Old Testament Time

In Chapter 2 of Encountering the New Testament the author talks about a few of the different practices that unified the Jews as well the different religious groups that had different beliefs. Judaism was unified in the beliefs that they had been chosen by God, they were waiting for the messiah to come, they respect the synagogues, they shared the same laws and traditions of elder. Although these beliefs were unifying there were seperate religious groups and leaders that held different beliefs. Probably the most well known group of religious leaders were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a small group of religious leaders that believed in God, and the coming messiah. Although many of the Pharisees did live good lives many of them were

Greece was a very high-class civilization, where the government was based on city-states. Perhaps their greatest invention of all was the form of government they came up with, which we still use today-democracy. However these Greek democracies are nothing like our democracy today. The probably most well known ruler of Greece was Alexander the Great. He was the leader of Macedonia, the city-state that took control over Greece, and he eventually gained control over Greece as a whole. Alexander the Great was probably the best leader of all time in Greece. He conquered new lands, but he was the first person to adopt the new land's customs, instead of forcing his customs on the new territory. This is why many of the civilizations he conquered actually were glad he took them over. He also encouraged his soldiers to marry the women from the new territories to show cultural involvement.

One of the major differences that A.J. Jacobs illuminates as major differences between the world of the Old Testament and our recent society is that the hundreds of laws listed on the 5 first books of the Old Testament might no longer apply to our contemporary society. Some of the reasons these laws are irrational is because they were harsh and basically impossible to achieve. However, I disagree with him in picking and choosing the right parts of the Bible. This is a dangerous statement because it opens the door to pick and choose what fits our model; therefore justification to sin might occur as a consequence. Nevertheless, these laws were given to one group of people, the Jews.

Alexander the Great was king of the Macedonians and one of the greatest generals in history. As a student of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, Alexander was embedded with lasting interests in philosophy, politics and warfare. As king, he settled problems by immediate action, making quick decisions and taking great risks. His armies overcame these risks by sheer force and by the ingenious tactics instilled in them by Alexander. He and his armies conquered the Persian Empire, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to India and formed much of what was then considered the civilized world. Through his conquests, Alexander helped spread Greek ideas, customs and laws throughout Asia and Egypt and adopted a uniform

When Alexander conquered Egypt, Alexander respected the culture and the beliefs the Egyptians had. Alexander never enforced his culture on the conquered people but he did support Greek culture. Alexander instead left the culture alone and tried to learn about the culture instead of changing it. If he was a ruthless leader, he would of enforced Greek culture onto the conquered people and wouldn’t of allowed the people's culture. Another example of this is that he also respected the knowledge and variant cultural traditions of the people he conquered. Many ruthless leaders would look down upon the other's cultures but instead, Alexander accepted the other's culture and tried to learn the culture. When Alexander took over the Persians, he showed respect for the conquered Persians and allowed the Persians to still have Persian governors and beliefs. Instead of making Macedonians and Greek rule the Persians, he allowed the Persians to keep their governments and beliefs. If Alexander was a bad person, he would've removed the Persian governors and would’ve changed the Persian beliefs to Greek beliefs. One thing Alexander actually did was he adopted Persian customs. Alexander actually liked other cultures and adopted some parts of other cultures. A ruthless leader would of never adopted other culture if he thinks his culture is

The Great also strived for the Russifiication of his empire, all the while keeping contact with Germany to a minimum. Alexander’s defeat of the Persian Empire allowed the spread of Greek settlement into the East. Even though there is no evidence that shows Alexander promoted a policy of Hellenization, Greek culture still came into western Asia as the result of his conquests, and western Asia, all the way up to the Mesopotamian frontier, became a part of the Greek world. This is one of Alexander’s most certain and unintentional historical achievements.

• Alexander (king and son of Philip, a.k.a. Alexander the Great) defeated the Persian King Darius Ⅲ.

Joseph M. Bolton RELS 103-02 Online Old Testament Studies Spring Semester 2011 Session E May 8, 2011 to July 2, 2011 The Old Testament TimeLine Creation & Primeval History The Creation: * God creates the Heavens and the Earth * God creates man in his image. *

Persia, under King Darius’ rule expanded its level of influence into Western Europe with hopes of conquering Athens, Greece between 522-486 B.C. Attempting to, “quell once and for all a collection of potentially troublesome rebel states,” Darius desire to conquer Greece would ultimately lead to one of the most influential battles of ancient history (Cartwright, Marathon,

Alexander the Great adopted the cultures of the people he conquered. He did by becoming an example of one of the nations he conquered which was Persia. Alexander began to dress like a Persian king, instead of the simplistic Macedonian ruler, which angered many of his soldiers. He also urged his men to marry women from different cultures which also angered his soldiers. Alexander also spread the various cultures throughout his empire. He did this because he wanted to show respect to those he conquered.

The rise of Alexander the Great impact on the biblical word by making the Greek language universal enabling the gospel to spread to other countries that did not speak the Hebrew language. God uses the spread of the Greek and language to have the New Testament translated into Greek so that everybody could read the bible and not just Jews nor Greeks. (Galatians 3:28).

The construction of the Second Temple was the second main contribute to the history of Judaism. Following the Persian conquest that overtook the Babylonian Empire, groups of Jews exiled were returning. This represented a restart of the religious life for Judaism. Many of the Jews now lived within the Persian Empire that once was the kingdom of Judah. As the Second Temple was being rebuilt, there was a focus on the collection and editing of sacred scriptures used. The focused on sacred scriptures about divine promise, judgement, recurrent patterns of teaching, and insight from earlier prophets. This is important to the history of Judaism because this was a restoration attempt after the horrendous attack by the Babylonian Empire. In addition,

An understanding of Israel’s history and geography is necessary for proper interpretation of the Old Testament. The Middle East provided the setting for the events recorded in the Old Testament, specifically Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine. This area lies along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia up to the Persian Gulf. This area was the cradle of civilization and the scene of God 's activities as recorded in the Old Testament. The majority of the events take place in Palestine, the ancient land of Canaan, though at times the Israelites lived in Egypt and Babylon. This is

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

The Hellenic and Hellenistic shift was a turning point for Greek culture. The Hellenic are those who lived in ancient Greece before Alexander the Great. The Hellenistics are those who lived in the period after Alexander the Great’s conquest. Alexander the Great was a mighty and strong leader of the Greek people. The people that were under his following respected him greatly. We can tell the drastic changes that occurred after Alexander Great was leader by the art, philosophies, and religion. The Hellenistic Changes that occurred showed us that the Hellenistic priorities transformed drastically from what the Hellenic ways were like.