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Survey of Jewish History

Survey of Jewish History. Introduction to Judaism Winter 2008. Admin. Response Paper Key Terms Quiz. Part 3: The Hasmonean Dynasty A Brief Moment of Sovereignty (164-63 BCE). Rule Under Antiochus IV (175-163 BCE). Seleucid Empire succeeds Ptolemid Empire

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Survey of Jewish History

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  1. Survey of Jewish History Introduction to Judaism Winter 2008

  2. Admin • Response Paper • Key Terms Quiz

  3. Part 3: The Hasmonean Dynasty A Brief Moment of Sovereignty (164-63 BCE)

  4. Rule Under Antiochus IV (175-163 BCE) • Seleucid Empire succeeds Ptolemid Empire • Antiochus IV converts Temple into a Pagan Shrine (167 BCE) • Enforced Hellenization • Abrogates Jewish Law (no Sabbath, circumcision) • Beginning of persecution

  5. Competing Responses: • Reorganize Temple • From Joshua to Jason • Build Gymnasiums • Good for my Pocketbook • Protect against pagans • Resist foreign influence • Maintain Jewish culture • Not good for rural Jews

  6. Maccabee Rebellion (166-60) • Mattathias and his son Judah The Maccabee (“The Hammer”) • Rededicate Temple in 164 BCE • Rule of Hasmonean Dynasty until 63 BCE • From priestly protectors to Hellenistic despots • Sovereignty under rulers such as Aristobulus I, Alexander Jannaeus

  7. A Moment on Hanukkah • Holiday celebrates rededication • New Holiday-Story of Military Victory • More complicated • Jews vs. Jews • Chrismukkakwanza

  8. Roman Rule in Judea (63 BCE )

  9. Rome and Jerusalem • General Pompey annexes Land of Israel in 63 BCE • Continuation of Greco-Roman culture • Look to local authorities to rule vassel state

  10. Herod “The Great”? (37-4 BCE) • Edomite-Grandfather converted under Hasmoneans • Insider/Outsider • Allegiance to Rome • Tyrant-Massacred Family Members • Leaves a tremendous legacy

  11. Rebuilds the Second Temple One of the Seven wonders of the Ancient World

  12. A Winter Home on the Dead Sea-Masada

  13. Complete with a heated sauna and a synagogue

  14. A Culture of Sectarianism • Leaves power vacuum • Jews split into sects • Sadducees • Pharisees • Essenes • Zealots

  15. Sadducees • Party of Priests • Political Power and Status under Herod • Aristocratic

  16. Essenes • Monastic Sect in Qumran • Reject Jerusalem priest as corrupt • Messianic-Final Battle • Ritual Purity • Great Library! How do we know?

  17. The Scrolls of Qumran

  18. Life in Qumran

  19. So What’s the Big Deal? • Window into Second Temple Period • Biblical Work, Apocryphal (Book of Enoch), and Sectarian (Manual of Discipline) • Canon in development • Variety of Judaisms at this period

  20. Pharisees • Non-priests with expertise in religious law • Focus on religious law, not sacrifice • Forerunners of the Rabbis

  21. A Common Judaism? • Tremendous Diversity among “Jews” • Sabbath, Circumcision, Dietary Restrictions (Kosher) • Strategy for interpreting texts • Religious sources • Temple as Central

  22. The Great Revolt • Revolt against Rome begins in 66 CE • Sectarian or unified force? • Emperor Vespasian and his Son Titus • Temple destroyed, Population enslaved • Masada

  23. The Great Revolt (70-66 CE)

  24. Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135) • Hadrianic Persecutions (135-138) • Popular revolt lead by Bar Kokhba • Deport Population of Judea • New Name: Syria-Palestine and Aelia Capitolina “Year One of the Redemption of Israel”

  25. What are the Challenges? • Religious • Demographic/Geographic • Leadership • Persecution

  26. Rise of Rabbinic Culture • From Temple-Based Sacrifice to Culture Rooted in Domestic/Local Practice • Establish religious and political dominance • Sanhedrin-legislative authority (c 140 CE) • Patriarch (Judah the Prince) • Center moves to the Galilee

  27. The Mishnah or “Oral” Law • Don’t add scripture, Interpret • Chain of Tradition, Not Revelation • Hermeneutic (Interpretive) Principles • How does this strategy solve tradition/change dilemma?

  28. The Rabbinic Strategy Before the destruction of the Temple, when a New Year fell on the Sabbath, the shofar (ram’s horn) would only be sounded in Jerusalem. The amended law allows for the shofar to be blown wherever the Jewish court of Sanhedrin would sit. (Mishnah-Early Rabbinic Text)

  29. Sepphoris-Seat of the Patriarch and Site of the Mishna’s Codification

  30. The Mona Lisa of the Galilee (3rd Century) The “Cardo”/Main Street

  31. The Cultural matrix of Rabbinic Judaism • Greek Gods (Dionysus), pagan symbols (constellations) alongside Jewish symbols (menorah) • Hellenistic Material Culture • Piyyut Liturgical Poem • Mikvah (Ritual Baths)

  32. Palestinian Jews and the Rise of Christianity • Constantine I adopts Christianity (Early 4th century) • What are the new challenges? • Religion as a new category • Christian vs. Roman Imperial Power • St. Augustine (354-430) and the Jews • “The Frail Theological Lifeline”

  33. Power of Patriarch Diminishes • Palestinian Talmud completed (4th century) • Written in Aramaic • Decentralization of religious worship • Weakening Political Power of Sanhedrin (end of the 4th century) • Laws diminish Jews religious and commercial activities

  34. To Sum Up.. • What cultural survival strategies did Jews employ to weather rule by external powers? • Is there anything that defined Jews as a distinct culture? • Is acculturation necessary for survival or does it lead to national suicide?

  35. Two Centers: Babylon and Jerusalem (4th-10th Century)

  36. Jews in the Sassanid Empire • Long history in Babylon • Is this Exile? • “We have made ourselves in Babylonia the equivalent of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel.)” (Talmud) • Cultural split between Jewish communities

  37. The Sassanid Empire (224-642)

  38. Life Under the Sassanids • Political and religious autonomy • Exilarch (Resh Galuta) • Centralized and Recognized Leadership • Operate outside Roman Empire • Cultural autonomy (still demons!) • No need to respond to Christianity • Paradox of acculturation in Palestine vs. Babylon

  39. Babylon as Jewish Authority • Central academies move to Babylon • Babylonia Talmud (5th Century CE) • Longer, more sophisticated than Jerusalem Talmud • Central text from Babylon not Jerusalem

  40. The Babylonian Talmud

  41. Jews Under Islam and Christendom • What are similarities? • Theological place for Jews • Jews as second class citizen • Differences? • Islam sees Judaism as venerable precursor • Christianity ambivalent about Jews • The Problem with Monotheistic Truth

  42. Judaism and Early Islam • Jews already highly integrated into Arabian culture • Biblical Culture had become Arabized • Abraham as founder of sacred shrines • Muhammad expects Jews to become Muslims (submitters) • Jews (as recorded in Qu’ran) refuse to accept Muhammad

  43. The Rapid Rise of Islam • Muhammad (570-632) from Mecca • Emigrates to Medina with Followers • Following death, Islamic Empire spreads rapidly • Global Jewish popular share one culture

  44. The Spread of Islam and the Jews

  45. Jews Under Islam • “Fight against those who do not believe in God or in the Last Day, and do not forbid what God and His messenger have forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth among those who have been given the book, until the pay the juzya[special tax] of hand, humbled.” (Qur’an 9:29)

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