Study these Major Themes:

• Judaism as a Greco-Roman Religion, pp. 37-43

    Focus on the distinctive characteristics of Judaism.

• Monotheism

• The Covenant (Testament)

Which Covenant?

• The Law (Torah-Pentateuch)

Who Wrote the Bible?

The Law (Torah) included sanctions designed to emphasize the religious distinctiveness of the Jewish people, such as purity regulations and prohibition against intermarriage with non-Jews.

"The final consolidation of these laws and their amalgamation with the older legal traditions in the Five Books of Moses, which was accomplished in the 4th century BCE, became valid for Israelites everywhere." (Koester, p. 200)

• Temple and Synagogue

"Its constitution was completely different from that of a Greek city-state: it drew its authority not from the free citizens of the city and its magistrates, but from a temple, sanctioned by divine presence. The law of this state was not a civil law (albeit one with divine legitimation), but the religious law given by God, and the high priest was the highest official."

By the time of Jesus, the Jews had experienced 800 years of political turmoil marked by "periodic wars and virtually permanent foreign domination." The greatest crisis, however, was not political. It was the cultural war initiated by Alexander the Great, who injected Western Culture--Hellenism--throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Hellenism had so come to dominate the more educated and progressive elements of Jewish society, that the more conservative elements revolted against their Hellenized Jewish countrymen and set up a kingdom under the protection of the burgeoning Roman empire. This "Maccabean revolt" is remembered by Judeo-Christians today as Hanukkah, a religious war between Paganism and Judaism. Historically, what the Maccabees rejected was the Western educational system of the Greeks, along with their gymnasiums, stadiums, and theaters - Helmut Koester - 1 Maccabees

Focus on the four main Jewish sects in existence during Jesus' lifetime

1) Pharisees
not as powerful during the time of Jesus as their central role in the later New Testament Gospels indicates; the Pharisees were the only one of the four groups who survived the Great Holocaust of 70 CE, and therefore were the enemies of the gospel writers after 70 who presented them as Jesus' principle adversaries.
2) Sadducees (Zadokites)
the real power in Judea; the conservative priestly party of the Temple which was actually responsible for the execution of Jesus - exterminated in the war with Rome.
3) Essenes - the "Dead Sea Scrolls" people (Box 3.3)
John the Baptist was probably an Essene as evidenced by his lifestyle, geographical area of activity, and quotation of the Biblical passages that were the focus of some of the Essene writers - exterminated in the war with Rome.
4) Fourth Philosophy - the "terrorists"
fomented civil unrest by assassinating Romans and Jewish collaborators with the Romans; they seized political control of Judea and caused the general insurrection that resulted in their catastrophic destruction in the Great Holocaust of 70 CE - exterminated in the war with Rome.

*Note the interesting parallels between the above and the present situation in the Middle East and Central Asia where an occupying Western empire is contending with a reactionary and militant Semitic religious system that believes that the occupying empire is a Satanic manifestation. The religious system is using whatever means it has at its disposal to drive the empire out of their country and to govern it themselves according to scripturally based religious law. They also await a messianic figure (the Mahdi) from heaven who will bring about a new cosmic order with his followers (the leaders of the religious system) in a position of preeminence.