Brian Gusciora
GBNT 620 Life of Christ
Dr. E. Oakley
Israel, Jews and Jesus Christ Jews lived in Israel at the time of Christ. They probably did not feel very safe. Once their country had been very powerful. David and Solomon had been their kings. That was 1000 years ago. Now they were not powerful. The people had done wrong things. They had not obeyed God. God had spoken to Abraham and Moses. He had given them a Covenant (made a special agreement with them). But the people did not obey God 's rules. God punished them. He made them leave their country. He had told them that he would do this. In 586 BC, enemies burned down the *Temple of Solomon. This *temple was one of the most wonderful buildings in the world. The enemies took
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Some Jews began to serve false Greek gods. After Alexander 's death, his Generals (important officers) fought against each other. Each one wanted to rule parts of his lands. Some of these battles were in Israel. Then one General spoilt the Temple, which the Jews had rebuilt. This General did some evil things in the Temple. He killed people who would not serve his false Greek gods. So, some Jews became very angry. The Maccabees were a family. They wanted the Jews to serve the true God only. And they opposed the false Greek gods. The Maccabees encouraged the Jews to fight their enemies. The Maccabees ruled Israel for a short time. The Jews began to argue with each other. Then the Romans came and ruled Israel. They were very strict. The Jews wanted to be free. But the Roman Empire became very strong. The Romans ruled many countries. Their power was very great. It seemed impossible for the Jews to be free. At the time of the birth of Jesus, the Romans had made Herod to be king over Israel. Herod was not a Jew. He was a foreigner. Although he was a Jew by religion, he did not obey the laws of the Jews. He was a strong and cruel man. He became king by a plot. He wanted to control the Jews. So he built the Temple again. He made it much bigger. His workmen began to build the Temple in 20 BC. They continued until about AD 64. Herod 's Temple was a very beautiful building.
But what happened in the Temple was not
In A.D. 70 the Romans ransacked Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground. The Romans gathered valuable Jewish artifacts and took the items back to Rome as a sign of victory. The rebellion sputtered on for three more years and finally ended in A.D 73. As a result of the struggle many Jews were killed and taken as slaves. The slaves were sent to Egypt to work in mining
After their exile, around fifty-thousand Jews returned to Jerusalem which was now called Judaea. The leader of Judea, the Persian King Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return and to build another place of worship (Fisher 251). The second temple was built in 515 BCE and according to the text Living Religions, became “the central symbol to a scattered Jewish nation” (Fisher). The temple became a place where the Torah was formed and where the religion prospered. However, Jewish prosperity was not going to last. After four centuries of Roman rule, that was domineering and dreadful, a group of Jews decided to rebel against their oppressors. This led to Jews being slaughtered by the Romans and to the second Temple being destroyed. All that is left of the Temple are foundation stones which are referred to as the Western Wall. The temple has never been rebuilt and the Western Wall has become a place for prayer and remembrance for Jews all over the world. Jewish people look at the Western Wall as a representation of the hardships and oppression that their religion and people have endured. According to the article, Mystical Secret of the Western Wall:
In Jerusalem, Jesus was treated fairly by everyone, but Romans and Jews didn’t except him, so he had to be executed. This shows that Romans and Jews would kill anyone who was dangerous, or threatening. Till this day, Jesus is a major part of believe and religion.
In 588 B.C a horrible act was started by the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian captivity had started and was exiling the Hebrews from their land. This was a very hard time for the Jews. The exile had brought a significant amount of change to how Judaism was practiced. Before they got exiled by the Babylonians their life revolved around the temple in Jerusalem, which the Babylonians have destroyed. The Hebrews believed that this was an act of god like when they were slaves in Egypt and then freed. They believed that they have to still keep their beliefs till god saves them again. Since they didn’t have a temple to go to where they made animal sacrifices they shifted their minds to the religious side. This is what led to the rise of
The Second Temple Period as it related to the Jewish people was noticeable by the reconstruction of the Temple in 538 BCE. This took place when the Jewish begun to enlarge this took place nearly six hundred years, as of the late sixth century BCE to 70 CE when the Jerusalem temple was ruined by the Romans. During this phase, Jews lived under foreign rule, during Judaism early development. First to have rule was the Persians this begin in 538-332 BCE. After which came the Hellenistic Kingdoms which were created after Alexander the Great’s capture from 332-63 BCE and concluded with the Romans from 63 BCE to 70 CE and beyond. This era also saw the development of the Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Essenes sects. Within this
Biblically, Jews in the City of Rome showed unpredictable tensions and riots against the civil government. “Roman Emperor, Claudius made an edict to expel the Jews from the City of Rome. Right after Claudius was assassinated, many Christian Jews moved back to Rome” (Maier, 1988, pg.355). Meanwhile, there were tensions in Judea. A growing compassion toward Zealots in Judea happened which encouraged the Roman Jews to rebel against the civil government.
The Jews were the most powerful culture back in the ancient times. This was a threat to others. The Hebrews had their own homeland before they became Jews. The homeland was the center of trade, commerce, and cultural exchanged, through the three major areas, Asia, Europe, and Africa. These areas were also a common place for conflict groups war with one another(rabbi,yaaca,2008).The Jews are to themselves and they do not push their beliefs on other people. They have been persecuted throughout history. The cities have been destroyed to the ground by hated armies, the temples have been tarnished to the ground several times, and have been put out by Jerusalem many times. The
Jewish were monotheism(believing in one God) Jewish religion was harsh, brutal and discourteous, they follow God through set of rules Roman Empire conquered many countries and inferior them including Middle East, Jerusalem When Romans defeated Carthage became most powerful Mediterranean state and expanded empire Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 B.C.E
Jews are perhaps the greatest race to grace the earth. The Jews have overcome a lot of challenges in their time on Earth as a civilization. Perhaps, their biggest challenge came in 70 A.D. against Rome. The Jews were living under The Roman Empire, and for the most part, they coexisted under Agrippa I, but when he died, their differences started showing. The Romans no longer understood the Jews and their status in the community, and the Jews felt like the Romans did not understand. In 66 A.D., revolts started breaking out in Jerusalem. These rebellions scared the Romans because other Roman cities might’ve rebelled as well. So, they had no choice but to react. In 70 A.D., they broke through the walls of Jerusalem, massacred the Jews, and tore down the temple. Despite being 2000 years old, the siege of Jerusalem and post war Diaspora directly influenced the Jewish communities in the modern era.
Upon analysing the evidence, one could argue that the Jews were severely oppressed due to their resistance against Roman occupation. Hence, from the fierce persecution of Jews by Flaccus in 38 AD, and the witnessing of a truly horrifying event – the destruction of their sacred temple,
Jerusalem was very important to the Jews around the time after Jesus’ death because it was where their Jewish religion was. They chose to make Jerusalem the centre and heart of Judaism because Jesus was known there and the Jews were looking for a revolution against Romans. The Jews did not follow the Roman Gods so the Roman Empire was on shaky grounds. Pontus Pilate was stubborn and treated the people with cruelty. They no longer had kings and the Roman Emperor had all the power. The Jews wanted an end of evil and injustice. They wanted a new way of living like what Jesus had said. Back in those times, the temple was a dominant and sacred feature.
From 66-73ce, a major war occurred that resulted in the Jews of Palestine revolting against Rome. This event is one of the most significant events in Roman History. Approximately thirty five years after Jesus’ death, the Jews of Palestine rebelled against their rulers. In 63ce, the Romans occupied Israel (). When Roman armies breached Jerusalem’s walls, they killed tens of thousands of Jews, burned the holy city, and demolished the Jerusalem Temple, where the Jews worshipped. Over the course of time, the Romans rule had become more and more oppressive for the Jews because of annual taxes, the Romans’ control over the High Priest and the general treatment they received by the Romans. In addition, ideological disparities between the Roman and Jewish belief in one God were at the center of political tensions which led to the revolt ().
It provided leadership to communities of the Jewish Diaspora at a time when they were being threatened by both Islam and the re-emergence of Greek
In order to fully comprehend the situation of the Jews in 175 BCE Judea, one must first understand the Jewish relationship with God. According to Genesis, God called Abraham, descendent of Noah, to follow and serve God. In
The Romans interacted with the Jew by respecting the Jews. In 63 B.C. the Romans conquered Judea. Judea was occupied by many Jews. When the Romans first took over they realized it was going to be a problem because the Jews refused to worship the Roman Gods. Rome had not had this problem before because many of the other lands the Romans had conquered the people were polytheistic and had no problem also worshipping the Roman Gods. Rome eventually did not force the Jews to worship their Gods, which was a roman requirement. The Jews got the privilege of not having to worship Roman Gods by helping Julius Caesar win an important battle several years earlier. Soon after Rome acknowledged Judaism as a legal religion and the Jews were able to freely