Victory (contd)
• This battle was known as the Maccabean War or the
  Maccabean Revolt
• In 164 BCE after the victory, the altar of Zeus
  was removed from the Temple and the rededication
  of the Temple began
• A miracle occurred when the sacred oil of the
  lamp in the Holy of Holies burned for 8 days when
  there was only oil for 1. It took 8 days to
  press and bless the new olive oil Shamashmiddle
  light, so that the others are not used for any
  purpose other than the celebration

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7.

• Jewish Independence
• After the Jews were granted independence in 142
  BCE but had no strong leaders
• The Greek leaders who granted the Jews
  independence appointed gave a gift of the
  high priest to rule the country. Unfortunately,
  the family who accepted this office was not of
  the LEVITE tribe
• Greeks had no authority to appoint the High
  Priest
• The family who accepted it had no right to accept
  it
• This lessened the prestige and authority of the
  office of high priest which is stressed later in
  the gospels

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8.

• Political Factions Within Judaism
• Because of the situation with the usurped
  priesthood factions developed
• The Sadducees priestly class, wealthy class,
  made accommodations with the Greeks and then
  Romans to save their positions
• The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection and
  often challenged Jesus on this issue
• The Phariseesrefused to compromise religious
  traditions
• They were more respected by the common man but
  lost power because they would not compromise with
  the Sadducees
• They were accepting of the idea of resurrection
  and often challenged Jesus on keeping the Law
  rather than resurrection

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9.

• Political Factions Within Judaism (contd)
• The Essenes people so dissatisfied with the
  political and religious leaders that they
  withdrew from mainstream Judaism
• They formed a community separate from Jerusalem
  called the Qumran community on the Dead Sea
• They had deep religious convictions and observed
  strict religious traditions
• They were the ones who hid what would later be
  discovered as the Dead Sea Scrolls

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10.

• Political Factions Within Judaism (contd)
• Another group was the Zealots a group of Jews
  who tried to incite the people to rebel and expel
  the Romans by force of arms if necessary
• Two of Christs apostles were Zealots, Simon and
  Judas Iscariot
• A fifth group often mentioned in the Bible were
  the Scribes
• Their functions were to copy, read amend,
  explain, and protect the law.
• They were the officials who kept all sorts of
  records, documents, receipts and wills etc.
• They were the teachers of Mosaic Law

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11.

• Geographic Factions in Palestine
• The majority of the bitterness between Jewish
  groups came about during the time of their
  independence
• The Region of Judea
• Area in central Palestine, settled by the
  returning remnant
• Contained Jerusalem and was the center of Jewish
  culture and government
• This region always tried to influence the others

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12.

• The Region of Idumea
• A region south of Judea, forced to accept Judaism
• This forced acceptance caused tension between
  the Judean and Idumean Jews
• The Region of Samaria
• Descendents of the old Northern Tribes
• After the Assyrian invasion in 721 BCE they had
  lost touch with their southern cousins
• Because of the Assyrian and Greek influences the
  Scriptures and rituals of the north were
  different than those of the mainline Jews to the
  south

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13.

• Samaria (contd)
• When the remnant returned from Babylon, they
  rejected the northern ways as being heretics, as
  well as racially impure, since they had
  intermarried while being occupied by the
  Assyrians and the Greeks
• The southern Jews even went so far as to destroy
  the Temple at Mt. Gerizim just east of Samaria
  between the years 128 and 107 BCE and now ordered
  that there be only one Temple, one capital and
  one God In Jerusalem
• Obviously this caused a great divide between
  people of the north and south it makes its way
  into the gospels as the Good Samaritan Story

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• Samaria (contd)
• Jesus also has a conversation with a women bad
  enough in itself since respectable Jewish men did
  not speak to unfamiliar women. But to make
  matters worse, this was Samaritan woman
• The Region of Galilee
• When the region was annexed by the Jewish
  leaders, the religion was forced upon the people
  or they were told to leave the area
• Even though most accepted Judaism, the mainline
  Jews of the south, thought of the Galilean Jews
  as being inferior and second-class citizens

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15.

• Galilee (contd)
• Jesus was from Galilee
• He was considered by many to be a second-class or
  imperfect Jew and thus this often caused him
  trouble with the Jews of Jerusalem
• An Appeal to Rome
• These regional problems caused the Jewish leaders
  of Jerusalem to ask Rome for help in stablizing
  their country. Rome was only too eager to help
• Rome had taken over Palestine about 60 years
  before Christ was born

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• Israel Under Roman Domination
• The Romans had such a stable empire because they
  offered the conquered people self-rule
• In Palestine, the Romans set Herod (an Idumean)
  on the throne
• Idumeans were not respected by mainline Jews
  because Idumeans were forced into becoming Jewish
  and therefore not to be trusted
• This Herod became Herod the Great who ruled until
  late in 4 BCE just after Christ was born

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17.

• Herod the Great
• Very successful ruler not well liked or not very
  gracious
• He was a master builder who restored the Temple
  to its great splendor
• Very cruel man supposedly he ordered all the
  male children under the age of two in Bethlehem
  to be slaughtered to try to kill the Messiah he
  feared the new king of the Jews would take his
  throne

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18. Side Note 2

• Herod the Great (contd)
• A little history about this guy
• In 36 BCE he names his 17 yr old brother-in-law
  to be high priest
• In 35 BCE he orders his high priest
  brother-in-law drowned as he believes he is
  plotting to be king
• In 29 BCE he plans to kill his first wife. He
  has her tried for adultery and executed
• In the same year, he has his mother-in-law
  executed for treason believing she is trying to
  be queen
• In 28 BCE he kills a second brother-in-law for
  treason

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19. Side Note 2 (contd)

• Herod the Great (contd) --- his cruelty
• In 12 BCE he believes his two sons by his first
  wife are trying to overthrow him, he has them
  tried for treason but Augustus Caesar frees them
• But in 7 BCE he again accuses the sons and this
  time tries them himself and executes them
• In 5 BCE he accuses his favorite son (Antipater,
  to whom he has always promised the throne) of
  treason and has him executed
• When it came time for his own death, Herod
  ordered the soldiers to gather all the men, take
  them to the amphitheater and there slaughter them
  so that there would weeping in the city even
  though it would not be for him it didnt happen
  His sons divided up parts of Palestine

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• Herod Antipas
• Given control of the region of Galilee and Perea
• He married his brother Phillips wife
• This is why John the Baptist was constantly
  accusing Herod of adultery
• Antipas had divorced his first wife to marry
  Herodias, Phillips wife and raise his niece as
  his daughter
• It was Herodias who convince Antipas to arrest
  John the Baptist and then when his niece, Salome,
  tempted him with her dancing, he was tricked into
  beheading John the Baptist
• He is referred to in the gospels as that fox
• He was a tetrarch ruler of a 1/4th portion
• Pilate sent Jesus to Antipas for trial

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• The Roman Procurator
• Because the third son of Herod the Great was such
  a poor ruler in Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, he
  was removed and a Roman procurator (prefect or
  governor) was appointed
• The fifth procurator to be in the region was
  appointed in 26 CE he was Pontius Pilate
• Pontius Pilate was the one who was responsible
  for the trial of Jesus and his crucifixion

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22.

• The Destruction of Jerusalem
• Hoping to be as successful as they were against
  the Greeks, a group of Zealots tried to run the
  Romans out of Jerusalem beginning in 66 CE
• Titus, the Roman general and son of the Emperor,
  began to struggle against the poorly trained and
  poorly equipped Zealots
• For four years he battled until finally in Aug of
  70 he set fire to the Temple and destroyed it as
  well as most of Jerusalem
• The Israelites never regained Palestine until
  after the 1940s

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23. An Oppressed People Dream of a Liberator

• The dream was that someday God would liberate His
  people and send them a Messiah
• This Messiah would overthrow their oppressors and
  return Israel to its glory
• The dream associated the Messiah with the line of
  King David
• This Messiah would be a Son of David and would
  restore them to a united state, with peace and
  prosperity of old
• Under the Romans the Messiah had taken on the
  characteristics of a warrior-king
• This was not the image Jesus brought to the Jews

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24.

• Behind the Jewish No to Jesus
• The Messiah was to be a warrior-king, not the
  divine Son of God
• There was no way they would expect God, who is so
  far beyond them and so special they could not
  even speak his name, to come to earth as a human
• Jesus was nothing like what they expected
• God would not come as a human and the Messiah
  would be interested in redeeming the glory of
  Israel.
• Jesus did not fit the bill at all.