|
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. Top 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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
Maccabean/Hasmonaean
Dynasty
Top
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. Top 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.'
Top
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. Top 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. Top 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.
Top 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.
Top
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.
Top 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
|