Gospels and Church History

Major changes from the Old and New Testament are political, cultural, geographical, and religious. Israel becomes Palestine, ruled by the Romans instead of the Persians, with a large Greek influence. The land of Palestine is divided up into five major sections instead of the divided kingdom to the north and south. Several religious groups exist in the New Testament that did not exist in the Old Testament because of the exile and other historical developments.

The Persian Period (430-332 BC)
Judah is a Persian province at the end of the Old Testament, around 430 BC. King Cyrus allows the people to return to Jerusalem in 536 BC. The Persians treated the Jews fairly well.

The Greek Period (331-167 BC)
Although the Greeks had been around probably since the times of the Judges, they rose to power and began amassing an empire to Alexander the Great, a young Prince who became a great general. At the age of 20, he began to conquer the world and make a great empire. But he did not move everyone around in the Empire as previous emperors did.

Alexander sought to bring a lasting vision of the Greek empire to reality. Instead of moving everyone around, he taught everyone Greek culture and language. This common Greek language was easier than ancient Greek, called Koine Greek (common Greek). It became the lingua franca, the language of commerce, communication, and community, like English today.

Greek culture was so ingrained in the Greek empire that when the Romans took it over years later, they left Greek culture in place rather than try to get everyone to switch to Roman culture. At the time of Jesus, Common Greek is still the language of the day for commerce and communication. That’s why the New Testament is written in Greek. It was easy to spread the gospel message with one language throughout the Roman Empire.

He also influenced cultures around the Empire with Greek culture, art, philosophy, and even athletics. That’s why the Olympics are still a world-binding event today. These changes also took root in Palestine. The Jews were greatly affected by the Greek culture, it’s spread and influence called Hellenism. Some of the Jews with outright reject it while others would incorporate it. This is how we get some of the political and religious leadership we see in the Gospels.

Alexander showed great kindness to the Jews when he took over Palestine. But he offered for many of them to go to Alexandria in Egypt and a number of them went. They would later be responsible for the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures used in Jesus’ day.

But Alexander’s reign was short-lived, dying at age 33. He left behind a mighty empire and four generals who divided it up between themselves. Two of them impacted Palestine. The general Ptolemy ruled Egypt and was peaceful toward the Jews.

The Seleucids began in Syria with tolerance toward the Jews until Antiochus IV Epiphanes was frustrated by the Jews’ refusal to fully adopt Greek culture. He went into the Jerusalem Temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar (sacrilege to the Jews) and directed a statue of Zeus in the Temple. He was the first to partially fulfill Daniel’s prophetic vision of the “abomination of desolation.”

The Maccabean (Hasmonian) Period (167-63 BC)
A man named Mattathias was so infuriated by Antiochus IV that he raised an army. He had five warlike sons. When he died, his son, Judas Maccabeus, was named, “The Hammer” and captured the city of Jerusalem 165 BC. He purified and we dedicated the Temple. The whole family ruled today after 100 years in peace and independent from rule by outsiders.

The Roman Period (63 BC-636 AD)
When there was a dispute in Jerusalem as to which of two high priests should be elected, the Roman general Pompey settled it by making Palestine part of the Roman Empire. The line of the Herod’s began their rule. The King Herod we know from the account of Jesus’ birth (who killed children in Bethlehem) was the second in this line.

He expanded the Temple Mount and build on to the Temple so it was larger even then in the days of Solomon. But he was a brutal and ruthless man. He had his wife and three of his sons killed to maintain his throne. The high priest was no longer a direct descendent of Aaron, but elected by other priests or placed as head of the Sanhedrin (Israel’s religious court) by the Romans.

Geographical Changes
Palestine at the end of the Old Testament was a Persian province. It became a Roman province by the time of Christ. It was divided into Galilee in the north, Samaria in the center, and Judah in the south.

Galilee was resettled by pagan immigrants (Galilee of the Gentiles). This is where Jesus did most of His ministry. Samaria was full of half breeds (half Jewish and half Gentile), and was not socially acceptable to the Jews. Judah in the south was much like Judah at the end of the Old Testament. It still had Jerusalem and the Temple.

Many Jews chose to stay in the nations the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians migrated them to. They are called the Diaspora, meaning “scattered ones.” These visited Jerusalem for some of the feasts and festivals as required by Jewish law. They are there on the Day of Pentecost, showing how dispersed they were throughout the Roman Empire.

Religious Changes

• The Pharisees. The liberal group of the bunch. They believed in all 39 books of the Old Testament as authoritative. They had teachers who went out among the people, especially in the synagogues, and taught about the Word of God. Jesus was closest to them in religious philosophy. But He was more harsh on them because of their practices and hypocrisy
• The Sadducees. Stayed near the Temple and taught from there. They did not reach out to people like the Pharisees. They also only trusted the Torah, the first five books, as authoritative. When the Temple fell in 70 AD, the Sadducees died out for lack of a place to worship and sacrifice animals.
• Teachers of the Law (Scribes). They were people who copied the Scriptures, but beginning in the Babylonian exile, they became religious leaders and authorities on the Scriptures. They added to the law to defend it, creating a fence around it that actually violated it.
• The Priests. During the Maccabean Period, the high priest was both religious and political leader. The high priest in Jesus’ day was usually placed by the Romans, not even elected by other priests. We don’t know exactly where the chief priests come into play that the Gospels mention.
• Rabbis. A rabbi was considered a great one, a great teacher, in Israel. They usually came from the Pharisees. The people looked to them to teach the Scriptures. Each rabbi had his own “yoke,” his rule for understanding the Scriptures. When Jesus talks about His yoke being easy, He is referring to His rule for how to understand the Scriptures, the Kingdom of God.
• The Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is the religious ruling class of Israel. They heard matters in a court of religion. Anyone who is not following the lead of the high priest and priests would be taken before the Sanhedrin for religious judgment. They had no political power to punish people with the prescriptions of the law, such as stoning. That’s why they had to get the Romans to crucify Jesus.
• Synagogues. Beginning in the Babylonian exile after the Jerusalem Temple was sacked and looted, the Jews in foreign lands replaced sacrifice of animals with zealously studying the Scriptures. They built synagogues as places of worship. The Church used the same worship forms in their gatherings. Even when they returned and rebuilt the Temple, synagogues still appear in the Gospels and in Palestine. They still use synagogues today.
• Zealots. A political party that wanted to get rid of the Romans no matter what. Simon the zealot, one of Jesus’ disciples, may have been part of this party. Judas Iscariot (Jesus’ betrayer) may have been named as part of a statement of zealots who used a siccari (a thin sword almost like a dagger) to kill Romans and Roman collaborators.
• Herodians. A political group that often sided with the Romans like King Herod did. They were Roman collaborators who believed in Roman culture and principles.