Untitled Flashcards Set

1/15

• When does Israel enter the global perspective

  • The very early example of where we see the term Israel in history is in the Merneptah Stele

  • Propaganda, king goes to war, comes home makes monument

    • First time someone in the world acknowledges Israel 

• Early Israelite Settlements emerged in 1200-1000 BCE

• Jewish history is about 3000 years old

• Where did Israel come from?

  • 4 of the many proposals

1. BIble– came from Egypt to Canaan

   1. Abraham was told by God to settle in Canaan and would be given descendents.

   2. Led to Isaac, → Jacob/Israel “Guy who wrestles with god.” → Joseph

   3. Too many Israelites so they get enslaved

   4. Moses takes the descendants of Israel back and led them out of slavery

   5. Stop at mt. SInai for the Covenant with god. Wander in Desert

   6. Conquer & settle in Canaan led by Joshua (successor of Moses)

• Original Jewish god is “Yahweh”, associated with the south 

• Emergence of tribes that did not align. They civilized and became a monarchy

1/22 

• From where did confederation of tribes known as Israel come from

• Why did that confederation evolve into a more centralized state- a united monarchy

• United Monarchy 

  • There is no external evidence to corroborate account in first 7 books of bible 

  • Some in last 3 (1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings)

  • Saul, David, Solomon → only three kings of United Monarchy

    • King Saul became first king of Israelites 

    • He defeats Philistines but has personal failings

    • David becomes second king and was from tribe of Judah

      • Gains fame thru military prowess and expanded kingdom

      • Captured Jerusalem and makes it his capital

      • Rebellions: Absalom and Adonijah

      • Has moral shortcomings

    • Succeeded by king Solomon 

      • Maintained Kingdom of david

      • Foreign alliances and wives

      • Great builder and used corvee (forced) labor 

• Major debate: if United Monarchy existed minimalists v. maximalists 

  • Tel Dan Stele: King of Egypt saying they beat Israel/house of David

• Divided Monarchy 

  • Northern kingdom–Israel, Southern– Judah

  • New Temples at Dan and Bethel in Israel

  • Conflict between king and prophets 

  • Little continuity in leadership 

1/27 

• Divided Monarchy

  • Israel North

    • Built temples at Dan and Bethel

    • Policy of forced deportation

    • Assyrian advance

    • 10 lost tribes of Israel 

  • Judah South

    • Ruled continuously by a single dynasty… descendants of David

    • King Hezekiah (720-690 BCE)

    • Advance of Sennacherib into Judah → destruction of city of Lachish 

    • Assyrian siege of Jerusalem 

  • Two main kings of the 7th century 

    • King Manasseh of Judah

    • King Josia of Judah

      • Josiah’s Reform (640-609 BCE)

      • Centralization of Worship at Temple in Jerusalem

• Empires of the Near East in the 2nd millennium (2000-1000 BCE)

  • Neo-Babylonian Empire

    • Nebuchadnezzar II

  • Babylonian Exile

    • Challenge of Diaspora

      • Isolation v. assimilation

    • Theological Crisis

      • What happened to Yahweh? Where is Yahweh? How can the commonweal be preserved?

    • Coping strategies

      • Reconceptualize Yahweh’s role in history. Emphasis on non-sacrificial rituals. A national story?

      • We didn’t treat people correctly, so our God punished us and sent us into exile

  • End of Neo-Babylonian Empire

    • Persian Empire under leadership of Cyrus the Great

    • Cyrus Cylinder: cultic restoration 

      • He told everyone to go home, rebuild their communities. Pay them and be compliant– they won’t have problems. 

1/29

• End of Babylonian Empire:

• The Persian period:

  • Emergence of the Zadokite high priest as most important leader in Jerusalem and Yehud

  • Emergence of Torah as foundational documentation of Jewish life

• 538-516 BCE

• 516-455 BCE (dark period)

• 445-430 BCE

• 430-332 BCE (dark period)

• 538-516 BCE –Return & Restoration 

• Dual Leadership in Yehud

  • Zerubbabel  (governor) –disappeared

  • Joshua (high priest)

• Delayed Construction of the Second Temple 

  • Haggai & Zechariah

  • Samarian Problem

  • Internal DIssension

  • Poverty & Lack of Security 

• 455-430 BCE –Ezra & Nehemiah

  • What happened before that prompted the mission

    • Ongoing squabbling between

      • Davidic and priestly leaders?

      • Returned exiles from Babylonia and those who remained on the land

      • Judahites and other worshippers of Yahweh

    • Ongoing poverty, insecurity, and environmental catastrophes

    • Ongoing conflict between Persian and Greeks

    • What did Ezra & Nehemiah do?

      • Fortify and protect Jerusalem

      • Pursue policy and ethnic purification

        • (dissolve and ban intermarriage)

      • Maintenance of Judahite uniqueness thru religious ritual and law

      • Promulgation of God’s law (ex. Torah)

• Hebrew Bible

  • Bible, Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, Apocrypha

  • Origin of the Torah

    • Traditional view: written by Moses

    • Contradiction: proposed by 12th century Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra and 17th century Dutch Jewish Philosopher Baruch Spinoza

      • There are passages in the Torah which couldn’t have been written by Moses

    • Two centuries of research into the “sources” that make up the Torah 

      • Discrepancies between stories, in name of God

2/3

• 2 most important developments

  • Emergence of Zadokite high priest

  • Emergence of Torah

• Origin of Torah

  • Problems with origin: conflicting sources

  • Documentary Hypothesis

  • The torah was composed of different documents 

  • J source– court historian for David or Solomon who used “Yahweh”

  • E source– court historian in the northern kingdom who used “Elohim”

  • D source– book of Deuteronomy written during King Josiah reform

  • P source– priestly source, described sacrifice

  • All four sources were woven together by redactors

  • Torah is composed from sources, some before the Babylonian exile, even if we cannot determine precisely what the sources are

  • The main redaction of the Torah took place during the Babylonian exile & within the first few centuries of the Persian period 

• Laws in Torah that are unique

  • Abstain from worship of other gods or idols

  • Observe sabbath

  • Can only perform sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem 

    • Specifically Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot

  • Dietary Laws (kosher)

  • Circumcision 

• Hellenistic Period

  • 490 battle between Persians & Greeks in Macedon

  • Alexander the Great was conqueror and philosopher 

  • Alexander the Great had no successor

    • His generals divided the empire 

• Jews under Ptolemies (300-200 BCE)

  • The Torah was translated into Greek 

    • Story was 70 Jews transcribed it in different rooms identically 

• Jews under the Seleucids (200-142 BCE)

  • Antiochus III reign over Judea (200-187)

    • Lower taxes

    • Confirmation of priestly rule (Simon the Just as High Priest)

    • Torah regulations in effect

  • Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (epiphany) (175-164)

    • Efforts to extract wealth from Judea

    • Cooperation from ambitious contenders for the high priesthood

      • Jason the High Priest (175-172)

      • Menelaus the High Priest (171-161)

      • Priesthood became corrupt and lost legitimacy

    • Hellenization of Jerusalem

2/5

• Dividing line between Selecuid empire and Ptolemeic empire shifted 

• Seleucids (200-142 BCE)

  • 167 BCE→ Patria Oppressa

    • construction of Akra (Seleucid fortress) in Jerusalem

    • Significant increase in taxation

    • Proscription of torah regulation

    • Conversion of jerusalem temple into a shrine for zeus olympios

• Hasmonean Revolt/ Maccabi Revolt

  • 160 BCE Mattathias Hasmonay led revolt in Modein

  • 142 BCE Judah “Maccabee” Hasmonay takes over, enters Jerusalem lays siege to the Akra and restores the Temple

  • 142 BCE Simon declares himself high priest and ethnarch; independence from Seleucids 

  • 134-104 John Hyrcanus converted some of those conquered

  • 103-76 Alexander Jannaeus wars took a toll on his own people

  • 76-67 Queen Salome Alexandra

  • Highlights

    • First autonomous rule since 586 BCE (Babylonians)

    • Hasmoneans become what they initially rebelled against

    • Emergence of “sects” within the Jewish community

• Emergence Sects in the Hasmonean

  • Pharisees “to separate”

    • Devotion to regulation of Torah from “traditions of the fathers”

    • Had the support of the masses

  • Sadducees

    • Devotion to regulation of the Torah but rejecting so-called “traditions of the fathers”

    • Probably an elite priestly group, likely disconnected

  • Essenes

    • Limit their participation in the Jerusalem temple

    • Spread the wealth around 

  • Discovery at Qumran

    • Dead sea scrolls found

      • Biblical texts, extra biblical texts, biblical commentaries, sectarian texts

2/10 

• Dead Sea Sect (Qumran) 

  • Library of Dead Sea scrolls

    • Had books of the bible 

• Community of Qumran (cultlike)

  • Founder was “teacher of righteousness”  vs. “wicked priest”

  • Felt they were the “sons of light” against “sons of darkness”

    • Rigorous discipline

    • Monastic in nature (some state of self denial)

    • Apocalypticism→ informed Christianity 

      • Profound change in the cosmic, social, and/or political order is expected to occur imminently. 

      • Ex. Messiah “anointed” king from the line of David who will topple current paradigms and restore Jewish autonomy, Jewish law, etc. 

  • Part of Jewish Identity that was developing 

  • Why was the Qumran library stashed in jars inside caves 

    • 63 BCE → Roman Period  66-73 BCE→Exile following Roman Revolt

• Mediterranean Diaspora

  • Enduring tension of diaspora

  • Integration 

    • Language (mostly Greek)

    • Dress (looked like society)

    • Education (same education/lack of)

    • No specific professions 

    • Devotion to the Polis/Citizenship (Jews were devoted to where they lived)

  • Separation

    • Gerousia/Gerousiarch (resolution between Jews, elders control)

    • Synagogue/ Archisynagogos

    • Clubs, schools, neighborhoods

    • Unusual rites & practices

    • Incomplete devotion to and inclusion in the Polis? (questioned by others)

  • Problem of the Polis

    • Commonweal sacrificial theology

    • Pervasiveness of Temples and Sacrifice in Civic Life

    • Social issues

  • Antagonism towards Jews in the diaspora

    • Jews are xenophobic, disloyal, misanthropic

    • Atheists 

    • Peculiar and barbaric customs

    • Try to attract others to their laws

2/19

• What happened between 63 BCE and 66-73 BCE

  • Emergence of a Roman Empire

  • Rule of Herod the Great (37-4 BCE)

  • Annexation of Judea/ Rule by Roman Governors

    • Raided the Temple and levied onerous taxes

    • Brought roman standards and iconography into Jerusalem

    • Require sacrifices on behalf of the emperor

    • Governors ruled alongside the Sanhedrin, the governing Jewish body

  • Rise of Jewish Apocalypticism/ Messianism

  • Messianic figures for the 1st century

    • Judas the Galilean (6CE) 

    • John “The Baptist” of Galilee (ca. 30 C.E.)

    • Jesus of Nazareth (30-33 CE)

    • Theudas (44-46 CE)

    • The Egyptian Prophet (52058 C.E.)

• Anatomy of the Revolt (66-73 CE)

  • Cause: conflict between Caesarea between Jews and non Jew (66 CE)

  • Early fighting in the Galilee General Vespasian prevails. Rebels flee to Jerusalem (66-67 CE)

  • Rebel factions quarrel inside of Jerusalem (66-69 CE)

  • Titus besieged Jerusalem conquered it and destroys the Temple (70 CE)

  • Last revel remnants at Masada fall 73 CE

    • 70 CE– destruction of second temple

    • 586 BCE– destruction of first temple

  • Roman propaganda 

    • Arch of Titus (81 CE)

    • Judea Capta coins

• The wake of 70

  • Ramifications of the sack of Jerusalem

    • Socio-Political Ramifications

      • Many Jews captured and enslaved, others fled

      • Base of leadership destroyed

        • Power of priestly aristocracy is lost through land confiscation and destruction of the Temple

        • Sanhedrin disappears

    • Economic Ramification

      • Widespread desolation and poverty 

      • Implementation of the Fiscus Judaicus to replace the worldwide ½ shekel Temple tax

    • Religious Ramification (Commonweal sacrificial theology)

      • The synagogue – the Archisynagogos

      • The Torah – the “Sages” aka the “Rabbis”

  • The emergence of the Rabbis (aka “the Sages”)

    • Emergence of an academy and sanhedrin at Yavneh

    • Submission to Roman Yake

    • Development of a “portable Judaism, based on Prayer, Torah study Transformed Commandments

    • Yavneh Legend→ where did they come from?

      • Oral Law

      • God told Moses Torah on mountain and he taught him all of laws

      • Rabbis most likely sprung from the Pharisees of previous generations (Rabbis say they are not the Pharisees)