Notes on the Intertestamental Period

Russell Bateman
December 2014
last update:


| | | | | -523 -430 The Intertestamental Period 0 33 70

These are notes, slightly polished for grammar and sentence structure.

Upon returning from the Babylonian exile, the people are one (unified), but no more than a puppet nation under Persia...

Languages and scriptures

People speaking Aramaic not Hebrew. In the VIth and Vth centuries BCE, scribes, beginning under Ezra, work feverishly to collect the books and writings that will become the Old Testament.

The people want to hear the scriptures read to them by their leaders, priests, scribes because a) they don't own copies and b) they can't read them (because many can't read and most don't speak Hebrew).

After Malachi ceased prophesying, the Old Testament canon closes (430 BCE).

The Septuagint

In 284 BCE, 70 scholars commissioned by the Egyptian (Ptolemaic) king make a translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (from Latin, septuaginta, meaning "70"). From it the Old Testament quotations cited in the New Testament derive, which explain wording differences.

We don't recognize the quotes because, beginning with St. Jerome (Latin Vulgate) and, in English, Wycliffe and Tyndale (80% of the King James Bible), the Old Testament is taken directly from Hebrew.


Worship: the Temple and Synagogues

The temple is rebuilt, but not so big as Solomon's. A series of periods of decay and destruction followed by rebuilding will occur half a dozen times during the intertestamental period.

Synagogues gradually replace the temple as center of religious life.

Samaria

Famously, Samaritans believe that Mount Gerazim was the site of God's definitive temple, not Jerusalem, and they were in dispute over it (John iv.20) and other matters with the Jews returning from the Exile. A temple was built there at the time of Alexander in part by a rebellious priest cast out by Nehemiah for intermarriage with a Samaritan woman. The Jewish leader, John Hyrcanus, destroyed that shrine in the IInd century BCE. While Roman pagan and later Christian worship almost finished destroying Samaritan worship, there is still a small amount left today with restored access to that place.


Society

By the opening of the New Testament, the people split into three parties

History

Just as later Christian yearning for the Second Coming, the Intertestamental Period is characterized by the Jews looking for Messiah. However, the time of the Lord's birth would be an "appointed hour" (Galatians iv.4)

Succession of overlords

Palestine has been pillaged, ravished, burned and destroyed at least 27 times in recorded history.

About 435 BCE, domination shifts increasingly west: from Babylon to Persia, to Medio-Persia, to Greece and finally to Rome as each kingdom or empire waxes and wanes in obedience to Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel vii).

Alexander and His 4 Generals

Philip of Macedonia, then Alexander ("defender", "helper" plus "man"), demolish Persia (330 BCE), and subjugate Egypt.

On the way to Egypt, Alexander plans to lay siege to Jerusalem. The high priest, Jaddua (mentioned in Nehemiah) takes the writings and goes out to meet Alexander before he gets there. Alexander tells Jaddua he's had a vision of him (the latter) and learned he would announce something of great import. Jaddua opens Daniel to Alexander who is "the goat with the horn in his forehead." Alexander promises that he will not sack Jerusalem.

Alexander drinks himself to death by 33 and leaves no posterity.


His empire is split between his 4 generals, in particular, Claudios Ptolemy (Egypt and Africa, red here on the map) and Seleucis (Syria, in green). Ptolemy annexes Palestine and it suffers under his rule. Palestine is caught in unending conflict between Syria and Egypt. Palestine will have been pillaged, ravished, burned and destroyed at least 27 times in recorded history.

Hellenism

Grecian influence grows in Palestine which liberalizes Jewish custom and law, the people split between the progressivists or Hellenists and conservative nationalists. The latter are the Pharisees, a word that means "to separate." They grew stronger, more legalistic and rigid in reaction to the political and social pressures. They also became religious hypocrites, keeping the law outwardly for show while violating its spirit.

From the Hellenists descend the Sadducees, who reject the resurrection (a solidly Greek idea that will later make life difficult for Paul) and cease to believe in the supernatural or spiritual content of their Judaism.

Ptolemy

Founds a dynasty that rules Egypt for centuries (until the death of Cleopatra and son, Caesarion). These are Macedonians from whom descended Cleopatra ("glory of the father") who refuse to speak Egyptian which leads to court documents being in Greek and the Rosetta stone (196 BCE) having a Greek face (which results in comparative translation of hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian and Greek).

Antiochus III

In 203 BCE, Antiochus the Great begins to rule Syria and captures Jerusalem from Egypt. His son, Antiochus IV, ...

Antiochus IV and the end of priesthood succession

...was so great a persecutor of Judaism that he ended the succession of legitimate high priests and sold the priesthood to one Jason and his brother, Menelaus (Greek names because Hellenist). These were not Levites.

Among atrocities, Antiochus III returned once from Egypt through Jerusalem (171), murdered 40,000 Jews and desecrated the Holy of Holies—with the complicity of Menelaus—sacrificing a sow on the alter, then sprinkling a broth made of it upon every surface of the temple and its contents (Matthew xxiv.15).

The sale of the priesthood and final desecration of the temple mark the beginning of the end of the original religious rites in Judaism.

Daniel's prophecy that the temple would be polluted for 2300 days (6-1/2 years; Daniel viii.14) before being cleansed finds its accomplishment in this.

The cleansing happens under Judas Maccabeus (a sobriquet meaning “the hammer”) who was of priestly line. He, his father and four brothers rose up against Antiochus. After a long conflict in which the Jews were the underdogs, they recaptured Jerusalem and cleansed the temple on 25 December 165 BCE. The Maccabees were rulers, not priests, and their rule grew slowly, painfully and incompletely over the decades.

The Maccabees and the Hasmonean Dynasty gives way to Rome

From the Maccabees came the Hasmonean Dynasty that ruled Jerusalem for 3 or 4 generations continually defending against Selucid depredations. In the end, they found themselves making alliance with Rome which did little for them until 63 BCE when Pompey (the contemporary companion and one-day enemy of Julius Caesar) came in, slaughtered the populace and claimed Palestine for Rome.

The Herodians

Rome installed Antipater ("in the father's stead"), a descendent of Esau and an Idumean Edomite, as Procurator. He had used his troops to rescue Julius Caesar in Alexandria at the time of the latter's campaign against Pompey. Of him came 2 sons, one Herod Magnus, the butcher of the Bethlehem innocents.

Herod Antipas (Antipater) was grandson of the first Antipater, son of Herod Magnus. He separated the Baptist's head from its owner. Ultimately, he would die in exile, still accompanied by Herodias, after 39 CE in Lyons, France where he was exiled by Caligula on claims by Herodias' brother, Agrippa, that he had conspired against the emperor with Sejanus.

Note: Patrick Stewart, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, played Sejanus in a late 1970s British televised production, I, Claudius!

Timeline

Highlights from the notes above.

516 The rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple is completed.
500s-400s Ezra and the Great Assembly complete the canonization of the Old Testament.
c. 480 Book of Esther written.
c. 455 Books of Ezra, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles are written.
c. 430 Book of Nehemiah written.
336 - 323 Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, builds and rules his world empire.
c 320 Alexander's empire split between 4 generals including Seleucis (Syria) and Ptolemy (Egypt).
331 Persian King Darius III is defeated in battle by Alexander the Great. Persia falls.
175 Antiochus IV Epiphanes becomes king of Seleucid Empire and begins to infuse Greek culture into Judea.
167 Mattathias, a Jewish priest in Jerusalem, starts a revolt against the Seleucids.
164 Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias, leads Jewish dissidents to victory over Seleucids.
147 Judea gains independence.
63 Roman troops occupy Palestine (Judea). Jerusalem falls.
60 - 54 A triumvirate of Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus governs the Roman Republic; civil war ensues.
48 Pompey is assassinated in Egypt by Ptolemaic complicity.
44 Julius Caesar is assassinated.
37 Herod the Great becomes King of Judea through Rome.
31 End of Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt (Clepatra/Caesarion).
27 End of Roman Republic. Octavian Augustus is Caesar.
20 Herod the Great begins work to rebuild Jerusalem's temple.
5 Jesus is born in Bethlehem.
c. 4 Herod the Great dies. Herod Antipas, his son, becomes tetrarch.