Ancient Christianity lecture 3

Why did Jewish people in the first century want a king?

Because they wanted a Messiah to deliver them from Roman rule

As a result of Jewish being unfaithful to God, what happened ?

Their land was invaded by the Babylonians

What Roman Emperor overthrows the Babylonians? (Referred to as “anointed one” in Isaiah 45)

Cyrus the Great 600BC

The _____ became heroes in the Jewish story because they allowed the Jews to return home and resume their worship.

Persians

Why didn’t Jews and Samaritans get along?

Samaritans intermarried with people who didn’t keep God’s covenant

What is Hellenism?

Polytheistic culture that involves worshiping Greek gods

Cities that emerged due to the growing Jewish population

Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth

What was the main conflict between Alexandrians and Jews?

Religious divide

According to Josephus, Ptolemy II commissioned a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, called the ____, out of a desire to have a translation of the Old Testament in the library at Alexandria.

Septuagint

How many Jewish scholars translated the OT for Ptollemy the 2nd

72

What is the Gymnasia and why did the Jews oppose it?

It’s where men would study philosophy. Jews opposed it because Greeks would train naked

Why did the death of Alexander the Great cause tension for Jewis culture?

Because the rise of his successors didn’t understand Jewish practices

What two major groups emerged after Alexander’s death?

The Seleucid’s and Ptolemy

What did the Seleucid’s try to force the Jews to do under the rule of Antioch lV?

To bow down to Zeus and participate in other Hellenistic practices.

Give a brief explanation of War of Maccabaeus and its significance

In 167-165 BC, Mattathias Hasmen began a Jewish revolution in Selucian empire leading to the restoration of the temple.

Origins behind Hanukkah (Jesus celebrates it in John 10 at temple)

Temple restored after Jewish revolution. Jewish held celebration by burning a lamp that had oil miraculously last more than 8 days.

In 63 BC, _____ conquered Judaea for Rome.

Judea

What happened during the Hasmonean Civil War

A Jewish civil war on who gets to control the temple

How did Pompey the Great settle the dispute in the Hasmonean civil war?

Takes a small amount of wealth from the temple and uses it to establish Roman rule over Judea

Why did the Herodian population die out?

They weren’t significant to Rome

Who is Gaius Caligula and what impact did he have on the Jews?

He was friends with the herodian dynasty (Herod Agrippa) to better understand the Jews

He was enemies with Tiberius, who persecuted the Jews

The Jews sent _____ to Rome to try to dissuade Caligula from placing a golden statue of himself in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Philo of Alexandria

Why is Philo of Alexandria important?

Claimed that God can be imminent, transcendent

What did Tacitus claim about Nero setting the city on fire?

He was angry about not receiving real estate from city and blamed it on Christians

What did Tacitus claim about Christians?

That they were innocent but they were haters of humanity. were called atheists by Romans because they don’t have a statue in their temple.