It can be mildly jarring to be reading the Bible, seeing numerous references to Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians and Persians in the Old Testament and then come to the New Testament and see no references to these former world powers. To quote from a movie that I'll guarantee none of you have seen, "Wha' happen?"
The book of Malachi was written around 400 BC, and at that time, the people of Israel were still under Persian rule. This would continue for the next seventy years until 330 BC, when Greece, under Alexander the Great, vanquished and united the known world into a large kingdom that spanned from Greece to India, a kingdom larger than the continental United States. He was only 25 at the time, which is an amazing feat. It turned out to be short-lived kingdom, since Alexander died in 323 BC at the age of 32. Without his leadership, the kingdom splintered.
Alexander's kingdom split into eastern and western sections. Initially, the eastern part, centered in Egypt and based on a dynasty founded by Ptolemy, would control Israel from 322 BC until 198 BC, at which point the Seleucid kingdom, which is modern-day Iran and Iraq, assumed control. This dovetails nicely with much of Israel's history to this point--going all the way back to their captivity in Egpyt, it always seemed as if Israel was always under the control of either a western kingdom (Egypt) or eastern one (Assyria/Persia).
Up to this point, no matter who ruled Israel, they were allowed to practice their religion. They still worshiped at the temple, offered sacrifices and observed the holidays and festivals, but in approximately 175 BC, Antiochus became the Seleucid emperor. I'll save myself the effort and quote directly from the Wikipedia entry:
"Antiochus pursued a Hellenizing policy with zeal. This effectively meant banning traditional Jewish religious practice. In 167 BCE Jewish sacrifice was forbidden, sabbaths and feasts were banned and circumcision was outlawed. Altars to Greek gods were set up and animals prohibited to Jews were sacrificed on them. The Olympian Zeus was placed on the altar of the Temple. Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence. The motives of Antiochus are unclear. He may have been incensed at the overthrow of his appointee, Menelaus,or he may have been responding to an orthodox Jewish revolt that drew on the Temple and the Torah or its strength and encouraged by a group of radical Hellenizers among the Jews."
That's not good. Prior to that, it had been the ISRAELITES that had eliminated sacrifices, ignored holidays, etc. (this is a joke--feel free to laugh), but we can only assume that the people of Israel had actually kept the promise they had made in Ezra and Nehemiah that they would follow the law. Either way, this desecration of the Temple and forbidding of the practice of their religion was too much, and a revolt, led by Judas Maccabee, overthrew the Seleucid rule.
Israel continued this period of self-rule for the next 100+ years, rivaling that of the high point of Israel's history, the second part of David's reign and Solomon's reign. That would come to an end in 63 BC, when a relative upstart on the world stage, the Roman Republic, would defeat Palestine under Pompey's leadership. I use the term Roman Republic correctly, since it wouldn't become the Roman Empire until 29 BC, when Octavian adopted the title "Augustus" ("Exalted One") and established supreme rule over Rome and its territories. Any vestiges of a republic (such as elections and the dual nature of Roman rule that was the custom prior to that time) were erased, and the Roman Empire came into being.
We will see the effects of Roman rule throughout the New Testament, and it is a reality that would prove problematic at times until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine in 325 AD, but by that point, the Bible had been long-written. What we'll see plenty more of in the New Testament is how internal enemies (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, etc.) would be just as formidable a barrier to Christ's message and its spread as any world government. Things haven't changed all that much in our world today, since we seem to have almost as many problems from so-called fellow believers as from outside agencies. Some things never change.
Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment