The Jewish World at the Time of
Jesus
Second Temple Judaism
 Look up verses in OT about temple.
 Second Temple Judaism PPT slides
 Temple video – Bible Project
Activity
 Look up images of the following. Make sure that the images are from the First Century and
not modern.
 Second Temple
 Jewish Synagogues
 Jewish Scrolls
 Priestly garments
 Priests (You can search Old Testament Priests for better results.)
 Rabbis
 The Sanhedrin
Major Jewish Beliefs
and Education
Jewish Beliefs: One God and One People
• While the Jewish world was far from monolithic, there were a
couple of fundamental beliefs that united Jews of every
stripe:
1. There was one God, creator of heaven and earth, who
remained in close relationship with His creation.
2. This God had specially set apart Israel as His one people.
• They shared a commitment to the Torah as both the story of
Israel and instruction for ongoing faithfulness.
• The central event in their history was God’s salvation of their
people in the Exodus, and they believed God would save
them again.
Beliefs about the Messiah(s)
 N.T. Wright summarizes first century thoughts on the messiah:
“Not all Jews in this period, so far as we can tell, believed in a coming
messiah… Those who did hope for such a figure envisaged the
messiah as a warrior hero. He would be a new David; he would
overthrow the wicked pagans (Rome), to restore the Temple to make
it fit for Israel’s God to come back to at last, and establish a worldwide
rule of justice and peace.”
 The Qumran community that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls believed that
there were going to be two messiahs, a religious priest-like messiah that
would die for the Israelite people and a political king-like messiah that
would rule over Israel afterward.
 Simon, Athronges, and Theudas were three men who claimed to be the
messiah around Jesus’s day. Both started small revolts, but all three
ended up being killed by the Romans or sent into exile.
Just…. No. Please stop.
Jewish Education
Josephus, the Jewish historian during
the Roman period, wrote: “Above all
we pride ourselves on the education
of our children.”
Jewish children were taught to read
very quickly. For them, the study of the
Torah was the highest way of bringing
glory to God.
Schooling for them consisted of three
stages, each advancing in
progressively more difficult increments.
Jewish Education
 Three School Levels:
1. The House of the Book
Reading and writing are taught using the Torah.
2. The House of Learning
 Study of the rest of the Old Testament and parts of the Oral Law (called
the Mishnah)
Most of these students would return to their family businesses after failing
the entrance exam to the House of Study.
3. The House of Study
 The best students would graduate to the third and final level.
Would-be disciples would study and be tested by rabbis in order to follow
them. If a rabbi thought a student was impressive, he would invite the
student to follow him until age 30.
Jewish Education
At the age of 30, a rabbi
would begin his own ministry,
just like Jesus who started his
ministry at age 30.
Three prominent first-century
rabbis were Hillel, Shammai,
and Gamaliel (mentioned in
Acts 5:34).
Paul was a disciple of
Gamaliel before He began
to follow Jesus.
Jewish Education
All of this hopefully shows you how radical it was that
Jesus asked 12 disciples to follow Him.
First, the disciple is supposed to ask the teacher.
Second, the men that Jesus chose were of the age that
meant they had not passed their graduate-level exam.
Jesus did not choose the best and brightest. He chose
ordinary men.
Robby
Gallaty,
Talking
about
Jesus’s
Call to
Peter and
Andrew
to Follow
The Center of Jewish Life:
The Temple
Major Jewish Groups
Timeline – Who Ruled over the Jews?
• Babylonian Period: 597 BC – 539 BC
• Persian Period: 538 BC – 332 BC
• Alexander’s Greek Period: 332 BC – 323 BC
• Alexander dies in 323 BC
• Egyptian (Ptolemaic) Period: 320 – 200 BC
• Syrian (Seleucids) defeat the Ptolemies in 200 BC
• Syrian (Seleucids) Period: 200 BC – 142 BC
• Antiochus IV desecrates the Jewish Temple, triggering the
Maccabean revolt.
A Brief History of the Jews in 8 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=fIYHMdOr5Aw
N.T. Wright on Antiochus IV’s Desecration
of the Jewish Temple
“Very often in the ancient world such moves would have
worked quite satisfactorily, at least from the conqueror’s
point of view. But Antiochus had not reckoned on the
tenacity of the Jews. Some of them refused to break their
ancient laws, and died rather than submit, leaving a
memory of martyrdom for the Torah that was kept fresh all
the way to today… [Many] believed that the covenant
God would act in a new way. He would vindicate his own
name, his chosen place (the Temple), his sacred turf, his
holy law, and his faithful people, only if those people
remained faithful to him.”
The Maccabees and Hasmoneans
• Antiochus IV underestimated the religious zeal of his
Jewish subjects, and they fought relentlessly from 167 BC
until 142 BC.
• The Maccabees / Hasmoneans successfully won their
independence from the Syrian / Seleucid rulers in 142 BC.
• Big Mistake along the way: The Maccabees named one
of their leaders as high priest, a title that the Old
Testament law forbid. (Only descendants from the tribe of
Levi – Levites – could be priests.)
The Maccabees and Hasmoneans
• Antiochus IV underestimated the religious zeal of his Jewish
subjects, and they fought relentlessly from 167 BC until 142 BC.
• The Maccabees / Hasmoneans successfully won their
independence from the Syrian / Seleucid rulers in 142 BC.
• Big Mistake along the way: The Maccabees named one of
their leaders as high priest, a title that the Old Testament law
forbid. (Only descendants from the tribe of Levi – Levites –
could be priests.)
• The time of Jewish rule lasted from 142 BC to 63 BC, when the
Jews would once again lose their independence to Rome.
Major Jewish Sects / Groups
1.Pharisees – the religious conservatives
2.Essenes – the religious separatists
3.Sadducees - the wealthy compromisers
4.Zealots – the religious rebels
Major Jewish
Sects
Major Jewish
Sects
Major Jewish Sects
• As you can see, the origin of these four
groups are somewhat mysterious. We can
tell that the Pharisees and Essenes came
from a group during the Hasmonean
period called the Hasidim.
• We know that the Hasidim was a very pious
Jewish group who cared about strict
observance to the five books of Moses.
• The Hasidim eventually rejected the
Hasmonean rulers. The Sadducees
continued to support the Hasmoneans until
Rome conquered them in 63 BC.
The Hasidim
split into…
Pharisees
Essenes
Major Jewish Sects
• The Hasidim party split during the Hasmonean Period.
• The group later called the Pharisees would turn against the
Hasmoneans for giving preference to the wealthy
Sadducees.
• The group later called the Essenes separated themselves
from society.
• When Rome took over Jewish lands, the Sadducees
supported them. The Sadducees were the wealthy
aristocrat class, and they supported any leadership as long
as they could keep their power.
Groups within Judaism
Political Tendencies of Jewish Groups
Pro-Roman
Anti-Roman
Herodians
Sadducees
Pharisees
Essenes
Zealots
Active supporters of proRoman Herodian dynasty
Supporters of status
quo and favorable to
Romans
Anti-Roman, though
still involved in
political affairs
Withdrew from society,
waiting for God to
overthrow the Romans
Violently anti-Roman,
actively seeking to
overthrow the
government
1. Pharisees
• The main conversation partners with Jesus in the NT
• While it may seem like they were the great rivals to Jesus since
he targeted them so much in his teaching, it was probably
because they were the main religious teachers of that day.
• In fact, Jesus was probably closest to the Pharisees in terms of
beliefs.
• While all Pharisees believed in strict obedience to the Torah,
there was a broad range of Pharisaic beliefs. The more strict a
Pharisee you were, the more likely you might be to sympathize
with the zealots.
• For example, Paul was a very strict Pharisee and called for the
imprisonment of anyone who claimed Jesus as Lord. He also
gave assent to the murder of a Christian named Stephen.
1. Pharisees
• They held no official political power, but they were essentially a
pressure group.
• N.T. Wright states: “Their aim went like this. When ejected from
the halls of power, start a grass-roots campaign to get your
vision for Israel adopted by the masses, tell everyone to have
their own ritual bath if they can, have your bones buried, and
wait for resurrection. If we can be obedient enough, get pure
enough, keep Torah most accurately, then maybe the messiah
will come.”
• The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead and in
angels.
• After the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, the
Pharisees came to dominate the Jewish world.
Pharisees and Hope for Messiah – Ezek. 37:24-28
“24 My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one
shepherd for all of them. They will follow my ordinances, and keep
my statutes and obey them.
25 “‘They
will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where
your ancestors lived. They will live in it forever with their children
and grandchildren, and my servant David will be their prince
forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a
permanent covenant with them. I will establish and multiply them
and will set my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling
place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my
people. 28 When my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations
will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel.’”
1. Pharisees
• Most of the scribes in Jesus’s
day were Pharisees.
• The Pharisees had a strong
hope that a Messiah was
coming to save them, but this
Messiah for them was a warriorking that would free them from
the Romans.
1. Pharisees
• Jesus apparently had some supporters within this sect, such as
Nicodemus (John 3). Some Pharisees joined the Jesus
movement after Christ’s death.
• Arguably one of their chief concerns was keeping their Jewish
identity alive. In the first century, the Jewish way of life
(monotheism, Torah observance, practicing the Sabbath) were
questioned by the Hellenistic Jews, various philosophy traditions,
and by the Roman leaders.
• Jesus’s main rebuke against the Pharisees was that they put
such a great emphasis on their own traditions on top of the
Scriptures that they missed the heart. This led to arrogance,
empty rituals, and disregard for their role in bringing light to the
world.
Jesus on the Pharisees – Matthew 23:1-12
“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The scribes and the
Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they
tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t
practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry
and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to
lift a finger to move them. 5 They do everything to be seen by others: They
enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.6 They love the place
of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the
marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.
8 “But
you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because you have one
Teacher,and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 Do not call anyone on earth
your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 You are not
to be called instructors either, because you have one Instructor, the
Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts
himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
2. Essenes
• They are not mentioned in the New Testament, but they
are talked about in the writings of Josephus and Philo.
• They were known for asceticism, rejecting all forms of
indulgence. Many isolated themselves from organized
society, choosing to live on the outskirts in small secluded
communities.
• They were also very zealous for the Old Testament laws,
and they lived this out by sharing meals together and
reading scripture corporately to each other.
• The alarming suddenness of John the Baptist’s teachings
about the coming of God lead some to think that he was a
part of this sect.
2. Essenes
• Most scholars believe that the Qumran community were
Essenes. The Qumranites are famous today after the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.
• Various scrolls of OT books and other Jewish texts were
found in the caves that these communities lived in. They
made multiple copies of these texts by hand.
2. Essenes
• The group supposedly started when a figure known as the
“Teacher of Righteousness” led them into the wilderness as a
protest against the Hasmonean rulers and their “wicked priest”.
This is probably saying that they left Jerusalem after the
Maccabees broke Old Testament law by naming a non-Levite
to the high priesthood.
• Their theme verse was Isaiah 40:3, the same as John the Baptist:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness: Prepare the way for
the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
• They saw themselves as the “true Israel” of the Old Testament,
the faithful remnant. When God came to earth to restore Israel,
he was actually going to elevate the Qumranites for their
faithfulness if they were holy enough.
3. Sadducees
• This wealthy, aristocratic group enjoyed the benefits of being in
the upper class. They supported their Roman leaders in order to
retain their power.
• While the Pharisees and Essenes valued all of what we call the
Old Testament, the Sadducees only read and studied the Torah.
Compared to these groups, the Sadducees were more liberal.
• They did not believe in any kind of bodily resurrection or final
judgment afterward. They also did not have strong messianic
hopes.
3. Sadducees
• They were the most Hellenized of the Jewish sects and were
rather supportive of Greek and Roman influences in Jewish
society.
• The high priest at the time of Jesus, named Caiaphas, was a
Sadducee. He was the head of the religious / political board of
Jewish leaders called the Sanhedrin, which was also led by a
majority of Sadducees with a minority of Pharisees.
• Most of the priests at the time of Jesus were Sadducees.
• After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish
Temple in AD 70, the Sadducee party was either wiped out or
assimilated into Greco-Roman society.
4. Zealots
• While religious devotion was high in the Pharisee and
Essene sects as well, none matched the leaders of the
most extreme religious group – the Sicarii, or “dagger
men”.
• Eager to see the restoration of political independence,
they believed that their rebellion against Roman rule was
sanctioned by God.
• N.T. Wright summarizes their worldview well: “Say your
prayers, sharpen your swords, make yourselves holy to fight
a holy war, and God will give you the military victory over
the hordes of darkness.”
4. Zealots
• Judaea had been socially unstable
since the Romans took over in 63 BC.
A sampling of revolutionary activity
sponsored by various zealot groups
should illustrate their tactics.
1) The Rebel Hezekiah led
movements of theft and robbery
before being killed by Herod the
Great, the Hellenistic Jew who
ruled in the 40s BC with approval
of the Romans.
4. Zealots
2) In 4 BC, a group of zealots pulled down the
Roman eagle that Herod the Great put up
on the Temple Gate as he lay dying. Two
respected teachers from the Temple egged
them on, and the high priest was suspected
of helping in the planning of this act. Herod
brutally punished these Jews as one of his last
acts. A more large-scale revolt followed his
death on Passover, when Jews celebrate the
Exodus from Egypt. Uprisings in Galilee and
Idumea followed.
4. Zealots
3) An Egyptian Jew led a mass movement of people
outside Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, where he
promised the city walls would fall down as they
entered in triumph. His thousands of followers were
massacred, but he escaped (Acts 21:38).
4) Around 40 AD the Roman emperor Caligula almost
sparked revolution when he tried to place a huge
statue of himself in the Jewish Temple, despite the
protests of his own men. Only his early death
stopped this from happening.
5) A riot at Passover around 50 AD led to the
genocide of perhaps 20,000 Jews.
From Josephus, narrating an event during a Passover festival when
a Roman soldier “mooned” some Jewish pilgrims:
“The usual crowd had assembled at Jerusalem for the feast of
unleavened bread, and the Roman cohort had taken up its
position on the roof of the portico of the temple; for a body of men
in arms invariably mounts guard at the feasts, in order to prevent
disorders. One of the solders, raising his robe, stooped in an
indecent attitude, so as to turn his backside to the Jews… Enraged
at the insult, the whole multitude called upon the governor
Cumanus to punish the solder.
Some of the more hot-headed young men in the crowd started a
fight, and, picking up stones, hurled them at the troops. Cumanus,
fearing a general attack upon himself, sent for reinforcements…
From Josephus, narrating an event during a Passover festival when
a Roman soldier “mooned” some Jewish pilgrims:
… These troops pouring into the porticoes, the Jews were seized
with irresistible panic and turned to fly from the temple and make
their escape into the town. But such violence was used as they
pressed round the exits that they were trodden under foot and
crushed to death by one another.
Upwards of thirty thousand perished, and the feast was turned into
mourning for the whole nation and for every household into
lamentation.”
4. Zealots
• These five incidents are just a sampling of the
many revolutionary events in the relationship
between the Jews and the Romans, which
eventually led to the Jewish-Roman War (AD 6670).
• These events illustrate just how easy it was to
provoke an incident with the Jews.
• While it would be easier to make this “zealot”
group distinct and separate from the other
groups, it appears more likely that many
movements were zealous in one way or another
in finding ways to liberate the Jewish people.
The Common People
• As Josephus the Jewish historian stated, it seems that the Pharisees were
more successful in persuading the masses of common people to agree
with them. The majority of people believed in the resurrection and that
“God would act in history to bring about His promised kingdom” (N.T.
Wright, 130).
• As Wright states, “Most ordinary Jews were consumed with the daily
struggle of human existence: farming, trading, paying taxes, putting
food on the table, dealing with family matters…”
• However, it does seem that the average Jew still cared immensely about
their God, their Scriptures, and their Jewish heritage. They prayed,
fasted, went to the synagogue, abstained from pork or shellfish, and
attended Jewish feasts. They obeyed the Sabbath day, and circumcised
their male children.
Paul’s Teaching on People Groups
• We like to break society into groups as well. Examples
include doctors and engineers, Hindus and Buddhists, the
homeless and the wealthy, Republicans and Democrats…
• Paul had this to say:
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor
is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Galatians 3:28)
• Two truths can be found in Scripture:
1. All groups are welcomed into God’s people.
2. Christians take on a new identity with no divisions between
other members in the Christian community.
Groups within Judaism
People of the Land
• Most people were unaffiliated with such groups
• Generally hated Roman rule and taxation
• Respect for Pharisees and scribes
• Awaiting political messiah to overthrow Romans
Chapter 6:
The Jewish Context
of Jesus and the
Early Church
Jewish Life in Palestine
• Geography: coastal plain; central mountains; Jordan valley;
Trans-Jordan
• Language and Literacy: Aramaic and Greek spoken, with
Hebrew read and sometimes spoken; ancient literacy rates are
estimated around 10-15%, but perhaps higher among Jews
and Christians
• Economic Life: Palestine was an agrarian society with a
stratified social structure with a ruling elite, regional elites,
municipal elites, lower-level retainers, professional class,
peasant class, the destitute, and slaves.
• Cultural Values: family and kinship; honor and shame;
purity and pollution
Chapter 10:
Who Did Jesus
Think He Was?
A Prophet, Like One of the
Prophets Long Ago
• As we have seen in the previous chapter, a good
starting point for addressing Jesus's selfconception is a prophet.
• Unlike the prophets of old, Jesus's message was
strikingly self-referential.
• Jesus not only announced the kingdom of God,
he depicted himself as the central actor in the
drama with the job of inaugurating the kingdom.
Who Is This 'Son of Man'?
The phrase 'Son of Man' can be used
• In Hebrew to mean 'human being' or 'mere mortal' (e.g., Ps 8.4;
Ezekiel)
• To evoke the figure from Daniel 7 described as 'one like a son of man'
• In Aramaic to mean 'a man,' 'someone,' or 'this man' as a self-reference
Jesus probably evoked all of these various meanings at different times.
His identification of himself with the figure from Daniel 7 suggests that
he identified himself as the Messiah as some Jews read the text this way
in the time of Jesus.
The Messiah
There was no uniform and monolithic 'messianic expectation' shared by
all first-century Jews, but the overlap in most conceptions seems to be a
royal figure who would liberate Israel, reestablish the temple, and found
a renewed Jewish kingdom. Several lines of evidence suggest that Jesus
viewed himself as a messianic figure:
• He applies passages from Isaiah to himself that other Jewish texts
associate with the Messiah.
• He seems to have positioned himself in the role of the king within the
kingdom of God.
• His teachings make prominent allusions and comparisons to David
and Solomon.
• He rode into Jerusalem celebrated as the 'Son of David.'
• He performed a prophetic act in the temple that implied he had royal
authority over it.
• He discussed the identity of the Messiah as David's Lord with scribes.
• He identified himself with the smitten shepherd of Zech 13.7.
• At his trial, he responded to the question of his messiahship with an
affirmative answer that conflates Ps. 110.1 and Dan 7.13.
• He was executed on the charge of being a messianic pretender.
Did Jesus Think He Was God?
• To consider whether or not Jesus thought he was God, it is
important to clarify that the God Jesus would have thought of
was the God of Israel, the God who created heaven and earth,
remaining in close and dynamic relation with his creation,
and who called Israel to be his special people.
• An important theme in the Old Testament is the return of
YHWH to Zion, a prophetic expression of the hope that God
would fully restore Israel.
• Luke's account of Jesus's approach to Jerusalem is meant to
recall the traditions of the return of YHWH to Zion.
• Jesus's lament over Jerusalem implies that his coming to the
city is the embodiment of the return of YHWH himself,
which the city tragically fails to recognize.
• As Daniel 7 and Ezekiel 1 illustrate, the Jewish affirmation of
one God did not exclude the thought of a figure sharing the
divine throne.
• Jesus appears to be claiming that he is the figure who will
share the divine throne through his evocation of Ps 110.1 and
Dan 7.13 at his trial.
• Jesus did not have a consciousness
that he was the second person
of the Trinity; he was conscious of
his vocation to enact in himself
what, in Israel's scriptures, God
had promised to accomplish all by
himself, returning and redeeming
his people.