Contents
II. The Holy Book: Lost, Found, Founded
III. Torah and the Maccabean Revolt
IV. Torah and the Hasmonean Dynasty
Figure 1. Torah scroll at old Glockengasse Synagogue (reconstruction), Cologne. Attribution.
Table 1. Socio-political-religious Groups, Parties, and Sects in or Influential to Judaism
I. Introduction
Quoting Dr. G. F. Moore, D. S. Russell relates this definition of the word Torah:
The comprehensive name for the divine revelation, written and oral, in which the Jews possessed the sole standard and norm of their religion (Moore 263, Russell 42).
Russell adds,
The word signifies “instruction” or “teaching” and indicates the revelation given by God to Israel through His servant Moses. The word is often translated “Law,” but this can be misleading, for its meaning is nearer to “revelation” than it is to “legislation.” But since this “revelation” finds written expression in the Pentateuch, the name “Torah” is commonly applied to the five books of Moses.
From this definition, it is understandable why “Torah” is sometimes thought of in two ways: generally, implying all the Hebrew Scriptures (Pentateuch, Prophets, Writings), and more specifically, implying only the Pentateuch, where the word Pentateuch, i.e. “five scrolls” (Genesis 1:1ff, Exodus 1:1ff, Leviticus 1:1ff, Numbers 1:1ff, Deuteronomy 1:1ff), is simply the Greek expression for the Hebrew word Torah.
Throughout the whole of the period from Antiochus IV (175-163 B.C.) to Vespasian (A.D. 69-79) and Titus (A.D. 79-81), Jewish nationalism was rooted and grounded in the Torah [...] And so the Book, the vehicle and expression of the Torah, became increasingly the sign and symbol of their faith. (Russell 42).
During the just mentioned periods, largely marked by hardship and testing and trials, the Jewish religion, Judaism, was fighting for its distinct heritage and very survival, and Jewish nationalism, chiefly its religious leg, served a vital role in resisting the pervasive Hellenistic culture and civilization which threatened to overthrow Jewish culture and life, each decidedly embodied by the Jewish religion. This study will prayerfully endeavor to relate the role of Torah religion as a rallying point for Judaism in its struggles against the inroads of Hellenism during the period dating from Ptolemaic dominance of Palestine, through the writing of the Septuagint, to the fall of Jerusalem (320 BC-AD 70). Upon completing the study, it became clear that the Divine Providence was at work all throughout shaping, readying, the environs for the first advent of our Savior Jesus Christ, His ministry, particularly the Cross of Redemption | Salvation. As though pushing the many events, institutions, and people though a funnel aimed at the Cross, thus did the Divine Providence.
II. The Holy Book: Lost, Found, Founded
During a period of national spiritual wickedness in Judah under the reigns of the apostate king Manasseh (697-687 BC coregency with his father Hezekiah, 687-643 sole reign), and subsequently his son Amon (643/42 BC-641/40), the Torah was apparently lost (misplaced, perhaps forgotten, neglected, and/or rejected). Then during the reign of Amon's son and successor, king Josiah (640-609 BC), Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law in the temple while conducting repairs of the same under edict from the pious Josiah (c. 622 BC; 2Kings 22:8, Josephus: Antiquities Book 10 Chapter 4.2). During Josiah's reign Jeremiah convicted Judah of three breaches of the sacred Law which would pronounce upon them doom at the hands of a conquering power if they did not repent, breaches concerning idolatry (Jeremiah 7:30-8:3, Jeremiah 19:1-15), immorality (Jeremiah 5:1-9), and lying prophecy (Jeremiah 7:3-11, Jeremiah 14:11-16, Jeremiah 23:9-40). Assyria and Egypt were the powers in the region during the early period of Jeremiah's prophesying (prophesying from approximately 627 to 586 BC). Assyria was conquered by Babylonia in 612 BC with the fall of Nineveh, and similarly, Egypt fell to the Babylonians in 605 BC after their defeat in the battle of Carchemish in northern Mesopotamia on the Euphrates River. Despite Jeremiah’s warnings, Judah repented not and consequentially fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC when king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon's temple, and led many Judeans to Babylon (Jeremiah 25:8-9), there to remain in exile for a predetermined seventy years (2Chronicles 36:22-23, Jeremiah 25:10-12; note also Isaiah 44:27-28, 45:1)[1]. In Babylon the captives naturally began to focus on those aspects of their faith which were not dependent on the temple, such as observing the Sabbath (creation, paradise lost, rest), circumcision (the sign of God's [Abrahamic] covenant with them), the ten commandments per se (Exodus 20:1-17); generally, they focused on God's messages to them through His intermediary Moses, i.e., they focused on the Torah. After the fall of Babylonia at the hands of Persia, Jews were free to return to their homeland and rebuild their city and temple per the edict of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1ff), and the first wave of returnees were led by Zerubbabel, who was appointed governor of Judah (Haggai 1:1-2). Zerubbabel straightaway began rebuilding the (second) temple with the help of Joshua the high priest (Ezra 3:2-3,8); it took him and company two years just to lay the (relatively speaking modest) foundation, not just because Jerusalem as also the temple had been razed by Nebuchadnezzar and lay in heaps, but also because of apathy, discouragement, and distractions; no less hostilities soon commenced against him and the rest (Ezra 3:3, 4:1-5, Nehemiah 4:1ff). As concerns our subject, priests such as Ezra (a scholar who later became Secretary of State for Jewish affairs under the Persian monarch Artaxerxes) had undertaken a very detailed study of God's Law during the exile (Ezra 7:6-10); indeed it was Ezra who "founded" the Torah in the hearts and souls of the liberated Jewish people. The gradual shift of their religious focus toward the Torah, which found its beginnings in the exile, continued post-exile despite the competing forces of temple accessibility (relatively modest though this temple was), initially due to the tutelage of Ezra (Ezra 7:10). In the generations after Ezra, the Sopherim, or Scribes (Tab. 1), teaching in the synagogues, carried on the work begun by Ezra. According to D. S. Russell,
The part played by the oral teaching of the Scribes was a very significant one and did much to prepare the people for the troublous years which were to follow in which the influence of Hellenistic culture began to make itself very deeply felt. There is reason to believe that the Sopherim organized weekly gatherings not only in Jerusalem but in the towns and villages round about at which the Torah was publicly read and explanations of it given. It would be a mistake to think of these gatherings in terms of the Synagogue services which subsequently grew up and spread rapidly throughout Jerusalem and the Dispersion, but they undoubtedly prepared the way for them, and to the Sopherim and their successors is due much of the credit for the development of this vitally important institution within Judaism [...] Thus long before the time of the Maccabean Revolt, the common people had been grounded in the faith and had been taught to apply their religion to their everyday life in the new situation and conditions developing in Palestine. The Torah became increasingly the focus of their attention and gradually came to mean more and more in the devotional life of many who, by reason of the troubles of the times or by reason of their dispersion far from Jerusalem, were unable to offer sacrifices in the Holy Temple [...] The Synagogue Torah was in no way opposed to the temple ritual, but it fostered a deep personal religion—something which the temple rites were unable to do. (Russell 43-44)
The people, the ”common people” to which Russell refers were the Am ha Aretz (“The Am ha Aretz”, Tab. 1), not necessarily very adept or practiced in Torah religion, yet real, i.e., non-hypocritical, lovers of Jehovah God with a head on their shoulders and a heart in their chest with each—head and heart—given over to God’s Law be that as it may in their understanding of it as touching the Synagogue teachings they might have been privy to. Now, a rallying point for revolt is but a point, a vortex, about which swirls the stuff of revolts, and that “stuff” in whatever period one might consider was decidedly the Am haAretz. (They shouldered the revolts.) The revolts, or general unrest even, had in view defense of the sacred Torah—the very Word of God perceived to be dishonored or worse, and by association, they, and God, similarly perceived to be dishonored or worse (abuse, bloodletting, and so forth fits here as concerns persecution per their religion). After all, God Himself with His own finger wrote part of the text, and inspired the rest, and personally gave it to Moses and, by association, to these peculiar (set apart) peoples Israel. “Set apart” carries with it a powder keg of meaning vis-a vis our study’s title, “Torah A Rallying Point,” not least a sense of duty in their head and heart to defend the sacredness of the God-given text. But more than that even, it was and is an anchor to them in troublous times reminding them that they were and are the apple of God’s eye. (Let us not leave the impression upon closing this section that God approves of their morphing His Word, their Judaism is meant—He does not—He flat did away with it and instituted a New Covenant and did so through a better Intermediary, even the best, even Jesus Christ, whom they slew for some of the same reasons that (their) Torah was a rallying point for revolt to them. So, did Jesus nullify the Torah? No way, He was the fulfillment of it, of its pure, undefiled, spiritual essence. (Why would He nullify that which He personally enjoined all those many centuries before!)
III. Torah and the Maccabean Revolt
After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire divided; the battle of Ipsus in 301 BC established a twofold division which was to become the Jewish people’s aggravation for approximately the next 160 years. As a consequence of this battle, The Macedonian general Ptolemy I (Soter) became established in Egypt and beyond, while the Macedonian general Seleucus I (Nicator) became established in Syria and beyond (map). Importantly, Jewish Palestine originally became a part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. According to Richard Niswonger,
During the course of the third-century BC the Ptolemies dominated the region and brought an era of relative stability and peace. They permitted the high priest to exercise some political power as well as religious power, and the Jews seemed to generally accept the rule of their Greek overlords. Ptolemy established the famous library of Alexandria, which played a major role in Hellenizing the culture of the Near East. He also began resettling Jews in Alexandria, a process that would continue beyond his day. These Jews of the Dispersion learned the Greek language and adopted much of the Greek culture of their new city. Before Christ's birth Alexandria had a large Hellenistic Jewish population which occupied its own area in the Greek city. (Niswonger 22; notice the social amalgam typical of the Hellenistic age—a Jewish population, in a Greek city, itself in Egypt; the same applies to Syrian Hellenism where the predominant influence on Jews was Perso-Babylonian, as manifested in the Greek city of especially Antioch).
Judaism was left to its own devices in the midst of these Hellenistic influences during the Ptolemaic era and largely through Torah religion it maintained its distinct characteristics. This is true of the Seleucid era as well, however, during the Seleucid era, Torah religion served more as a bulwark against religious oppression and as a rallying point for revolt, than as a goad against complacency, for the freedom to practice Judaism as Jews saw fit, evident in the Ptolemaic era, was stifled under the Seleucids. The translation of the Torah into Greek, the Septuagint (probably 275-250 BC during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus), became the vehicle for learning and teaching the Torah mainly in the Dispersion, yet in Greek-speaking Jewish Palestine as well; it also was the Old Testament bible of the early Christians[2].
After the decline of the Ptolemies and the rise of the Seleucids (200-198 BC), the policy of Hellenization in the Near East turned to one of persecution and religious oppression for Jews. In the Seleucid era the Torah, more than the temple, became the rallying point for revolution for them. When the second (zerubbabel’s) temple was desecrated by Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (167 BC), it was zeal for the Torah and the holy Covenant to which the revolutionaries Mattathias and family—the Maccabees—appealed for sympathetic support in the revolt (1 Maccabees 2:27; you will land on 1Maccabees 1, scroll down for the other chapters; the books proper). Jews were longing for a time when they could once again practice their Judaism as they saw fit. Antiochus and the Seleucids understood the significance of Torah religion as a rallying point for revolt for the Jews, hence the written Torah, the Book, soon became their focus of attack, having determined to eliminate a Judaism which stood to undermine their control over Palestine. Concerning this, I Maccabees relates:
The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king. (1 Maccabees 1:56-57)
As they were similarly rooted in the Torah and the holy covenant, the Maccabees found ready, sympathetic support for the revolution among the Hasidim (Heb. Chasidim, Gr. Asidaioi, Tab. 1). In the fight that ensued, the Jews were highly motivated, as in a Holy War; they were sure it was God's will that they be free from foreign rule, thus able to practice their Judaism as set forth by God Himself. Indeed, in just three years (167-164 BC where 164 BC marks Hanukkah, the rededication of the temple), the Maccabees and their freedom fighter followers broke the control of the Seleucid grip on their homeland; and this was no small feat as they were outnumbered in battle most often; however, knowledge of and familiarity with the terrain of the battlefields coupled with unquenchable zeal for religious freedom, and not least the Divine Providence, were ultimately the undoing of and end for the Seleucids. Jews were now free to practice their Judaism (Torah and Covenant) as they saw fit—the prime motivating factor for the war, at least for the Hasidim, and certainly the Maccabees as well initially. But after the war had been won, the Maccabean brother-leaders of the revolt—Judas (166-160 BC), Jonathon (160-143 BC), and Simon (142-134 BC)—in turn engaged in a policy of annexing neighboring lands and tribes in and around Jerusalem. For reasons perhaps political, perhaps religious, or perhaps selfish, they soon amassed a rather sizable portion of Palestine, such that by the end of Jonathon's reign, Jewish Palestine was territorially equivalent to that in king Solomon's day (1Kings 10:14ff as per Solomon). To the Hasidim, who were the backbone of the revolution, the revolt had with this taken a secular turn as their zeal was for the Torah and the holy covenant—not geopolitics; the Hasidim thus gradually became disillusioned with the revolt. Also questioning the veracity of the high priesthood after Jonathon conferred upon it secular as well as religious authority through his official appointment as high priest in 152 BC—while he was at the same time ruler of the nation—a group of Hasidim withdrew into seclusion to an area around the Dead Sea. (Hasidim in general were not isolationists; for the most part they came from the middle class and readily interacted with society.) This withdrawal group was probably Essene (Tab. 1), a sect within Judaism that was extremely scrupulous and uncompromising in its observance of every detail of the Torah, and were likely those Qumran Coventars that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is likely that mainstream Hasidim, as well as orthodox Jews in general, similarly questioned the new nature of the high priesthood, that is, over against its distinctive nature in Old Testament times, seeing that this office also became hereditary no less in the Hasmonean line in 141 BC under Simon. With this, the era of the priest-king was soon to begin[3].
IV. Torah and the Hasmonean Dynasty
From the time of Judas' accession until Simon's death (164-134 BC) governance and dominance of Judah belonged to the Hasidim; Judah was largely a religiously governed and controlled nation—Torah religion prevailed (as opposed to Hellenizing functions and sympathies, Tab. 1). But from 134-104 BC when Judah was ruled by Simon's son John Hyrcanus I, who also became high priest, the nation generally reflected his sympathy for the Hellenizing mindset. His rule moved Judah away from Torah religion and much more toward secularism. Beginning in 129 BC he, like his predecessors, sought to extend Judah's borders (geopolitical secularism, imperialism, in the guise of security, and outright vengeance). He seized Idumea (Edom as settled by Esau, Genesis 36:1, 8 et al.) and imposed Judaism on its citizens; he seized Samaria lying northwest of the Dead Sea and destroyed the competing Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim (Tab.1). Though such actions smacked of passion for fatherland and furtherance of (orthodox) Judaism, his attendant secular Hellenizing policies angered the Hasidim such that under his rule bitter conflict roiled between the Hasidim and his Hellenizing supporters[4]. According to D.S. Russell, the Pharisees, which belonged to the middle class, did more than any other party to determine the shape of Judaism in the years following John Hyrcanus I. (This became the Pharisaic Judaism that vexed Jesus to no end and which He exposed as fraudulent and which He abolished.) Pharisees differed with their Sadducean counterparts in their interpretation of the Torah—the Pharisees held that the oral law was of equal authority with the written law, while the Sadducees maintained that the written Torah was uniquely authoritative relative to a version which included new traditions, interpretations, and observances incorporated to “accommodate” societal changes over time (known later as the "Traditions of the Elders"). Concerning the Pharisees, Russell says,
By teaching and interpreting the Torah, both written and oral, and by applying it to every-day life they 'democratized religion,' making it personal and operative in the experience of the common people. Their chief instrument in propagating the Torah was the Synagogue, which became a most powerful institution within Judaism not only in Jerusalem, but also throughout the whole Dispersion. The reading of the Torah accompanied by an interpretive translation into the vernacular became a distinctive feature of the Synagogue service. In this the Scribes, many of whom were members of the Pharisaic party, would have an important role to play. The Gospels give some indication of the position which the Synagogues had come to hold as strongholds of Torah religion even before the time of Jesus. But it is clear from the records that Pharisaism was at heart legalistic in character, and legalism can easily lead to formalism, and formalism to externalism and unreality, defects which revealed themselves in course of time in at least some phases of Pharisaism. (Matthew 9:14, 15:10-20, 16:6, Mark 12:38-40, Luke 11:37-54; Russell 50-51). (The “oral Torah” ultimately became the Talmud.)
John Hyrcanus I's son Aristobulus I (by his first wife) is presumed to be the first Hasmonean to take the title priest-king (103 BC). It is noteworthy that he was not lineally descended from either Aaron or David, in violation to the mandate of the Torah—a fact that antagonized the Pharisees. Adding fuel to the flames of antagonism was the fact that he cherished Greek culture, supported the Sadducees, and was implicated in the murder of his mother and half-brother Antigonus. His successor, another brother, Alexander Jannaeus (John Hyrcanus 1’s son by his third wife), stoked the flames when he married Aristobulus I's widow Salome Alexandra, a union condemned by the Torah (it was, however, a Levirate marriage). This growing antagonism was drawn along orthogonal national<>religious lines, that is, between Hasmoneans and Pharisees | Sadducees, as also between Pharisees and Sadducees per se, and was substantially provoked by the religious and political maneuvering of the Hasmonean priest-king. In short, Hasmonean noncompliance to Torah religion and the relative party-specific interpretation of that noncompliance tended toward general internecine conflict. Before Jannaeus died he advised Salome, whom he had appointed his successor in civil matters (a woman could not serve as high priest) to conciliate the Pharisees, as they had become rather powerful in the state. Accordingly, when Jannaeus died (78 BC) the queen appointed another son, the congenial John Hyrcanus II, as high priest and king, he having become favorably disposed to the Pharisees; additionally, she granted the Pharisees limited membership in the largely Sadducean Sanhedrin. These concessions in turn brought renewed strength to the Pharisees such that they were now able to force their interpretations of the Torah upon the people and make matters grievous for their Sadducean adversaries (Russell 33-34). Here falls another domino by the Divine Providence that shaped the environs Jesus would step into. Salome died in 69 BC after a largely stable and peaceful reign, and thereupon Aristobulus II, Hyrcanus II's ambitious brother, gathered an army and defeated his brother near Jericho, forced him to relinquish both the high priesthood and kingship, and banished him into private citizenship. Then, through the forward-looking (devious) persuasion of a crafty Idumean, one Antipater, Hyrcanus II was maneuvered into a pact to regain his titles (some measure of clout for later). With the help of Antipater and the Arabian Aretas III, he laid siege to Jerusalem vying to overthrow his brother and restore himself to power. The pain for Judah in the matter was that segments of the population had aligned themselves with these two would-be rulers such that an intense, severe, and bloody civil war erupted that lasted nearly six years (69-63 BC). The matter became so bad that Judah sent a delegation to Rome seeking their intervention to bring an end to the bloodshed. But due to logistical difficulties associated with Judah’s sizable distance from Rome and in no little part Rome’s unfamiliarity with Judean ethnicity, Rome initially refused to become involved in Palestinian politics; ultimately this Roman posture changed, in the person of Pompey in 63 BC. Rome easily seized the anarchic Seleucid realm and annexed Syria to itself, becoming the Roman province of Syria. Then Pompey attacked Jerusalem and defeated Aristobulus II and carried him captive to Rome; subsequently he confirmed Hyrcanus II in the high priesthood, but denied him the title of king, rather, he declared him ethnarch of Judah, which he added to the province of Syria (61 BC). Ethnarch is etymologically derived from the Greek noun EQNOS= nation/people, and the Greek adjective ARCHS= chief; it signifies ruler of a people or province, versus a king over a kingdom. As ethnarch, Hyrcanus II was but a symbolic leader of the Jewish people both in Judah and the Dispersion; thus, in 63 BC, the Jews lost their independence to a power they themselves invited in. Undoubtedly Rome would have eventually seized control anyway, but the timing was providentially predetermined otherwise, and down fell another domino by the Divine Providence in the way to the Cross and Redemption | Salvation. According to D.S. Russell,
In 63 BC, then, the Jews lost their independence when Pompey once again brought them 'under the yoke of the heathen.' From that time forward the spirit of Jewish nationalism sprang into revolt and continued right down to the destruction of the Jewish state in A.D. 70 ( Russell 35).
V. Torah and the Roman Period
After 61 BC Rome entered a period of internal strife marked by contention for control of the republic, the history of which is beyond the scope of this study. Suffice to say that in the course of that struggle Julius Caesar appointed the aforementioned Antipater to the office of procurator, or governor of Judah; later, after Antipater's death, the Roman Senate confirmed Antipater's son, Herod I “the Great”, as king of Judah (37 BC; down falls another domino). It is noteworthy that one of the consequences of the Judaization John Hyrcanus I pressed fostered a type of "shadow" Judaism in the Idumean Antipater which probably influenced the Roman decision to confirm Herod as king of Judah, as the Romans through Herod hoped foremost to confirm a stooge who secondarily possessed "ethnic" ties to Judah. To his frustration, however, an Idumean could not become high priest, hence Herod held little respect for that office and used his power to demean it (let us remember that the Jews themselves had long before perverted this office—God is not mocked, not even a little bit, not ever). By Herod's decree the high priest's appointment as well as tenure became objects of the king's (of his) whim, thus breaking the Hasmonean dynastic tradition (Russell 36). Just prior to Jesus' Day, then, the high priest had largely become a puppet of the Judean puppet-king, the puppet of a puppet here... The sceptre had unambiguously departed from Judah, it was time for Shiloh to come (Genesis 49:10). After Herod died in 4 BC, the kingdom was divided between his sons in accordance with his testament, but the emperor Augustus denied the inheritors kingship. Archelaus (4 BC-AD 6) inherited the lion's share and became ethnarch of Judah, Samaria, and Idumea (map); Herod Antipas (4 BC-AD 39) became tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (map); Herod Philip (4 BC-AD 34—this is not the Herod Philip that was married to Herodias, consort to Herod Antipas) became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, lands northeast of Galilee (Niswonger 49-51, 289, “Herodian Dynasty Family Tree”). This division of power occurred around the time our blessed Savior was born. After Archelaus' removal by the Romans for inept administration, Judah was ruled by a succession of Roman procurators (AD 6-66); this period includes a three-year reign by Herod the Great's grand-son, Herod Agrippa I (AD 41-44). Procurators were basically bureaucrats sent to various places in the republic for the purpose of governorship; they were typically ambitious climber-types, ignorant of the customs of their subjects and generally made little or no effort to familiarize themselves with the local culture. Thus oftentimes they were uncaring, ruthless, and bloodthirsty in matters under their control, and by and large, they were a miserable failure. Pontius Pilate (AD 26-36) is perhaps the most familiar procurator of this period to the modern reader (Josephus: Antiquities book 18 chapter 3.3). By confirming greedy, profane kings, and detached, brutish procurators, both of whom were likely baffled by the special nature of Judaism relative to their own pagan customs, Rome's experiment to govern Judah ended with such enmity toward the Roman Eagle by Jews that it was inevitable blood would be shed.
Hellenization flourished in Judah under Herod the Great's rule, he has been referred to as the "Patron of Hellenization" (Russell 36). His vast building programs seem to support the notion that he was a champion of the cult of the emperor, as evidenced by cities, temples, etc., he built and dedicated to Caesar; of course, emperor worship stood in contradiction to the Torah, being idolatrous. True to his nature, Herod played both sides by building the Jews a splendid temple[5]; similarly his marriage to Mariamne, the grand-daughter of John Hyrcanus I, was probably also intended to appease the Jews, at least in part. Notwithstanding, the Jews, particularly Pharisees, were offended that Herod condoned and promoted idolatry and Hellenization per se; reminiscent of the Maccabean period, there stood in opposition to this staunch supporters of the Torah, to the point of their death. Case in point, after Herod's death, Galilee became known as the hot-bed of Jewish nationalism, which found expression in the sect of the Zealots ("Zealot” Greek, "Cananean" Aramaic, "Sicarii" Latin, different expressions for largely the same thing, Tab. 1) who were motivated primarily by a deep conviction for the Torah. Concerning them, D.S. Russell writes,
Zealots were essentially men who were zealous for God; they were agents of his wrath against the idolatrous ways of the heathen. They believed that they were called by God to engage in a Holy War against “the powers of darkness.” In this they shared the convictions of many other patriotic Jews including the Covenanters of Qumran. Indeed in this respect, apart from the collaborationist Sadducees, there is at times no clear line of demarcation between one sect and another. Even Josephus, who is anxious to isolate the Zealots and to put on them alone the blame for the Jewish War, on at least one occasion links Zealots and Essenes together, and, as we have seen, associates them in their origin with a Pharisee. Their patriotism was no doubt more obviously expressed than that of the others and their zeal for God made them only too ready to wield the sword as a divinely appointed instrument of salvation, but as Dr. W. R. Farmer puts it, 'When the showdown came, the whole nation would be caught up in the life-and-death struggle between God's people and their enemies. Every patriotic Jew, whether he be Pharisee, Essene, or Zealot, would be called upon to give his full measure of service in the Holy War.' The same writer remarks that the Zealots were no doubt considered by many of their compatriots as 'over zealous' and a bit 'trigger-happy' in comparison with the other parties in the land. What is certain is that they did much to set off the war with Rome which raged from A.D. 66-70 and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire Jewish state [...] The struggle between Judaism and Hellenism was over and to all appearances the battle had been lost. But just as Hellenism could not be resisted by force alone, so Judaism could not be slain by power of arms. The Jewish state fell, but Judaism prevailed, for when conquest was denied and compromise forbidden, unlike Christianity which went out into the Hellenistic world to 'out-think and out-live and out-die' the pagans, it chose for itself the path of separation" (Farmer 183, Russell 39).
VI. Concluding Comments
After AD 70 Jews again were without city and temple, but they had still their sacred Torah; thenceforth to the study of that kernel of their special heritage they would anachronistically turn with laser-like focus (consider the Council at Jamnia for example). Anachronistically indeed, for under the Old Testament, when it was time to embrace the Law, they abolished it, at best spurned it (thus they were judged not least per above), but under the New Testament, when it was time to abolish the Law, they embraced (embrace) it.
The Torah declares a divine Testament, an old, if you will, Testament, that finds fruition in the New Testament, itself sealed with the blood, and sweat, and exceeding love of our Lord and Savior, very God, Jesus Christ. By way of His sacrifice of self and labors He Jesus is the fulfillment, the consummate satisfaction, of that divine Old Testament in any and every conceivable way.
In this study we have attempted to relate in outline form the significance of the Torah in the lives of a dear people Israel racked by trials in the periods considered. In that regard, we covered a span of approximately 400 years (320 BC-AD 70). The common stamp in each of the periods studied was that the Torah, not person, temple, or even fatherland per se, was the rallying point for the Jewish people in their struggles to resist the pervasive Hellenistic culture and civilization that threatened to overthrow their culture and way of life, each of which was and is decidedly embodied by their religion, their Judaism. It was observed that their enemies did not recognize that Jews would not violate Mosaic Tradition as put forth in the Torah, and these enemies soon learned that Jews would fight to the death in defense of the oracles of God, for so was (is) the Torah to a Jew.
It is important to remember that the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings all point to Jesus Christ (Luke 24:25-27); in other words, the oracles of God are manifest in Jesus Christ who is, of course, very God. The tragedy for some Jews was (is) that the very oracles their hundreds of thousands died for actually became Flesh in Messiah Jesus—and for Jews' sake first no less, and Him they rejected, and crucified. But Jehovah God is not mocked, the great Jewish Anachronism shall haunt and hound these rejectors of the Word become Flesh (John 1:14), eternally. Let it not be so for you dearest reader, that is our prayer for you (“A Letter of Invitation-2”).
Thank You Eternal Word Jesus Christ for satisfying that which we cannot. Praised be your blessed and great Name. Amen.
Illustrations And Tables
Figure 1. Torah scroll at old Glockengasse Synagogue (reconstruction), Cologne. Attribution.
Table 1. Socio-political-religious Groups, Parties, and Sects in or Influential to Judaism
|
|
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Threat to Jesus |
||
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Samaritans |
|
Schismatic; staunch adherers to Samaritan Pentateuch and Samaritan temple worship. |
n/a. |
Outside of Jesus being a Jew, largely none, though Jesus rejected their worship practice and beliefs proclaiming they will be supplanted by spiritual ones. |
|
Am haAretz |
|
Largely unconcerned with the details of Torah religion; unschooled in Torah religion. Willfully ignorant of Jewish Law according to the Talmud. |
80-90. |
None. Quite the opposite, they were drawn to Jesus. |
|
Scribes |
|
Professional students/doctors of Torah religion. |
Less than 1. |
See Pharisees. |
|
Hasidim |
|
Pious, staunch adherers to Torah religion, patriotic. |
Superset comprised of Essenes, Pharisees, and Zealots. |
See Essenes, Pharisees, and Zealots. |
|
Hellenizers |
|
Loose, willing to compromise Torah religion. |
Superset comprised of Herodians, Sadducees. |
See Herodians, Sadducees. |
|
Essenes |
|
Uncompromising, scrupulous adherents to Torah religion; apocalyptic, ascetic, and strictly disciplinary with respect to their beliefs. |
Less than 1. |
It is not recorded that Jesus ever encountered an Essene. |
|
Pharisees |
|
Jewish sect. Word means “set apart.” Middle class, businessmen, obsequious adherents of the Law on the surface—sanctimonious. Believed in the authority of both written and oral traditions of Torah religion, staunch adherents thereof; believed in the resurrection of the dead; synagogue-based; believed Jewish posture toward world should be one of separation; organized; patriotic; some were in Sanhedrin. |
Less than or equal to 5. |
Jesus' message threatened to undermine their ritual and legal superfluities and end their posture of exclusivity— He was sought by and associated with the poor, weak, unlearned, whom they considered hopeless sinners and disdained. |
|
Sadducees |
|
Religious sect, wealthy, nobility stock, priestly, believed in authority of written tradition of Torah religion only; denied any resurrection of the dead, i.e., believed the soul perishes after death; collaborationists with whatever power in control, e.g., Roman procuratory after AD 6; temple-based: custodians of the temple / temple rites; some were in Sanhedrin. |
Less than 1. |
Jesus' large following of awestruck masses could shift power, bring revolt, undermine their collaborationist relationship with Rome; He was sought by and associated with the poor, weak, unlearned, whom they disdained. |
|
Rome |
|
Hellenistic. |
n/a. |
None (e.g. John 18:38). |
|
Herodians |
|
Supportive of the Herodian dynasty in general (37 BC-AD 93); significantly, they became tied to Herod Antipas (4 BC-AD 39). |
n/a. |
Saw our Savior as a potential rallying point for revolt, a messianic hope for the people--revolt and/or shift in power would upset their collaborationist relationship with Rome, much like the Sadducees in this regard. |
|
Zealots |
AD 6 |
Judean extremist political party, comprised of Jewish nationalists of the Maccabean spirit, in this case not Seleucid, but Roman and Roman collaborator targets; staunch defenders of Torah religion in the Hasidim mold; apocalyptical. Hardly was anyone more confused about God’s Messiah than a first-century Zealot. Some argue that the Judean Judas Iscariot was a Zealot. |
n/a. |
Jesus' message of peace and brotherly love stood against their militant objectives. |
Works Cited and References
“A Letter of invitation.”
Jesus, Amen.
< https://development.jesusamen.org/a-letter-of-invitation-2/ >
Balchin, John, ed.
The Compact Survey Of The Bible.
Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers,1987. 0-87123-964-7.
"Dead Sea Scrolls."
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
< http://britannica.com/eb/article?eu=30107 >
< https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/index.html >
Early Jewish Writings.
< https://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/ >
Erdmans Family Encyclopedia Of The Bible . Guideposts ed.
Grand Rapids: Erdmans Publishing Co., 1978. 0-8028-3517-1.
Farmer, W. R.
Maccabees, Zealots and Josephus .
1956--we are trying to locate bibliographic information.
Figure 1.
HOWI - Horsch, Willy, CC BY-SA 4.0.
< https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 >
“High Priest.”
GotQuestions.
< https://www.gotquestions.org/high-priest.html >
Josephus, Flavius.
(Genuine) Works of.
< https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/index.html >
Moore, G. F.
History of Religions Vol. II: Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.
Niswonger, Richard L.
New Testament History .
Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. 0-310-31201-9.
“Palestine.”
Jesus, Amen.
< https://jesusamen.org/palestine.html >
Payne, J.B.
Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy.
Grand Rapids: Baker book House, 1973. 0-8010-7051-1.
Russell, D. S.
Between the Testaments.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968. 0-8006-1856-4.
“Second Temple.”
Wikipedia.
“The Council at Jamnia.”
Jesus, Amen.
< https://jesusamen.org/thecouncilatjamnia.html >