Week 6!

Tuesday: Persian Jerusalem           

            In lecture we talked about Persian Jerusalem, the time period from 539-333BCE. The important aspect of this time period had to do with the Prophet Ezekiel and his vision. After the destruction of the 1^st Temple and the exile by the Babylonians, many Jew experienced cognitive dissonance. Ezekiel saw the return of a mobile God, one that did not require a permanent earthly residence; this helped the Jew accept the destruction of the Temple. Ezekiel prophesized that there would be a new Temple, that a divine presence would return, and water would once again be flowing from the Temple. This then led into discussion of what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. There are multiple theories but what seems the most plausible was the idea that the Ark was already gone from the Temple before the destruction by the Babylonians due to Hezekiah or Josiah’s reforms. This is also believed because there is no mention of the Ark in the Temple lists made by the Babylonians.

            Next we discussed King Cyrus of Persia. King Cyrus was fostered as the “liberator” because he was responsible for exiling the Jew back to Jerusalem. His reasoning for why he did this is under interpretation, but either way this led to the creation of a 2^nd Temple.  Whether a new temple was needed or not was under much debate as seen in Haggai 1-2, Isaiah 66: 1-2, Ezekiel 40-48, Elephantine Letter 30, Dead Sea Scrolls, Ezra 3, and Zechariah 6:9-15. In the end a new temple was build.

Thursday:  Hellenistic and Hasmonean Jerusalem

In 336 BCE, Alexander the Great began his conquest of the Mediterranean. In 332 BCE he conquered Palestine with the defeat of the Persian King Darius at the Battle of Issus. But when Alexander dies in 323 BCE, we see the division of the Kingdom into the Ptolemies (Egyptians) and the Seleucids (Syrians). The Ptolemies control Palestine from 300 BCE-201 BCE and Jerusalem was given autonomy. They were allowed to do as they pleased and could choose their own High Priest as long as they paid taxes and did not revolt. In 198 BCE, Antiochus II defeats Ptolemy V at Paneas and the Seleucids begin to rule in Jerusalem. This began the aggressive Hellenization of the Jews. The Seleucids wanted to turn Jerusalem into a polis, a center of Greek life. Every aspect of Jewish life was effected and even the Jewish tombs and homes began to have Greek influence. When Antiochus IV came to power in 175 BCE, he did much to suppress Jewish resistance including looting the Temple Treasury, outlawing Jewish religious practices, sacrificing a pig on the Temple Altar, and converting the temple into a temple of Zeus. Jewish reaction varied greatly and some welcomed this new Greek influence, other did not. Jewish infighting became intense and we soon saw revolt.

The revolt of the Jews was known as the Maccabean Revolt after its most famous leader, Judas Maccabaeus. They killed and attacked the Greeks and any Jews that collaborated with the Greeks. The revolt was amazing successful and the Jews regained control of Jerusalem and the Temple in 165 BCE. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah was established to commemorate this victory. This was the first time there was Jewish self-rule since the exile to Babylon. The period that followed became known as the Hasmonean Dynasty, where the leaders were said to be descendants of “Hasmon”, and was said to be the restoration of the “Golden Age”. This self-rule lasts about a century. During the Hasmonean Dynasty, Hasmonean rules became increasingly Hellenized, secular, and corrupt. The leaders assumed the office of High Priest as well as King, they were insensitive to Jewish Religious tradition, executed political and religious opponent, and forcibly “Judiazed” surrounding gentile regions. Eventually there was second division, and the battle between the Sadducees and the Pharisees began. In the end the political unrest within Jerusalem allowed it to be conquered by Pompey and the Romans in 63 BCE.