The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (21 page)

In addition to this salvation-historical point of reference of the phrase “fullness of time,” which must remain primary, conditions were indeed ideally suited for the coming of Jesus due to factors such as the following: (1) the Roman peace; (2) Roman roads; (3) the Greek language; and (4) Jewish messianic expectations.

First, the 200 years of unprecedented (though militarily imposed) peace known as the
pax Romana
provided “just the right time” for Jesus' appearing.
⁶⁴
This peace enabled the spread of the Christian gospel during the days of the early church subsequent to Jesus' Crucifixion.

Second, there was a network of roads that the Romans had built throughout the empire. By common parlance, “All roads lead to Rome,” providing relatively easy travel. Thus, in God's providence the roads built by the Romans paved the way for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Rome (see the book of Acts, especially 1:8; 28:14–31).

Third, the conquests of Alexander the Great made Greek the language of commerce throughout the Roman Empire. The result was a common idiom that provided a universal vehicle for the spread of the gospel. In fact, the language became so influential that the OT was translated into Greek (the LXX) and the NT was written in Greek.
⁶⁵

Fourth, the various strands of first-century Judaism, each in their own way, sustained a vibrant, albeit diverse, hope for a Messiah.
⁶⁶
To be sure, many construed this messianic hope in nationalistic, political terms. Nevertheless, when Jesus came claiming to be the Messiah, he entered a world in which many were already expecting such a figure. Thus, from the perspective of salvation history, Jesus came indeed “at just the right time.”

LITERATURE

While the production of canonical writings ceased in the intertestamental era, this does not mean that there is no extant literature dating from this period. To the contrary, a large body of literature is available that sheds considerable light on the background of the NT. The purpose of the following brief survey of Second Temple literature is to acquaint the student with the vast array of relevant source material for the study of this era.
⁶⁷
The OT itself is available in three versions: (1) in the original Hebrew; (2) in Greek translation (the Septuagint or LXX; see above); and (3) in Aramaic paraphrase (the Targums).
⁶⁸
In addition, Jewish Second Temple literature includes the following three bodies of writings: (1) the Apocrypha; (2) the Pseudepigrapha; and (3) the Qumran writings or Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS).

Table 2.5: Second Temple Jewish Literature

^*
In addition, some canons including the Apocrypha also contain 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151 (see the Greek Orthodox Canon), but these books are usually classified as pseudepigraphical (see further below). See C. A. Evans,
Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature
(Peabody: Hendrickson, 2005), 341.

^**
See the fuller list in Evans,
Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies
, 26–27; and the contents of J. H. Charlesworth, ed.,
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
, 2 vols. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1983, 1985).

^***
See the fuller list in Evans,
Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies
, 76–80.

The Apocrypha
The Greek word
apocrypha
originally meant “things that are hidden.”
⁶⁹
The designation
Apocrypha
may also refer to the mysterious or esoteric nature of some of the contents of these books or to their spurious or heretical nature (or both). Roman Catholics employ the label “deuteron-canonical,” by which they mean that the books of the Apocrypha were added to the canon at a later time. Nevertheless, they consider the Apocrypha canonical rather than apocryphal.

The writings comprising the OT Apocrypha included in this category represent several different genres:

1. Historical writings (1 Esdras, 1–2 Maccabees)
   
2. Moralistic novels (Tobit, Judith, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon)
   
3. Wisdom or devotional literature (Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus; Prayer of Manasseh; Prayer of Azariah; Song of the Three Young Men)
   
4. Pseudonymous letter (Letter of Jeremiah)
   
5. Apocalyptic literature (2 Esdras)
   

Except for 2 Esdras, these writings are found in the Septuagint. The Apocrypha are also included in the Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible prepared in the fourth century by Jerome) either as part of the OT or as an appendix but are not part of the canonical Scriptures.
⁷⁰
Because of their inclusion in the Vulgate, the books of the Apocrypha were considered part of Scripture by the medieval church. In 1546, the Council of Trent declared them canonical except for 1–2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh.
⁷¹

Protestants have traditionally distinguished between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apocrypha, including only the former in their OT canon while setting off the latter into a category of its own. In Luther's 1534 German translation of the Bible, the Apocrypha are printed between the OT and the NT with the following superscript: “Apocrypha, that is, books which are not held equal to the sacred Scriptures, and nevertheless are useful and good to read.” The King James Version of 1611 also included the Apocrypha.

The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1571) declares that the Apocrypha, while useful for instruction, ought not to be used “to establish any doctrine”; and the Westminster Confession (1648) stipulates that the Apocrypha, “not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.” The available text of the Apocrypha is based primarily on the three major
codices (ancient books): Vaticanus, Sinaiticus (both fourth century), and Alexandrinus (fifth century).

Apart from the OT Apocrypha of the Second Temple period, there are also NT Apocrypha that emerged in the second and subsequent centuries of the Christian era, consisting of spurious Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypses.
⁷²
Many of these writings have in common the underlying motivation to fill in perceived gaps in Scripture, frequently resulting in heterodox (false) teaching. The speculation of the apocryphal writers regarding what might have been said or what might have occurred in the literary gaps of Scripture gave rise to an imaginative “reading between the lines” that led to a body of literature lacking true divine inspiration but using familiar canonical biblical material as a point of departure for its exercise of creative imagination. This is the case both with the writings commonly grouped together as Apocrypha and with other Jewish Second Temple literature assembled under the amorphous rubric of Pseudepigrapha.
⁷³

Pseudepigrapha
The Pseudepigrapha (from
pseudos
, “false,” and
graphein
, “write”) encompasses the following types of literature (selected works).

1. Apocalyptic and related literature (1–2 Enoch; 2–3 Baruch, 4 Ezra, Sibylline Oracles)
   
2. Testaments (Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs)
   
3. Pseudonymous epistle (Letter of Aristeas)
   
4. Wisdom or devotional literature (Psalms of Solomon; Odes of Solomon; Psalm 151)
   
5. Expansions of OT material (Jubilees; Joseph and Aseneth; Jannes and Jambres; Assumption of Moses, Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah)
   
6. Religious novels and philosophical treatises (3–4 Maccabees)
   ⁷⁴
   

The evaluation of Second Temple literature has been variously positive and negative. Positively, the historical information provided by books such as 1 Maccabees has been noted as an indispensable source for this particular period in Jewish history. Also, while not inspired or authoritative, many of these writings reflect the various religious beliefs of the Jewish people in the intertestamental period and thus provide helpful background information for the study of the NT.

Negatively, scholars have stressed that some of the teaching in these writings are heterodox, that is, not in conformity with the doctrines affirmed in the canonical books. For example, 2 Maccabees teaches one to pray for the dead, and Tobit contains elements of magic and syncretism. This calls for discernment and a clear demarcation between the OT and the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings.
⁷⁵
An added element requiring adjudication is the possible reference to two noncanonical writings in the book of Jude, which is discussed in chapter 18 below.

Dead Sea Scrolls
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) began in 1947, constituted the major archeological find of the twentieth century, and greatly affected biblical and Jewish studies.
⁷⁶
This discovery included both biblical manuscripts, which predate the previously earliest extant OT manuscripts by as many as a thousand years, and sectarian writings. The former includes all OT books except for Esther, and the latter consists of writings such as the Damascus Document (CD); the Community Rule or Manual of Discipline (1QS); Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH); the War Scroll (1QM); the Habakkuk Pesher (1QpHab), and the Temple Scroll (11QTemple).
⁷⁷
The biblical documents discovered at Qumran, including the famous Isaiah Scroll, have provided scholars with early readings of the Hebrew Scriptures, and this has enabled them to make progress in ascertaining the original reading of specific OT passages.

In addition, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Jewish sect that most likely arose in the Maccabean era around the middle of the second century BC and continued through the first Jewish revolt in AD 66–73.
⁷⁸
The precise identity
of the group responsible for the Qumran literature remains uncertain. Most likely, the original impetus for the group's departure from Jerusalem and its withdrawal to the Dead Sea region was the corruption of the Jerusalem priesthood during the Maccabean period. It is likely that the Jewish high priest at the time of the community's formation is referred to in the Qumran literature as the “Wicked Priest” in contrast to the “Teacher of Righteousness” (see 1QpHab 1:13; 2:2; 8:7; 11:4–5), who presumably was the founder of the community.
⁷⁹

It is important to note that the Dead Sea Scrolls do not portray mainstream Judaism or Jewish attitudes during this era. This isolated community was a sect that defined itself over against the Jerusalem establishment and engaged in its own distinctive religious and communal practices. These included a particular method of interpreting Scripture, the
pesher
method, which appropriated biblical material with reference to the community's contemporary situation (e.g., the “Habakkuk pesher”).
⁸⁰
Also, there is no reference to the NT or Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thus the Dead Sea Scrolls should be regarded as Jewish rather than Christian writings.
⁸¹

The community's critical stance toward the corrupt Jerusalem priesthood thus provides an antecedent for Jesus' challenge of the corruption of the Jerusalem temple ritual during his ministry (Matt 21:12–17 and parallels; John 2:13–22). The community's use of Scripture also provides a fascinating precedent for John the Baptist's self-identifi cation as “a voice crying in the wilderness” (taken from Isa 40:3). The Dead Sea community also appropriated the same passage of Scripture with reference to itself.
⁸²
The community and the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a helpful background for understanding the NT in general and key NT figures such as John the Baptist and Jesus.
⁸³

THEOLOGY

The chapters on the various books of the NT investigate the specific background relevant for each book. At this stage it would be helpful to provide a general backdrop of the first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman world in order to convey a general sense of the environment in which Jesus and the early church lived. The NT did not emerge in a vacuum but was rooted in a particular historical, cultural, and religious context, and understanding this context, at least in a general sense, puts the study of the NT into proper perspective from the very start. The following discussion presents the most significant background
issues for the study of the NT: (1) paganism; (2) emperor worship; (3) mystery religions; (4) superstition and syncretism; (5) Gnosticism; (6) philosophy; and (7) Judaism.