Posts tagged: bema

078 Silent Years - Essenes

2022-09-15T06:49:27Z

Hellenism

During the “silent years” Hellenism was on the rise, even among several Jewish circles.

Essenes

Another Jewish group (like Pharisees, Herodians, etc.) with a lot of debate surrounding them. They were largely men, maybe a few women (which is confusing), that were largely driven by priests. They claim God has abandoned the system the corrupt Pharisees had come to adopt and so they went out into the desert (very sepratist) and basically just prepared for the end times. They condemned the Temple system - because of the corruption - however some Essenes continued to serve in the Temple because they felt they couldn’t abandon God’s calling on their lives

Scripture #

Quote

16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Je 6:16). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Dead Sea Scrolls #

Essenes are credeited with writing the DSS.

These served to validate basically all of what we have in our modern translated Bibles

Living Water #

Can only come from a spring or rain. Living water is what must be used to fill the baptistrys that the Essenes used. So they would dig canals from wadis (pools of water in the desert) to fill their mikvahs (baptistrys).

Scripture #

Another passage Essenes hold to is Isaiah 40:

Quote

40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Is 40:1–5). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

John the Baptist

Likely that Zacharia had connections to Essenes movement, and that John was dedicated to the LORD via being raised in an Essene community. The only non-Essene thing he really did was to go out and baptize people whereas Essene-like action is to wait for other to come to them

Sepratists

Unlike Herodians who went out and engaged the world (not that everything they did was good), this is in stark contrast to the Essenes community which is that they are out in the desert, away from everyone, no “crossroads of the earth” idea, and did not go out into the world - one of the negatives

077 Silent Years - Herodians

2022-09-04T06:49:27Z

Herodians show up twice in the Gospels, Josephus talks about them a bit as well. There is a lot of hsitorical debate that surrounds the Herodians.

Like Republicans and Democracts meant one thing in American history, but those positions and words mean something different today - the same is true in history, and with Herodians.

They were believed to be the political party, however formal, to be alligned with Kind Herod.

We are also, presently, very hellenistic and even herodian. We are into the luxury, we like convenience, we have entertainment/theaters. There’s nothing wrong with luxury, entertainment, plumbing, wealth, etc… The Saducees misused Hellenism to their own detrement - they turned amoral Hellenism into a worldview that pushed Yahweh out of the center and put human and self into the center of the worldview

Herodians toed the line between reluctantly becoming hellenistic and corrupting their worship with hellenism

Warning

I am (hopefully reluctantly) hellenistic as well…

Embracing hellenism is not black and white, it is amoral… To spend money on life, enjoy entertainment, decorate our homes, etc… can we appreciate luxuries without compromising on Yahweh worship?

timestamp: 21:45

076 Silent Years - Sadducees

2022-09-02T06:21:21Z

Link to presentation

Sadducees

Often we in the modern time totally conflate Sadducees and Pharisees but they are as Republicans and Democrats today… very much not the same

Origin #

Back in the Davidic kingdom they are the group that sought to restore the priesthood by way of lineage. A goal was figuring out who the High Priest was. Lots are cast and Zaddok is chosen at some point - his line becomes the Jesus-era Saducees. They are the zaddokim (Hebrew pronounciation) which when somwhat anglosized becomes sadducees.

Hasmonean #

During Seleucids destruction of the Temple the Maccabeans revolt and expel Selecuis and Ptolemies. The Hasmonean kingdom follows this, which are priests that the Maccabeans turned the kingdom over to in an effort to be ‘people of the text’

Hasmoneans are 7 famlies that have descended from Zaddok. Over the course of 2-3 decades they become entirely Hellenistic. These ones are known in the Gospels as the Chief Priests which is a different group than teachers of the Law

The Chief Priests are a corrupt religious Mafia

Originally “Saducee” referred to direct descendents of Zaddok, which are a subset of Levitical descendents. Come Jesus-time Saduccee becomes anyone who agrees with the priestly system… Not all priests were Saducees (See Zachariah

father of John the Baptist. He was a righteous priest which didn’t exist in their day - he was not a Saducee, he was faithful to Torah not Hellenism)

Rome’s Influence #

Herod essentially controlled the world’s wealth due to his own position as king (of where?). Hasmonean’s persued Herod and asked him to marry a Hasmonean daughter in order to be called Jewish. Hasmoneans did this as they saw their time coming to an end with the rising power of Rome. Herod saw the opportunity, took it, and then he extends an olive branch to Caesar - and Caesar accepts the partnership which turns Herod into basically a puppet king of Judea

Herod then begins to auction off the High Priesthood - furthering priestly corruption. Annas (Caiphas is Annas’ son) is the one who buys the priesthood - and the priesthood stays with this family until the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Timeline

year	thing
586 BC	Babylonian captivity of Judah
538 BC	Return to Israel (Decree of Cyrus)
332 BC	Alexander the Great conquers Palestine
330–198 BC	Rule of Hellenistic Ptolemies over Jews
198–167 BC	Oppression under Hellenistic Seleucids
167 BC	Maccabean revolt
167–63 BC	Hasmonean (Maccabean) kingdom
63 BC	Roman conquest of Judea
37 BC	Reign of Herod begins
c. 6 BC	Birth of Jesus
4 BC	Herod’s death

075 Silent Years - Welcome to Hellenism

2022-09-01T06:08:10Z

Hellenism

For the first time in history, Greeks redefined worldfiew to be cenetered around the individual. Prior to Hellenism, worldviews centered around pleasing the gods

Alexander the Great had his own gospel (εὐαγγέλιον - euangelion: predates biblical authors. “Good news to share” as an idea is not uniquely biblical)

He conqoured the world, not with a huge army but with 4 things:

Education
Healthcare
Entertainment
Athletics

These 4 things pull on basically all people’s values, Andrew the Great used them to control people…

Education - control what people know
Healthcare - make people dependent on the state’s provision
Entertainment - control what people do with their time (theater was invented in this time)
Athletics - similar to entertainment - this becomes a pillar of culture

Jewish History

year	event
586 BC	Babylonian captivity of Judah
538 BC	Return to Israel (Decree of Cyrus)
332 BC	Alexander the Great conquers Palestine
330–198 BC	Rule of Hellenistic Ptolemies over Jews
198–167 BC	Oppression under Hellenistic Seleucids
167 BC	Maccabean revolt
167–63 BC	Hasmonean (Maccabean) kingdom
63 BC	Roman conquest of Judea
37 BC	Reign of Herod begins
c. 6 BC	Birth of Jesus
4 BC	Herod’s death
4 BC–AD 6	Rule of Archelaus
4 BC–AD 39	Rule of Antipas
c. AD 27–30	Jesus’s public ministry
c. AD 30	Crucifixion of Jesus
AD 66–73	First Jewish revolt against Rome
AD 70	Destruction of Jerusalem/Temple
AD 73	Masada falls
AD 131–135	Bar Kochba Revolt (Second Jewish revolt)

Post-Alexander the Great’s death #

4 rulers take over the Greek kingdom

Synichus
?
Seleucis
Ptolemy

Ptolemy rules the Jewish region #

Leadership style - very Hellenistic

Some Jews dove in, others remained faithful to Judaism… Psolemy made it just simply ahrd to not be Greek

Selucids take over Psolemies and Jewish region #

Selucis sacrifices a pig on the altar in Judea - ruthless take over of Jewish land which leads to the Maccabean revolt (Hanukkah)

Hanukkah #

Jews wins the Maccabean revolts, story of Hanukkah arises

Hasmonean rule #

Maccabean’s are people of the text and see that Yahweh wanted priests to rule, not kings. So they hand the kingdom over to the Hasmoneans (priests), and their Yahweh-centric rule eventually turns back to Hellenism

Josephus (perhaps a little hyperbolically) said at this time there weren’t enough priests to run Sabbath services cause they were all at the naked mud wrestling tournaments

Hasadim #

Maccabeans who leave the Hasmonean group, go north, and build a fundamentalist Jewish culture in Galilee which is where Jesus grew up and did his ministry

They split into 2 groups - Zealots who use the sword, Pharisees who obedience to the text

Rome #

Jews (Saducees) persue Herod the Great in order to work things in light of Roman conquest, to remain good for the Jews

Herod and Ceasar end up having a tight political relationship

Herod’s kingdom #

Herod split his kingdom to his sons after his death

Herod Archelaus (rules for a short time and is replaced by Pontius Pilot)
Herod Philip 2
Herod Antipad

Sometime in this period, Jesus was born

Post-Herod #

Jesus’ public ministry is during this time

Jews eventually revolt against Rome which leads to destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple

074 - Silent Years - Synagogue

2022-08-29T06:26:42Z

Link to presentation

Judaism

Modern Judaism is very different from Jesus’ Judaism which was distinct from David’s Judaism, etc… We, as modern westerners, need to be aware of the religious evolution and history of Judaism to properly understand the Scriptures.

Synagogue

Synagogue started with groups of people at homes, not in a big building, after Exile, exploring a way to express their faith. Synagogue has 7 main elements. But note that all 7 are not found in every Synagogue building, but the 7 show up consistently

Mikveh #

Basically a baptistry.

Synagogue was never meant to replace the Temple

Prior to AD 70, the doors to a Synagogue never faced Jerusalem in order to keep in mind that Temple was distinct. However, after AD 70 doors to Synagogues were built to face Jerusalem as a means of mourning the loss of the Temple

Mikveh was a ritualistic cleansing (not a conversion like baptism) basically every day, every time before you enter Synagogue.

Basilica #

The pillared section of the Synagogue which held up the roof.

They didn’t have the technology to span the desired length of the roof, so the columns/pillars were structural
Had embedded windows to allow light into the center of the Synagogue in order to read God's light by God's light (sunlight)

Bema #

Dead center is the Bema seat. (Bay-mah or Bee-mah but this isn’t the bima seat of judgement in the NT)

Usually was just a slightly raised platform that someone would stand on as they read the text.

The Bema seat starts to move closer to a side of the room, as a stage, as Synagogues are influenced by Western culture. But in the Second Temple period the seat was always at the center so that God’s people gather around the text.

Modern day churches have us gather more as an audience to see a performer rather than to gather around the text

Chief Seats #

Everyone sat on the floor to hear God’s word, but around the perimeter were seats for those who were “seasoned”, “wise”… really it’s that they were older and known as wise men in the community

Torah Closet #

Where Torah was kept. Modern times there were more expensive and ornate art put here - the Torah Closet was the place where the valuable things were kept

This was introduced because prior to Exile the Jews might have been a people who didn’t know the rules… yes they didn’t follow them, but there wasn’t a great system for making sure everyone knew them. So the Torah Closet existed to keep God’s law safe and accessible by all of God’s people

timestamp: 21 ish minutes - need to listen to Moses Seat again

Session 3 Intro

2022-08-29T00:00:00Z

Intro

Session 1: Torah

Session 2: Prophets and Writings

Review

Torah #

Big idea: partnership

Basis of partnership / meet the characters (Genesis)
God chooses a partner / the partner chooses God (Exodus)
God defines the partnership (Leviticus)
God shapes his partner (Numbers)
God asks his partner to remember (Deuteronomy)

History #

Big idea: Redemption cycle; God’s patience

God places His people in the middle of the action for mission (Joshua)
God’s people struggle to walk the path and trust the story (Judges & Ruth)
God’s people struggle with identity and obedience (Samuel/Kings)
God’s people struggle with empire and becoming the anti-story (Chronicles)

Wisdom #

Big idea: Tools

If we are going to survive the cycle, we are going to need…

Art and song for worship and expression (Psalms)
Nuggets of conventional wisdom (Proverbs)
Purpose and a reason to get up every morning (Ecclesiastes)
Relationships and intimacy with others (Song of Songs)

Prophets #

Big idea: Warnings, woes, and hope

God sends warning in Pre-Assyrian/Pre-Babylonian prophets (Amos, Hosea, Micah, 1 Isaiah, Zephaniah, 2 Isaiah)
God pronounces woe and judgment (Jonah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Joel)
God gives hope and encouragement to an exiled people (Ezekiel, Daniel, Job, 3 Isaiah)

Remnant #

Big idea: Returning, yearning, learning

God’s people return to rebuild and restore what once was (4 Isaiah, Ezra/Nehemiah)
God’s people yearn for what used to be (Haggai, Zechariah)
God’s people learn that this new world demands a new approach (Malachi, Esther)

The Silent Years #

We run out of Biblical text but there’s centuries of histories between the ending of the OT and Jesus coming onto the scene