Political events during the Hellenistic era
The politics of Judea, Samaria, Egypt, Syria, Rome, and
surrounding kingdoms set the stage for the events of the First Century CE.
The so-called Oniad dynasty began with the ascension to the
high priesthood at Jerusalem of Onias I ben Jaddua in 320 BCE, just over after
Alexander’s conquest. Onias was, in
fact, the son of his predecessor, who was the scion of a ling unbroken since
Joshua ben Jehozadak, who became high priest about 515 BCE. But Onias I opened up the door to Hellenizing
ideas and practices which later factions used as wedge issues.
In 242 BCE, Joseph ben Tobiah was appointed tax collector
for the entire region of Palestina and founded the Tobiad dynasty, which became
rivals to the Oniads for political control.
Political divisions in Iudeia, as the province was known to
the Diadochi successors of Alexander, revolved around pro- versus anti- camps
on the subject of Hellenism and over being pro-Ptolemaic versus
pro-Seleucid. While Samareia shared the
latter dispute amongst themselves, as a whole they embraced Hellenism and its
cosmopolitan culture with open arms, its land and people being traditionally
more liberal, with the Jews were generally more conservative.
The Great Sanhedrin, the deliberative body of Iudeia,
separated the post of its head, called the Nasi (literally, Prince) from that
of the high priesthood in 191 BCE.
After the First Judean Civil War, 159-153 BCE, the
Hasmoneans came to power as nativists and anti-Hellenists, but they ended up
even more Hellenist than their Oniad predecessors or even their Samaritan
cousins.
By 116 BCE, Seleucid power in the region had weakened to the
point where the current high priest, John Hyrcanus, was able to proclaim
himself Basileus (King).
Just to review, Hyrcanus conquered Idumea in 110 BCE and
Samaria in 108 BCE. Aristobolus I what
became Galilee in 104 BCE. Alexander
Janneus conquered Perea in 90 BCE and formally annexed Galilee in 81 BCE.
Ethnic groups in Palestine in the first century CE
Jews and Samaritans had a rough parity in at the time of
Isho the Nazarene, alias Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There were about 2 million of each. Each of the two major groups also had a rough
parity in Palestine, at around half a million each.
The half million Jews in Palestine were divided into three
ethnic subgroups: Jews proper, Idumeans, and Galileans. In first century Palestine, the term “Jews”
had two meanings: first, it meant the followers of the Israelite religion who
were not Samaritans; second, it meant the “racially pure” Jews who were neither
converts nor descendants of converts.
Jews proper were the
second group, the “racially pure” descendants of those who had always lived in
Yehud/Iudeia or who returned from exile in the east. Idumeans
were descendants of those in Idumea conquered in 110 BCE. Galileans
descended from Itureans and exiles from Judea.
Pereans descended from
Nabateans. To everyone outside
Palestine, or in Palestine but outside the Jewish community, all four of these groups
were simply Jews.
The Samaritans, the descendants of those who had always
lived in or were originally from Samerina/Samareia, either had no such subgroups
or they have gone unrecorded. They also
descended to some small degree from central Mesopotamians and Macedonians who
had been imported as colonists by one imperial power or another.
The Diaspora
In the Diaspora, Jews had no such divisions, or if they did
their common links were more important outside Palestine. And while some disparity between Jews and
Samaritans was noted in Alexandria, elsewhere in the Diaspora the two seem to have
been intertwined.
The largest Diaspora community of Jews was in Egypt, where
the number of Israelites was equal to that in Palestine, one million, centered
on Alexandria, its population allotted two of the city’s five sections. Those one million almost certainly included a
number of Samaritans. The second largest
expat community was in Syria, with the two biggest centers in Antioch and
Damascus.
To the east, there were large groups in Babylonia and in
Iran, particularly in Hyrcania, the northern satrapy made up of modern Gilan,
Mazandaran, and part of northern Khorasan.
There were communities in every major city across Anatolia, in Cyprus,
Cyrenaica, Greece, Italy, and the coastal regions of France and Spain.
Both Jews and Samaritans had substantial presences in Rome,
and later Constantinople, the population in Rome estimated at 10% of the total. At the time of Octavius Augustus, the
population of the city was about 1,250,000, of which 10% would be 125,000.
The Samaritan Diaspora followed much the same pattern as
that of the Jews.
In 15 CE, the royal family of Adiabene (Arbil), a client kingdom of the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire of
Iran gained full independence, and declared their realm officially Jewish. Adiabene supported the rebels in the Great
Jewish Revolt with money and supplies, and even sent an armed contingent to
break the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE that arrived too late. The kingdom led the struggle against Trajan
when he invaded northern Mesopotamia in 115 CE, which coincided with the Kitos
War in which the Jewish populations of Cyrenaica, Cyprus, Egypt, and
Mesopotamia (the Roman province in the south) rose against Rome. For Adiabene, the war ended in 117 CE with it
as part of the new Roman province of Assyria.
The survivors of the
Great Jewish Revolt of 66-73 CE became the founders of the Jewish communities
in western North Africa later known as the Maghrebim. The Bar Kokhba War of 132-135 spurred
emigration of Jews from Palestine into the Arabian Peninsula, where they begat
the Temanim in Yemen, Aden, Habban, Hadramaut, and Oman in southern Arabia as
well as the three Jewish tribes of Medina and the ten Jewish tribes in the
Hejaz.
Jews and
Samaritans
Both Jews and Samaritans worshipped at local synagogues,
which in the Diaspora were called proseuches from the third century BCE through
the first century CE. Both used the same
lunar calendar. Both observed the
Sabbath and the three great festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot
(Pentecost), and Sukkot (Booths), as well as Yom Kippur.
One of their main differences was how membership in each
group was inherited. Jews were mostly
matrilineal, while Samaritans were entirely patrilineal. The change for the Jews dates back to a
prescription of the Mishna in the second century BCE. Jews also accused Samaritans of not being
racially pure enough, while Samaritans accused Jews of corrupting the religion
of Yahuweh with innovation.
Jewish sects
At the top of Jewish society under the Roman Empire were the
Temple and the Great Sanhedrin, the High Priest being top official at the
former, the Nasi over the latter. The
Temple shared the top of Mount Moriah with the Royal Stoa, where the Great
Sanhedrin met and where the banking and law courts were located.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that male Jews, at least in
Palestine, wore their tefillin and tzitzit as part of their daily attire.
The Sadducees
were the religious faction mostly of the wealthy and powerful. They held sacred only the five books of the
Torah, like the Samaritans. They were
matrilineal, and either believed there was no afterlife or taught that it was
irrelevant to conduct on Earth. Their
power base was the Temple in Jerusalem, where they held the high priesthood.
The Boethusians
were either a splinter of the Sadducees or the latter’s leading family, because
their doctrines were the same, Torah-only, no afterlife, etc.
The Pharisees
were by far the largest sect of the Jews in Palestine. In addition to the Torah, they accepted the
Prophets and the Writings, though these were not yet codified. In addition, they followed the Mishna, or
Oral Torah. They also framed the Jewish
doctrine of the Ruach ha-Kodesh, or Holy Spirit. They fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, and they
definitely wore their tefillin and tzitzit daily.
Of the main sects, the Pharisees were the ones most eager to
convert Gentiles. They had members in
several communities of the Diaspora. Two
major factions developed in the early first century CE, Bet Hillel (House of Hillel) and Bet Shammai (House of Shammai), that became almost separate sects.
The power base of the Pharisees was in the Great Sanhedrin,
where they held the seat of Nasi (its head) exclusively. By maintaining the Great Sanhedrin and the
Palestinian Patriachate after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the
Pharisees gave birth to modern Rabbinic Judaism.
The Essenes
differed from other Jews in Palestine in a number of respects. First, they may have been patrilineal. They also followed a solar rather than lunar
calendar. They had a highly developed
astrology and an elaborate angelology.
They valued celibacy, though they did not require it, and they were
mostly vegetarians. They forbade oaths and animal sacrifice. They practiced
voluntary poverty and daily immersion. In
addition to the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, they had several others
works, some unique to their sect, as scriptures, such as Manual of Discipline, the Damascus
Document, and the War of the Sons of
Light and Sons of Darkness. They
lived in common where possible, in cities throughout the Near East, and their
most important center was the community at Qumran.
Documents found at the site show that their autonym was Ebionim (“Poor Ones”). They also called themselves followers of the
Way, the Holy Ones (“saints”), Children of Light, and a few other
monikers. Collectively they called
themselves the Yahad (“community”).
The Bene Sedeq
were a small sect claimed by some Karaites
as their forerunners. Many argue that
the latter (Karaites) have to have such antecedents as they have remain
patrilineal while the rest of Jews have been matrilineal since the second
century BCE. The Karaites also do not
wear tefillin, though they do wear tzitzit, and do not accept the Mishna.
The Hemerobaptists
were a sect that believed daily baptism was necessary to be cleansed of sin,
but on the other hand they did not believe in an afterlife.
The Nasareans were
forerunners of the Mandeans. This sect, found mostly in Perea, was
strictly vegetarian. They followed the
same calendar and observed the Sabbath.
They believed in all the Patriarchs, but they shunned the Torah. The Mandeans of today reject Jesus the
Nazarene for John the Baptist.
The Therapeutae
of Philo lived communally in the desert near Alexandria and were widespread
across the Mediterranean world, doubtlessly including Palestine. They used the Torah, the Prophets, the
Psalms, and some writings unique to themselves.
They assembled weekly for worship and sermons in synagogues divided by
sex, and every seven weeks held communal meals serving each other.
The Herodians
believed Herod the Great was the long-awaited Messiah.
The Hellenistai used
Greek instead of Hebrew in their Scriptures and worship. They produced the Septuagint as their Tanakh,
and it contains more books than the Hebrew canon. They were more cosmopolitan and syncretistic
to varying degrees, and very liberal in their iconography in their
synagogues. By far the largest group,
they were overwhelmingly in the Diaspora, but there were some in Palestine
also. The Diaspora counterpart to the synagogue from the third century BCE thru the first century CE was the proseuche; after that the name synagogue took over.
The additional books to the Hebrew canon contained in the
Septuagint include: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach
(aka Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira), Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, I
Maccabees, II Maccabees,
additions to Esther, and additions to
Daniel (Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon). Some
copies also include III Maccabees, IV Maccabees, Odes of Solomon, Prayer of
Manasseh, and I Enoch.
Converts and followers
Most Jewish sects, but especially the Pharisees, eagerly
converted Gentiles. Inside Palestine, a
full convert was called a ger tzedek,
and in the Diaspora a proselyte. A worshipper of Yahuweh who followed the
seven Noahide Laws without fully converting was called a ger toshav in Palestine and a theophobe
(God-fearer) in the Diaspora. The latter
in modern times are referred to in English as a righteous Gentile.
Noahide Laws
There were seven of these: 1. Do not commit idolatry; 2. Do
not blaspheme; 3. Do not murder; 4. Do not engage in sexual immorality; 5. Do
not steal; 6. Do not eat of a live animal; 7. Establish courts/legal system to
ensure justice.
Samaritans and their sects
The four important points of the Samaritan version of the
Israelite religion were One God (Yahuweh), the Torah, the prophet Moses, and
Mount Gerizim as the chosen place for the center of Yahuweh worship. They have the Samaritan Chronicle, much of which corresponds to the Book of Joshua, but they do not consider
it sacred.
The Sebuaeans
observed Pesach and the Feast of Matzot (Unleavened Bread) in late summer,
Shavuot in the fall, and Sukkot in the spring.
The Dositheans,
named for their founder, Dositheus, reputed to be the teacher of Simon Magus,
believed in the afterlife and practiced asceticism, vegetarianism, and
celibacy.
The Gorothenes
are given in a couple of sources as a sect, but nothing is said about that
which makes them separate.
Hypsistarians
The Hypsistarians,
“worshippers of God Most High”, were a group of strict monotheists who lived
and practiced across Anatolia and the southern shores of the Black Sea from 200
BCE to 400 CE. They called the deity
they worshipped Hypsistos, a term found for the Hebrew deity in the Septuagint,
and their beliefs may have originated from the conflation of Zeus Sabazios with
Yahweh Tzevaot. They did not follow the
Torah, much less the Mishna.
Jewish Christian sects
Although these sects are certainly post-Jesus, they originated
in Palestine shortly after his departure from the scene, basing themselves on
how they perceived his teachings. These
are included as a footnote to the description of first century Judaism.
The Ebionites
were circumcised, observed the Sabbath, celebrated the three festivals,
considered Jerusalem their holy city, and would only accept at their tables
Gentiles who had converted to Judaism.
Some practiced vegetarianism.
They rejected Jesus’ pre-existence, virgin birth (most but not all),
divinity, and the atoning nature of his death.
Many Ebionite rejected his physical resurrection. They accepted the Torah, the Writings, the
Prophets, and the Gospel of the Ebionites
in Hebrew, which was very similar to the Gospel
of Matthew. They also produced the Recognitions of Clement and the Clementine Homilies.
The Nazarenes
were very close to the Ebionites, but they accepted the virgin birth. They had their own gospel, the Gospel of the Nazarenes.
The Hebrews believed
in the pre-existence of Jesus, the incarnation, and the virgin birth. They had their own gospel, the Gospel of the Hebrews, written in
Greek. It spoke of the Holy Spirit as
the Divine Mother and portrayed Jesus as appearing first to James the Just, his
brother, after the resurrection. This
sect was probably based in Egypt.
The Osseans, or
Elchasaites, were from Perea. Among
them, celibacy was forbidden, marriage mandated. They reject the writings of Paul, the
Apostles, and the Prophets, and followed instead the Book of Elchasai as
their primary source.
The Cerintheans
were a quasi-Gnostic sect in the Roman province of Asia (formerly Phrygia in
western Anatolia) who believed the universe was created by a demiurge who was
good (as opposed to the evil demiurge of Valentius), distinguished between
Jesus and the Christ (which they said descended on him at the baptism), had
their own gospel similar to Matthew, accepted all the Jewish scriptures,
worshipped the same god of the Jews from the Tanakh, and instructed his
followers to follow the halakha of the Torah.
Gnostics
The Gnostics were
extremely diverse, in several sects mostly originating among Jews and
Samaritans from the late first century.
They are included here because they worshipped in synagogues, even
though most of their sects rejected both the Tanakh and the Jewish god. Often the various sects were a blend of
Judaism in the negative and of various Hellenistic philosophies, such as
Platonism, Stoicism, and Pythagoreanism.
Creation of the world by a demiurge was a primary feature, and matter
was usually considered evil. The sect
called the Simonians are of
particular interest since they were supposedly founded by the Samaritan figure
in the Acts of the Apostles called
Simon Magus.
Apocalyptic and popular Judaism
Palestine and much of Judaism was under the influence of
apocalyptic visions of utopian and dystopian futures. Much of this came out in the forms of literature
imitating scriptures.
The apocalyptic, of which the Daniel is a prime example, and
pseudepigraphic, of which Daniel is also a prime example, literature of this
period provides additional insight into the true ideas of the religion of the
Jews at the time. Some of the more prominent
examples include the Assumption of Moses,
the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,
1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, the Apocalypse of
Abraham, Jubilees, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Martyrdom of Isaiah. These books were widely popular at the time,
some quoted directly or referenced implicitly in the New Testament as well as
being found at Qumran.
Others found or mentioned by Church Fathers include: 3 Enoch, 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch, 4 Baruch, 3
Esdras, 4 Esdras, 5 Ezra, 6 Ezra, 5
Maccabees, 6 Maccabees, 7 Maccabees, 8 Maccabees, 1 Meqabyan, 2 Meqabyan, 3
Meqabyan, Adam Octipartite, Apocalypse of Abraham, Apocalypse of Adam,
Apocalypse of Elijah, Apocalypse of Sedrach, Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens,
Apocalypse of Zephaniah, Apochryphon of Jacob and Joseph, Apocryphon of
Melchizedek, Apocryphon of the Ten Tribes, Ascension of Moses, Book of Asaf,
Book of Noah, Cave of Treasures, Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Apocyphon
of Jeremiah, Eldad and Modad, Enochic book of Giants, Epistle of Rehoboam,
Apocalypse of Daniel, Apocalypse of Ezra, History of Joseph, History of the
Rechabites, Jannes and Jambres, Joseph and Aseneth, Ladder of Jacob, Letter of
Aristeas, Life of Adam and Eve, Lives of the Prophets, Prayer of Jacob, Prayer
of Joseph, Psalms of Solomon, Questions of Ezra, Revelation of Ezra, Rule of
the Congregation, Rule of the Blessing, Signs of the Judgment, Sword of Moses,
Testament of Abraham, Testament of Isaac, Testament of Jacob, Testament of Job,
Testament of Solomon, Treatise of Shem, Vision of Ezra, Visions of Heaven and
Hell, and Words of Gad the Seer.
The point of sharing all these names is to demonstrate just
how much first century Judaism was nothing like the picture we get from the New
Testament or from the Talmud.
Paganism in first century Palestine
Palestine in the first century was not the haven of heaven
as it is often portrayed in movies, theology courses, sermons, popular
religion, etc. According to Josephus,
the “haven of heaven” was anything but; he coining of the word “theocracy” to
describe the state under which he lived (and suffered) until 70 CE was not a
compliment.
There was very much paganism, some syncretistic, some purely
pagan, even at the heart of Judea in Jerusalem.
For example, Plutarch and Tacitus describe Jews engaging in
Dionysus worship as portrayed in II
Maccabees.
As in the past, Tammuz was worshipped in widely in
Palestine, mostly in the syncretistic form of Adonis. In fact, the cave in Bethlehem now celebrated
as the birthplace of Jesus served that function for Adonis-Tammuz in the first
century, and later for Mithras.
In the city of Sebaste (Samaria), there was a temple
dedicated to Serapis and Isis from the second century BCE; keep in mind that
the Samaritans holy site was Mount Gerizim.
In the early second century, it was rededicated to Demeter and
Persephone. It also hosted an
Augustaeum, a temple to the divine Augustus, and a temple to Kore, the maiden
form of Persephone.
The capital city of Iudaea province, Caesarea Maritimi,
sported a Mithraeum, a temple complex to the god Mithras. Mithras was a Mediterranean mystery deity,
only partially based on the Iranian god Mitra.
The five-sided pool of Bethesda depicted the Gospel of John
was actually an Asclepieion, a healing pool dedicated to the god of healing,
Asclepius. It was adjacent to the
Fortress Antonia, which abutted the Temple Mount. Asclepius, as the healer, was often given the
title “Soter”, or Savior. Herod Agrippa
I, King of the Jews 41-44 CE, constructed a shrine to Asclepius there.
After the Bar Kokhba War, Hadrian constructed a full scale Temple
of Asclepius and Serapis at the site, which included the small healing pools of
the Asclepieion, a large pool dedicated to Serapis and another to Fortuna.
This Serapeum was included in his new, entirely pagan, city
of Aelia Capitolina. He also rebuilt the
former Temple Mount, but with temples to Jupiter on one hand and to Juno and
Minerva on the other on its top. There
was a temple to Venus above a grotto that also served for Asclepius worship,
and a temple to Mercury in the Upper City.
At the visit of the empress mother Helena in the fourth
century, these became, respectively, the sites of the Jewish Temple, the Royal
Stoa, the Holy Sepulchre, and the Upper Room.
In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Mithras became the birthplace of Jesus.
In the fifteenth century, the Ari (Isaac Luria) declared
that the western wall the Hadrian built for the compound of the temples of
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva was the western wall of the Jewish temple compound,
even though that had been entirely dismantled.
According to Josephus, who was there and saw it happen, the only
structures left standing, besides Fortress Antonia, were the western wall OF THE
CITY (the former temple was in the east of the city) and three towers.
The synagogue in the capital of Galilaea province,
Autocratis (formerly Sepphoris, later—post Bar Kokhba War—Diocaesarea),
displayed the zodiac on its floor.
Scores of synagogues around Galilee, in fact, picked up that design for
their own floors. These may be signs of
the survival of the Essenes, or other Jews and Samaritans may have picked it up
from them.
Medusa and winged cherubim are depicted in the synagogue of
Capernaum, the very one in which Jesus visited so often. As is the Seal of Solomon (now called the
Star of David).
The Samaritan synagogue at Scythopolis (Beth Shean) includes
a depiction of Leda and the Swan who raped her (Zeus metamorphosized).
The second century synagogue at a the border city of Dura Europos
in far eastern Syria had frescoes showing fifty-eight scenes from the Tanakh,
including Moses as the Lawgiver, the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses leading the
Israelites out of Egypt, the visions of Ezekial, and many others. There were also depictions of Moses with
three nymphs, Ares supervising the Exodus, Aphrodite, and Victory bringing
laurel wreaths.
Orpheus is depicted in synagogues not only around the
Mediterranean, but in Palestine itself, in Judea as well as Galilee. In some of these depictions, he is portrayed
as King David. Later, Christians
borrowed the motif for Jesus.
In several synagogues both in Palestine and around the
Mediterranean, God is depicted as Helios in his chariot, apparently at that
time considered the ultimate motif for that.
Other motifs in synagogues of the first through seventh
centuries included the Ark of the Covenant, menorahs, horns, vines (symbol of
Dionysus), palm branches, peacocks, centaurs, griffins, the Four Seasons, Ares,
Fortuna, a gorgon head, Pegasus, Amazons, Queen Penthesilea, King Lycomedes,
Odysseus, Achilles, Atalanta, and Meleagros.
Not just in the Diaspora, not just in Palestine, but wherever Jews and
Samaritans lived.
From Josephus, we learn that atop the gate to the Temple
courtyard itself stood a Roman eagle, which first century Jews no doubt
despised as a pagan symbol. We have
graphic evidence of that being the case, in fact. In 4 BCE, but before the death of Herod the
Great, two religious teachers, Judas
son of Sepphoraeus and Matthias son of Margalus, were crucified after their
students, inspired by their exhortations, cut down the eagle and burned
it. After it was replaced, there were no
more attempts at redecoration.
Mystery Cults
As can be seen from the list of pagan sites above, the Hellenistic
mystery cults of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern world were
well-represented in Palestine. In some
cases, there was even a past connection to former local religious practices. Most pagan worship in first century Palestine
was, in fact, of the mystery cults: Orpheus, Mithras, Demeter and Persephone, Dionysus,
Kore, Venus-Astarte and Adonis-Tammuz, and Serapis and Isis and Harpocrates.
Tammuz, of course, had a long history in Palestine, and
among Israelites. He was identified with
Adonis, which was the Greek version of him.
In some places, Adonis-Tammuz was equated with Asclepius, who was
equated in the southern Levant, including Palestine, with Eshmun, the ancient
Canaanite-Phoenician god of healing.
The Serapian mysteries were quite ancient, dating back to very
old Egypt, where they began as the mysteries of Osiris. Osiris, in turn, was the foundation for
Serapis, a syncretistic deity introduced by Ptolemy after he took control of
Egypt in the late fourth century BCE.
The name Serapis derives from Aser-Apis, the merging of Osiris (Aser)
with Apis, god of grains, herds, and the dead.
By the first centuries BCE/CE, Serapis was further merged with
Asclepius. Isis was such a popular
figure already that her name didn’t change, but Horus became Harpocrates.
Merkava mysticism
The mystical themes which gave birth to the full Qabbalah
began in the first century BCE, with the Merkabah school. The basis of the Merkabah was the Vision of
the Chariot (merkabah literally means “chariot”) in Ezekial 1:4-26. Two other
passages in Ezekial, 3:12-15 and all
of chapter 10, are of particular interest, but so is the entire book. The vision in Daniel 7 and the Vision of the
Throne in Isaiah 6:1-8 also played a role.
A passage in the noncanonical, but widely popular in the first century, 1 Enoch 14, also influenced Merkabah
mysticism. Traces of it in the New
Testament include the “third heaven” vision of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2-5; much of the Epistle
to the Hebrews; and the entire Revelation
of John the Divine.
