Church History, Question 1

Discuss Judaism in the period just prior to and during the New Testament period. Include all elements and their influence on the development of New Testament Teaching.

Walker at pages 11 through 18 indicates that the major elements of Judaism before and during the New Testament period included the following: A) the historical background of the Jewish diaspora in Babylon and Egypt and the return of the Jewish people to Palestine; B) the tension in leadership between the priestly class and the scribes; C) attempts at forced Hellenization of the Jews and the Maccabean response; D) the Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians and Zealots; E) the Messianic hope and Apocalyptic literature; and F) the influence of Judaism upon Greek gentile society and Hellenization within Jewish society. This paper will deal briefly with each element, and the influence of each upon the development of New Testament teaching.

A) The historical background of the Jewish diaspora in Babylon and Egypt, and the return of the Jewish people to Palestine. Both Walker at pp 11-12 and the later historical books of the Old Testament indicate that after the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 586 B.C., the Jewish people were scattered throughout the world, with large colonies in what are now Persia and Iraq, Egypt and Syria. Of particular note, and to be mentioned later, was the largely Greek-speaking city of Alexandria in Egypt. While Jews were later able to return to Palestine, Walker indicates that they were likely a minority of the total Jewish population. In any event, whether in Palestine or the Diaspora, after the Babylonian conquest, the Jewish people remained under foreign domination, respectively from the Babylonians, the Persians, the Ptolemies, the Selucids, and finally the Romans. The main influence of this element upon New Testament times was the great dissatisfaction of the people of Israel with foreign domination, and the desire for liberation from that oppression.

B) The tension in Jewish leadership in Palestine between the priestly class and the scribes. Upon the return of the Jewish people to Israel, the leaders there were primarily the hereditary priestly class, who under the Law (ha Torah) were responsible for offering sacrifice in the Great Temple. However, because of abuse of that priestly authority, and because of a greater concern among the people of Israel with the study of the Law, gradually the Scribes (who were the main students and exponents of that Law) achieved more of a position of political as well as religious leadership.

One main influence of the Scribes on New Testament times and teaching was the development of worship in the synagogue rather than in the Great Temple. This worship, with its marked resemblance to the Liturgy of the Catachumens with its development of chant, readings from the Scriptures, and explication of those Scriptures, had enormous influence upon both early Christian worship, and our later Divine Liturgy.

C) Attempts at forced Hellenization of the Jews and the Maccabean response. Under the Greek Selucid monarch, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, an attempt was made around 167 B.C. to eradicate Jewish worship and customs, culminating in the desecration of the Temple by the sacrifice of a boar in the Holy of Holies. This resulted in the Maccabean revolt, which led to a period of relative Jewish independence until Palestine’s conquest by the Romans in 63 B.C.

The results of this period of independence, and the consequent Roman conquest, were the development of the four major Jewish political and religious parties of the New Testament period before the destruction of Jerusalem, which will be discussed in the next section.

D) The Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians and Zealots. The Sadducees were the descendents of the politically successful Maccabean priestly families. These, in the main, had control of the Great Temple, and the wealth resulting from tithes offered there. The Sadducees appear, however, to have succumbed to the general Greco-Roman world view including disbelief in any afterlife, or any supernatural world of angels and devils. The Pharisees were scribes who vied politically and religiously with the Sadducees, both as regards the interpretation of the Law, and in holding to a strict interpretation of Torah which included belief in the resurrection and in a supernatural world. The Herodians were those Jews who supported the reign of the line of Herod the Great, a half-Jewish puppet of the Romans, while the Zealots were those who sought to revolt against Roman rule as the Maccabees did against Greek rule. Perhaps the main influence of these parties upon New Testament times is that an intelligent reading of the New Testament is impossible without an understanding of this background.

E) The Messianic hope and Apocalyptic literature. As a result of Roman oppression and Jewish political and religious fragmentation, there was a growing hope for the arrival of ha-Meshiach, (Greek: Christos) or the anointed one, whose coming was foretold by the Prophets, and about whom a contemporary apocalyptic literature was growing. While this literature was largely unavailable at the time that Walker was writing, more examples have been made available since the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. The main influences of this hope can be found in the initial acceptance, and later rejection, by the above political and religious parties when Jesus did not fit their respective preconceptions about who and what the Messiah was. Perhaps the main influence of the apocalyptic literature of the time was upon the Apocalypse, or the Revelation, of St. John the Theologian.

F) The influence of Judaism upon Greek gentile society, and Hellenization within Jewish society. Because of the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament by Alexandrian Jews, many gentiles (the so-called metuentes, or God-fearers) began to adapt the ethical code of the Jews. Similarly, Greek speaking Jews (such as Philo) began to look at the Law through Greek concepts such as logos and Sophia. At least two consequences of this cultural synthesis were that it formed the basis for the population of Jews and Gentiles who later became Christians, and also the matrix of Christian theology.