NEARLY ALL the people living in Palestine in the time of Jesus were of
the Jewish race. Two thousand years before Jesus came, a great man was
living in that land, named Abraham. To this man, God gave a promise that
his children and their children after them for many ages should live in
that land and own it. Abraham's son was named Isaac, and Isaac's son was
named Jacob. All the people of Palestine had sprung from the family of
Jacob, and by the time Jesus came, these descendants of Jacob, as they
were called, were in number many millions, and were to be found in other
lands besides Palestine; although more of them lived in Palestine than
in any other land.
Jacob, Abraham's grandson, was also named Israel; and on that account
all the people sprung from him were called the Israelites. Jacob or
Israel had twelve sons, from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel. But
one son, named Judah, had more descendants or people springing from him
than any other; and as most of the people in Palestine were of Judah's
family, all of them were spoken of as Jews, a word which means sprung or
descended from Judah. So the people to whom Jesus belonged were
sometimes called Israelites, but more often Jews. They had another name,
"Hebrews," but that was not used as often as the two names, Israelites
and Jews.
For many years, long before Jesus came, the Jews were rulers in the land
of Palestine, with kings of their own race, as David and Solomon in the
early times, and King Jeroboam and King Hezekiah later. But in the time
of Jesus, the Jews were no longer rulers in their own land. Palestine
was then a small part of the vast Roman Empire, which ruled all the
lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Its chief was an emperor, who lived
at Rome in Italy. At the time when Jesus was born the emperor was
Augustus. He was then an old man, and died very soon after the birth of
Jesus. The emperor who followed him was named Tiberius, and he ruled
most of the years that Jesus was living in Palestine.
[Illustration: Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, where Herod lived]
But there was another king ruling the land of Palestine under the Roman
emperor, at the time when Jesus came. His name was Herod, and because he
was a very wise and strong man, although a very wicked man, he was
called Herod the Great. He ruled the land of Palestine, but in his turn
obeyed the orders of the emperor Augustus at Rome. Herod also was a
very old man at the time of Jesus' birth, and died soon afterward.
When Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four parts. Each
of these parts had a king of its own, and three of these kings were
Herod's sons. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee in the northwest, and
Perea in the southeast; Herod Philip was over the country in the
northeast; and Herod Archelaus ruled the largest portion, in the south.
None of these little kings were good men. They had their father's
wickedness, but did not have his ability to rule. One of them,
Archelaus, was so bad that all the people asked the emperor at Rome to
take his rule away. This the emperor did, and sent a man from Rome to
govern the land in his place. You have heard of the Roman governor who
was over this part of the land while Jesus was teaching. His name was
Pontius Pilate; and he it was, you remember, who sent Jesus to die upon
the cross.
The land of Palestine at that time was divided into five parts, which
were called "provinces." The largest of these provinces was Judea, the
one on the south, between the Dead Sea and the river Jordan on the east,
and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. North of Judea was a small
province called Samaria, where lived a people who were not Jews but
Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans, in turn,
hated the Jews. Samaria was governed as a part of Judea, not with a
separate ruler. These were the two provinces at first under Archelaus
and then under the Roman governor.
In the north of Palestine, west of the river Jordan and the Sea of
Galilee, was the province of Galilee, a country full of mountains, where
Jesus dwelt for nearly all his life. The ruler of this province was
Herod Antipas. He lived most of the time at a city which he had built
beside the Sea of Galilee, and had named Tiberias, after the Roman
emperor Tiberius.
[Illustration: Samuel anointing Saul to be the first king of Israel]
Across the Jordan, on the east, opposite to Galilee was another
province. In the Old Testament times, this land had been called Bashan,
which means "woodland," because it was a land of many forests. In the
New Testament time it was generally spoken of as "Philip's province,"
because its ruler was Herod Philip, the best of Herod's sons, and none
too good, either.
South of Philip's province, and east of the river Jordan, was a province
named Perea, a word meaning "beyond," because this region was beyond or
across the river Jordan. At the time of Jesus' life, Perea was like
Galilee, ruled by Herod Antipas. Once at least Jesus visited this
province; and here he told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which
everybody has heard.
Although the mighty Roman empire gave to the Jews in Palestine a
government that was just and fair, it was not a Jewish rule; and the
Jews were not contented under the power of foreigners. They felt that
they more than other nations were the people of God, and that they had a
right to rule themselves, under kings of their own race. Also they read
in their Bible the promises of the prophets that from Israel should come
forth a king, out of David's line, who should rule the world.
[Illustration: A heathen idol]
This great King, whom the Jews hoped for and looked for, they called
"Messiah," a word in the Jews' language meaning the same as the word
"Christ," which is a Greek word, meaning "the Anointed One," that is,
"the King." You remember that in the Old Testament story the prophet
Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel, that is, he poured
oil on his head; and that afterward he chose the boy David to be the
next king by the same sign. When we say "Jesus Christ," Jesus is his
name and "Christ" is his title; and we mean "Jesus the King."
We know that this promised King whom the Jews called Messiah was Jesus
Christ who rules over the hearts of men everywhere; but the Jews thought
that it meant a king like Herod or the emperor Tiberius, only better and
wiser, who should live in a palace at Jerusalem, their chief city, and
make all lands obey his will. This hope made the Jews very restless and
unhappy under the Roman power. They were always looking for the coming
of this mighty King of the Jews, who should lead them to conquer the
earth.
[Illustration: Interior of Jewish synagogue in Palestine]
In their worship the Jews were different from all the rest of the world.
Every other people had gods of wood and stone, images before which they
bowed and to which they gave offerings. In all the cities of that world
were temples and altars to these idols, made by the hands of men. But in
the land of the Jews were no images, no idol-temples, and no offerings
to man-made gods. The Jews, whether in Palestine or in other lands,
worshipped the One God who was unseen, the God to whom we also pray. In
their chief city, Jerusalem, was a splendid temple where God was
worshipped; and in every Jewish city and town were churches, where the
people met to read the Bible, to sing the psalms of David, to offer
prayer to God, and to talk together about God's laws. These churches
were called "synagogues," and wherever Jews lived, synagogues were to be
found. The Jews looked with great contempt upon the idol-worship of
other nations, and were proud of the fact that ever since the days of
their father Abraham, they had worshipped only the Lord God.
[Illustration: Ruins of ancient synagogue at Kefr Birim, in Galilee]
The Stranger by the Golden Altar