The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (18 page)

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See the discussion of the chronology of Jesus' life in chap. 3.

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See the discussion of the date of the book of Revelation in chap. 20.

HISTORY

The Babylonian Period (606–539 BC)

The account of the Babylonian occupation of Israel is included in the OT.
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The Babylonian period began in 606/5 BC with Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Judea; the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians in 722 BC (see 2 Kgs 24:12). The element of Nebuchadnezzar's foreign policy that most impacted the destiny of Judah was the deportation of the higher classes to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar instituted this policy for Judah (including Daniel and Ezekiel) and placed Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah as king over Judah, renaming him Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:17). Zedekiah's flirtation with Egypt forced Babylon to lay siege to Jerusalem until “the ninth day of the [fourth] month” of 586 BC.
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Eventually tracked down and captured, the last thing Zedekiah saw before being blinded was the execution of his sons (2 Kgs 25:7). The pro-Babylonian Gedaliah was appointed in his place but was assassinated soon thereafter (2 Kgs 25:22–26).

This deportation created a theological crisis for the Jews in the dispersion. The dissolution of the monarchy, the loss of the central sanctuary, and the proximity to Gentiles all created moral and ceremonial problems for those living outside of Judea.
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The prophets had denounced Israel and Judah for emphasizing the ceremonial over the ethical aspects of their covenant with God. In the dispersion it was evident that in the absence of the central sanctuary the Jews were led to focus on the moral dimension of God's law. With the ceremonial element remaining just a lingering hope for the exiled Jews, law observance temporarily took the place of the temple ritual and animal sacrifice.

Without a central place to meet and worship (the temple), the captives in all probability established the synagogue as a venue where they could gather to study and discuss the law. The synagogue is a well-established institution in NT times. It may be surprising to find that the emergence of the synagogue is not mentioned in the OT. Most likely, the synagogue had its origins in the exile.
⁸

Another development during the exile was the permanent renunciation of idolatry among the Jews. Idolatry, the worship of gods other than Yahweh, had been a major cause for the exile. During the Babylonian captivity, however, idolatry completely lost its appeal, as the apocryphal book of Judith exemplifies: “For never in our generation, nor in these present days, has there been any tribe or family or people or city of ours which worshiped gods made with hands, as was done in days gone by—and that was why our fathers were
handed over to the sword, and to be plundered, and so they suffered a great catastrophe before our enemies” (8:18–19, RSV). The major lesson that Israel learned from the exile was that God will not tolerate Israel's worship of other gods.

The Persian Period (539–331 BC)

In due course Babylon came under attack from an upstart kingdom, the Persian Empire.
⁹
When Cyrus of Persia, a former vassal of Media (from around 550 BC), attacked Opis (an outlying city), Nabonidus king of Babylon was busy quelling a bloody revolt in Babylon. After Sippar (another city under Median control) fell to the Persian army, Babylon surrendered peacefully. This is probably due to the diversion of the Euphrates River by Cyrus, which enabled his soldiers to march through the city on dry ground. On October 29, 539 BC, Cyrus entered Babylon and proclaimed himself “King of Babylon,” thus beginning a new dynasty in the Middle East.

Several OT books describe events during the Persian period, including 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, selected Psalms, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and perhaps most famously Isaiah (44–45). Cyrus's foreign policy (unlike that of Babylon) was to permit conquered peoples to maintain their local customs and religions in their homelands. Thus when Ezra petitioned Cyrus to return to Judea, he agreed (Ezra 1:1–4). Subsequently, Persia became a real superpower, with succeeding kings expanding “from India to Cush” (i.e., Ethiopia; Esth 1:1). In light of the Persian Empire's conciliatory stance toward the Jews and in fulfillment of biblical prophecy (Isa 44:28–45:13), Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland (see Ezra 1:1–4). Thus under Persian rule the captives returned and with them the temple furniture and provision for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, though this did not happen immediately.

The Persians ruled Palestine for more than 200 years. The empire eventually fell to the expansive campaigns of the Greeks. The Greeks first became aware of the inner weakness of Cyrus's successors when Greek mercenaries were hired by Cyrus the Younger (no relation) to overthrow the present king, Artaxerxes II (404–358 BC). The story of these mercenaries is related in the Greek historian Xenophon's
Anabasis
; the internal divisions and weaknesses of the Persian Empire gave hope to the Greeks that the Eastern superpower was ripe for conquest.

The Greeks had expanded off the Achaean mainland long before Alexander the Great's famous campaigns.
¹⁰
Persia had subdued the Anatolian city-states, but in 500–494 BC they revolted. Athens sent their navy to help and burned Sardis, while Persia dispatched a punitive expedition to the Greek Peninsula. Athens defeated the Persians at Marathon, to which the Persian king Xerxes (Esther's husband) responded with a full-scale invasion. The Athenians pulled together an alliance of independent city-states to resist the invasion. Yet
while the Spartans slowed the Persians down, the Athenian navy won the day. While the Persians were burning the Acropolis in Athens, the navy won the decisive battle in the bay of Salamis. This was followed by a decisive land battle at Plataea in 479 BC, at which the Persians withdrew, still holding some Greek cities.

The fifth century BC was characterized by the golden age of Athenian democracy as the ideal of a vast alliance of city-states (actually, an empire ruled by a city). The Greeks and Persians remained in somewhat of a cold war with occasional battles, during which time the Persians gradually weakened. Judea was relatively unaffected by the Greco-Persian wars, but Greek influence could be felt in Palestine. Yet, as had been prophesized in Daniel, Greece grew to become a significant empire.
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The Greek Period (331–167 BC)

The Greek period can be divided into three phases: (1) the conquests of Alexander the Great (331–320 BC); (2) the Ptolemaic period (320–198 BC); and (3) the Seleucid or Syrian period (198–167 BC). What is more, Greek influence was felt in Palestine well beyond the Grecian period through the pervasive impact of Greek culture called “Hellenization.”

Alexander the Great and His Conquests (331–320 BC)
The Grecian period officially began with the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great.
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Macedonia, north of the Greek peninsula, had been ruled by Philip of Macedon, Alexander's father, who turned it into a fierce military machine. Philip subdued the Greek city-states, requiring tribute from them. He was assassinated by Pausanias in 336 BC, which opened the door for Alexander's ascendancy to the throne.
¹³
After Alexander tamed the Greek city-states that did not immediately bow to his will, he turned his attention to Persia.
¹⁴
As predicted by the prophet Daniel, Alexander's conquest was brutally efficient.

Philip's investment in Alexander's education both militarily and academically—he hired Aristotle to be Alexander's tutor when the boy was 13—would have ramifications far beyond Philip's life. Alexander inherited from Philip an aggressive attitude and a keen military skill: his education provided him with a deep appreciation for Hellenistic ideals, and his military training gave him the courage and skills to conquer the empire before
him. Alexander's defeat of Persia was indeed swift. When Egypt rebelled against Persia, Darius III had to reestablish his dominion. On January 14, 334 BC, he was hailed as king of Egypt but had to assign the bulk of his military forces there. This was just the opening Alexander needed. With Darius's forces being in Egypt, Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor and defeated the Persian forces at Granicus.
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A swift victory at the battles of Issus (near Tarsus, 333 BC) and Arbela (331 BC) put Darius III, who had led the army himself, to flight.

Alexander then turned south, destroying Tyre of Phoenicia
¹⁶
and Gaza on his way to Egypt. According to Josephus, Jerusalem welcomed Alexander, showing him the book of Daniel.
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The Egyptians, who had never been fond of Persian rule, surrendered peacefully,
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so Alexander turned northward and pursued Darius across Syria and Persia. Darius's loss at the battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) sealed his fate and forced him into captivity by his own noblemen. Although Alexander sought to rescue him, Darius was killed. With no Persian heir to claim the throne, Alexander was declared the new world ruler.
¹⁹

Alexander pushed east as far as the Indus River where his troops refused to advance. He then returned to Persia where he took on the lifestyle of an oriental despot, a rather curious choice for a man who valued Greek ideals. Soon he caught a fever and died at the age of 33, having conquered his empire in only 13 years.

The
collapse of the Persian Empire
with its lenient attitude toward self-identity and religious freedom constituted the
second great crisis
for the Jewish nation. The Jews would now have to deal with a series of Greek kings who had a strong belief in their cultural superiority and fully intended to implant that culture firmly in all the lands they occupied.
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In Daniel's vision the great horn of the male goat is suddenly struck, and four lesser horns grow up in four directions (Dan 8:8). Upon Alexander's death, his generals halfheartedly attempted to keep the empire together through Alexander's infant son (Alexander IV) by an oriental princess, Roxanne, and then by Alexander's feeble-minded half brother (Philip Arrhidaeus).
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Over the next decades wars for supremacy oscillated among the generals until 301 BC. At the battle of Ippsus (in Phrygia), the last proponent of consolidation (Antigonus Monophthalmos) lost his life,
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after which the empire remained
divided among Alexander's generals called the
diadochi
.
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Of the original successors to Alexander's kingdom, only Ptolemy I Soter formed a successful kingdom. He was granted Egypt and kept it; Syria came under the control of the Seleucids; Lysimachus got Asia Minor (he eventually lost much of it to Syria); and Cassander ruled Greece. Palestine first came under the jurisdiction of the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy in about 320 BC.
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The Ptolemaic Period (320–198 BC)
Ptolemy set himself up as the progenitor of a ruling dynasty. Every ruler of Egypt until AD 30 bore the name “Ptolemy” regardless of actual descent.
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The greatest contribution of the Ptolemies to later history was the city of Alexandria, the greatest metropolis of the Mediterranean world by 200 BC (only Rome would later surpass it). The famous library and museum (an academy dedicated to the muses) helped make Alexandria the intellectual and spiritual center of the Greek world.

Judea under Ptolemaic reign remains clouded in obscurity. According to the few trustworthy sources that survive, Judea evidently continued to govern itself as somewhat of a
temple state under the high priest. Ptolemaic rule was mainly concerned with aggressive taxation (through tax-farming) and securing the trade routes in the trans-Jordan.
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SIDEBAR 2.1: THE SEPTUAGINT (LXX)

According to tradition
(Epistle of Aristeas;
Philo,
Life of Moses
, 2.26–42), the OT was translated into Greek under Ptolemy II, Philadelphus (285-246 BC).
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Legend has it that Philadelphus commissioned 70 or 72 scholars to translate the Hebrew Scriptures. Hence it was called the “Septuagint” (Greek for 70; abbreviated by the Roman numeral LXX). The translation was prepared in Egypt and designed for Jews who understood Greek better than Hebrew, a testimony to the success of Alexander's Hellenization program.

The LXX, though uneven in quality, proved widely influential. It served as the Bible of the early Christians. Many quotes of the OT in the NT are taken from the LXX. There are some places where the LXX differs from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT), but even in these cases the LXX rendering should not be dismissed too quickly. The LXX is one of the oldest witnesses to the Hebrew Bible, and some of the variants are attested in Hebrew manuscripts found at Qumran. The study of the LXX continues to be a vibrant field of scholarly research today.
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¹
See Barrett,
New Testament Backgroun
d
, chap. 12, especially 292–98; cf. A. Wasserstein and D. J. Wasserstein,
The Legend of the Septuagint: From Classical Antiquity to Toda
y
(Cambridge: University Press, 2006).

²
See S. Jellicoe,
The Septuagint and Modern Stud
y
(Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1989); K. H. Jobes and M. Silva,
Invitation to the Septuagin
t
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005); and M. Hengel,
The Septuagint as Christian Scripture: Its Prehistory and the Problem of Its Canon
, trans. M. E. Biddle (Edinburgh/New York: T&T Clark, 2002).

The fate of Jews in Egypt varied. They were originally deported to Alexandria by Ptolemy I. Josephus described Ptolemy I's invasion of Jerusalem on the Sabbath, taking 120,000 Jews captive to Alexandria, where they stayed until Ptolemy's son Philadelphus (Ptolemy II) freed them. Their diffusion throughout the Mediterranean led many into prosperity.
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