1. =The Persian period=, B. C. 536 to 330, from Cyrus to Alexander,
while the Jewish province was a part of the Persian Empire. Very few
events of these two centuries have been recorded, but it appears to have
been a period of quiet prosperity and growth. The Jews were governed by
their high-priests under the general control of the Persian government.
The principal events of this period were:
1.) _The second temple._ (B. C. 535-515.) This was begun soon after the
return from exile (Ezra 3. 1, 2, 8), but was not completed until
twenty-one years afterward (Ezra 6. 15, 16). It was smaller and less
splendid than that of Solomon, but was built upon the same plan.
2.) _Queen Esther's deliverance._ (B. C. 474.) This took place, not in
Judea, but in Shushan (Susa), the capital of the Persian Empire. The
king referred to as Ahasuerus was probably Xerxes, and the events of
Esther's elevation and intercession took place after the defeat of his
invasion of Greece. The whole story is in accord with both Persian
customs and the character of Xerxes.
3.) _Ezra's reformation._ (B. C. 450.) The coming to Jerusalem of Ezra
the scribe was a great event in Israelite history; for, aided by
Nehemiah, he led in a great reformation of the people. He found them
neglecting their law and following foreign customs. He awakened an
enthusiasm for the Mosaic law, aroused the patriotism of the people, and
renewed the ancient faith. His work gave him the title of "the second
founder of Israel."
4.) _The separation of the Samaritans._ (B. C. 409.) For the origin of
the Samaritans, see 2 Kings 17. 22-34. They were a mingled people, both
in race and religion; but until the captivity were permitted to worship
in the temple at Jerusalem. After the return from Babylon the Samaritans
and the Jews grew further and further apart. The Samaritans opposed the
rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 4. 9-24), and delayed it for many years;
and a century later strove to prevent Nehemiah from building the wall of
Jerusalem (Neh. 4. 2). Finally they established a rival temple on Mount
Gerizim, and thenceforth the two races were in bitter enmity (John 4.
9).
5.) _The completion of the Old Testament canon._ The prophets after the
restoration were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; but the author of most
of the latest books was Ezra, who also arranged the Old Testament
nearly, perhaps fully, in its present form. Thenceforward no more books
were added, and the scribe or interpreter took the place of the prophet.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE.]
2. =The Greek period.= (B. C. 330-166.) In the year 330 B. C. Alexander
the Great won the empire of Persia in the great battle of Arbela, by
which the sovereignty of the East was transferred from Asia to Europe,
and a new chapter in the history of the world was opened. Alexander died
at the hour when his conquests were completed, and before they could be
organized and assimilated; but the kingdoms into which his empire was
divided were all under Greek kings, and were all Greek in language and
civilization. Judea was on the border between Syria and Egypt, and
belonged alternately to each kingdom. We divide this period into three
subdivisions.
1.) _The reign of Alexander._ (B. C. 330-321.) The Jews had been well
treated by the Persian kings and remained faithful to Darius, the last
King of Persia, in his useless struggle. Alexander marched against
Jerusalem, determined to visit upon it heavy punishment for its
opposition, but (according to tradition) was met by Jaddua, the
high-priest, and turned from an enemy to a friend of the Jews.
2.) _The Egyptian supremacy._ (B. C. 311-198.) In the division of
Alexander's conquests Judea was annexed to Syria, but it soon fell into
the hands of Egypt, and was governed by the Ptolemies (Greek kings of
Egypt) until 198 B. C. The only important events of this period were the
rule of Simon the Just, an exceptionally able high-priest, about 300 B.
C., and the translation of the Old Testament into the Greek language for
the use of the Jews of Alexandria, who had lost the use of Hebrew or
Chaldee. This translation was made about 286 B. C., according to Jewish
tradition, and is known as the Septuagint version. It was regarded as an
act of sacrilege by the Palestinian Jews to translate their Holy
Scriptures into the language of heathens, and for centuries the
anniversary of the completion of the Septuagint was observed as a day of
humiliation and prayer.
3.) _The Syrian supremacy._ (B. C. 198-166.) About the year 198 B. C.
Judea fell into the hands of the Syrian kingdom, also ruled by a Greek
dynasty, the Seleucidae, or descendants of Seleucus. This change of
rulers brought to the Jews a change of treatment. Hitherto they had been
permitted to live undisturbed upon their mountains, and to enjoy a
measure of liberty, both in civil and ecclesiastical matters. But now
the Syrian kings not only robbed them of their freedom, but also
undertook to compel them to renounce their religion by one of the most
cruel persecutions in all history. The temple was desecrated and left to
ruin, and the worshipers of Jehovah were tortured and slain, in the vain
endeavor to introduce the Greek and Syrian forms of idolatry among the
Jews. Heb. 11, 33-40, is supposed to refer to this persecution. When
Antiochus, the Syrian king, found that the Jews could not be driven from
their faith, he deliberately determined to exterminate the whole nation.
Uncounted thousands of Jews were slaughtered, other thousands were sold
as slaves, Jerusalem was well nigh destroyed, the temple was dedicated
to Jupiter Olympius, and the orgies of the Bacchanalia were substituted
for the Feast of Tabernacles. The religion of Jehovah and the race of
the Jews seemed on the verge of utter annihilation in their own land.
3. =The Maccabean period.= (B. C. 166-40.) But the darkest hour precedes
the day; the cruelties of the Syrians caused a new and splendid epoch to
rise upon Israel.
1.) _The revolt of Mattathias._ In the year 170 B. C. an aged priest,
Mattathias, unfurled the banner of independence from the Syrian yoke. He
did not at first aim for political freedom, but religious liberty; but
after winning a few victories over the Syrian armies he began to dream
of a free Jewish state. He died in the beginning of the war, but was
succeeded by his greater son, Judas Maccabeus.[L]
2.) _Judas Maccabeus_ gained a greater success than had been dreamed at
the beginning of the revolt. Within four years the Jews recaptured
Jerusalem and reconsecrated the temple. (The anniversary of this event
was ever after celebrated in the Feast of Dedication, John 10. 22.)
Judas ranks in history as one of the noblest of the Jewish heroes, and
deserves a place beside Joshua, Gideon, and Samuel as a liberator and
reformer.
3.) _The Maccabean dynasty._ Judas refused the title of king, but his
family established a line of rulers who by degrees assumed a royal
state, and finally the royal title. In the year 143 B. C. Jewish liberty
was formally recognized, and the Maccabean princes ruled for a time over
an independent state. Between 130 and 110 B. C. Edom, Samaria, and
Galilee were added to Judea. The latter province had been known as
"Galilee of the Gentiles" (Isa. 9. 1); but by degrees the foreigners
withdrew, and the province was occupied by Jews who were as devoted and
loyal as those of Jerusalem.
[Illustration: ROMAN EMPIRE]
4.) _The rise of the sects._ About B. C. 100 the two sects, or schools
of thought, the Pharisees and Sadducees, began to appear, though their
principles had long been working. The Pharisees ("separatists") sought
for absolute separation from the Gentile world and a strict construction
of the law of Moses, while the Sadducees ("moralists") were liberal in
their their theories and in their lives.
4. =The Roman period.= (B. C. 40-A. D. 70.) It is not easy to name a
date for the beginning of the Roman supremacy in Palestine. It began in
B. C. 63, when Pompey the Great (afterward the antagonist of Julius
Caesar) was asked to intervene between two claimants for the Jewish
throne, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Pompey decided for Hyrcanus, and aided
him by a Roman army. In his interest he besieged and took Jerusalem, and
then placed Hyrcanus in power, but without the title of king. From this
time the Romans were practically, though not nominally, in control of
affairs.
1.) _Herod the Great._ We assign as the date of the Roman rule 40 B. C.,
when Herod (son of Antipater, an Edomite, who had been the general of
Hyrcanus) received the title of king from the Roman Senate. From this
time Palestine was regarded as a part of the Roman Empire. Herod was the
ablest man of his age, and one of the most unscrupulous. He ruled over
all Palestine, Idumea (ancient Edom), and the lands south of Damascus.
[Illustration: PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST]
2.) _Herod's temple._ Herod was thoroughly hated by the Jews, less for
his character than for his foreign birth. To gain their favor he began
rebuilding the temple upon a magnificent scale. It was not completed
until long after his death, which took place at Jericho about the time
when Jesus Christ, the true King of the Jews, was born (Matt. 2. 1, 2).
3.) _The tetrarchies._ By Herod's will his dominions were divided into
four tetrarchies ("quarter-rulings," a title for a fourth part of a
kingdom). Three of these were in Palestine--Archelaus receiving Judea,
Idumea, and Samaria; Antipas (the Herod of Luke 4. 19, 20; 23. 7-11)
receiving Galilee and Perea; and Philip (Luke 3. 1) having the district
of Bashan. About A. D. 6 Archelaus was deposed, and a Roman, Coponius,
was appointed the first Procurator of Judea, which was made a part of
the prefecture of Syria. The rest of Jewish annals belongs properly to
the New Testament history.
II. Through these periods we notice the gradual =PREPARATION FOR THE
GOSPEL=, which was steadily advancing.
1. =There was a political preparation.= Six centuries before Christ the
world around the Mediterranean was divided into states, whose normal
condition was war. At no time was peace prevalent over all the world at
once. If Christ had come at that time it would have been impossible to
establish the Gospel except through war and conquest. But kingdoms were
absorbed into empires, empires rose and fell by turns, each with a
larger conception of the nation than its predecessor. From the crude
combination of undigested states in the Assyrian Empire to the orderly,
assimilated, systematic condition of the Roman world was a great
advance. Christ appeared at the only point in the world's history when
the great nations of the world were under one government, with a system
of roads such that a traveler could pass from Mesopotamia to Spain and
could sail the Mediterranean Sea in perfect safety.
2. =There was a preparation of language.= The conquests of Alexander,
though accomplished in ten years, left a deeper impress upon the world
than any other two centuries of history. They gave to the whole of that
world one language, the noblest tongue ever spoken by human lips, "a
language fit for the gods," as men said. Through Alexander Greek cities
were founded every-where in the East, Greek kingdoms were established,
the Greek literature and the Greek civilization covered all the lands.
That was the language in which Paul preached the Gospel, and in which
the New Testament was written--the only language of the ancient world in
which the thoughts of the Gospel could be readily expressed. While each
land had its own tongue, the Greek tongue was common in all lands.
3. While these preparations were going on there was another in progress
at the same time, =the preparation of a race=. We might point to the
history of the Israelites from the migration of Abraham as a training;
but we refer now to their special preparation for their mission after
the restoration, B. C. 536. There was a divine purpose in the division
of Judaism into two streams; one a little fountain in Palestine, the
other a river dispersed over all the lands. Each branch had its part in
the divine plan. One was to concentrate its energies upon the divine
religion, to study the sacred books, to maintain a chosen people, whose
bigotry, narrowness, and intolerance kept them from destruction; the
other branch was out in the world, where every Jewish synagogue in a
heathen city kept alive the knowledge of God, and disseminated that
knowledge, drawing around it the thoughtful, spiritual minds who were
looking for something better than heathenism. Palestine gave the Gospel,
but the Jews of the dispersion carried it to the Gentiles, and each
synagogue in the foreign world became the nucleus of a Christian Church,
where for the first time Jew and Gentile met as equals.
4. Finally, there was the =preparation of a religion=. The Gospel of
Christ was not a new religion; it was the new development of an old
religion. As we study the Old Testament we see that each epoch stands
upon a higher religious plane. There is an enlargement of spiritual
vision between Abraham and Moses; between Moses and David; between David
and Isaiah; between Isaiah and John the Baptist. Pharisee and Sadducee
each held a share of the truth which embraced the best thought of both
sects. The work of many scribes prepared the way for the coming of the
Lord, and just when revelation was brought up to the highest level, when
a race was trained to apprehend and proclaim it, when a language had
been created and diffused to express it, when the world was united in
one great brotherhood of states, ready to receive it--then, in the
fullness of times, the Christ was manifested, who is over all, God
blessed forever.
Blackboard Outline.
=I. Four Per.= 1. Per. per. 1.) Sec. tem. 2.) Q. Es. del. 3.) Ez.
ref. 4.) Sep. Sam. 5.) Com. O. T. can.
2. Gk. per. 1.) Rei. Alex. 2.) Eg. sup. 3.) Syr. sup.
3. Macc. per. 1.) Rev. Mat. 2.) Jud. Macc. 3.) Macc. dyn. 4.) Ri.
sec.
4. Rom. per. 1.) Her. Cr. 2.) Her. tem. 3.) Tetr.
=II. Prep. Gosp.= 1. Pol. prep. 2. Prep. lan. 3. Prep. rac. 4. Prep.
rel.