New Testament Background: The Jewish World

New Testament Background

The Jewish World

The New Testament relates a story already in progress. It assumes that its readers know the material that constitutes what Christians call the “Old Testament,” and they are also expected to know what happened to the Jewish people in the intervening years since those books were written.

Let’s try a quick exercise. Look at the list of words below and try to guess what they all have in common— two things actually:

baptism        exorcism      parable         Samaritan

centurion     gentile          Pharisee       synagogue

crucifixion   hell              rabbi            tax collector

denarius       Jew              Roman

devil            messiah        Sadducee

What do these words have in common?

First, they all designate common phenomena that are mentioned frequently in the New Testament.

Second, they designate rare phenomena, mentioned infrequently (if at all) in the Old Testament.

Clearly, a lot has changed in what might broadly be called “the biblical world.” The Israelites of the Old Testament have become the Jews of the New Testament, and much has happened to them and to the world in which they live.

The Old Testament relates the story of a people who identified themselves as God’s chosen ones.

Their history as a people began with God’s selection of Abraham and Sarah and with God’s decision to have a special relationship with all of their descendants. Those descendants were organized into twelve tribes but were known collectively as the children of Israel. They had to endure hard years of slavery in Egypt, but God called Moses to deliver them, give them the Torah (instruction in how God’s people ought to live), and lead them to the promised land (a region the Romans would later call Palestine). There they became a significant nation that reached its high point under King David around 1000 BCE. They built a magnificent temple, but subsequent centuries were marked by division and decline.

In 587 BCE the Babylonians conquered the capital city of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took the population into exile. Fifty years later Cyrus of Persia allowed the people (now called Jews) to return and build a new temple, which was dedicated in 515 BCE and much later destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Thus the span of Jewish history from 515 BCE to 70 CE is often referred to as the Second Temple period. It is further subdivided into four periods.

The Persian Period (ca. 537–332 BCE)

Throughout this period the Jewish nation was ruled by high priests with minimal interference from the Persian kings. It was at this time that synagogues emerged as significant sites for teaching and worship. The Jews became increasingly focused on faithfulness to Torah as the hallmark of their religion.

The Hellenistic Period (ca. 332–167 BCE)

With the conquests of Alexander the Great, Palestine came under Greek control; after Alexander’s death Palestine came first to be part of the empire of the Ptolemies, whose power was centered in Egypt (320– 198 BCE). Then it became part of the empire of the Seleucids, whose power was centered in Syria (198–167 BCE). One of the Seleucid rulers, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175– 164 BCE), sought to exterminate the Jewish religion by inflicting horrible atrocities on anyone who professed or practiced the faith.

The Hasmonean Period (167–63 BCE)

Jewish rebels nicknamed “Maccabees” (“hammers”) led a revolt against

Antiochus and won independence. The temple (defiled by Antiochus) was rededicated in an event that would come to be commemorated through the Festival of Hanukkah. The Maccabees established a Jewish state ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty (“Hasmonean” being the official family name for the leaders of the Maccabees). Jewish sects, including those that would eventually be known as “Pharisees” and “Sadducees,”emerged at this time.

The Roman Period (63 BCE–70 CE)

Civil war among the Hasmoneans left the Jewish state ripe for conquest by the growing Roman Empire. The Roman general Pompey annexed the territory without much of a struggle in 63 BCE, and Palestine would remain under Roman rule to the end of the Second Temple period—and beyond.

New Testament Chronology

63 BCE                  Pompey conquers Jerusalem for Rome

ca. 6–4 BCE          birth of Jesus

ca. 30–33 CE         crucifixion of Jesus

ca. 32–36 CE         Paul becomes a follower of Christ

ca. 46–65 CE     Paul’s missionary journeys and imprisonment (as recorded in Acts); Paul’s letters written during this period

ca. 62–65 CE         martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome

ca. 65–73 CE         Gospel of Mark written

66 CE                    outbreak of Jewish war with Rome

70 CE                    destruction of the Jerusalem temple

73 CE                    fall of Masada—definitive end of the Jewish war

ca. 80–100 CE     other New Testament books written: Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, and “second-generation” letters by followers of the original apostles