The Diverse World of First-Century Judaism
The Three Worlds of the New Testament Era
Three major forces largely shaped the world in which Christianity was born and developed:
The Scriptures and traditions of Judaism
The culture of Greece
The political power of Rome
The Book of Acts shows Jesus’ followers moving away from Palestine to urban centers of Greek culture.
Although first planted in Jewish soil, the Jesus movement experienced its most significant growth in the larger Greco-Roman world, the environment in which it eventually defined itself as distinct from its parent religion, Judaism.
The One God, Yahweh
The Jewishness of Jesus
Because both Jesus and his original disciples were children of Israel, born and raised in the Jewish faith, Jesus’ message is primarily explainable in terms of Jewish customs and beliefs.
The Shema
The Shema proclaims the oneness of Israel’s God, Yahweh, and the exclusive worship of Him.
Jesus cited the Shema as his people’s “greatest” commandment.
Jesus’ own name means “Yahweh is Salvation.”
In Jesus’ day, a bitter tension existed between belief in Yahweh’s might and His failure to intervene on His people’s behalf.
“Why did God allow Rome, viewed as an empire of idolaters, to exploit those who at least tried to worship Him?”
The Torah
In addition to its allegiance to a single God, a second cohesive force in Judaism was the Torah, divinely revealed instruction contained in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
While Genesis presents colorful tales of Israel’s ancestors – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and their descendants’ migration to Egypt, the other four books relate Israel’s escape from Egypt and the covenant it concluded with Yahweh at Mount Sinai.
Called the Mosaic Covenant because Moses acts as mediator in the formal agreement between God and Israel, it stipulates hundreds of laws, statutes, and ordinances that the Israelites must obey to ensure Yahweh’s favor.
Although the Ten Commandments (listed in Exod. 20 and Deut. 5) are the most famous part of the covenant requirements, the many other legal edicts regulating almost every aspect of Jewish daily life were considered equally important and binding.
The Divine Promises
Besides the covenant bond to Yahweh, manifest in the daily observance of Torah regulations, another major factor helping to unite the Jewish community was the series of promises that God made to Israel’s ancestors.
According to the Genesis promises, collectively known as the Abrahamic Covenant, Yahweh guaranteed Israel a high destiny among the international family of nations: It was to be a populous country, blessed by God’s presence in its midst and governed by a divinely appointed royal dynasty.
After Israel’s twelve tribes had been politically united under a single king, David (c. 1000–961 BCE), Yahweh further promised David that his royal heirs would possess Israel’s throne “forever.”
In the Davidic Covenant, Yahweh declared that he might punish individual Davidic kings for wrongdoing but that the dynasty itself would be “everlasting” (2 Sam. 7).
The Jerusalem Temple
According to Deuteronomy 12, Yahweh recognized only one site on earth as the place where the animal sacrifices required by the Torah were acceptable to him.
King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, wealth, and building projects, had first erected a monumental sanctuary on Zion’s hill in Jerusalem.
After the Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s magnificent sanctuary in 587 BCE a smaller building was constructed on the site and rededicated in about 515 BCE.
Extensively restored and enlarged by Herod the Great, this second Temple was commonly known in New Testament times as Herod’s Temple.
Jesus’ family repeatedly traveled to Jerusalem from Galilee, but many pious Jews made arduous pilgrimages to the Temple from distant parts of the Roman Empire.
First-Century Jewish Diversity
The Four Jewish Groups according to puppets...
Sadducess
Represented as among Jesus’ chief opponents, the Sadducees were typically members of the Jewish upper class, wealthy landowning aristocrats who largely controlled the priesthood and the Temple.
Pharisees
Many Pharisees were deeply learned in the Torah and skilled at its interpretation. Josephus states that the common people regarded them as the most authoritative interpreters of the Mosaic Law.
Unlike their rivals the Sadducees, the Pharisees accepted not only the written Law contained in the Mosaic Torah but also a parallel oral law.
Essenes
According to most scholars, a particularly rigorous group of Essenes inhabited Qumran, where they pursued a monastic way of life apparently renouncing marriage, holding all possessions in common, and unquestioningly obeying their priestly superiors.
The Qumran community may have been founded shortly after the Maccabean Revolt when Hasmonean rulers assumed the office of High Priest, a practice the Essenes abhorred as an illegal usurpation that polluted the Temple.
Withdrawn from the world in their isolated desert community, the Essenes patiently awaited the arrival of two Messiahs—a priestly Messiah descended from Aaron, Moses’ brother and Israel’s first High Priest, and a second “Messiah of Israel,” a leader descended from King David.
The only Jewish sect known to expect two such leaders, the Essenes may have influenced the author of the New Testament Book of Hebrews, which is unique in presenting the risen Christ as both a Davidic and a high priestly Messiah.
Essene interest in Melchizedek, a mysterious king-priest mentioned briefly in the books of Genesis and Psalms, is similarly reflected in Hebrews’ comparison of Christ to Melchizedek, the only canonical writing to make this connection.
Zealots
Known for their passionate commitment to Jewish religious and political freedom, the Zealots formed a party dedicated to evicting the Romans from Palestine. Opposition to the Roman occupation, which began in 63 BCE, flared repeatedly during the first century CE, climaxing in the Jewish War against Rome (66–73 CE).
Samaritans
Named for the capital city, Samaria, of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, the Samaritans were a distinctive Jewish group who occupied the territory lying between Judea and Galilee.
Whereas Jews worshiped at the Jerusalem Temple on Mount Zion, Samaritans viewed Mount Gerizim, near the ancient Israelite sanctuary of Shechem, as God’s approved holy place (John 4:20).
When the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus invaded Samaria in 108 BCE, however, he destroyed the Samaritan temple erected on Mount Gerizim.
For most observant Jews, the Samaritan branch of Hellenistic Judaism—which recognized only the Mosaic Torah, and not the Prophets or other biblical writings as binding Scripture - was little better than a Gentile cult.
The Messiah: First-Century Expectations
All of Israel’s Davidic kings were literally “messiahs [mashiah],” “anointed of God.” They reigned as Yahweh’s “sons,” adopted at the time of their consecration or coronation: “‘You [the Davidic ruler] are my son,’ [God] said; ‘this day I become your father’” (Ps. 2:7).
Because the prophets had envisioned these divinely adopted rulers as warrior-kings like David—God’s agent in establishing an earthly kingdom—the messianic leader was typically seen as fulfilling a military-political role.
His function was to demonstrate the omnipotence of Israel’s God by setting up a theocratic state whose righteous government would compel the Gentiles’ respect for both Yahweh and his chosen people (Isa. 11; Dan. 2:44).
Psalm of Solomon 17
The most striking description of Israel’s expected deliverer was written only five or six decades before Jesus’ birth.
Ascribed to Solomon, the progenitor of Israel’s wisdom tradition, a collection of prophetic poems known as the Psalms of Solomon describes a righteous king who would drive the hated foreigners (Roman occupational forces) from Jerusalem and establish a just sovereignty over both Gentiles and Jews.
Psalm of Solomon 17 is the first known work of Jewish literature to use the terms son of David and Lord Messiah (Christ), distinctive titles that New Testament writers apply to Jesus.
Although Psalm of Solomon 17 sees the Messiah as sinless and powerful, he is clearly a human rather than a supernatural figure, God’s agent but not a divine being.
His promised activities include gathering together “a holy people” who will be “children of their God,” cleansing Jerusalem (presumably including its Temple), and ruling compassionately over the Gentiles.
Although a Davidic heir, this “Lord Messiah” achieves his dominion without military conquest because he is “powerful in the holy spirit” and strengthened by “wisdom and understanding.”
This vision of a peaceful Messiah subduing opponents through “the word of his mouth [his teaching]” is much closer to that adopted by the Gospel authors than the traditional over the Gentiles.
Although a Davidic heir, this “Lord Messiah” achieves his dominion without military conquest because he is “powerful in the holy spirit” and strengthened by “wisdom and understanding.”
This vision of a peaceful Messiah subduing opponents through “the word of his mouth [his teaching]” is much closer to that adopted by the Gospel authors than the traditional expectation of a warrior-king like the historical David.
Jesus as Messiah
As presented in the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth takes a view of the messianic role and the kingdom of God that was disappointing or perplexing to many.
Despite some modern commentators’ attempts to associate him with the Zealot or revolutionary party, Jesus (as portrayed by the Evangelists) does not present himself as a military or political savior of Israel.
As John’s Gospel concludes, his “kingdom does not belong to this world” (John 18:36).
For those living in the protracted interval between Jesus’ ascension to heaven and his return to earth, New Testament writers emphasize the spiritual significance of Jesus’ innovative messiahship.
Instead of coming to earth to conquer political enemies and forcibly establish a theocratic monarchy, Jesus is seen as having appeared primarily to conquer less tangible but more formidable foes—human sin, evil, and death.
After his sacrificial death, paying the ultimate penalty to redeem humankind, Jesus then ascends to the celestial throne room, standing at God’s “right hand” (a position symbolic of his unity with God) (Acts 8:55–56; cf. Rev. 1:11–20, etc.).
In thus being portrayed as God’s co-regent, an immortal being of cosmic stature, the ascended Jesus, ruling invisibly but eternally over human minds and hearts (Phil. 2:6–11), becomes infinitely more powerful than a Davidic Messiah.
In Christian reinterpretation, traditional expectations of a renewed Davidic kingdom are transformed into the concept of a heavenly messianic reign, one in which believers—joined by sacrament and spirit—can participate.
Messianic Claimants Before and After Jesus
In his accounts of peasant uprisings against the Romans or their Herodian puppets, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reports that several prominent rebels were also messianic pretenders (i.e., they assumed the function of Israel’s anointed kings).
Most of these popular kings appeared either during the turmoil following the death of Herod the Great (4 BCE) or during the greater upheaval of the Jewish War against Rome (66–73 CE).
Judas
After Herod’s death, a rebel named Judas, son of a brigand or terrorist named Hezekiah, led Galilee in a revolt against Roman occupational forces.
According to Josephus, this Judas was motivated by an ambition to achieve “royal rank” (Antiquities, 17:271–272).
Simon
Simon of Perea, the territory east of Galilee, similarly donned “the diadem,” symbol of kingly status, and plundered Herod’s palace in Jericho.
After leading a band of unruly followers, Simon was captured by the Romans and beheaded, a fate anticipating that of John the Baptist.
Athronges
A third would-be king, Athronges, resembled David in beginning his career as a shepherd, after which he also wore a royal diadem and, supported by his brothers and their armed followers, attacked both Roman and Herodian armies.
Roman retaliation against such popular uprisings was swift and severe: In 4 BCE, the Galilean town of Sepphoris, which had aided the rebels, was burned and its inhabitants sold into slavery.
Located only a few miles from Nazareth, Sepphoris was lavishly rebuilt during Jesus’ early years, a project on which it is remotely possible that he and his “carpenter [artisan]” father worked.
The Sicarii
The Sicarii (from the Latin sicarius, meaning “dagger”) were a group of urban terrorists and assassins.
Well organized, the Sicarii carried out a carefully plotted series of murders, eliminating priests and other Jerusalem authorities who favored compromise with Rome.
According to Josephus, one of the Sicarii leaders, Menachem—the son or grandson of the rebel Judas—assumed the trappings of kingship.
Menachem ostentatiously entered Jerusalem as the people’s king, a warrior-monarch in the tradition of David.
Another Sicarii pretender, Simon bar (son of) Giora, who also had messianic pretensions, led the largest and most powerful force resisting the Roman reconquest of Jerusalem.
Josephus states that, after Titus’s soldiers had captured and demolished the Temple, Simon, arrayed in royal robes, suddenly appeared among the ruins.
If he hoped for a last-minute divine intervention to vindicate his kingly aspirations, he was disappointed: The Romans took him as a prisoner to Rome, where he was executed.
Simon bar Kochba
The most famous messianic claimant was Simon bar Kochba, who led the second Jewish Revolt against Rome in 132–135 CE.
Akiba, a prominent rabbi, proclaimed that bar Kochba fulfilled the promise in Numbers 24:17 that “a star shall go forth from Jacob.”
While Rabbi Akiba and other supporters called Simon “bar Kochba,” which means “son of the star,” his detractors derisively labeled the revolutionary “bar Koziba”—“son of the lie.”
His attempt to liberate Judea and restore a theocratic state was doomed by Roman might, which again annihilated Jewish armies and brought a terrible end to Jewish political messianic hopes.
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