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JESUS THE MESSIAH |
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His Life and Times |
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No. 1 The Preparation For The Gospel
Among the outward means by which the religion of Israel was preserved, one of the most important was the centralism and localization of its worship in the city of Jerusalem. Some of the laws and ordinances that God had set up for them may have seemed a bit narrow and a lot exclusive, but God knew that if He didn't get them away from all the other people around them at that time, that they would be pulled back into idolatry. They would not have lasted very long as God's called and chosen people if they hadn't been separated from the rest of the world. Wherever a Roman, Greek or any other kind of people might go, they could just pick up and take their gods with them or find other gods to take their place depending on where they went. It was much different for the Jew. He had only one temple in Jerusalem. Even if he lived in another place, he still went to Jerusalem to worship at certain times. The temple was the only place where a God-appointed, pure priesthood could offer acceptable sacrifices whether for forgiveness of sin, or for fellowship with God. From that golden altar rose the sweet cloud of incense, a symbol of Israel's accepted prayers; that seven-branched candlestick shed its perpetual light, indicative of the brightness of God's Covenant Presence; on that table, a constant sacrificial meal was offered to God with the bread and in turn, God received all this and blessed his chosen people. The history of Israel and all their prospects were intertwined with their religion; so that it could be said that without their religion they had no history, and without their history no religion. The Jews had over a period of time had seen great victories that only God could have accomplished for them. They had also been judged for their evil deeds and been scattered over strange lands that they did not know. The Syrian king, Antiochus IV, had forbidden their religion, sought to destroy their sacred books, and forced them to conform to the rites of the heathen people where they lived. He also desecrated their beautiful temple and dedicated it to Zeus and even put an altar for offering sacrifices to this heathen god. Worst of all, his wicked schemes had been aided by two apostate High-Priests, who had competed with each other in buying and then prostituting the sacred office of God's annointed. Yet once again, God had raised up for them help from a most unlikely person and place. Far away in the mountains of Ephraim, God raised up Judas of Maccabee, whose name means "hammer". God used him and only three years later, after a series of brilliant victories by undisciplined men over the much greater Syrian army, the temple had been restored once again and purified and its altar restored. God always came to them in their time of need and raised up a leader to bring them back to Him. Over the years, though the Jews became as wandering people because they kept falling away from the ONE TRUE GOD. They also became scattered around over the various lands because they had been under persecution. Jerusalem wouldn't continue being their exclusive city because they decided to worship idols instead of God. As the Jews dispersed into various areas, those that settled in Greek areas were eventually affected by their customs. The Jews of the West became known as Hellenists, because they came to conform to the language and manners of the Greeks. At first they tried to resist a different culture, but when they went to the forum, the market, the counting house, or even in the street, they were confronted on every side by the Greek culture. It was refined; it was elegant; it was profound; and it was supremely attractive. They just could not push it aside and even in resisting, had already yielded to it. The Greek language penetrated their way of thinking so much that the younger men who were studying to be Rabbis started asking if they could learn the Greek language and philosophy. It must have been really wide spread at that time, because a ban had to be pronounced on all who studied Greek wisdom. It seems that a Rabbi had actually been led to apostasy because of studying the language. Much of the Old Testament was also translated into Greek, which was actually the starting point of Hellenism. Much still had to be done, though. If the religion of the Old Testament had been brought near to the Grecian world of thought, then the Greeks still had to be brought near to Judaism. A man named Philo of Alexandria had a great deal to do with bringing the two different cultures together under one cause. We really know very little about his personal history, though he was one of the greatest of uninspired Jewish writers. He occupied a very prominent position in his time. Philo was born in Alexandria about the year 20 before Christ. He was a descendent of Aaron, and belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential families among the Jewish merchant-princes of Egypt. His brother was the political head of that community in Alexandria, and he himself represented his people in Rome for a short time as an ambassador in 30 or 40 A. D. It was not the wealthy aristocrat that was used so greatly to change minds, but the great writer and thinker. Philo united in rare measure Greek learning with Jewish enthusiasm. He had sat at the feet of Plato, Homer, and other great intellectuals of that day and to him they were not "heathen" men. But holier than all these men was the gathering of the true Israel and greater than any was Moses. With great intellect he somehow wove the two together so that both peoples would accept his point of views. Philo had no successor. With his intellect, he had somehow made people see things in a different light and had paved the way for the true gospel to come in the future. In him, Hellenism had completed its cycle and its message and its mission were ended. Henceforth it needed, like Apollos, its great representative in the Christian Church, two things: the baptism of John to the knowledge of sin and need, and to have the way of God more perfectly expounded. On the other hand, Eastern Judaism had entered on a new stage. This direction led farther and farther away from that which the New Testament had taken in following up and unfolding the spiritual elements of the Old. That development was incapable of transformation or renovation. It must go on to its final completion- and be either true, or else be swept away and destroyed
As we continue the study, we will learn more about the cities and towns that Jesus frequented and what he did there. The previous work is taken from THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS THE MESSIAH BY Alfred Edersheim. This book is public domain and permission was given by the publisher.
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