The Political, Social and Religious Situation of Palestine During the First Century AD

By the year 1000 B.C.E the Jews had founded Israel as their national state (“Jews”). They actively practiced a very distinctive religion, Judaism. Israel was conquered several times and eventually came under the rule of the Roman Empire (“Jews”). During this time, Jews were legal citizens of the Empire. However, the Jews and Christians diverged quickly; the Jews were marginalized for being different and strange. They rejected the belief that Jesus is the Messiah and other christian laws. Eventually the Jewish revolt in 135 C.E. drove the Jews out of Jerusalem (“Jews”). They then lived throughout the Roman Empire and the materializing medieval states. They lived in their own communities called ghettos because they were not allowed to own land

The history of Jews in host cities often depict a story of success or of failure when it comes to relations between the Jews and the Christians in Europe. Historian Jonathan Elukin, author of Living Together, Living Apart, presents the integration as a success process with rare, and special cases, of failure. On the other side of the spectrum is historian Raymond P. Scheindlin. Scheindlin’s novel, A Short History of the Jewish People, presents many cases of integration between the Christians and Jews that led to massacres and brutal endings for the Jewish community. There are many monumental events that take place during the long span of time that oversees European Jewish history, and both historians study and evaluate the events, however, they do so through different lenses.

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The World in First-Century Palestine was similar and different in many ways to the present. The Jews were in their Holy Land and proud to be the chosen people of God. The Roman Empire occupied their land during the first century. First, Romans did not threaten their way of life. Later on with higher taxes and greater oppression all changed. This led to political backstabbing, religious uprising and insurgency. More than a million people died, mostly Jews. Back in that time religion guided the chosen people’s lives more so than today. Jewish people had very important rituals. The term we know as “unclean” had a different meaning in those times. Women did not have the same rights and freedoms that we have today. Crucifixion was the extremist penalty to all the Jews in the Holy Land. Rituals, “Unclean”, and crucifixion was part of normal everyday life in Palestine in the First Century.

Palestine has a long history of being ruled by different empires, all of which followed different religions. Its culture has been exposed to the influence of the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans and a few others. It is in the heart of the Middle East and it houses the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Judaism being one of the oldest religions, dating as far back as 2000 BCE in Canaan. Christianity, which then took into Judaism’s steps spread more vigorously and was more recently “recognized in New Testament studies” (Yencich 120). Then many years later came Islam, which had its own peak as well. These three monotheistic religions seem to echo each other’s tales, ideals, and values. The conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis over this Holy Land has been going on for years.

Early modern Jewish history is filled with depth and knowledge that captivated and cultivated the religion into what it would become. An important part of the history were the ideologies and philosophies of Moses Mendelssohn. Considered the first modern Jewish philosopher and a shaper of Judaism, Mendelssohn was the start of what would become the Jewish Enlightenment. Being the first person to translate the Bible from Hebrew to German, he opened up the door for Jews to rediscover and enhance their knowledge. A writer and philosopher, several of Mendelssohn's writings were highly successful and considered a herald to a new way of thinking. While many of his writings received praise from people of different parts, critiques arose, including

1. "So now they and their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom, lest their

Since the UN partition of Israel and Palestine in 1947, Israel has been placed in many instances of conflict between the Jewish migrants to the region and the Palestinian natives. Several conflicts resulted in open, declared war, such as the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In addition, Israel has been involved in the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. After the last open war, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has been marked by the military governorate, taking political and institutional control of the region that is ethnically and religiously different than the population that resides in the Jewish state of Israel.

The Jewish religion makes Israel’s culture in 722 B.C. - 540 B.C. distinctive. Israel’s religion is important in the fact that it started the Catholic culture. Though most Christians do not do the same things the Jews did back then, the bases for their beliefs and ideas came from the Jews. The Israelites’ way of life was influenced by their religion. They maintained their faith even when they were being exiled. Their work, customs, laws, and other things were all influenced by their Jewish religion. The geography of Southern Israel was also important in the way that the location affected their way of life and work. These folkways and work are important since their religion influenced them. Religion was their structure of life.

The most essential reasons behind the Israel-Palestine conflict were geocultural factors. These factors contributed greatly to the contentious argument between both groups because with the geocultural perspective, the religious tensions between Muslims and Jews have resulted in the problematic issue over the holy structures in Jerusalem. The second most contributing factors in the Israel-Palestine conflict were psychological factors. These were the second greatest factors that started the dispute because with the psychological perspective, the aftereffects of the holocaust have traumatized the remaining Jews and also the Palestinian refugees losing their homeland. The conflict takes place in the Middle East, holy land of Jerusalem and officially started from 1948 and ongoing. The average person in Israel is a wealthy Jew and the typical Palestinian is an impoverished Muslim. The forced migration of Palestinian refugees and military checkpoints are disadvantages towards Palestine and are huge advantages to the Israelis.

In the very beginning, King David booted out the founders of the city, the Canaanites, and it continued changing hands from the Babylonians, to the Romans, to the Byzantines and Turks, and to the fight between Muslims and Christians in the Third Crusade (Burke). Then, in 1948, Israel began taking control of the Holy Land from the Palestinians that already inhabited Jerusalem, initiating yet another bout of violence and discord that still hasn’t seen its end. As stated in “Primer On Palestine, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” while the groups are of different religions, “religious differences are not the cause of the strife. The conflict became known as a struggle over

Beginning as early as 1500 BCE with the Olmecs, cacao spread throughout the world, becoming a luxury enjoyed by everyone from Mayan Aja, to Aztec Tlahtohqueh, from Spanish friars to French courtiers and English noblemen, to the chocolate loving throngs in the supermarkets of the world today. While chocolate was brought to the old world primarily by exploring Catholic Spaniards, many cultures and religions played vital roles in the development of the “food of the gods”. In this post, I will concentrate on the historical involvement of the Jewish people in the cacao trade throughout the centuries, and examine how, as a result of Jewish contributions that continue to this day, the holy land came to flow not only with milk and honey, but

In this chapter (7) the main focus is a group of Palestinian Jewish people in the era between 323-63 B.C.E. The problem at the forefront of these people’s minds was the influence and thereupon the challenge of Hellenism (pp. 95). In other words, the Greek and Hellenistic leaders were forcing the Jewish people to perform an array of acts against that of which they believed. However, these individuals collaborated an abundance of biblical canonized and non-canonized documents that were later found and referred to as the “Dead Sea Scrolls” (pp. 98-99). However, this finding helps academics learn more about how this group used the Psalms. I am intrigued that through all of the persecution this community endured, they still involved themselves in the Thanksgiving Psalms. The biblical Psalms had deep influence on some fresh hymns composed within the community: the so-called Thanksgiving Hymns” (pp. 106). This indeed portrays the deep spirituality and Godly discipline these people had through times of disorientation.

The true people of the now Roman occupied provinces of Palestine are now but almost destroyed of their independence, their loyalties now lie with the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire’s overview of Palestine. The Hebrew descendants of Abraham himself are in pandemonium of where their beliefs in God lie now as the Roman’s slowly but constantly squeeze the religions of the hebrews. Many of the hebrews are too afraid to confront the Romans once again in a revolution, as the present revolutions only resulted into the turmoil of the extended control in Palestine. The Roman Empire are as well fearful of another revolution as the previous one almost resulted to a full civil war, an event that could have crippled their security of other conquered lands. It is because of this a stalemate of the occupants and conquerors has occurred, the Romans maintaining order, control and allowance to those of Palestine of their traditions and beliefs, yet the hebrews must comply with their overseers to maintain the peaceful order they possess at this moment, despite the many restrictions made to them. The downfall of the righteous Maccabees and their Hasmonean dynasty over Judea in 63 BCE by Pompey himself, has only since created the loss to Judea once again. The now Roman province of Judea and state of Palestine are again experiencing the same jurisdiction that they have always survived from in the dreadful past. Empire to kingdom, Palestine has been subject to territorial conflicts, from the

Studying the religion of the Ancient Israelite People must be done in a careful manner. The ways in which biblical scholars frame significant ideas can have a major effect on how their point is received. Today’s ideas about the religious lives of Canaanites have been drawn on primarily from The Hebrew Bible and archaeological evidence. In their respective works, biblical scholars Benjamin Sommer and Carol Meyers choose to interpret these pieces of religious evidence is varying ways; Meyers takes a more cultural approach while Sommer’s has a theological leaning. Recognizing these different perspectives, I prefer the approach that Meyers takes because of its focus in anthropology.