What Was the World of Jesus?: A Journey for Curious Pilgrims

By Carl Roemer

In some ways, the Gospels are like the text of a drama. If youve read the script of a play and then seen it performed, you realize how different a text can be interpreted when it is transferred from page to stage.

All of the Gospels were originally read aloud to an audience that was intimately familiar with the background, and that gave the words immediacy, meaning, and vibrancy. In todays world, we are no longer privy to that scenery. In order to fully grasp the message of the gospels, we must bring that context to our minds eyes as much as possible.

What Was the World of Jesus?: A Journey for Curious Pilgrims seeks to provide the necessary scenery so that the Gospels can again be heard in a way that is closer to the experience of that original audience hearing them read aloud. Author Carl Roemer presents it in the form of a journey or pilgrimage, leading us on an adventure into a world that is very different from our own world. On this journey, we can encounter the story behind the storya background that opens up a fresh, new experience of the Gospels and shares the words and actions of Jesus as they were experienced by early Christians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491733578

Carl Roemer

Carl E. Roemer is a freelance scholar. He received his doctorate in intertestamental literature and history from the Lutheran School of Theology. He taught as an adjunct professor with the Judaic Studies Department at State University of New York–Binghamton. Now retired, he resides in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife, Dorothy.

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Copyright © 2014 Carl Roemer.

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Biblical quotations are excerpted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Old Testament Section Copyright 1952; New Testament Section, First Edition, Copyright 1946; The Apocrypha, Copyright 1957 by Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-3355-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3356-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3357-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908099

iUniverse rev. date: 6/6/2014

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I

Israel as Theocracy: Models of Renewal

A. Introduction

B. Three Constitutive Models of Israelite–Jewish Society

1. Leadership of Judges

2. Prophet and King

3. The Dependent Hieratic State

C. Holy War

D. Retrospect and Prospect

Chapter II

Israel as Theocracy: The Way of the Faithful

A. Introduction

B. The Way of Torah

1. The Development of Israel’s Legal Traditions

2. Israel’s Law in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context

3. The Exile and the Law

C. The Way of Hope in Final Vindication

D. The Way of Wisdom

E. Summary

Chapter III

A Political History of Early Judaism The Political Background Leading to the Crisis of Jewish Society of the First Century in the Homeland

Part I

The Maccabean Revolt

A. Alexander’s Conquest 336–323 and the Hellenization of the Orient

B. Alexander’s Successors

1. Israel under the Ptolomies of Egypt

2. Israel under the Seleucids of Syria

3. Excursis: Hellenization as Prelude to War

4. Events Leading up to the Maccabean Wars

C. The Maccabean Wars

1. Judah (166–161): The Temple Cleansed and Dedicated, 164

2. Jonathan (161–143): Appointed High Priest, 152

3. Simon (143–134): Independence Achieved, 142

Part 2

The Ascent and Collapse of the Maccabean Dynasty

Introduction

A. Ascent of the Maccabean Dynasty

1. John Hyrcanus (135–104)²⁵¹

2. Aristobulus I (104–103)

3. Alexander Jannaeus (103–76)

4. Salome Alexandra (76–67)

5. Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II Vie for Supremacy (67–63)

B. Collapse of the Maccabean Dynasty

1. Pompey Takes Jerusalem, 63

2. Aristobulus II, Alexander and Antigonus, and the Rise of Herod, 63–37

3. Rome’s Civil Wars: Antigonus Stands Alone

4. The Dying Days of the Maccabean Dynasty: Antigonus Assumes the Kingship

5. Herod Becomes the King of the Jews, 40–37

C. Summary and Analysis

Part 3

Israel Under Herod the Great

Introduction

A. Excursis: The Augustan Imperium

B. Herod the Great 37–4

1. First Period: Conflict and Blood Letting 37–25

2. Second Period: Grand Construction 25–13

3. Third Period: Domestic Troubles and Decline 13–4

C. Summary and Analysis

Part 4

Herod’s Successors

Introduction

A. The Interregnum

B. Archelaus 4 BC–6 AD

C. Herod Antipas 4 BC–39 AD

D. Phillip 4 BC–34 AD

E. Agrippa I 37 AD–44 AD

F. Agrippa II 53 AD–c. 100 AD

G. Analysis

Part 5

What Drove the People to War? Direct Roman Rule Under the Procurators

Introduction

A. Procutorial Government

B. The First Period 6–41 AD

1. Coponius (6–9)

2. Marcus Ambibulus (9–12)

3. Annius Rufus (12–15)

4. Valerius Gratus (15–26)

5. Pontius Pilate (26–36)⁶¹³

6. Marullus (36–37)

7. Marcellus (37–41)

C. The Second Period 44–66 AD

1. Cuspius Fadus (44–46)

2. Tiberius Julius Alexander (46–48)

3. Ventidius Cumanus (48–52)

4. Antonius Felix (52–60)

5. Porcius Festus (60–62)

6. Lucceius Albinus (62–64)

7. Gessius Florus (64–66): The Outbreak of the War

D. Analysis

Part 6

The Jewish War The First Roman Campaign

66–68 AD

Introduction

A. Pacification of the Galilee 66–68

1. Initial Victory and Hostilities in the Cities

2. Josephus, Commander in the Galilee

3. Rome Responds. Vespasian’s First Campaign: the Pacification of the Galilee and Samaria

Part 7

The Jewish War

The Second Roman Campaign

68–70 AD

Introduction

B. The Pacification of Judea

1. Developments in Jerusalem 68–69AD

2. Vespasian’s Judean Campaign

3. The Ascendancy of Simon bar Giora

4. Vespasian Becomes Emperor

Part 8

The Jewish War

69–70

The Fall of Jerusalem

Introduction

C. The Fall of the Holy City

1. Rival Factions: John of Gishala and Simon bar Giora

2. Titus and the Legions Arrive: the Siege Begins. Deployment against the North Wall

3. Titus Continues the Siege at the Antonia and Northern Temple Wall

4. Titus Constructs a Dike Enveloping the City

5. Titus Breaks Through to the Temple Mount: the Temple Falls

6. The City Falls

Part 9

The Aftermath of the War

70–74

Introduction

D. The Aftermath of the War

1. The Romans Celebrate Their Victory

2. The Final Spasms of the War

E. Summary and Analysis

F. Retrospect and Prospect

Chapter IV

The People’s Response

Reaction to the Religious, Social and Economic Dislocations in the Jewish Homeland of the First Century

Introduction

A. Josephus ben Mattathias

B. Factors Leading to Social Unrest

1. Economic Factors: Taxes

2. Social Factors

C. Israelite Responses to the Socio-Economic Dislocations of the First Century AD

1. Judges /Bandits

2. Prophetic Movements⁹⁸¹

4. Analysis

5. The Zealots

6. The Sicarii

7. Analysis

Chapter V

Part 1

Religious Factors in First Century Judaism

Introduction

A. The Apocalyptic Milieu

1. The Rise of Apocalyptic

2. Analysis

3. The Concept of the Kingdom of God

4. Analysis: The Hebrew Totality Concept

Part 2

Religious Groups In First Century Judaism

Introduction

B. Religious Groups

1. The Pharisees

2. The Sadducees

3. The Essenes

4. The Samaritans

Chapter VI

Ecological and Cultural Factors in the First Century Jewish Homeland and Its Philosophical and Religious Milieu

Part I

The Jewish Homeland

Introduction

A. The Jewish Homeland

1. The Galilee

2. Judea

3. The Temple and Temple Liturgy

4. Space in the Holy Land

B. Social Values and Dynamics

1. Social Values

2. Social Dynamics: The Domestic Economy

C. Languages

D. The Synagogue

1. Origin and Physical Structure

2. Synagogal Function and Furnishings

3. The Administration of the Synagogue

4. The Synagogue as Community Center

E. Women

Part 2

The Milieu of Graeco-Roman Civilization

Introduction

F. Greek Philosophy

1. The Cynics

2. The Stoics

3. The Epicureans

4. Analysis and Reflection

G. Slavery

H. The Thought World of the Ancient Near East

I. Reflection

J. The Gods of Israel’s Neighbors¹⁴²¹

Epilogue

Bibliography

To Dottie

my wife and companion for 50 years

who helped immeasurably with editing this book

and to

the Judaic Studies Department at

the State University of New York at Binghamton

where the contents of this book had its beginnings

and to

all the pastors and lay people who strive to understand

and present an accurate account of the Gospel stories

in their historical context.

Tables

Israel’s Tradition Complexes and Models of National Existence

A Simplified Family Tree of the Maccabean and Herodian Dynasties

Table of Responses of Judges, Prophets, and Messiahs to the Factors Contributing to the Crisis of Jewish Society in the Holy Land

Table of Responses of Pharisees, the Ruling Class, and Essenes to the Factors Contributing to the Crises of Jewish Society in the Holy Land

Table of Summary Comparison: Jewish and Graeco-Roman Civilizations

Preface

This study has grown out of a course that I taught for ten years in the 1990’s at the State University of New York in Binghamton which I called Jesus in Context. The course was offered as an elective in the Department of Judaic Studies where my colleague, Dr. Allan Arkush, provided constant encouragement and support. What an interesting montage of students with whom I had the privilege to share my studies and perspectives: Jewish and Christian, black, white and Asian, men and women, believers and non-believers! It was always a surprise to see how each individual assimilated the data of the course as he or she wrote papers and took exams. And what a delight when some of them worked diligently and attained a thorough grasp of all the material, integrating it in interesting and provocative ways! Those years I hold fondly in my memory!

After I retired in 2003 I decided that since the whole historical Jesus research had so grasped my imagination that I would turn all the material that I had generated over those years of teaching into a book. I didn’t want to let all of that work and effort lie fallow! Another impetus toward that end was hearing the often imprecise allusions to the world of Jesus that I frequently heard in sermons based on the Gospels. (I’d like to use the German word "Realien for what I’m referring to here which means the realities and real facts on the ground, so to speak.) I thought I’d like to put a book into the hands of preachers (and laymen too!––hence the title) that would lay out as accurately as possible the historical, religious, and socio–economic dynamics of the world in which Jesus conducted his ministry. In this way, quite apart from my interpretation of the materials in the Gospels (which will appear in the second volume of this study), the reader, on the basis of the presentation of the realities of the world as I outline them in this study can make his or her own interpretation of the Gospel materials. Well, you might say, dear author, how certain can we be that what you present here about the realities of Jesus’ world are a trustworthy presentation of the facts?" This study is in dialogue with some respected commentators and students of these realities and I therefore have included a plethora of footnotes (which one does not necessarily have to read) where I either corroborate what I am describing or argue my presentation and where I register my agreement or disagreement with some of the relevant literature. The bibliography at the end can also be consulted by those who want to find what other scholars have had to say.

It is my hope that my presentation in this first volume of my work dealing with context will enable the reader to grasp an accurate understanding of the world in which Jesus lived and worked especially the Jewish world. This latter world has often been misrepresented in stereotypes and prejudices which have grown up over the centuries especially in the Christian Churches and have not only distorted that world but also the message and work of Jesus himself.

So dear reader, read on. Please do not neglect to read the following introduction which presents an overview of the first part of my work dealing with the historical, economic, social, ecological, religious and political background of this variegated, complex and above all interesting world in which Jesus was enmeshed.

Carl E. Roemer, Th.D., STS

Easter 2014

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Introduction

Dear reader, you are about to set out on a journey. I will be your guide as we make our way back in time and through an ancient world. It will be a personal journey for as I worked on this study it sparked questions in my mind which led me down various paths and side roads. So I found myself asking the question as a good Lutheran, What does this mean? (I’ll often answer that question in the footnotes. But you can ignore them too because they do not affect the flow of the presentation.) However, as personal as this journey is, it is not idiosyncratic. I have sought out the wisdom of other scholars who are much wiser and more informed than myself. They have aided me immeasurably on the way and have helped me understand this often strange and sometimes baffling world.

In some ways the Gospels are like the text of a drama. If you’ve read the script of a play and then seen it performed you realize how different a text can be understood when it is transferred from page to stage. The Gospels were all originally read aloud to an audience that was intimately familiar with the background that gave the words immediacy, meaning, and vibrancy. In our cultural situation we’re no longer privy to that scenery. This book is designed to provide the scenery so that the Gospels can again be heard in a way that is something close to the experience of that original audience. I’ve written this book in the form of a journey to lead you on an adventure into a world that is very different from ours. On this journey you will encounter the story behind the story. You will discover the background that opens up a new and fresh experience of the Gospels and the words and actions of Jesus.

Our expedition into the past will familiarize you with the nature of the ancient Mediterranean world in general. We will probe the Hellenistic world as it developed after Alexander’s conquest and then make our way slowly through Jewish history as it unwound through the tumultuous and traumatic times under the Roman Empire. I have included as much detail as the sources allow. I’ve done this because the secondary literature always presents only summaries and skips over much of the intervening details. So I found myself asking what else is there and what is being left out? I’ve included the details that the sources provide to give us a fulsome look into the dynamics of these people and their stories. This may even lead you into reading them for yourselves!

These times were indeed extraordinarily traumatic for Judaism and the Jewish people since all the great verities of faith were called into question. How could this people and their unique monotheistic faith and their distinctive and exceptional way of life survive as it met the adversities in an often hostile and uncomprehending world?

In the first chapter I describe three models of leadership and organization the people had at their disposal which developed over the centuries of their existence beginning with Moses and culminating in the exile. Without an understanding of these models and what I call universes of meaning it is not possible to fully grasp how the various renewal movements of the first century, including Jesus and his ministry, understood themselves and their interpretation of events and the will of God in their circumstances. These models emerged from the circumstances in which the Israelites lived to meet the challenges to their corporate existence in the constantly shifting realities of life in the world. First of all there were judges. As Israel settled in the land after the Exodus judges arose to meet the leadership needs of the people. When this form of leadership proved inadequate to the Philistine threat, prophet and king provided the necessary resolution to the survival of the people. Finally, after the destruction of the state and the exile, what I call, the dependent hieratic state, that is, priestly government centered in the temple, emerged under Persian hegemony.

But the people could not survive by political organization alone whatever it may be. They required universes of meaning which I describe in the second chapter. A people need a vision and a way of understanding life’s meaning in the world and their place within it. Undergirding the life of the people in whatever circumstances they found themselves was the Torah, or law and instruction of God. The so-called wisdom tradition also provided a scaffold for the individual Israelite to effectively make ones way through the world. Later, in the face of the horror of persecution, apocalyptic developed giving the people a way of grasping what God’s purposes were in the world that seemed to threaten the faith and the very possibility of survival. These universes of meaning informed and shaped the models that in turn sculpted the shape and form of the national existence of God’s people in the world; it molded every endeavor to bring about the renewal of Jewish society in the Holy Land of the first century and Jesus’ own ministry and self–identity.

Chapter III is by far the longest leg of our journey. I’ve divided it into nine parts to help you digest the whole of this history. It begins with the Maccabean revolt in 166 B.C. and ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 A.D. The reason for its length is this: as I’ve read the various presentations of this history I’ve wondered about the details that have been left out. For example, Alexander conquered the Ancient Near East but how did he accomplish that amazing feat? What was the significance of that conquest for the ensuing Hellenistic world and for the Jewish state? You will read of the Maccabean exploits and the details of their heroically fought battles that liberated their nation. Why know these things? Well, these details might give you a better idea of what Jesus meant when he talked about a king going into battle. What king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? (Luke 14:31). Or what was the Feast of Dedication that he attended in Jerusalem (John 10:22)? And you will discover all the intrigue and machinations that went on in Herod the Great’s rather messy, chaotic household that led to the horrific decision to execute his wife and sons. That may help clarify what Jesus had in mind when he referred to life in a king’s house Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts (Luke 7:25). Or again, what was there about the Hellenization of the Mediterranean world that would lead Antiochus IV Epiphanes to want to exterminate Judaism and so initiate the first religious persecution in world history?

This chapter then carefully follows the history of these times as the Maccabbean literature and the first century Jewish historian Josephus has given it to us. Beginning with the almost miraculous establishment of the Maccabean state and its ensuing melancholy demise orchestrated by the clever and ever resilient Herod the Great we’ll trace his dynasty as it died away. His successors, ruling side by side with Roman procurators, lasted less than a century subsequent to his death. The latter half of this chapter is devoted to the Jewish War starting with Rome’s pacification of the Galilee and the woeful and terrible denouement of the war as Jerusalem is surrounded on every side (Luke 21:20) and not one stone is left on another (Mark 13:2).

This history is utterly important for an understanding of the time of Jesus’ ministry. The Gospels are rife with references to various rulers and kingdoms: such as the Herods and Herodians, and Roman procurators, various political entities such as Samaria, Idumea, the Decapolis, and Judea, and with foreign and Jewish lands and cities such as Syria, Tyre, Sidon, and the Galilee, Cesaerea, Capernaum, and Jericho. There are a bewildering array of references such as these in the Gospels. How do they all hang together? This chapter will clarify questions such as these so that when you read the Gospels you will understand the history that has unfolded in various places, the relationship between various Herodian rulers and why they acted the way they did.

Important here is to understand that the memory of this history lies not only in the background of the Gospel stories themselves This historical penumbra also held the consciousness of every Jewish person in the first century. In this way we will deeply appreciate how a first century Jew understood his or her world and how fraught that world was with meaning and emotion. So work your way carefully through this chapter’s historical journey. It will enlighten you and you will hear yourself saying repeatedly, O that’s why, for instance, Joseph and Mary didn’t settle in Judea, (Matt 2:22) or Ah! No wonder Jesus called Herod Antipas a ‘fox’ (Luke 13:32). You will have a new appreciation for the complex world in which Jesus lived and how his message of the kingdom of God would sound to his contemporaries. You will appreciate even more the power of that message because of the circumstances into which it was proclaimed.

Having set the historical stage in chapter III we’ll delve deeper into the factors which produced the social unrest and the responses to the first century crisis into which Jewish society was plunged. After the economic factors such as the tax burden and social factors are carefully analyzed I describe the Jewish responses to the growing crisis. This is on the ground history of the times. Chapter III was the history at the top–the machinations of the elites and how they move and make history. In Chapter IV are the stories of the so–called little people, the everyday people, who live under the political systems and social realities that the elites seem to create. Here chapter I and II come into play. These responses, you’ll discover, take up the models that Jewish society had developed as acceptable ways for living its corporate life in the world and that coordinated with Jewish understanding of how life was to be lived coram Deo, in the face of God. They all, in their own way, are arrayed against Roman oppression and work and promise in their own way liberation to establish an independent nation once again as in days of old.

In a Jewish context what many scholars who analyze Jewish society from a social systems point of view call social banditry I discover them to be taking up the model of judges who provided political leadership in ancient Israel. Secondly, prophets rise up from the heart of the people like the prophets of old who understand themselves to bring a Word of the Lord to the people and his promised intervention to save the nation which longs for a just society as the people of God. Thirdly, there are the messiahs who, patterning themselves after the great royal messianic figure of David, bring together small armies who hope to liberate the nation as David did of old in his successful venture to free God’s people from Philistine tyranny. Alongside of these are the Zealots and the so–called Sicarii (dagger men) who are no less motivated by the yearning for liberty but who do not explicitly embody one of these models but who draw their inspiration from zeal for the Torah and living life faithfully according to its precepts.

After visiting these revolutionary groups we’ll continue our exploration on the ground as we turn in Chapter V to the religious groups. One factor constituting an important context that determines the general world view of the times was apocalyptic. I’ve located the description of this powerful and compelling theology between the revolutionary groups and the religious ones because they all, except for the Sadducees, participated in that thought world in various degrees of intensity. We’ll be like newcomers to the land and insinuate ourselves into the membership of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes. Each of these groups, like the explicitly revolutionary ones, had a program for the salvation of the nation. The Pharisees, although they accepted the apocalyptic outlook of the ultimate intervention of God’s kingdom in history, a coming messiah, and the final resurrection, their revolution was pointed in other directions. They developed the written and oral Torah so that the people could observe the law in ever changing circumstances and make of the people an egalitarian kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, were the more or less rigid conservatives who had not accepted the growth in theology associated with the development of the biblical canon beyond the Pentateuch and apocalyptic and so did not develop the law and legal precedents. They were the accommodationists who fostered the maintenance of the status quo in the nation’s uneasy alliance with Rome.

The Essenes, whose literature exploded on the world in 1947 after their chance discovery in a cave near the Dead Sea (hence the expression the Dead Sea Scrolls), apparently consisted of both a monastic group living in community at Qumran and cells of married members living in the towns all over Judea. They were thoroughly apocalyptic waiting for the right moment to strike when God was ready to inaugurate his ultimate reign.

In the final chapter the ground will literally engage our attention as we travel the land and discover the physical world of the Holy Land. We’ll enter several towns in the Galilee and, of course, Jerusalem in Judea. In these places we will engage in the life of the people, their homes and communities. Then we’ll have a chance to observe how people interacted with one another as we enter their society and get to understand why they behave in the way they do as we discuss their social values and dynamics, their language, and one of their most important institutions, the synagogue.

As we approach the end of our journey, we do not want to ignore a group of people often forgotten because they were usually not given a voice and did serve as political leaders or writers. I’m speaking here of women. Here we will listen, observe and, while we’ll appreciate the contemporary opportunities available to both men and women, we will simultaneously understand the worth which was placed on the family and women in ancient Jewish society.

A final section will again look out at the broader world. We need to glance once more in that direction to appreciate the revolution in thought that Greece brought to the ancient near east, an environment in which Israel was intimately embedded. Beside the abstract and scientific thinking that Greece introduced it also, in late antiquity (that is, the time period which we are studying), struggled with the challenges of how the individual could find meaning and purpose in this complex world of the new Graeco–Roman reality. Three philosophies had great appeal and won adherents: the Cynic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean. We’ll enter those philosophical schools and briefly sit at the feet of their founders.

Finally, we will enter the strange universe of ancient near eastern thought, a thought world that is pre–philosophical and pre–scientific. This is the thought world that understood the universe in concrete, rather than abstract, terms, a thought world in which biblical thought and the thought world of the people of the Book were also embedded but which also differed from it in profound ways.

That will bring our journey to a conclusion. But it really is only the beginning because a second volume will follow in which I will place Jesus within the context of the world we have visited and imagined so that what he said and did will be illumined by the real world in which he lived and moved. We will experience it as those who have been there and now understand in a whole new way him who has divided time in two.

A final note about the Table of Contents. I’ve included the contents of this study in all of its sections and sub–sections so that is it also a kind of index to make it easier to find a particular topic enabling the reader to quickly locate it for review or reference purposes. I hope you will find it helpful.

I hope you will enjoy the journey that lies before you and that it will open your eyes to a deeper understanding of the world of Jesus.

CHAPTER I

Israel as Theocracy: Models of Renewal

A. Introduction

Our journey must begin in the earliest days of Israel’s existence as a political entity when Israel developed various modes of political organization as the people of God in the world. They changed with the times, adjusting as external circumstances required. Ultimately these modes became models and even exclusive, normative forms, by which she alone could conceive her national existence.

There were three basic models of how Jewish society was to be ordered: (1).a charismatic order based on judges, who were raised up as needed to direct Israel in any crisis they faced;¹ (2).the royal messianic—prophetic order based on the Davidic covenant which asserted that Israel’s God had chosen David and his sons to bear royal office and rule his people in his stead. The royal office was coordinated with the charismatic office of prophet who was to ensure the maintenance of fidelity to and reliance on God in all things political, economic and religious; (3).the dependent hieratic state which accepted and could tolerate the rule of a foreign power and where the dependent state of Israel was guided by the priesthood in all things spiritual and secular. In the first century only this latter model could avoid clashing with the actual conditions and circumstances under which Israel lived while the others drove the crisis of first century Judaism in the Holy Land.

Ultimately, it was, a conflict of mutually exclusive ideals which led to the confrontation of the Jews with the Graeco—Roman world. Jewish society was conceived as a theocracy, that is, it was constituted, maintained and accountable to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had led them from Egyptian slavery, settled them in the land chosen by God and given a Torah by which they were to regulate their individual and corporate life.

Overlaying these models were three views of the world by which the individual perceived reality and its relationship to God and his or her place within it. 1. the way of Torah by which the individual sought to structure personal existence in terms of the proscriptions of law in the Pentateuch; 2.there was the way of apocalyptic which helped the individual to cope with the powers that seemed arrayed against God and his way for Israel bringing about suffering and persecution; 3. there was the way of wisdom by which a person employed Israel’s tradition of the sagacious life of how to get along in the world with its many paradoxes, complexities and confusions. Wisdom also embraced an understanding of the created order which revealed God as surely as God’s special revelation in the law and the prophets. In this respect the primal history in Genesis played a special role.

These three universes of meaning were by no means exclusive of one another but, as we shall see, overlapped and inter-penetrated one another.

Whatever the leadership, be it judges, king or priest, it had to defend the nation and preserve its fidelity to God to insure its future survival. It was especially during the period of the judges and the monarchy that war was prosecuted against the peoples of the land:

’When my angel goes before you, and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the LORD your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. None shall cast her young or be barren in your land; I will fulfil the number of your days. I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you are increased and possess the land’ (Exod 23:23-30).

As this passage makes clear, it is Y

HWH

who authorizes and prosecutes the war. It is not a matter of vindictiveness, either corporate or personal. Rather it was the integrity and preservation of his people whose physical survival and faithfulness to their God had to be preserved. So I close this chapter with an exposition of the idea of holy war which provides a context for how the war with the Romans was conceived and why it could be prosecuted with such vigor, valor, and passion.

The following is a reminder for you of where our journey will take us in this chapter:

B. Three Constitutive Models of Israelite–Jewish Society

1. Leadership of Judges

2. Prophets and Kings

a. Royal Messianism

b. Prophetism

3. The Dependent Hieratic State

C. Holy War

B. Three Constitutive Models of Israelite–Jewish Society

To appreciate the experience of political developments by the Jews in the Holy Land of these centuries under investigation, it is necessary to be aware of three traditions which constituted the political models and ideals of Judaism and which would have been perceived as more or less constitutive of a truly Jewish society.

These three models can be subsumed under the overarching concept of Israel as a theocracy, i.e., their society was considered to be constituted by God with whom they lived in a covenantal relationship mediated by leaders who were designated and validated by God. God was understood as the ultimate ruler and king beside whom there was no other. Thus, Jews understood themselves as having been elected by God as the people of his special choosing. God was also understood as having given them the land of Israel, which land was ultimately God’s and given to the people only in fief, i.e., the land was held by the people as tenants who must render service to God, the true owner, for use of the land. The stipulations of this service God had mediated through Moses by giving them the Torah. They then, in joyful response were obliged to live and fashion their corporate and individual lives according to the standard of the Torah. So God, people, and the land formed a solidarity.

1. Leadership of Judges

One model emphasized the egalitarianism of the theocratic and tribal confederation tradition which developed during the period of the settlement (1200–1020 BC). In this model, God ruled as king, lawgiver and judge and the people constituted a society of equals where each person could assume priestly functions.² Each tribe was given its allotment of land, except for the priestly tribe of Levi, which was to receive its livelihood from the people by means of their sacrificial offerings. The tribes then constituted a confederation, which assembled annually and formed the means by which both individual and tribe confirmed loyalty to God. This annual assembly also assumed a quasi-governmental function which regulated inter-tribal concerns. Afterwards, each tribe returned to its territorial heritage to conduct its own affairs. Although this system could not survive the external threat of Philistine expansionism, it did provide a lasting egalitarian ideal with God as king, the people as his choice nation, and the land as divine gift. This conception excluded any claim by a foreign power to rule it or impound it as its own.

In this tradition God was conceived as exercising his royal prerogatives through mediators called judges. The judge (Hebrew, "shophet) was a charismatic leader who emerged from among the people who, in turn, recognized him or her as having being raised up by God to accomplish his will among the people, to warn and save them from threatening circumstances and re-establish peace (Hebrew, shalom). The judge, therefore, functioned in the place of God, the Judge of all the earth" (Gen 18:25).

The judge was both a judge in the ordinary sense but also functioned as a leader who defended the people. As judge, he or she would settle legal disputes but especially defend the right of the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger (Deut 1:16–17). The judge was thus a type of military leader. In the Ancient Near East the judge commanded armies to defend his king. So, the Israelite judge, in defending the people, was also defending YHWH the king of Israel.³ He or she was YHWH’s representative and stood in his stead as judge in Israel.

The judge exercised his or her office only until the presenting threat had passed. In that sense it was a charismatic, temporary leadership, an occasional office, arising in time of national crisis, elected by the Lord through the people upon whom the spirit of the Lord was considered to have fallen. Consequently, it was by a divine gift, that the judge became a leader and delivered the people by military means from the impending crisis.⁴ Since there was as yet no centralized government the nation acted as one only during the crisis (Judg 4–5). Nor was there a centralized military organization. The judge provided, along with the ark, a centralized expression of God’s kingship and leadership in times of crisis. The ark was conceived as the place over which God was enthroned. Often the judge functioned only locally in regional wars against external threats. The more massive the Philistine threat became, however, the less effective were these local judges and the tribal confederacy in meeting this threat.

2. Prophet and King

a. Royal Messianism

Secondly, there was the royal, Messianic tradition which was intimately related to the development of the Davidic kingship.

In this dynamic, another covenant surfaces which declares an eternal covenant between God and the house of David. David was essentially the first king to rule over the united twelve tribes of Israel.

The monarchy arose in part as a response to the Philistine threat to the nation. The older form of tribal confederacy was not adequate to the task. A new way was required: a greater solidarity of the people acting in unison and presenting a united front toward the external threat to the nation’s continued existence as the people of YHWH. This covenant was perceived as perpetual, i.e., it was a covenant made with all the future descendants of David and contained the assurance that the dynasty would never end (2 Sam 7:1–17). The Davidic covenant functioned religiously as a divine affirmation for the emergence of the kingship in the face of criticism on the part of the representatives of the old theocratic ideal. The king was understood as being anointed (the word in Hebrew for an anointed one is messiah) by God to serve in his stead.⁵ Thus, his rule was to be characterized by justice, righteousness, and equity. In Israel, however, the king did not have an independent status and rule above law, but the monarchy was conceived in something like constitutional terms. The king was also subject to Torah, as any other member of the people.⁶

So close was the relationship between God and the king conceived that the Davidic monarch could be called a son of God.⁷ Consequently, the messianic ideal lived in expectation of a monarch, who was chosen of God and ruled in his stead, who would remove a foreign occupation or threat, establish a government that would promote social justice and allow the people to live according to Torah in peace, prosperity and freedom.⁸ During the time of the restoration in the sixth century Second Isaiah reasserts the basic tenet of Israel’s faith that the Lord is the true king of Israel (Isa 41:21, 43:15, 44:6).

The material devoted to the story of David in the Bible is by far the most extensive than that devoted to any other king in Israel or Judah. Implied is that David is the model for every messianic king who would sit on the throne of Israel ruling God’s people.⁹ The biblical material depicts David as a loyal friend (1Sam 18:1), as one who constantly shows deference to God especially by respecting the office of God’s messiah (the anointed King Saul, 1 Sam 24:6–7, 26:9–11), as one who is humble (1 Sam 24:11), faces difficulties with alacrity (1 Sam 27,30), is modest as he patiently waits on the Lord’s will (2 Sam 4:9–10, 1 Sam 18:23), a man of wisdom,¹⁰ piety (2 Sam 6:12–19), and justice (2 Sam 4:11–12).

Although David does not arise quite like Saul or one of the judges he fits the charismatic type: he comes from among the people and possessed inspired leadership abilities which were evidence that YHWH had designated him to be king of Israel.¹¹ He is constantly portrayed as being in intimate communion with YHWH as he repeatedly consults the deity.¹² That constant seeking of God’s will also illustrates his willingness to follow not just his own whims or wisdom. He is subject to God and his will. Psalm 2, in which Israel’s king announces his divine adoption, though it may derive from a time of one of David’s scions, would seem to apply to him quintessentially.

David conducts his military operation as prosecuting holy war. His forces keep themselves in a state of ritual purity.¹³ David united the northern ten tribes of Israel with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south and made every effort to bring about peace between these two factions.¹⁴ He makes the more or less neutral city of Jerusalem his capital which becomes both the political and religious center of the united nation. As king, he is victorious over Israel’s enemies, the Philistines, the Arameans, and the Edomites. David also assumed priestly prerogatives and offered sacrifice at the time when he transferred the Ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:13).

The author of the Chronicles heightens David’s role and stature. In II Sam 7 David proposes to build the temple but is restrained by the prophet Nathan. In I Chronicles 22–26, though David is not involved in the construction, he lays all the plans for the temple and transmits them to his son Solomon, gathers the workers, organizes the temple personnel, including the Levites, priests, musicians, gatekeepers, treasurers and other functionaries. He also finally organizes the whole government and military apparatus.

Though David, through the prophet Nathan, is rebuffed by God in his proposal to construct the temple he is told that instead God will build him a house. This house is the Davidic covenant. The covenant decreed by YHWH is the promise that David’s line would rule forever as God’s son, his first born and anointed one, and that no foe would triumph over him but would ultimately be subject to his dominion.¹⁵ The covenant also includes the divine choice of Jerusalem as the locus of the divine presence.

David is also a suffering messiah.¹⁶ His son Absalom conspires against him¹⁷ and, backed by discontented elements of the populace, revolts and forces David’s retreat from Jerusalem.¹⁸ David has been betrayed from within the bosom of his family, by one who ate of his bread.¹⁹ He leaves the city to save it from the ravages of war that would surely come upon it if he were to have remained there and taken a head on stand against Absalom and his forces. In this retreat David’s distress is emphasized (2 Sam 15:30). But David subjects himself to the will of God and willingly submits to it. Speaking to Zadok the priest he urges that the Ark be taken back to Jerusalem. If I find favor in the eyes of YHWH, he will bring me back … but if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let him to do me what seems good to him (2 Sam 15:25–26).

David thus does not retaliate for the taunt of Shimei of Saul’s family that David is finally suffering for the blood of the house of Saul. In reality David had wreaked no vengeance on Saul or his family. He refuses to allow one of his officers to kill the man and is ready to accept the curse for it might come from God. Here David is acknowledging the blood on his own hands in the internecine war (II Sam 2–4), the wars to secure the borders which took thousands of lives, and not least of all Uriah’s death, which David had orchestrated.

The dirge-like procession of David and his entourage proceeds at a liturgical pace with the participants mourning along the way from Jerusalem, up the Mount of Olives ending finally across the Jordan in Mahanaim. It is David’s via dolorosa.²⁰ But David also sees that God might vindicate him and that YHWH might look on my affliction …[and] repay me with good … (2 Sam 16:12). YHWH can bring good from evil, life from death. The conspiracy’s plan is to strike down the king and force his followers to flee (2 Sam 17:1–3). Ultimately, Absalom ironically rejects the best advice as how to proceed against David, is seduced by poor advice and so ultimately loses his life, restoring the rightful king to his throne, the man upon whom God’s spirit dwelled (1 Sam 16:13). The narrative makes clear that the whole episode was under the aegis of YHWH. David is also portrayed as a ready surrogate who is willing to take upon himself the afflictions of the nation and atone for the people’s sin. When YHWH sends a pestilence upon Israel because of David’s census, David steps into the breach as an advocate, redeemer and intercessor who is willing to take the divine punishment upon himself in the stead of Israel.²¹

Thus, the person and character of David is presented as a complex figure that involves not only positive personal virtues and loyalty to Israel’s God as his anointed messiah but also as the one who is willing to take upon himself the woes of Israel that spares them the result of God’s judgment and wrath. God uses Davis both as an instrument of his judgment and of the redemption of his people.

It is, therefore, not surprising that David is represented as the servant of YHWH. He is constantly portrayed and portrays himself in this role. He is the servant of Saul (1 Sam 19:4, 22:15) but primarily of God (1 Sam 23:1–11, 25:39). God himself calls David his servant.²² In 2 Kgs 19:34 YHWH declares through Isaiah that he will defend Jerusalem for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. The dynamic of corporate personality is in play here. The Davidic dynasty is certainly in mind and tethered with the covenant he originally made with David (2 Kgs 20:6). All of David’s successors were in his loins and he is present in them. David also figures in the eschaton as God’s servant. Ezek 34:23 envisions the day of the restoration of Israel when a David-like sovereign, God’s servant, shall again reign in Israel. This hope of a mighty David who will crush the enemies of Israel continues to be a living hope long after the end of Old Testament times. The Benedictus in Luke’s Gospel celebrates the saving figure rising from the house of [God’s] servant David (Luke 1:69, 1 Macc 4:30). It is no surprise and takes no great leap of association that in the New Testament the idea of a scion of David, the messiah, who is also God’s servant, is combined with the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. That connection is especially natural because David himself suffered, having gone the way of sorrows leaving Jerusalem to spare her the wrath of David’s rebellious and traitorous son. Additionally he had also offered to take his people’s suffering on himself.²³

Though David is the model par excellence for the royal messiah he falls short of the ideal king. On that basis the hope took root for an ideal Davidide who was to come, under whose righteous rule all of the promises of God for a peaceable and just kingdom would be realized. But with both virtue and vice David is the touchstone for the paradigm of the expected ideal messiah. So, Isaiah of Jerusalem in the eighth century voiced the expectation of an ideal Davidide endowed with the spirit of God who would restore Israel and bring about the peaceable kingdom (Isa 11:1–9).

But such expectations were not nurtured universally in Israelite—Jewish thinking. Tensions remained between the old tribal independence with its ideal of God alone as king and the Davidic covenant and centralized authority.²⁴

b. Prophetism

Closely associated with the royal messianism of the Davidic dynasty were the prophet and the prophetic office. The two functions of leader of all the people and the prophet were combined originally in the person of Moses (Num 16:13, Deut 34:10). He is represented as being not only the one who is pre-eminently leader of the people²⁵ but also the one who speaks for God to the people, i.e., a prophet (Greek, profh,thj, prophētes one who speaks forth [the word of God]). The prophet therefore speaks with God’s authority (Deut 18:18).

Early on it appears that prophecy was of the ecstatic variety. In I Sam 10:9–13 Saul meets a band of ecstatic prophets and is absorbed into their prophesying. Ecstatic behavior was common in Canaanite culture. This paranormal behavior actually continued to be a part of classical prophecy in the form of visions, trances, and other anomalous actions. But there is a difference between the concentration ecstasy of the Hebrew prophets and the absorption ecstasy which is artificially produced by various means. The ecstasy of the biblical prophet comes from a concentration on a concept or image which produced such intense expressions as are, for example, found in the prophetic threat.²⁶

Although the Davidic monarchy as an institution had a charismatic basis in the Davidic covenant proclaimed by Nathan, it produced the strongest impulse toward the secularization of Israel.²⁷ The royal court with its ceremony and bureaucratic apparatus hardly left any room for charisma. Kings no longer regarded the old sacred history of YHWH’s mighty acts of salvation as grounds for policy and action but acted pragmatically in accordance with their own lights.²⁸ The original charismatic foundation of the Davidic dynasty eventually only functioned to enhance royal legitimacy. These circumstances, of course, only served to emphasize the role of prophets whose charisma was sought in times of distress. So that charismatic element became driven by prophetism with the increasing exclusion of the charismatic element in the monarchy.

Von Rad theorizes that the Nebi’im (the Hebrew word for prophets) in the early monarchy were active in the framework of the cult offering intercessory prayer and providing advice to the throne with their inquiries of the deity and thus were holders of an official position.²⁹ Such prophets continued down to the end of the monarchy.

Prophecy, however, persisted outside such official channels (examples are Amos and Micah). These latter charismatic prophets criticized and denounced the kings, priests and court prophets for their lack of loyalty to YHWH and his will. These prophets affirmed YHWH’s continuing authority over the judicial, economic and political spheres of the nation’s life. So the charismatic prophets regarded themselves as the only real authority mediating between YHWH and his people. However, that did not mean that the prophets rejected the orders and legitimacy of priests, kings and judicial officials. They recognized their divine provenance but they understood their roles as implements of YHWH more seriously than the bearers of these other offices.³⁰

Samuel marks the beginning stage of prophecy as it became independent of political leadership in Israel.³¹ With the emergence of the monarchy the function of political leadership fell necessarily on the king, the prophetic function found its representative in Samuel. Samuel’s activity is coordinated most closely with the rise of the monarchy and he is portrayed as carrying out God’s will and speaking especially in regard to this developing phenomenon. Thus, it was during the rise of the monarchy that the prophet and prophetic guilds began to make an appearance. We find, therefore, during the period of the monarchy the great, so-called writing prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, who were closely associated with the royal court. This practice extends back to the time of David when Nathan and Gad were prophets connected with the royal house and before that to the close relationship between Samuel and Saul. In this way, God’s sovereignty and his word were embedded in two different institutions, the monarchy and the prophet.

The Hebrew word translated prophet is Nabi’ which meant originally one who could foresee future events. These prophets were gathered into small fraternities each headed by a father who was recognized as a holy man of God.³² They moved as a group but also had settled places where they stayed and perhaps wore a peculiar dress such as a hairy mantle (2 Kgs 6:1–2, Zech 13:4). Most often they were associated with shrines such as Gibeah (1 Sam 10:5).

Early on the question arose of true and false prophets. According to Deut 13:1–4, the criteria were not merely whether the prophecy came true, but whether the prophet led the people away from God. The story of Micaiah ben Imlah portrays this conflict with biting irony (1 Kgs 22:5–28). But to Elijah goes the distinction of the championing of pure Yahwistic faith in his clash and confrontation with its pagan rival embodied in Baalism. Ironically, the latter played a role toward bringing the inherent monotheism of Yahwism to consciousness.³³ His impact was so great that his dignity echoes through the subsequent history of Judaism. His miraculous departure in a chariot of fire from the earth became grounds for his expected return (2 Kgs 2:11).

Although the function of foretelling in the early Nabi’im was indeed maintained in biblical prophecy,³⁴ biblical prophecy was primarily a proclamation of the word of God brought to bear on the prophet’s contemporaries. The future element lay in perceiving an imminent disaster that was to befall the people but also a new action of YHWH beyond that disaster.³⁵ This new action of YHWH would stand on a par with the old mighty acts of the sacral tradition. This proclamation of a wholly new beginning in the midst of the pronouncement of judgment was a novum in the history of Israel.³⁶ Thus, von Rad concludes in his overview of the prophetic activity,

"But with this twofold message … the prophets had opened up a divine field of saving action which had no continuity with the previous one, but which was only to follow a certain etiological relationship with it (the new David, the new Covenant, the new Exodus, etc.). The prophets broke off and destroyed the existence which Israel had hitherto had with Jahweh, and with increasing enthusiasm they traced out the outline of a new salvation for her and even for the nations. Thus, compared with Jahweh’s action in history hitherto, the word which the prophets communicated is a completely new word.³⁷

Continuities remain, however. The old word set in motion Israel’s saving history. Now this new word of the prophets carries her further into the future beyond the judgment of the exile which ended the old history. But now in this new beginning she gathers up the old traditions to begin a journey which will lead her in new directions.

The message of the prophets came with the full force of YHWH’s authority and so actually effected what it proclaimed. It was a face to face encounter with those for whom the message was intended. This proclamation came in the form of oracles and frequently also took the form of symbolic actions which provided an even greater force and seriousness to the word proclaimed and which separated the prophet from mere professional cultic functionaries.³⁸ The classical Hebrew prophets were not professionals in that sense but assumed their roles by divine call.³⁹ Their accusations, judgments and promises to the people were preceded by the thus says YHWH emphasizing they were YHWH’s messengers bearing the official word of their Sovereign. As the spokesmen of the Lord the prophets pronounced both God’s judgment as well as a hope which lay at the other side of the promised impending catastrophe.

The economic and religio-political situations were the determining factors for the rise of prophetic activity. From the time of the emergence of the state through the exile, the prophets were responding to the crisis that resulted because of Israel’s existence as a national entity: Yahwism was becoming increasingly syncretistic, the state acted autonomously apart from YHWH, and the centralization of government contributed to the concentration of land in the hands of a few bringing about the disintegration of the old social order of the tribal amphictyony.⁴⁰ The number of landless day workers dependent on daily employment grew.

In this way the prophets each in his own way, hearkened back to old sacral traditions: for example, Hosea to the covenant tradition and Isaiah to the Davidic—Zion tradition. So the prophets use every rhetorical means at their disposal, including visible signs in order to persuade their hearers that the old ordinances still had binding force. Salvation for the body politic lay only in that loyalty and to the God who had given them. However, they proclaimed the old ordinances as they understood them and even radicalized them.⁴¹

In the exile and after the monarchy faded away, the prophetic office too also seemed to die off. The post-exilic writer of the Chronicles transfers the prophetic charism to the Levites which, at first blush, seems odd since prophet and priest seem to have little in common. Perhaps divine inspiration became active in teaching and instruction but above all in worship, indicated by the post-exilic psalms whose origin von Rad finds deriving from Levitical circles.⁴² Wisdom also lays claim to prophetic inspiration.⁴³ The prophetic charism was further transformed by wisdom’s sage when he became the visionary and the writer of apocalyptic. Scribal tradition growing out of Torah study and its application also claimed prophetic charisma tracing their traditions through the prophets back to Sinai.⁴⁴ Finally prophecy could also fall altogether into contempt (Zech 13:2–6).

However, as the subsequent history of Israel indicates, there was a re-crudescence of prophetic activity during the social crisis in the first century AD. Perhaps, not surprisingly, a number of messianic movements also erupted during this same time period, a mutuality that seems to correspond to the nature of this form of Israelite-Jewish political ideal.

3. The Dependent Hieratic State

Finally, a third tradition envisioning Israel’s political life developed during the post-exilic Persian period.⁴⁵ This tradition may be called the dependent hieratic state. For various reasons the Davidic dynasty did not survive the early years of post-exilic existence. The returning Jewish exiles found themselves in a small Persian province that was but a small part of the largest empire yet to develop in the ancient near east. The Persians exercised a benign rule which not only allowed, but supported, the religious expressions of local peoples. Initially, in fact, the Persian Empire provided for the return of captive peoples and underwrote the erection of destroyed national temples and shrines. Overall, the central Persian government did not interfere in local affairs beyond the required submission to the empire and the payment of taxes. Generally, the empire proved to be an enlightened form of government allowing local people to flourish, respecting their traditions, and supporting their religious practices. Indeed, it was the empire, through the priest Ezra in the mid–fifth century BC, which actually imposed the Torah (the Pentateuch) on the Jewish people in Judea as their native law. During this time the