Essay on The Kingdom of God

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

The major groups of the religious Jewish authority that are present in The Shadow of the Galilean are the members of the Sadducidic and Pharisidic movements. The movement that best illustrates how Theissen illuminates the actions and sayings of Jesus are the Pharisees. Theissen helps show that the characterization of the Pharisees in the Gospels is shallow, and that they were not as condemnatory or unified as the Bible presents them.

The Jewish communities consist of many group or different parties. One of those parties is a group called Sadducees. The Sadducees was formed when Jerusalem temple became in power in the Jewish community. Sadducees were mainly wealthy aristocrats. They did not believe in the oral torah. They wanted to focus only the teaching of the Moses. At this time Sadducees party supported the Romans who were in control of Israel. They adopted the culture and the values of the Romans. They were against some of the teaching of Jesus. They did not believe in the afterlife or the idea of resurrection. Sadducees believe that once a person died they will not be brought to life because a person soul perishes after death. They also rejected the idea of the Torah. They were more conservative and they wanted people to only focus on what Moses taught and not new revelations. Furthermore, they did not believe in spirits such as demons and angels. When the destruction of the Temple happened in 70 C.E. they were no longer the ruling parting. They were taking from power by

They have faith that they must follow God's laws in daily life. Judaism focus on the relationship between man and god, there are three basic groups of Jewish people who have a different understanding of the Torah they are Orthodox Jews, Conservative and Reform Jews and Reform Jews.

The Pharisaical Jews, on the other hand, were much more peaceful, and believed that the Roman occupation was all a part of God’s plan. They emphasized non-belligerence against their conquerors, and focused on maintaining internal peace and stability. From lecture, we learned that they often emphasized many Hellenistic ethics. Rather than taking a literal interpretation of the Torah, like the Zealots, the Pharisees preferred to debate how the Torah could be applied to their lives based on the events unfolding around them. Much like Job, in his attempts to be a good servant of God, the Pharisees believed that one must remain steadfast in their works for God. In both interpretations, God is portrayed as a wise deity who will guide men to salvation.

This outstanding man was a young Jew of the straightest sect of the Pharisees; he was a member of the group that came closer to keeping the Law of Moses than any other. The Jews were divided into about a dozen different groups and three are mentioned in the in the Bible: The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes.

Of all the major Second Temple sects, only the Pharisees believed with teachings directed to all Jews, they could transform Temple worship. Such teachings extended beyond ritual practices. Regardless of the importance they gave to the Temple, the Pharisees’ vision of Jewish law was a means by which ordinary people could engage with the blessings in their daily lives. Also, they wanted to grant them a position from which to respond to challenges in a way meaningful to the vast majority of Jews. Their responses would constitute Rabbinic Judaism.

THE ESSENES The Essenes were a group of highly-evolved spiritual beings – to which Mary and Joseph and Jesus and their family and friends belonged - who were strict vegetarians, never drank any alcohol, engaged in daily prayers and ritual ablutions, foretold the future, and were extremely knowledgeable in the scriptures, and in charting the constellations and movement of the stars. The Essenes lived harmoniously in Judea with the two other major sects within Judaism of the day: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. However, the Essenes differed from the Pharisees and the Sadducees in many significant ways: (1) They were absolutely non-violent; (2) They were strict vegetarians, and they would never eat any

By the time of Jesus’ life in Palestine, participation in the Pan-Hellenic world was redefining what it meant to be Jewish. Hellenistic Jews adapted to the new culture, while the Pharisees fought this assimilation by choosing a strict interpretation of Jewish law (Smarr 1/18). Into this picture steps Jesus. It is my interpretation that the Jesus depicted by the Gospel of Matthew does not intend to be a radical revolutionary seeking to establish an entirely new faith, but a reformer attempting to revive the moral and spiritual strength of Judaism, yet Jesus’ message of love and mercy as a formula for human relationship departs radically from the traditional Jewish emphasis on law and justice. I attempt to prove this through

It is during this period that Judea begins its great cultural conflict between the Sadducees, Pharisee, and the Essenes. The Sadducees were the temple class and only accepted the written Torah as having absolute authority and made their home like the temple. The Pharisee were the scribe class and this group accepted both the written Torah and the oral traditions. The last were the Essenes, which are thought to be primarily nomadic in life style and usually live strict live outside of urban settings . The three factions battled for control of the spirit of Judea, with the ancient traditions of the past and Judaism’s national and ethnic identity as subject of potential reform. This was largely a result of the Palestine Jews, as they held strong sway on the temple’s politics and made up the core of Jewish intellectuals and religious leadership. The other Jewish group called the Diaspora Jews were those who were separated from the land of Judea, in migration through the roman empire, and they had called into question Judaism’s identity as a geographically positioned people, gentile influence and interaction, and prayer. Their desire was largely a result of the disconnect that was formed with their isolation from the Temple and their intermingling with large

The third religious party of Jews in Palestine in the 1st century were the Essenes. Within the Essenes, there were different divisions. The Qumran Essenes are best known from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in 1947. Since the Essenes tended to be more strict that the Pharisees and did believe that some of the traditions were valid. The Essenes, along with the Pharisees, possessed a hatred towards the Romans and played a big role in the first Jewish revolt. The Essenes did not believe that the priesthood of the Sadducees was for real. Likewise, the Essenes believed that the time of the messiah was near and that after the messiah had established the new kingdom, they would be restored as legitimate priests (Robinson, 1986).

What exactly is "the kingdom of God?" How does one recognize the kingdom? Are you in the kingdom of God? So often, people search for the evidence of the kingdom of God rather than simply identifying it. In the present day, the stress is evasively put on works and actions rather than a personal relationship with God. Too many people fall into the trap of participating in as many activities as they can, living to have their good deeds noticed by others; however, the key point is entirely missed. It is the innermost intimate part of a person that divulges the power of an individual's life, not the actions. Jesus makes this clear in the book of Luke when he states, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will

The Kingdom of God is essentially God’s reclamation reign or his primary focus of proclamation and ministry. In the Old Testament, a Kingdom is predicted that God was yet to determine. During the events of the Holocaust, innumerable amounts of people began to question the Christian faith and its failure of letting thousands to suffer. Through learning about the meaning, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the ethics, and the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is observed how Christ is a sign of The Kingdom of God.

The Second Temple Period was an extremely diverse time in history. Several changes in kings bought about major change among the Jews. The changes were obvious in religion, leaderships, and accomplishments of the period. The numerous different leaders changed the foundation of the Jewish people down to the core. In this paper I will review the various transitions that took place during the second time period. It is evident that the changes that took place influenced the Jews in a variety of ways. This paper will highlight those influences.

The Sadducees were a very influential group in Judaism, many being priests (Wenham and Walton 40). There was no worry to the Sadducees of losing their position because it was “secure under Roman rule” (Wenham and Walton 41). Their beliefs were different from the Pharisees in that they did not practice oral traditions, that is verbally telling the stories of the Scriptures. Even though they accepted the Old Testament scriptures, they only practiced the beliefs that were in the Pentateuch, which is the first five books from the Old Testament (Murphy 239; Wenham and Walton 42). Another underlying belief the Sadducees had was their disbelief in resurrection as well as they did not believe in fate (Evans 100; Wenham and Walton 42). Furthermore,