Babylonian Exile, An End or a New Beginning

2008

This paper analyses the identity and conditions of the Israelite community who did not go into the Babylonian exile. Their identity, religious background, and socioeconomic conditions are investigated. Despite the fact that they were the majority, they were left poor through the redistribution plan of the Babylonians. They continued to worship at the site of the temple, and the people who returned after the exile therefore had no right to exclude them from rebuilding the temple.

ever, their affairs were established, and though they were subjected to an easy tribute, they lived under their own laws, in the form of a commonwealth, governed by the high-priest, and the council of seventy-two elders ; and exercised among themselves the power of life and death.* Jerusalem being at length rebuilt, fortified, and repeopled., began to resume some appearance of its former splendour, and the temple was honoured by the offerings of strangers.f After the death of Nehemiah, the government of Judea appears to have been joined to the prefecture of Syria, from which the high priests received their authority.]; This circumstance induced many persons to aspire to that high office merely through ambition and avarice, who were destitute of zeal * The grand council of the nation called the Sanhedrim, which assembled in an apartment of the temple at Jerusalem, possessed the power of life and death. The Jews styled it a hedge to the laws, because the members of the council had authority to interpret it at certain times and on certain occasions, as they thought proper. Its authority extended over all the synagogues in Judea and remote countries, and no appeal could be made from its sentence. Whether this consistory of seventy elders was a perpetual, or only a temporary institution, is a subject of dispute. The Jews, and after them Grotius, Selden, Lightfoot, and several other learned Christians, maintain that it was first instituted by Moses; that the seventy-two elders appointed to assist him were its first members; and that the Sanhedrim, so famous in the latter ages of Jewish polity, subsisted after his time until the destruction of the temple. But Basnage and others hare attempted to prove that the court of the Sanhedrim was first established in the time of the Maccabees. Basnage, p. 400. Jennings' * Dr. Prideaux and other learned writers have maintained that there were not any synagogues before the captivity, as there is no mention of them in the Old Testament, hut after that period their number was very great. They were places of prayer and religious assemblies for the worship of God. The times of the synagogue service were three days every week besides fasts and festivals. The Jews also attended prayers three times every day, in the morning, afternoon, and at night. At the east end in every synagogue is an ark or chest, in commemoration of the ark of the covenant which was in the temple; and in this ark they lock up the Pentateuch, written upon vellum with a particular ink. Sec Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p. 534, 535, and Picurl's Iteligious Ceremonies of the Jftus. + The mode of worship adopted in the Jewish synagogues subsequent to the captivity, differed but little from the present worship of Christian assemblies; for it consisted of three parts, reading the scriptures, prayer, and preaching. Graves s Lectures on the Pentateuch. Published 1807. i We have a short but beautiful description of Ezra's first preach-* See an account of these sects in Section V. t Dan. ii. 39. + Josephus's Jewish Antiquities. * Josephus. t The temporal authority, which was united with the pontifical, made the office of high priest appear of such value to Menelaus and Jason. Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 168. t Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. p. 390. C * At this time the Samaritans presented a petition to the king, in which they declared themselves not to be Jews, and requested that their temple on Mount Gerizzim might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter, and called after his name. Ilollins Ancient History. t Frideaux, vol. ii. p. 184, 1ST. * Whiston's Josephuv vol. iii. p. 46. t Ibid. cularly to those Jews recently tortured at Jerusalem by the merciless Antiochus Epiphanes, as well as those martyred 50 years before at Alexandria by the cruel Ptolemy Philopater. Prideaux'a Connection, vol. ii. p. 193. Gillie's History, vol. iii. p. 183. + Encyclopedia. * For a particular account of the battles between the Syrians and Jews, see 1 Maccabees iii. iv. t 1 Maccabees iv. * Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. t 2 Maccabees ix. Josephus, vol. iii p. 69. * 1 Maccabees ix. 28 INTRODUCTION. wickedness, and expired in agonies.* The party of Judas made the most strenuous exertions against their enemies, and unanimously chose Jonathan to succeed his brother as their prince and general. Under his direction the war was conducted with such energy and success, that the Syrians, disturbed by their own intestine divisions,, solemnly engaged to refrain from further hostilities, and a treaty of peace was concluded, f Immediately after the Syrian forces left Judea, Jonathan commenced a regular government, similar to that of the ancient Israelitish judges ; be repaired the walls of Jerusalem, fortified the city, and made several important reformations in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his country. The increase of his reputation and success, induced the competitors for the Syrian monarchy to court his friendship ; and as Demetrius had formerly persecuted the Jews, he joined the party of his rival Alexander Bela. With the unanimous consent of the people, he accepted the high priesthood from him ; [B. C. 144.] that place having been vacant seven years from the death of Alcimus. Jonathan also formed an alliance with the Romans and Lacedemonians, and rendered himself formidable by his military achievements. But after he had governed the Jewish nation with equal pru-* By the order of prophets Haggai and Zechariah, a low wall or inclosure was built round the sanctuary to separate the holy from the unholy ; and the rule was, that within this no tincircumcised person was to enter. Alcimus, in order to give the Gentiles equal liberty with the Jews, to pass into the inner courts of the temple, ordered this wall of partition to be pulled down. Prideaux'x Connection, vol. ii. p. 264. + Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p 264. * Josephus, vol. T. p. 34. * Josephus, vol. v. p. 37 40. t Jbid. t^i dp 43.

K. J. Dell (ed.), The Biblical World, Second Edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2022

This chapter provides an overview of the institutions (the Jerusalem Temple, the festival calendar, synagogues, houses and households), theological concepts (belief in one God, restoration and eschatology, election and covenant), the importance of Jewish law (Torah and halakhah, as well as elite groups (“sects”: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, the “New Covenant”, the Yahad) and popular movements (anti-Roman rebels, messiah pretenders and sign prophets) in the Judaism around the turn of the era. – Published as Chapter Thirty-Seven in K. J. Dell (ed.), The Biblical World, 681–704, with five figures, endnotes instead of footnotes, and bibliography.

2020-2021

When and where should the "history of the Jewish people," the subject matter of this course, begin? With Abraham, who allegedly introduced the belief that there is only one God, or with Jacob, who, we are told, was forced by famine to migrate from Canaan to Egypt? With Moses receiving the law from this same God on Mount Sinai, or centuries later, perhaps, with Ezra's establishment of a Jewish nation centered around the worship of this God in the temple in Jerusalem? With the completion of the books of the Bible in the second century BCE? Or should we begin not with the biblical stories of origin but in the first century CE, when the Bible began to be treated as scripture, and with the retelling of those stories by the firstcentury Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews? Placing the religious, cultural, social, and economic diversity of the Jews and their faith within a broader cultural context, this introductory and accessible full-year course (September 2020-April 2021) surveys the history, literature, and institutions of the Jews from ancient Israel to the present. The Fall term covers various historical settings including ancient Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean; the "Persian" Period; the age of Greek and Roman rule; medieval Christendom; and the Islamic lands to late fifteenth-century Europe. The structure of this course is chronological and thematic. Students will have the opportunity to engage with primary and secondary sources, originally written in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Latin. As an introduction to the discipline of history more generally, students will also learn to appreciate the transformation that Jewish ideas (and ideas about Jews) and practices have undergone over time. As part of the learning objectives of this course, students will be able to 1. Identify and analyze foundational historical questions, such as how, rather than why, the Jews have survived, and is the study of "Judaism" and the study of the history of the Jews the same; 2. Interpret religious, political, and theological sources critically and creatively; 3. Assess diverse cultural approaches and contexts; 4. Appreciate the intrinsic value of the historiographical inquiry and its relation to worldly events; 5. Evaluate the Jews' history from ancient Israelite religion to the early modern period by examining not only texts, but nontextual materials, such as artworks, artifacts, architecture, and music; 6. Examine the fundamental tension between history and theology; 7. Appreciate the place of Jewish stories and concepts in relation to other traditions and histories. All lectures and tutorials are delivered on an online platform ("synchronous delivery"). To participate in the course's educational components fully, students will need a stable, higher-speed Internet connection, a computer with a webcam and microphone, or a smart device with these features. All the reading materials and assignments will be uploaded to Quercus. The TA for the course is Maria Dawson, a PhD candidate at the History Department. Students must enroll in one of the following online sections: Tut 0101 Thursday 13:00-14:00 Tut 0201 Thursday 14:00-15:00 Tut 0301 Thursday 15:00-16:00 Grading Scheme Lecture and tutorial attendance and participation 20% Six quizzes 20% Four Document analysis I (500-800 words) 40% Two Analytical essay (800-1000 word) 20% The Arch of Titus was built on the Via Sacra near the Roman Forum by the Emperor Domitian in honor of his brother, Titus, the general who led the Romans to victory over the Jews in Palestine in 70 CE. This portion of the arch depicts the plundering of the spoils of the Holy Temple. The destruction of the Temple, here celebrated by the Romans, has been a source of bitter sorrow for Jews over the centuries.

Routledge Handbook of Religious Laws, 2019

This chapter shows that the history of Jewish law is more a matter of historiosophy, that is, of interpretation and meaning, rather than descriptive historiography, than are the histories of other religio-legal traditions. The historical narration of Jewish law is itself a disputed matter across the generations and one indispensable to ideologies and views concerning the Jewish religion. Depicting the history of Jewish law, of which there is no unitary or trans-historical conception, because each of its components – ‘history’, ‘Jewish’ and ‘law’ – is highly contested and subject to intensely held ideological perspectives. In various discourses, the subjugation of Jewish law to external meanings and conceptions was a choice intentionally made by Jewish thinkers and jurists, so that in different contexts it became the authentic and authoritative manifestation of Jewish law. Because Jewish law was seen as a means of achieving personal perfection, transcending ethnic belonging and history, its particularity to the Jews and its very Jewishness were questioned.

Khazanah Theologia

The Old Testament can be said to be an interpretation of life and beliefs at that time and period, namely in the world and beliefs of ancient Israel. In addition, the Old Testament is often considered the primary source for the history of religion and worship of ancient Israel. In the Old Testament found a presentation and description of the history of the ancestors of Israel as a nation until they entered the land of Canaan, and so on. This paper aims to reconstruct the history of Israel's religion in the context of the Old Testament world. To achieve this goal, the researcher uses a literature approach by analyzing the occurrence of the Old Testament canon, the context of the Old Testament, the history of the Israelites, and Israel's religion. The results of this study conclude that the religion of Israel occurred through the development process of the religious system that existed at that time. The claim that Israel's religion was imported from outside, then came into...

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