There are many other forms of the apocalyptic hope. Another form of this hope is associated with the Coming of a Son of David found in the first century B. Despite the variety of the forms of expression, the hope for a climactic series of events that will lead to the final, eschatological intervention of God into human history, directly or through intermediary figures is constant.
This revelation frequently takes the form of dreams or visions, which are then interpreted by a heavenly figure. The dreams or visions generally use symbols to recount the history of the Jewish or Christian people and to express the hope for the immediate future. So, for example, Daniel 7 tells in symbols the history of the Near Eastern world from the Babylonian Empire through the Persian Empire to the conquests of Alexander the Great and his ten successors as kings of the Macedonian Seleucid Kingdom of Syria.
The result was the Jewish revolt. The author of Daniel 7 is living at the time of this Maccabean revolt, writing to inspire his people with confidence that the war is the beginning of the End, that it will shortly be ended by the coming of the Son of Man as judge and ruler of the world.
The book of Daniel is pseudonymous, that is, it was written under an assumed name long after the time of most of the events it pretends to prophesy. This is characteristic of Jewish apocalyptic writings, and usually a name of some importance—Abraham, Moses, David, or the like—would be chosen. This feature, of course, lent the writing a certain authority and there was no modern notion of fraud or copyright. The history would be portrayed in symbolic form leading up to the symbolic vision of the seer.
The seer also dreamed and thought in traditional symbolic images, and frequently he alluded to previously written texts that contained them. These are the most important characteristics of apocalyptic eschatology: a sense of alienation and of despair about history that bred the belief that the world was rushing to a foreordained tragic climax, a hope in God that fostered the conviction that he would act in the climactic moment to change things utterly and forever, and a conviction that it would be possible to recognize the signs of the coming of that climactic moment.
Its chief literary characteristics were pseudonymity, symbolism, and quotation from previously existing texts. Associated with some apocalyptic eschatological texts is the hope for a future redeemer, a Messiah. In the eschatological materials, there are several types of expectation. We have just noted a future redeemer and judge, the Son of Man.
Other Jews hoped for a descendant of David to come, overthrow the enemies, and reestablish the Davidic kingdom. The following passage combines this with adherence to the Torah:. And they shall not depart from any maxim of the Law to walk in all the stubbornness of their heart. And they shall be governed by the first ordinances in which the members of the Community began their instruction, until the coming of the Prophet and the Anointed Ones of Aaron and Israel.
The major radical political movement in Palestine, the Zealot movement, has been discussed; it cut across many party lines and included within its ranks priests, Pharisees, and common folk. Besides the Zealots, there were three major groups which are first mentioned in the texts of the second century B. References to the first two appear frequently in the New Testament. We shall also note some more esoteric movements and figures.
Because the Temple was destroyed 70 C. Knowledge of the Sadducees comes therefore through secondary references to them in ancient Jewish and Christian writings. As priests, they sacrificed at the Jerusalem Temple, dominated the Sanhedrin and, as political leaders, attempted to maintain cordial relations with their Roman overlords. This conservative political stance was paralleled by a conservatism in religion. They held to a more literal reading of the Torah, which for them was the Pentateuch, and did not accept the oral tradition, which was the special perogative of the Pharisees.
They also rejected those views which were most developed in the non-Pentateuchal, post-exilic Scriptures, namely angels, demons, and the resurrection of the dead Acts ; Mark Correspondingly, they were strict in matters they believed were based in the Torah, for example, Sabbath laws. When the war with Rome became imminent, they attempted to mediate, but to no avail.
Like the Sadducees, they first made their appearance in the late second century B. Unlike the Sadducees, most Pharisees were not priests, but lay scholars whose main influence was in their development and preservation of the oral legal tradition mentioned above. Thus, they were rooted in the synagogue and known for pious living alms, tithing, prayer, and fasting and interpretation of the Torah, especially in areas such as food purity, crops, Sabbaths and festivals, and family affairs.
Their most renowned teachers became rabbis, though the beginning of the use of this term is also debated. Unlike the Sadducees, then, many of the Pharisaic traditions have been preserved in the so-called rabbinic literature, for it was the Pharisees who survived the war with Rome and reorganized Judaism along Pharisaic lines at the coastal town of Javneh Jamnia.
Here the books of the Jewish Scriptures were decided, the oral traditions collected, and the prayer against the Christians Nazarenes and Heretics added to the important set of Jewish prayers, the Eighteen Benedictions. Henceforth, the heart of Judaism was the Torah, the synagogue, and the interpretation of Torah by the rabbis. The Essenes , who are not mentioned in the rabbinic literature or the New Testament, are described by the ancient writers Philo, Josephus, and Pliny the Elder.
There they worked, copied religious texts, wrote religious literature, worshipped according to their own calendar and customs, baptized, had a common meal, and sought to live pure and undefiled quasi-ascetic lives. Their literature, community organization, and eschatological orientation have become extremely important for understanding the rise of early Christianity. We have seen that in the Greco-Roman world at large there was an abundance of magicians and miracle workers, healers and physicians.
Palestine was no exception, though some circles were very cautious because of the belief that God, not a powerful human being, was the ultimate source of healing. Nonetheless, the Babylonian and Persian beliefs about angels and demons which influenced the apocalyptic literary tradition also influenced popular religious views about the origins of sickness and disease.
In a reinterpretation of a Genesis story in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Abraham is said to have exorcized a demon from Pharaoh by prayer, the laying on of hands, and rebuking the evil spirit GenApoc David was said to have done the same thing by playing his harp LibAntBib and Noah by medicines and herbs Jubilees Solomon was especially remembered for his wisdom—here we note the influence of the Wisdom tradition—and that wisdom included his vast knowledge of magic and medicine.
Josephus tells the story of the Jewish exorcist Eleazar who performed the following exorcism:. When the son of Yohanan ben Zakkai became ill, Yohanan said,.
In the stories of the Talmud, the tendency to ascribe the actual healing to God himself is clear, that is, the cure is effected through prayer; nonetheless, it is also clear that particular Holy Men were famous for the ability to heal. Such a man, also, was Jesus of Nazareth. We have highlighted some of the major movements, groups, and individuals of Palestinian Judaism: Zealots, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, magicians and miracle workers.
There were others. The focus of our sketch of the history and religion of Judaism has been on Palestine, though it is clear that Hellenism had a profound impact on Palestinian Judaism. But many Jews no longer lived in Palestine; many had stayed in Babylonia, and others were found scattered throughout the cities of the eastern Mediterranean, the largest and most famous being Alexandria where the Jewish community almost formed a state within a state.
During the Greek period, Diaspora Jews learned to speak Greek, as did urban Palestinian Jews, and the need arose for Greek translations of the Scriptures.
Though there are many problems with recovering the earliest Greek Old Greek text and tracing its history in relation to Hebrew and Aramaic texts, both tradition the Letter of Aristeas and recovered manuscripts, especially from the Dead Sea Scrolls, indicate that translations were already being made in the second century B. The Greek translations and subsequent translations and revisions became the holy texts for Diaspora Jews, Greek-speaking Jews in Palestine, and Greek-speaking Christians.
Based on the legend of their translation in Alexandria Aristeas , which stated that 70 or 72 Greek-speaking priests from Jerusalem! The use of Greek-language Scriptures is an important factor not only in the Hellenization of the Jews, but in the very understanding of the Jewish religion. Jews had a special status in the Greco-Roman world; as we have seen, they were exempt from emperor worship and were permitted a number of special privileges based on their observance of the Sabbath and the festivals: exemption from military service, going to court on the Sabbath, and certain business arrangements.
They were also permitted to settle inter-Jewish legal disputes according to their Law and tradition, and to administer their own funds and send money to Jerusalem, especially the Temple tax. It is a debated question whether Jews also had civic rights as citizens of the empire, that is, participation in public life, election of magistrates, and the like.
Josephus says they did; other sources during the Roman period indicate they did not, which seems more likely. In their relations with Gentiles, Jewish practices such as the rite of circumcision and ritual purity laws tended to keep them distinct, and their special privileges under the Romans brought them some ill will.
No doubt many Jews of the Diaspora became less inclined to follow the Law as strictly as they did in Palestine, especially since much of it dealt with the Temple. On the other hand, Judaism bore witness to a high sense of morality and attracted formal converts or proselytes especially among women, who were not circumcised , as well as sympathetic adherents to the God of Israel and the basic universal morality of the Torah. This excellent work, revised, expanded, and continually improved, is now published by Wadsworth and is in its 4th edition with Duling as the sole author.
It is used here with permission and is not to be reposted or printed in any form. The Jewish Roman World of Jesus. Contact Me Macy messages only jdtabor uncc. About Dr. The Maccabean Revolt In B. Synagogue and Prayer Sacrifice was an enacted prayer, that is, a means of human communication with God.
The most apocalyptic book in the Old Testament is the book of Daniel, which contains the Son of Man vision in , highly influential in the gospels: I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
The following passage combines this with adherence to the Torah: And they shall not depart from any maxim of the Law to walk in all the stubbornness of their heart. The Community Rule Gallery Links About Dr. Tabor Contact Dr. Originally Publicans publicani were men who served in the public works or farmed public lands for the Roman government.
They later became known as professional tax farmers, who made their profits from the excess taxes they collected. The right to collect taxes was sold at public auctions to private corporations of Publicans who gave the highest bid. Since the Publicans were native Jews of Palestine, they were detested, ostracized, and often excommunicated by most Jewish groups.
But some Publicans, such as Matthew, received the gospel very readily, and Jesus associated frequently with them. See Matt. The Scribes performed secretarial services for the many who were unable to read and write. Jewish Scribes were well versed in the laws of Moses, making them the spiritual and temporal legal counselors of the period. Most Scribes were Pharisees, so Jesus frequently referred to them in connection with the Pharisees. Some others were affiliated with the Sadducees and other religious groups.
The total Palestinian population was probably about , Josephus records that 6, were Pharisees, 4, were Essenes, and the Sadducees were not very numerous. Thus, although most Jews were influenced by the sects, they lived outside their ranks. The Sadducees were an aristocratic, priestly class of Jews, influential in the temple and the Sanhedrin.
Their name is derived from the high priest Zadok, since the sons of Zadok were the most worthy to minister to the Lord in the temple. See Ezek. Sadducees originated when the wealthier elements of the population united during the Hellenistic period, a period of Greek cultural revival around B. A conservative priestly group, they held to older doctrines and always opposed the Pharisees, both politically and religiously.
Although both groups believed in the Pentateuch Torah , the Pharisees accepted the oral law while the Sadducees refused to accept anything not written in the Torah. The strict Sadducees questioned the existence of the spirit and the concept of punishments and rewards in a life after death, denying the doctrine of the physical resurrection.
See Mark —27 ; Acts 4. The Sadducees have been historically represented as worldly minded aristocrats, primarily interested in maintaining their own privileged position.
Both John the Baptist and Jesus strongly denounced the Sadducees, who were also unpopular with the common people, from whom they kept aloof. Their strength was in their control of the temple, and when it was destroyed in 70 A. The Pharisees were the largest of the Jewish sects. Six thousand strong, they observed Jewish ritual and studied the Torah and the oral law.
They tried to adapt old codes to the new urban conditions, fulfilling religious interests of many of the common people. The Pharisees conceived of God as an all-wise, all-knowing, all-just, and all-merciful spiritual being. They believed man had his free agency, and would receive retribution for his actions. This retribution would come either in this life or in the one to come, as the Pharisees believed in life after death and in the resurrection of the dead. The Torah was the center of their teachings, and its inspired laws and commandments were to be interpreted by the rabbis in each generation to harmonize with more advanced ideas.
The Pharisees became scholars of the law, fostering the synagogue as a place of study, worship, and prayer. See Mark —9, Some Pharisees also sought ways to bend the laws to their own philosophies and ways of life. While Jesus publicly criticized the Pharisees, he did not condemn their beliefs, but condemned their hypocritical manner of living that violated the ideals they taught. Although many Pharisaic doctrines were similar to Christian ones, the two groups separated when Paul and the Christian missionaries used Jewish communities and synagogues to teach the gospel.
See Acts —9. After the temple was destroyed and other sects ceased to exist, the Pharisees continued to function. They promoted Judaism and the preservation of its teachings and scriptures until Pharisaism and Judaism became coextensive. The Dead Sea scrolls portray the communal life of a Jewish religious sect in Qumran similar to the Essenes, a religious communalistic brotherhood.
Doctrinally, the Essenes with their own beliefs probably stood somewhere between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. See Col. Like the Sadducees, they presumptuously claimed to be the true priests of God and the descendants of Zadok.
The inner tunic could be made of one piece. This is a detail of interest to me, because Jesus is said in the Gospel of John to have worn a one-piece tunic. John the Baptist asked people to give away their second tunic see Luke In wearing only an inner tunic, he would have been dressed in very basic clothing.
Long tunics stolai were worn by women or occasionally by wealthy men in high-honour positions. Clearly he is not one of them. Over a tunic, a man would wear a mantle himation, Mark This was a large piece of woollen material.
Power and prestige were indicated by the quality and colour: purple and certain types of blue and red. Thus in the end we see him as a man of Middle Eastern appearance, with scruffy, shortish hair and beard, wearing very basic clothing: a knee-length, thin, one-piece tunic and an undyed mantle.
In advocating his disciples give away all but their essentials to the needy Matt. I wonder if we would recognise him, as he really looked, if we met him on the way. To comment you must now be an Irish Times subscriber. Please subscribe to sign in to comment. Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription. What did Jesus really look like, as a Jew in 1st-century Judaea?
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