Galatians lesson #9

GALATIANS # 9
HISTORY
An overview (8)
8/16/10

The period beginning with the completion of the O. T., (the book of Malachi, about 425 – 433 B. C.), and ending with the birth of Jesus was “silent”. During this 400+ yrs., there were no recorded canonical prophetic messages, or other revelations from other means; nothing that was preserved and made a part of the canon. There are books from this time, which were adopted by other than Judaic scholars and reformed Christians; these folks give these “apocryphal” books the same stature as all other Scripture –(The story of the Maccabees is told in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, which are part of the Septuagint, and in 3 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees, which are not. 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees are part of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments, but not the Hebrew Bible, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/) (Wikipedia)
Although these apocryphal books are included in the Septuagint, none are included in Hebrew or Protestant Christian canon.

Though “silent” as to further inspired prophecies or writings, there was a lot going on historically; the politico-military/socio-economic turmoil in the region was at a fever pitch, intimately affecting the Israelites. Through all this, God continued to preserve His chosen people; despite their frequent failures, He remained faithful to His promises.
The division of Israel, and subsequent inept leadership, resulted in a weakened country; they were no longer a buffer or restraint to the territorial ambitions of their neighbors. The Assyrians were the first to make their move, conquering and annexing much territory in the region, including Israel/Samaria:
(see map #1)

Then the Babylonians:
(see map #2)

Then the Persians:
(see map #3)

As Isaiah had foretold, (Isaiah 40: 1 – 5; 44: 28; 45: 6), Cyrus (the ruler of Persia) allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and begin re-building the Temple. The Israelites were allowed to return, to re-build the temple and resume temple worship, but not re-establish the monarchy. Without a structured government, the priests, by default, became the most powerful group and the country became a Theocracy, with the priesthood as the ruling class. From this ruling class of priests came the sect that would later be known as the Sadducees. (wiki/ Pharisees)

In 333 B. C. the Greek army under the leadership of Alexander The Great defeated the Persians and took over what had been their kingdom.

(See map #4)

As the Greeks advanced, they made examples of any city that resisted: they utterly destroyed them…legend has it that in 332 B. C., the high priest of Jerusalem, went outside the city gate, met Alexander and invited him to enter the city. Legend continues, saying that Alexander acknowledged the One God of the Israelites and left the Jewish culture intact, though subject to Greek rule (Robinson).

Alexander was very proud of his Greek heritage and not only conquered, but decreed that forces be set in motion to implant Greek philosophy, arts, culture, language - Greece’s entire civilization as he advanced eastward, occupying country after country. As a result of these efforts, Greek became the second language throughout the entire “civilized world”; Greek philosophy became an integral part of all intellectual thought: the entire region was “Hellenized” to some extant – some areas more so than others. The universal spreading of the Greek language was a world changing event – throughout the entire “known world”, any place you went someone could speak Greek. The removal of the language barriers facilitated communication and the conveyance of new ideas between the various ethnic groups.

Immediately upon Alexander’s death, the Greek empire began un-raveling, fragmenting; his generals split the empire up among themselves with Ptolemy taking Egypt and Judea:

The Hellenistic period of Jewish history began when Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 332 BCE. The rift between the priests and the sages developed at this time, when Jews faced new political and cultural struggles. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies until 198 BCE, when the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire, under Antiochus III, seized control. Then, in 167 BCE, Antiochus IV invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. He imposed a program of forced hellenization, requiring Jews to abandon their own laws and customs, and precipitating the Maccabean Revolt. Jerusalem was liberated in 165 BCE and the Temple was restored. In 141 BCE an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon Maccabeus as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty. (wikipedia)

The sect specifically identified as “Pharisees” came into existence during this period. The earliest known, extra-Biblical, mention of the Pharisees as such, is by the historian Josephus:

Antiquites of the Jews
Copyrights and Permissions
Copyrights The Works of Josephus Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1998, Parsons Technology, Inc., PO Box 100, Hiawatha, Iowa. All rights reserved.
Book 13 Containing the Interval of Eighty-Two Years From the Death of Judas Maccabeus to the Death of Queen Alexandra
Chapter 1 How Jonathan Took the Government After His Brother Judas; and How He, Together with His Brother Simon, Waged War Against Bacchides
BOOK 13
CHAPTER 5
How Trypho, After He Had Beaten Demetrius, Delivered the Kingdom to Antiochus, the Son of Alexander, and Gained Jonathan for His Assistant; and Concerning the Actions and Embassies of Jonathan: (Verse)
9. At this time there were three sects among the Jews, who had different opinions concerning human actions; the one was called the sect of the Pharisees, another the sect of the Sadducees, and the other the sect of the Essens. Now for the Pharisees,Ant-13-11 they say that some actions, but not all, are the work of fate, and some of them are in our own power, and that they are liable to fate, but are not caused by fate. But the sect of the Essens affirm, that fate governs all things, and that nothing befalls men but what is according to its determination. And for the Sadducees, they take away fate, and say there is no such thing, and that the events of human affairs are not at its disposal; but they suppose that all our actions are in our own power, so that we are ourselves the causes of what is good, and receive what is evil from our own folly. However, I have given a more exact account of these opinions in the second book of the Jewish War. (Verse)

As F. F. Bruce points out:

“….Josephus does not trace the spiritual ancestry of the Pharisees, but it is very probable that they arose within the ranks of the h sidim or “Godly people”, who are referred to in the books of Maccabees as “Hasideans” (1 Maccabees 2: 42; 7: 14; 2Maccabees 14: 6). The origin of these Hasideans is probably to be sought among the Godly people in Judea, who, some decades after the return from exile, banded together in order to encourage one another in the study and practice of the sacred law in the midst of what they saw as moral and religious declension…” (Bruce)

These people, the likely forerunners of the Pharisees, were very possibly from the devout group described in the book of Malachi:

Malachi 3:16-18 ( KJV )
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

The Pharisees were a natural outgrowth of all that had gone on, the Israelites entire existence as a people had been an ongoing saga of the pendulum swinging from the joy of God’s deliverance (Exodus 14: 31) to the despair of the consequences of their un-faithfulness, here so poignantly proclaimed by the “weeping prophet”:

Nehemiah 1:1-9 ( KJV )
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

The Greek general Ptolemy I seized control of Jerusalem in 320 B.C; it was during this period, with the encouragement of Ptolemy II, that the Septuagint was written:

Jewish scholars first translated the Torah into Koine Greek in the third century BC.[6][7] According to the record in the Talmud, 'King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: 'Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher.' God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did'[8]
Further books were translated over the next two centuries. It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where; some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, and then revised.[9] The quality and style of the different translators also varied considerably from book to book, from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. According to one assessment "the Pentateuch is reasonably well translated, but the rest of the books, especially the poetical books, are often very poorly done and even contain sheer absurdities".[10]
As the work of translation progressed gradually, and new books were added to the collection, the compass of the Greek Bible came to be somewhat indefinite. The Pentateuch always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon; but the prophetic collection (out of which the Nevi'im were selected) changed its aspect by having various hagiographa incorporated into it. Some of the newer works, those called anagignoskomena in Greek, are not included in the Jewish canon. Among these books are Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Also, the Septuagint version of some works, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Masoretic Text.[11] Some of the later books (Wisdom of Solomon, 2 Maccabees, and others) apparently were not translated, but composed in Greek.
The authority of the larger group of "writings", out of which the ketuvim were selected, had not yet been determined, although some sort of selective process must have been employed because the Septuagint did not include other well-known Jewish documents such as Enoch or Jubilees or other writings that are now part of the Pseudepigrapha. It is not known what principles were used to determine the contents of the Septuagint beyond the "Law and the Prophets", a phrase used several times in the New Testament. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint) (Wikipedia)

The Ptolemies retained control until 199 B.C. when Antiochus III , at the culmination of a series of battles, wrested control from the Ptolemies. Under the Ptolemies, the Jews were treated well with considerable freedom












DISCUSSION
1. Where is the earliest reference to Christ? (we discussed this in earlier lessons)
2. Where, in the O. T., is the last reference to Christ?
3. What is the purpose of the Old Testament?
4. What happened after Solomon died?
5. When was Cyrus first mentioned?
6. Why was he significant?
7. What became of the Israelites who didn’t return to Jerusalem?
8. What was the most significant consequence of Alexander’s conquest?
9. What is the earliest likely identification of the Pharisees?
10. What is the earliest historical reference to the Pharisees?
11. What was their most distinguishing characteristic?
12. What are some events that seemed to verify their beliefs?