To read our Bible and feel more equipped to interpret it - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Between the Testaments| January 6, 2019

 To read our Bible and feel more equipped to interpret it responsibly  To KNOW Scripture – Jesus knew Scripture, obviously… but his audience, Paul’s audience, and Peter’s audience KNEW Scripture. The more you know Scripture the more alive it becomes!  For all of us to grow into maturity as followers of Christ

 We have officially met for one year, and we’ve covered the whole Old Testament!

 God’s creation marred by sin.  God is making a covenant people of blessing  Israel  “I will make of you a great nation!”  “You will be my treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”  “All the Nations will be blessed…”  God’s People…  Idolatry  Slavery  Disobedience  “Give us a King like the other nations!”

 God punished them for their idolatry, and they harden their hearts. The idolatry is rampant!  God warns them through his prophets over and over again, and they mock, scoff, and despise his prophets.  God judges them through Assyria and Babylon, and they lament/mourn.

 God restores his people after 70 years in exile.  A remnant returns to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah  God providentially uses Esther and Mordecai to preserve God’s people from certain annihilation at the hands of Haman of Persia.  God’s people… regress!!!! Intermarry (Idolatry!!) , violate the Sabbath, neglect the temple etc.

Roughly 400BC – 00BC

 This is the backdrop to Jesus. You need this to understand the social, political, and religious times of the New Testament.  …And it’s just cool history to know for small talk at church potlucks. 

Assyria • Defeated Israel (North) in 722 • Defeated Assyria in 616 and Babylon Judah in 586 Persia • Defeated by Greece in 331

 Alexander the Great acquired the Holy Land in 332  Hellenization = a world untied by Greek language and culture  He dies in 323, and his empire was divided among his generals.

 Under the Ptolemies, 72 Jewish scholars were gathered around 250 BC on the island of Pharos, near Alexandria and produced a Greek translation of the OT in 72 days. This is known as the Septuagint or LXX.  In 198 BC, the Seleucid Empire defeated the Ptolemies and claimed the Holy Land.

 Sought to completely eliminate the Jewish religion through radical Hellenization  Attempted to destroy all copies of the Torah, Required offerings to Zeus, Attacked Jerusalem twice, slaughtered many people, Erected a statue of Zeus in the temple, Sacrificed a pig on the altar, and Anyone who circumcised their sons…  “But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. 63 They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. 64 Very great wrath came upon Israel.” (See First Maccabees for more background)

 Mattathias and his five sons destroy a Greek alter in their village and kill Antiochus’s ambassador in 167  In 165 they retook Jerusalem and the temple under the command of Judas Maccabees (Judas the Hammer!)  Hanukkah commemorates this.

 Overall, the Hasmoneans/Maccabean dynasty was train wreck. The orthodox fell out of favor, and the Hellenizers and politicians took over.  Their independence ended in 63 BC. In the midst of a dynastic struggle, General Pompey of Rome stormed Jerusalem, laid siege to the temple area, slaughtered the priests, and entered the Holy of Holies.  Enter Herod the Great…

 Herod gained the throne though brutality and marriage into the Hasmonean family in 31 BC  Undertook massive building projects: built Caesarea Maritima, rebuilt Samaria/Sebastia, several fortress- palaces, and in Jerusalem: Fortress Antonia, a Royal Palace, and the Temple  He was totally nuts! Killed sons, wives, and anyone else who he felt threatened by.  Caesar Augustus: “I’d rather be Herod’s pig than his son.”

 Sadducees – aristocrats who had wealth and power, religiously rejected anything outside the Torah (…or anything that threatened their wealth and power!)(  Pharisees – God’s kingdom would come if they could only obey the law PERFECTLY. The kingdom is about righteousness. (Paul)  Zealots – God’s kingdom will come through violence… our revolution!! The kingdom is political. (Simon the Zealot)  Essenes – The temple and the priests are corrupt, so we’re just going to wait out in the desert until God destroys them. The kingdom is political. (John the Baptist)

This is the point of the class! Start reading Matthew Or Read First Maccabees