THE WORLD, LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS

    People have managed to do away with many things down through the ages, but not Jesus. He remains a potent figure - often misunderstood, sometimes ridiculed, but always there. We date our calendar from his birth, capture him in art and music, and use his teachings as a reference  point in talking about faith and ethics. In this chapter we will look at the first-century Greco-Roman-Jewish world in which Jesus grew up and lived out his ministry. Then we will look at Jesus’ birth, baptism by John, public ministry teachings, betrayal, arrest, trials, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension. This will provide us which important background information for our study of the Gospels, the written testimonies to the person and work of Jesus.

THE INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD

The period between the return of the exiles from Babylon (538 B.C.) and the birth of Jesus is a period of religious history about which very little is known. A modest temple was built at the urging of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (520 - 515), referred to a a Second Temple. The walls around Jerusalem were rebuilt under Governor Nehemiah (c. 445). Jewish religious life was established by Ezra. The Hebrew Scriptures were collected, through the final canon was not confirmed until some time later. And the Jews regained control of their land from the Syrians (Seleucids), only to have it taken away a century later by the Romans.

ALEXANDER AND THE GREEKS

In the year 336 B. C. Alexander the Great - one of the greatest general and conquerors in all history - at the age of twenty, succeeded his father Philip II. King of Macedonia (northern Greece), who was assassinated. Alexander was a brilliant military tactician and a bold, courageous leader. After solidifying his throne, he defeated the Persians and moved east, conquering Egypt, Palestine (in 332) and Babylon. He wanted to go farther, into India, but his war-weary generals rebelled and refused, ending his conquests.

Alexander was a pupil of Aristotle and he loved everything Greek. His dream was to unify East and West. He induced his soldiers to marry women from among the people he conquered; he introduced Greek language, culture and religion wherever he was victorious; and he built a number of Greek cities, such as Alexandria in Egypt. An example and consequence of Alexander’s program of Hellenization (Hellas was the ancient name for Greece) was the Jewish community in Alexandria. It became so Hellenized that the Hebrew Scriptures had to be translated from Hebrew to Greek in order to be read, resulting in the Septuagint.

In the year 323 B.C., at the young age of thirty-three, Alexander died of a fever (typhoid or malaria) in Babylon. Because he had no legal heir, his empire was divided among his generals, among whom two are particularly notable. In the East, Ptolemy became the ruler of Egypt and Palestine, with his capital st Alexandria. (Cleopatria, the wife of Mark Anthony, who committed suicide in 30 B.C., was the last of Ptolemies). Seleucus became the ruler of Syria and Babylonia, with his capital at Antioch. There were many battles between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies because the Seleucids wanted access to the Mediterranean Sea. The Seleucids finally triumphed and became the rulers of Palestine in 198 B.C.

THE MACCABEAN REVOLT

Antiochus IV, who took the title Epiphanes, meaning “God Manifest”, became king of the Seleucid or Syrian Empire in 175 B.C. In an effort to stamp out Judaism, he banned sacrifices at the temple, Sabbath observances, the teaching of the Scriptures and the circumcision of newborn males - all “on pain of death.” He also desecrated the temple by offering a swine s a sacrifice to Zeus, the principal Greek god.

This provoked a Jewish uprising under the leadership of Mattathias, a priest, and his five sons, the most famous of whom was Judas, whose nickname was Maccabeus, a word meaning “the hammer.” The Maccabees (Jewish guerrilla forces) defeated the Syrians in December 164 B.C. and purified the temple, an event which Jews celebrate as the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah (“dedication”), an eight-day festival that occurs around the same time of year as Christmas. Following the Maccabean revolt (recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha), and with the Syrians falling victim to Rome’s expansion to the east, the Jews for a short time regained control of their homeland (160 - 63 B.C.).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Romans wanted to control the perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea in order to have a safe land route during the winter months from Egypt - the breadbasket of the Roman Empire - to Rome. In the year 63 B.C., the Roman army, under Pompey, marched into Jerusalem, and Israel again became subject to foreign rule, this time to the mighty Roman Empire.

Jesus was born under the reign of Octavian, better known as Augustus “the August One” (who died in the month we now call August), the grand-nephew and adopted heir of Julius Caezar, who was assassinated in 44 B.C. August was the first Roman emperor, and most historians consider him to be Rome’s greatest emperor because of his organization of the administration of the empire. He ruled from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14. Augustus issued the decree that “all the world should be registered” for tax purposes (Luke 2:1), which sent Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Augustus was succeeded by Tiberius, his adopted stepson, during whose reign (A.D. 14 - 37) Jesus began his public ministry (“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius . . .,” Luke 3:1) and was crucified.

Other emperors of note during the balance of the first century were Claudius (41-54), who expelled Jews and Jewish Christians from Rome in 49 (they returned after his death in 54); Nero (54-68), who persecuted Christians and, according to tradition, was responsible for the deaths of Peter and Paul; Vespasian (69-79), who put down the Jewish revolt of 66-70 and built the famous Colosseum in Rome; Titus (79-81), Vespasian’s son, who destroyed Jerusalem at the end of the First Jewish war; Domitian (81-96), who some scholar believe may be the emperor behind chapters 4-22 of the book of Revelation; and Trajan (98-117), the first non-Italian (Spanish) emperor.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israel was part of the Roman province of Syria (the Roman Empire had fourteen provinces) and was ruled by local kings such as Herods, and by governors such as Pontius Pilate, who ruled Judea and Samaria from 26 to 36, and Antonius Felix and Porcius Festus, who are mentioned in the book of Acts.

The Jews’ influence waned after the First Jewish War, an uprising that was brutally crushed by Rome. The temple was burned and thousands of Jews were killed; thousands more were sold into slavery; and the city was razed, with only the Western or “Wailing” Wall of the platform, now the holiest site in Israel, including the Essenes at Qumran near the Dead Sea. Some sixty years later there was another uprising, the Second Jewish War (132-135), which also was crushed, after which Rome changed the name of the land to Palestinia - “Land of the Philistines” - to remove the name of Israel from the land. The Jews did not regain control of the territory until the United Nations established the State of israel in 1948.

THE HOUSE OF HEROD

The founder of the House of Herod was Antipater, a half-Jew from Idumaea, the Old Testament land of Edom, south of Judea. (Edom was the name given to Esau in Genesis 25:30; his descendants became the Edomites.) During Julius Caezar’s Egyptian campaign against Pompey for the sole control of Rome (48-47 B.C.), Antipater sided with Caezar, who rewarded him with the governorship of Judea (in 47 B.C.) and with Roman citizenship. Caezar also granted the Jews two special privileges: exemption from military service and the freedom to worship their own God.

HEROD THE GREAT

Antipater was assassinated in 42 B.C. At the time of his death his son, Herod, was military overseer of Galilee. In the year 40 B.C. Marc Anthony, the ruler of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, gave Herod the title “King of the Jews” (actually, he was a vassal king). Herod was called “the Great” by the Romans (not by the Jews) because of his great  architectural achievements: the temple in Jerusalem, which he dismantled and began rebuilding in 20 B.C. to win favor with the jews (Herod’s temple was even grander than Solomon’s); his palace in Jerusalem, where Jesus was “tried by Pontius Pilate; Antonia Fortress (named for Marc Anthony) in Jerusalem, where Jesus was mocked and scourged by the soldiers; Caesaria, a town in northwest Palestine on the Mediterranian Sea (named for Caezar Augustus), which was Herod’s capital city and later Pilate’s official residence, where Paul was imprisoned in the late 50s; Herodium, Herod’s residence south of Bethlehem, where some believe he is buried; Machaerus in Perea, cast of the Dead Sea, where John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded; and a string of fortresses, such as Masada on the west side of the Dead Sea, which was destroyed by the Romans at the end of the First Jewish War.

Herod ruled Palestine from 37 to 4 B.C. He was paranoid about others claiming his throne and ordered the executions of two of his ten wives and three of his seven sons, whom he considered potential rivals. He also ordered the killing of “all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under” upon learning that Jesus, Israel’s hoped-for Messiah - and thus a potential rival - had been born there (Matt. 2:16). Whatever we might think of Herod, he must have been an efficient and effective administrator because Rome allowed him to rule the ever-turbulent land of the Jews for thirty-three years.

HEROD’S SUCCESSORS

Upon Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided and bequeathed to three of his sons.

Archelaus ruled Judea and Samaria from 4 B.C. TO A.D. 6. He was an evil and oppresive ruler, like his father, and the Jews sent a delegation to Rome to protest against him. Emperor Augustus removed Archelaus and banished him to Gaul (modern-day Belgium and France), after which Judea and Samaria were ruled by governors appointed by the emperor (Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor after Archelaus). In Matthew’s nativity narrative, Joseph is warned about Archelaus and takes his family to Nazareth, which was beyond Archelaus’s control (Matt. 2;19-23).

Herod Antipas (or simply Antipas to avoid confusion with his father) ruled the regions of Galilee and Perea from 4 B.C. until he was removed by Emperor Caligula in A.D. 39. Antipas was the ablest of Herod’s sons. He imprisoned and beheaded John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29) at his fortress-palace at Machaerus (according to the Jewish historian Josephus) and had a brief encounter with Jesus on Good Friday (Luke 23:6-12).

Philip the Tetrach (“ruler of a fourth”) ruled the northeastern territories from 4 B.C. until his death in A.D. 34. His rule was one of moderation and justice. Philip was responsible for rebuilding the ancient city of Panion, which he renamed Caesarea Philippi, combining his name with that of Caesar. Caesarea philippi was the location of Peter’s great confession to Jesus: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:27-30).

Herod Agrippa I, called King Herod in the book of Acts (12:1), was a grandson of Herod the Great. He ruled over the former territories of Antipas and Philip, and from 41 to 44 over all Israel. He was responsible for the execution of the apostle James the brother of John (Acts 12:2), and for the arrest and imprisonment of Peter (Acts 12;23). King Herod was succeeded by his son, Herod Agrippa II, called King Agrippa or Agrippa in the book of Acts. Agrippa II, who died in the year 93, was the last Herodian ruler. He heard Paul’s defense at Caesarea in the late 50’s (Acts 25:13-26;32) and sided with Rome against his own people in the First Jewish War.

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