The Story of the Messiah: A Historical Account of the Life of Jesus Christ

By Wayne L. Ney

The Story of the Messiah exposes a host of Jewish customs, attitudes, political sects, and institutions during the time of Christ and chronicles the events of His life in Hebrew fashion while harmonizing the accounts of the four Gospel writers. Surely the setting, characters, and plot of this two-thousand-year-old narrative are not unfamiliar, but while snippets of Jesus life have warmed the hearts of countless readers and listeners, a complete story of our beloved Savior is rarely gleaned. To remedy this vacuum, the author has embellished a chronicle of the life of Jesus by:

shining a light on first-century Judaism

providing historical and factual information pertaining to the Jews in a Greco-Roman world

including numerous tidbitsboth credible and incrediblethat were pertinent to the various characters and episodes

highlighting solutions to the apparent discrepancies proffered by the original authors

Beginning with Gods covenant with Abraham and a brief history of Israel, this rendition of Jesus story gathers truth from the prophets of the old standard as well as meaning from Paul and other writers of the New Testament. The final curtain closes on the Day of Pentecost, when God fulfilled His promise of the Holy Spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490865515

Wayne L. Ney

Born, raised, and educated in Delaware, the author taught in various elementary schools in the state’s southern county throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. Unfortunately, after a tragic event, he ended up in prison and spent the next seventeen years behind bars. Although he first blamed God for his downfall, he soon realized the fault was all his and that, if anything, God’s hand had stayed a much more disastrous outcome. While counting his blessings and striving to become the best inmate possible, he facilitated various groups and programs, helped over two hundred residents receive their high school diplomas, and after earning a graduate-level degree in biblical studies, began writing The Story of the Messiah. In April 2013, he reentered society with the loving support of his two children, both of whom have forgiven him, and it’s to them that he dedicates this project.

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Copyright © 2015 Wayne L. Ney.

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Cover Illustration by Randolph Graham

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-6552-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6553-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6551-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015900077

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/19/2015

Contents

Prologue: Israel, The People Of God

Part I The Birth And Infancy Of Christ

Zacharias In The Temple

The Annunciation

The Visitation

The Birth Of John The Baptist

The Announcement

The Birth Of Jesus

The Gloria In Excelsis Deo

The Presentation

The Magi

Sojourn In Egypt

Jesus’ Childhood

Part II Jesus’ Early Ministry

John The Baptist

The Temptation

The First Disciples

The Wedding At Cana

The Temple Cleansing

Nicodemus

The Witness

The Gospel In Samaria

Part III First Period Of Galilean Ministry

The Nobleman’s Son

First Rejection At Nazareth

Capernaum

The Call Of The Four

A Leper Cleansed

A Claim Of Deity

The Call Of Matthew

A Return To Jerusalem

Accusations Of Violating The Sabbath

Part IV Second Period Of Galilean Ministry

The Twelve Chosen

Sermon On The Mount

Miracles And A Message

The Anointing Of Jesus

Teachings By The Sea

Miracles By The Sea

Second Rejection At Nazareth

Mission Of The Twelve

The Death Of John The Baptist

The Five Thousand Fed

A Walk Of Faith

The Bread Of Life

Condemnation Of Traditionalism

Part V Third Period Of Galilean Ministry

Journey To Phoenicia

The Four Thousand Fed

Pharisees, Sadducees, And A Blind Man

Second Journey North

The Transfiguration

The Demonic Boy

Return To Capernaum

The Secret Visit

The Adulterous Woman

The Light Of The World

A Man Born Blind

The Good Shepherd

Part VI The Perean And Judean Ministries

Final Departure From Galilee

Mission Of The Seventy

The Good Samaritan

Martha And Mary

Condemnation Of The Pharisees

Pharisaism, Trust, And Watchfulness

The Woman Healed On The Sabbath

The Feast Of Dedication

The Narrow Gate

The Chief Pharisee’s Table

The Gospel Of The Outcasts

More Teachings Of Jesus

The Ten Lepers

The Turn To Jerusalem

The Road To Jerusalem

The Resurrection Of Lazarus

Part VII The Passion

Sunday: The Day Of Triumph

Monday: The Day Of Authority

Tuesday: The Day Of Conflict

Wednesday: The Day Of Retirement

Thursday: The Day Of Planning

Friday: The Day Of The Passover Lamb

Saturday: The Day In The Tomb

Part VIII The Forty Days

Sunday: The Day Of Resurrection

Subsequent Appearances

Epilogue: The Day Of Pentecost

Sources

To my two children, Brian and Lesley, whose hearts of forgiveness, in harmony with God’s love, have provided the inspiration for this book.

Prologue: Israel, The People of God

THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL, THE PEOPLE of God, began with a native of Chaldea named Abraham, which meant father of the multitude. What specifically God may have seen in this Chaldean can only be surmised, but about 2100 BCE, when Abraham was seventy-five years old, He called him, saying, Get thee out of the country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee, and, thus, initiated what would become the Abrahamic Covenant, an agreement between the twosome and the driving force of the whole Bible. After promising him a national land, numerous descendants, and spiritual blessings, God continued to work in the life of this man for the next century. Ishmael, Abraham’s son with his wife’s Egyptian handmaiden Hagar, was born about ten years later, and, although he would live to become the ancestor of all desert-dwelling tribes, God had not destined him to propagate His covenanter’s seed. Then, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, his wife Sarah bore Isaac, the child of promise. While revealing His sense of humor, God chose the boy’s name, which meant laughter, an appropriate moniker for someone whose mother had given birth to her one and only son at ninety years young.

After growing his beard and marrying Rebekah, Isaac sired twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Just prior to their birth, the Lord had informed Rebekah that two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. Esau, whose name meant hairy, was born first, but Jacob, who was gripping his older brother’s heel (his name meant he grasps the heel), was only seconds behind. According to ancient custom, Esau was entitled to the birthright, the tradition whereby the eldest son inherited most of the father’s property and the privilege to succeed him as patriarch of the family. Esau, however, sold this deathbed blessing to Jacob for a bowl of soup or stew, and, although he later tried to secure the patriarchal blessing for himself, Jacob thwarted his attempt by taking advantage of his father’s poor vision and posing as his older brother. Soon afterwards, Jacob received the name Israel, or Yisra’el in Hebrew, meaning he strives with God, because of an all-night struggle with El Shaddai at Peniel near the brook Jabbok. Thus, while Jacob’s twelve sons became the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel, Esau’s six wives enabled him to become the eponymous ancestor of the Edomites, and, according to the prophet Malachi, God’s prophecy to Rebekah would be fulfilled by the fortunes of these two nations.

Out of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph was his favorite, and to him he gave a special coat of many colors. Joseph’s ten older brothers fumed over their father’s favoritism, and this jealousy, fueled by Joseph’s dream that they would one day be subservient to him, turned to hatred. After seizing an opportunity to kill him, they repented and, for twenty pieces of silver, sold the seventeen-year old manling as a slave to Ishmaelites, who carried him off to Egypt.

In the land of Pharaoh, Joseph became a bondservant to Potiphar, the captain of the guard, but God soon blessed him as overseer of the household. However, after rebuffing the sexual advances of his master’s wife, who accused him of trying to seduce her, he landed in prison and remained there until he was thirty years old. Then, when an inconceivable set of circumstances procured his appearance before Pharaoh as an interpreter of dreams, Joseph emerged as second in command – in charge of the whole land of Egypt – and received servants, a signet ring, a gold chain, a wife, and the name Zaphenath-Paaneah. Famine struck, just like Joseph predicted, forcing neighboring countries to buy grain from him. For this reason, Jacob’s sons journeyed from Canaan and eventually reunited with their brother, who invited his extended family to come and live in Egypt. There, the children of Israel grew into an immense race of people – over a million strong – but, unfortunately, due to their threatening numbers, they became enslaved as wretched bricklayers.

Now, the covenant, berith in Hebrew, which God had originally made with Abraham, involved three essential components – land, seed, and blessings – and this trinity of promises, reaffirmed to both Isaac and Jacob, were later amplified by three other covenants. God expanded His promise of a national land to both Moses and Ezekiel and, by revealing the Davidic throne and the Messiah’s rule over the Hebrew people, He fleshed out the Seed promise to King David. The Lord also detailed the gifts from on high concerning Israel’s spiritual blessings and redemption to the prophet Jeremiah. Nevertheless, this would all come later, for the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob needed to free His people from Egyptian servitude and to lay down a few rules. To carry out this miraculous task, He called on a reluctant shepherd.

The pharaoh’s daughter found the baby Moses, whose name meant I drew him out of the water, among some reeds along the bank of the Nile soon after his mother Jochebed, hoping to circumvent the pharaoh’s determination to kill all Hebrew males at birth, set him adrift in a watertight basket. Nursed by his mother and founded in the faith of the Israelites yet reared as a prince, Moses became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and mighty in words and deeds. However, when he was forty years old, he killed a taskmaster for beating a Hebrew slave and fled to Midian.

Upon his arrival, Moses met and rescued Jethro’s seven daughters at a well, and this good deed earned him an invitation into their household and the hand of the one named Zepporah. For the next forty years, he tended his father’s-in-law sheep and raised two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Then, after receiving his divine call from a burning bush in the wilderness near Mount Sinai, the hesitant shepherd returned to the Nile Delta to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Let my people go! Moses told Pharaoh, whose heart the Lord had hardened, and, although the persuasion of this directive entailed ten terrible plaques, the tyrant finally relented. Wasting no time, the Hebrews fled the land of Pharaoh, but the Egyptian army pursued. Fortunately, a pillar of cloud and fire detained them just long enough for the Israelites to escape between the parted waters of the Red Sea, and, when pharaoh’s forces tried to follow, the converging waters swallowed them up. Afterwards, the children of Israel journeyed to Mount Sinai, where they agreed to honor a special pact with the Lord. As long as they obeyed His voice and kept His commandments, God would make them a kingdom of priests and treasure this holy nation above all people.

Moses went up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights and received the tablets of stone, with the laws and commands that the Lord had written as instructions to the Israelites. In his absence, the faithless people worshipped a golden calf, and, when Moses descended and realized they had broken the first and most important commandment – You shall have no other gods before Me – he threw down the two tablets and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. Shortly afterwards, Moses returned to the top of Mount Sinai and received new stone tablets containing the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. However, God never intended the Decalogue, or the other six hundred some rules collectively regarded as the Law of Moses, to be a set of regulations by which the people of Israel would earn salvation, for, as He revealed in the preface, His favor had already been freely granted when He brought them out of Egypt.

What, then, was the purpose of the law? the thirteenth Apostle and pillar of the church would ask before answering his own question. First, it was added because of transgressions." Through the law, a person became conscious of sin for, where there was no law, there was no transgression. In other words, while sin was in the world before the law, it was never regarded as such. It also revealed humankind’s need for a Savior and prepared the way for the Seed who would become the end of the law of righteousness. Nevertheless, until that day came, the law, put into effect through angels by a mediator, would reveal time and time again that sin by the commandment was exceedingly sinful.

On Sinai, God did more than just furnish the Law; He consecrated the descendants of Levi and fashioned a system of worship as well. While Moses was atop the mountain for forty days and forty nights the Lord chose Aaron and his four sons from the tribe of Levi to serve Him as priests. When Moses came down and perceived the people’s idolatry, he declared, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me! The offspring of Levi rallied to his side and were rewarded, as Moses told them, You have been set a part to the Lord today… and He has blessed you. Later, God appointed the Levites as representatives of the holiness of His people whereby Aaron and his descendants would serve as priests and all the remaining Levites would serve as their assistants.

After a year on the holy mount, the Israelites left Sinai and headed toward the land of Canaan with a pillar of cloud, the presence of God, leading the way. Upon their arrival at Kadesh Barnea on the border of the Promised Land, they sent in twelve spies – one from each tribe – to reconnoiter their future real estate. When the scouts returned, only Joshua and Caleb trusted in the word of the Lord and rendered a good report. The other ten disfavored entering the land and persuaded the majority against the two optimists. Except for Joshua and Caleb, the Lord punished the Israelites for their lack of faith by condemning them to wander for forty years and perish in the wilderness. When the time was up, Moses again led the migrating nation back to the borders of Canaan near Mount Nebo. Then, after renewing God’s covenant with the survivors and blessing the twelve tribes, the prophet whom the Lord knew face-to-face climbed Mount Nebo, viewed the Promised Land, and died, never to be seen again. Nevertheless, in his farewell speech, he had assured the people, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, like unto me.

While Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, Joshua led them into the Promised Land. That he was a prophet of God was clarified when the Lord told him, This day I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. After entering the land in miraculous fashion, the Israelites began their conquest of the Canaanites, which God had ordered because of their pagan and immoral practices. Their first conquest was Jericho, and its walls came tumbling down after soldiers and priests marched around them seven times, the priests blew trumpets, and the people shouted. Moving from city to city, the Israelites continued their extermination of the Canaanites, but their victories proceeded from the hand of God and His promise to Abraham and not from any advantage in military strength or tactics. Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread upon, I have given to you, the Lord informed His chosen leader, who lived long enough to supervise the division of the territory among the twelve tribes and to lead the renewal of their covenant with God. Unfortunately, after Joshua’s death, the children of Israel failed to rid their lands of the heathens, and, by dwelling among them, marrying their sons and daughters, worshipping their gods, they deviated from the Lord’s commandments.

With Joshua gone, the Israelites entered the hot and cold era of the judges, charismatic leaders called to deliver them from oppression when there was no king in Israel. Because the chosen people did evil in the sight of the Lord time and time again, seven cycles of disobedience and deliverance ensued. The first cycle set the pattern for the rest as the Israelites sinned, God meted an appropriate punishment, they cried out to Jehovah, and He appointed a judge/deliverer, the likes of whom were Othniel, Deborah, Barak, and Samson, to save them. The last judge, Samuel, was a prominent religious leader of the twelve, loosely-connected tribes, and, before his death, he would anoint the first king of Israel.

While the United Monarchy survived for more than a century and boasted three kings, it rarely enjoyed the fruits of harmony. The reign of the first, Saul, a competent military leader who had commanded a number of victories early in his career, began well enough, and all the tribes welcomed his coronation by shouting God save the king! Nevertheless, after he continually disobeyed the will of God to assert his own, the Lord abandoned the monarch to the whims of evil spirits and madness, which opened the door for the next sovereign.

As a descendant of the tribe of Judah and the youngest son of Jesse, David grew up in Bethlehem tending his father’s sheep, a chore in which he displayed much courage. His love of music and subsequent mastery of the harp not only inspired a wealth of psalms, but occasioned his appearance before Saul, whose bouts of depression required the soothing strums of a harpist. When a large Philistine army encamped near Bethlehem, David hastened the report to Saul’s forces and, after encountering and defeating a Philistine giant named Goliath, he became an overnight hero. Embittered by jealousy, Saul made several attempts on David’s life, but God favored the young whelp, whom the tribes installed as the second king of Israel two years after Saul’s death.

To improve the relations between the northern and southern halves of the nation, David decided to move the capital to a more central location. Thus, after evicting the Jebusites from their heavily fortified refuge and building his palace on Mount Zion, the popular king brought the Ark of the Covenant to the city of David and placed it in the tabernacle. Although he made plans and prepared materials to build a great temple, God stopped the project via His prophet Nathan.

Like everyone else, David was human and subject to sin, but, by ever seeking the Lord’s forgiveness, he became a man after God’s own heart. To him, God amplified the seed portion of the Abraham Covenant, and, according to this promise, David’s house, throne, and kingdom would be established forever. Nevertheless, while these three essential features of the Davidic Covenant would surely hold eschatological implications, David ruled for forty years and died at the age of seventy-one, but not before appointing Solomon, his second son with Bathsheba, to succeed him as king.

The prophet Nathan had called him Jedidiah or beloved of Yahweh during his birth, and surely Solomon, whose name meant peaceful, seemed favored by the Lord when he usurped David’s oldest son Adonijah to the throne at the age of twenty to become the third king of Israel. One of the first and greatest projects he commanded was the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, which required almost two hundred thousand lumberjacks, stone cutters, craftsmen, superintendents, and laborers and took seven years. Solomon held a seven-day dedication ceremony when it was finished, and, during his reign, he continued to realize extensive building projects, such as the fortifications of several cities and a magnificent palace, all of which employed the services of outsiders.

Having asked the Lord for wisdom, Solomon was wiser than all men, the characteristic for which he became most noted. The fame of his wisdom spread to neighboring countries and even prompted a visit from Queen Sheba, who traveled from afar by caravan to prove Solomon with hard questions. Apparently, his wisdom helped him excel as an administrator, and the wealth and prestige of the nation prospered as a result. During his forty-year reign (970 to 931 BCE), Israel, whose domain had more than doubled in size, enjoyed a life of luxury as never before. However, surrounded by so many of life’s pleasures, the writer of over three thousand proverbs succumbed to the temptations of sin, and his devotion to the Lord waned. Unfortunately, this departure may well have kindled the division of the two kingdoms after his death.

The tribe of Judah, along with Benjamin, remained true to David’s line when the nation split after Solomon’s demise, and these two tribes merged together to form the Southern Kingdom. The significance of the tribe was intimated by Jacob’s blessing of Judah, as the dieing patriarch had revealed, Your father’s son will bow down to you… the scepter will not part from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. Essentially, Jacob had spoken of the Messiah as coming through the line of Judah and the future, glorious reign of Christ.

Meanwhile, retaining the name of Israel, the other ten tribes formed the Northern Kingdom, and the two halves of the once United Monarchy prevailed as neighbors for the next two hundred years. Israel made Samaria its capital and exalted nineteen different kings, while the royal house of Judah remained in Jerusalem and raised twenty, and both nations enjoyed a period of prosperity in the eighth century. Unfortunately, these good times came with a price, as the people of God turned their backs on the Lord to worship idols and to wallow in sin.

As the disobedience of the people fomented, God sent several messengers, such as Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, who pleaded for them to turn back to the Lord. Although these prophets employed different words and styles, their message, epitomized by Amos’ command to seek ye me and ye shall live, conveyed basically the same admonition and revealed that the time to repent was not too late. Nevertheless, the two houses failed to heed these warnings, and, while the Assyrians carried off more than twenty-seven thousand inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom into captivity after the city of Samaria fell in 722 BCE to Sargon II, Jerusalem, the city of God, deferred its doom for another one hundred thirty-five years.

Now that the northern tribes were resettled in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes, the children of Judah or Jews, a term used sparingly at this time, continued to disregard the predictions by the prophets of God. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and even Micah all warned the Judahites to turn back and embrace the Lord or suffer His wrath, which should have been apparent after witnessing how He had punished the Northern Kingdom for their unfaithfulness. Jeremiah, who claimed that he had spoken the word of the Lord for twenty-three years to no avail, best explained the roles of these men of God and the responses they elicited. Jeremiah also revealed the repercussions of the people’s disregard for the Lord’s numerous warnings – that God would use Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to completely destroy the whole country and to take His disobedient children as captives for seventy years. Thus, beginning in 605, a twenty-four-year period witnessed the complete destruction of Jerusalem and four deportations of its inhabitants. The worst occurred in 588 when the Babylonian king besieged the City of David for one and a half years, inflicting a famine so severe that mothers cooked their own children for food. In the end, the Babylonians captured Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and, in accordance to the prophecy of Zephaniah, gouged out his eyes just moments after killing all of his sons in his presence. Then, while he was bound in shackles and escorted off to Babylon with all but the poorest people of the land, Jerusalem was completely leveled.

Jeremiah, along with the poor remnant, was left in a state of shock by the devastation, and he was moved to write Ekkah, O How! – the Hebrew title and first word of Lamentations – a collection of five poems expressing his mournfulness over the destruction of his beloved city. Nevertheless, the weeping prophet could not possibly articulate the extent of the loss felt by God’s covenant people. For one, the Jews had regarded Jerusalem as much more than the capital of their country or the beloved city of David, for it had been the site of the temple of God, the place where the presence of the Lord had resided and where His people could worship Him. Now, as they struggled to understand the Lord’s judgment, the Jews wondered if their God had abandoned them or if He had recanted His covenant first established with Abraham. Thus, the inner turmoil brought on by the devastation of their holy city and the loss of their family and friends was encumbered by a major crisis of faith. Furthermore, being held captive was a shameful and humiliating punishment for the Jews, most of whom worked as slaves for their conquerors, and, while the writer of Esther revealed the fate of two of the more fortunate exiles, a homesick psalmist expressed the grief and sorrow felt by the majority in Babylon. Even so, a few, like Jeremiah, remained steadfast in the Lord and recalled His words to Moses: They have despised my judgments and abhorred my statutes, but I will never completely reject them when they are in the land of their enemies.

As time passed, many of God’s people looked back on the words of those who had tried to warn them of their impending fate and realized that the Lord had simply enforced the conditions of His longstanding covenant with Moses. They also perceived, for the first time, that several of the prophets had not only painted a picture of doom, but had forecast a message of hope as well. Epitomized by the words of Isaiah, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God, they spoke of the restoration of Israel and Judah, a coming Messiah, and an everlasting kingdom and promised deliverance, a deliverer, and a glorious future. Jeremiah had predicted a time when God would establish a covenant of grace and forgiveness that would be written on the human heart, and Isaiah had even named one of his sons Shear-Joshub, meaning a remnant will return, to convey His mercy to all those who remained faithful. Isaiah, whose name signified, the salvation of God, had also made several references to a Savior on whom the Lord hath laid… the iniquity of us all. Surely, as God’s people continued to endure hardships and persecution in captivity, these inspiriting messages helped them reclaim their faith and envision a brighter future.

When Persia defeated Babylon in 539 BCE and Cyprus, the Persian king, decreed the following year that all exiles should return home and worship their own gods, the circumstances of Abraham’s descendants improved. Over the course of the next century, more than forty thousand Jews, a term used more frequently at this time to denote the chosen people of God, made the arduous trek back to Judah to a land most had never seen before. However, some decided to stay behind in Persia and either absorbed the customs of their hosts or maintained their distinctive religious practices to become Jews in the Diaspora, or dispersed outside of Palestine.

Soon after arriving with the first two waves of returning Jews, Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel began directing the rebuilding of God’s temple. However, the children of the exile, priding themselves as pure-blooded descendants of Israel, rebuffed the offer to help from the locals who had settled in the region during their absence. Regarded as a mixed-breed of various races by the returnees, these people of the land stirred up trouble with the Persian king, who put a halt to the construction of the temple. Eighteen years later, after two prophets of God, Haggai and Zechariah, goaded the Jews back to work, the second temple was finally completed and dedicated in 516, seventy years after the destruction of its archetype by Nebuchadnezzar. Ezra and Nehemiah shepherded two more droves of returning exiles in the middle of the fifth century, after which the inhabitants of the city rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls in fifty-two days, a dedication ceremony inspired religious reform throughout the nation, and many Jews confessed their sins and renewed their covenant with God. Before long, though, the Lord sent a messenger, Malachi, the seal of prophecy, who warned the people of their insincere worship. Then, about a century later, in accordance to the words of the prophet Daniel, a he-goat with a notable horn between his eyes came from the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground.

With one eye on Persia, Philip the Macedonian died before he could strike a blow against his pesky neighbors. However, at twenty-two years of age, Alexander the Great set off to realize his father’s dreams in 334 BCE, and, by the time he reached the Indus River eight years later, he had conquered all of the Persian Empire, impelling the infiltration and entrenchment of Greek culture throughout the cradle of civilization. Unfortunately, young Alexander died of malaria in Babylon in 323, and the quest of parceling out his eminent domain passed to the Diacochi, or successors, the leading generals of the army, with the lion’s share going to Ptolemy, Seleucus, Antigonus, and Lysimachus, the four rising horns prophesied by Daniel.

Nestled between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire in Syria and the East, Palestine bore the brunt of five wars over the possession of its land during the next one hundred twenty-five years, from 323 to 198, but spent most of this time in the clutches of the Ptolemies. Nevertheless, despite these border conflicts and the host of soldiers they incurred, the invasion of a foreign culture – Greek customs and language, Greek games and entertainment, and Greek ideas and philosophy – had a much more profound impact on the lives of the Jews in Palestine. For one, the degree to which these influences were accepted and/or adopted, a process known as Hellenization, varied among the Jews and eventually divided the people of God into two factions. The Hellenists, which mostly consisted of the wealthy and ruling classes in Israel, savored the taste of Greek society while the Hasidim, meaning godly or gracious and generally comprised of ordinary people, regarded Greekness as an abomination to their faith. Fortunately, the religious-tolerant Greeks permitted the descendants of Abraham to continue worshipping their God as they pleased during this time and even welcomed an influx of Jews to Alexandria, the Egyptian city conquered and renamed by Alexander in 331. In fact, it was in this center of Hellenistic Judaism where a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures first emerged. According to the embellished account, a panel of seventy Palestinian Jews were brought in and transcribed their entire canon into seventy identical Greek copies in just seventy days, and the work assumed the name Septuagint from the Latin word for seventy. All in all, though, the era of Ptolemaic rule was a happy and peaceful one for the Jews, but soon the differences between the Hellenists and the Hasidim would capture the attention of the Greek world.

In 198, the control of Palestine passed to the Seleucids, and, except for heavier taxation, conditions for the Jews remained about the same for the next twenty-some years. However, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes assumed the throne in 175, he tried to rid his empire of Judaism. While a number of Hellenists concurred with his proposals to eradicate their time-honored religion, they faced a more hostile opponent in the Hasidim, who were prepared to die for their faith. All out war ensued, and, while several other factors contributed to the Maccabean Revolt, which received its name from the epithet of the struggle’s most heroic character – Judas Maccabeus or the Hammerer – they all led to the establishment of the Hasmonian dynasty.

The name Hasmon, Hebrew for fruitfulness, originated from the great-grandfather of a Jewish priest named Mattathias and the aged founder of the dynasty, and although he died soon after the guerilla warfare began, his sons, supported by the Hasidim, continued to struggle for religious freedom and political independence. The conflict ended in 161 when the Syrians, welcoming the terms for peace, recognized Mattathias’ son Jonathan as the general and high priest of the new, tributary state and, thus, established the first of a line of priest/kings that would govern Judea for the next century.

Both Jonathan and his brother Simon continued to earn the support of the Hasidim as well as the affectionate name of Maccabees, with the latter winning Judean independence a year after assuming office in 143. Simon’s rule only lasted eight years, however, and his successors, John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, both of whom were drawn to the intrigues of political power, abandoned the Hasidim to court the Hellenists. These two rulers did manage to extend the borders of Judea, but internal contentions dominated their inglorious sixty-year history. The silver lining of their black cloud, Queen Salome Alexander or Shelamzion, embraced the piety of the Hasidim and ruled from 76 to 67 – a nine-year golden age – to become the only woman to govern Judea by herself. Unfortunately, after she died at the age of seventy-three, her two sons vied for the coveted throne, which aroused the Romans to step in and assume control.

In 63 BCE, after a three-month siege of Jerusalem, the Roman general Pompey finally breached the walls of the city to officially subjugate Judea, and while Salome’s son Hyrcanus eventually became ruler of the people, the real power belonged to the puppet master Antipater, the ambitious governor of Idumea. Antipater was formally declared procurator of Judea in 47, but, after his assassination in 42 and the revolts and attempted coups it enflamed, his son emerged with Rome’s support as King Herod, which set the stage for the advent of another Son.

Through His providence, God had prepared the world for a Savior. He had lifted up the Greeks to bind the people of Asia, Europe, and Africa with one civilization and one language. Then He had raised the Romans to establish a vast empire interconnected with Roman roads. Furthermore, He had dispersed the children of Israel throughout this fertile field, and their synagogues and religion would help propagate the Seed of truth. And, finally, through His prophet Malachi, He had promised to send Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord. Surely, while holding their breaths, the people of God waited for the Messiah to come.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was no thing made. In him was life, the Light of men, and the Light shined in a darkness that failed to comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a shining lamp to bear witness of the Light, so that all men through him might believe. The true Light, which luminates every man, was in the world, the same which was made by him, but the world knew him not. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. However, he gave the power to become the sons of God to all those who received him and believed on his name, and they were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…

Part I

The Birth and Infancy of Christ

Zacharias in the Temple

(Luke 1:5-25)

THE ELDERLY JEWISH MAN MOVED QUIETLY about the sanctuary as a multitude of worshippers knelt outside in the inner courts and offered their evening prayers to the Lord. His name was Zacharias, which means Whom the Lord Remembers in Hebrew, and he was a priest of the order of Abijah, one of the twenty-four divisions of the Aaronic priesthood that King David had classified about a thousand years earlier.

According to tradition, each division fulfilled the responsibilities of this special office by performing various duties at the temple for eight consecutive days, from Sabbath to Sabbath, two times a year. The changing of the guard took place on the Sabbath with both families of priests serving at the temple on that day. They selected their duties by lot. This week, Zacharias had been chosen to burn the daily incense both morning and night while the people prayed. Symbolizing the prayers of the Hebrew people, the sweet and pleasant aroma resulting from this tribute to the Lord filled the entire temple. The responsibility of carrying out this Jewish custom was a-once-in-a-lifetime honor; Zacharias had been pleased to undertake the divine call.

It was the last full week of Elul, and summer was coming to a close. In just two more weeks, Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement – the holiest day of the Jewish year – would take place on the tenth of Tishri (Wednesday, September 22). Just a few days earlier, Zacharias had walked to Jerusalem from his home in En-Kerem, a small town in the hill country of Judah west of the city. His journey had covered about four milliaria or Roman miles, which would be about four thousand paces or double steps. The weather had been pleasant, and he had enjoyed the journey, especially as he had neared the Holy City and had been awed by the blinding reflection of the golden temple. However, such a trek would have been too difficult for someone his age to venture twice a day for an entire week, so he had arranged to stay with friends during his mission.

Knowing that his wife, Elizabeth, approved his obligation to serve the Lord had not quelled his guilt about leaving her all alone. Elizabeth was also a descendant of Moses’ brother, Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. Both Zacharias and she appeared righteous before God and walked in all of His commandments. Nevertheless, God had never chosen to bless the blameless couple with a child, and now that Elizabeth was up in years, their hopes of ever having one had long been extinguished.

To the Romans, the year was 748 A.U.C. (anno urbis conditae – from the foundation of the city – or 6 BCE), and Caesar Augustus had reigned as emperor in Rome for more than twenty years. According to provincial rule, the vassal kingdom of Judea (Palestine) fell under the jurisdiction of Syria, which, as an area troubled with political unrest and hostile neighbors, was governed by a military leader known as a legate, in this case, the proconsul Quirinius, and by Quintilius Varus, the civil administrator. Under normal circumstances, a prefect subject to the authority of the legate would have overseen the administration of a region such as Judea. At this time, however, King Herod sat on the throne and had done so ever since the Roman army had helped him to defeat the Hasmonian Antigonus and to gain possession of this domain in 37 BCE.

During his reign, Herod’s building program had been extensive. Welcoming the titles Philoromaios (lover of the Romans) and Philokaisar (lover of Caesar), he had rebuilt and fortified several cities and had constructed massive fortresses, theaters, and stadia, all of which had further ingratiated him with Rome. In the eyes of the Jews, however, these construction projects, along with the Hellenistic customs they had aroused, had been offensive. As a result, their view of Herod, on the most part, had regressed from the simple distrust of an Idumean, whom they saw as an outsider, to the contempt of a traitor. Nevertheless, the Jews had been pleased with the rebuilding of the temple, one of Herod’s projects he had begun fourteen years earlier.

The temple was the center of all Jewish religious, social, and political activity. Ever since the Israelites’ encampment at the base of Sinai, when the Lord had commanded Moses to compel the people to make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them, the tabernacle or temple had continued to serve as the central meeting place to worship their God. Resembling a tent, the original construction of fourteen hundred years earlier was far less elaborate than the structure in which Zacharias burned incense. Nevertheless, the same basic cultic elements that had embodied the prototype – the laver,