In response to comments on my "Chanukah Story", here are some dates
and a few more details-
Some Dates for Chanukah and the Intertestamental
Period
(No, I'm not an authority on this - I tried to look them up as
best I could.)
Most Sunday Schools fail to cover the period from the end of the Old
Testament to the start of the New Testament.
Most high school and college histories fail to cover the period
between Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, which is roughly the
same period.
I enjoy doing Sunday School classes on this subject (anything from
half an hour to three hours over several sessions) which gives more
chance to cover more of the questions and some of the significance
of these things. But here are some bare-bones dates; it is my crib
sheet for the talks, not the talks.
586 BC , Judah is conquered by the Babylonians, the Temple is
destroyed, many Jews deported to Babylonia.
It is during the Babylonian exile
that Judaism developed as a religion focused on personal and group
prayer and the reading of traditional Jewish texts (which eventually
became the Hebrew Bible) rather than a ritual cult centered on
animal sacrifice. Some Temple Priests escape west, eventually
settling in what is now Tunisia. When other Jews arrive centuries
later, they do not recognize them as members of the same religion -
until the Second World War, when they realize that both groups face
the same problem!
538 BC, Cyrus II ascends throne and allows the Jews to return to
Jerusalem.
521 BC, rebuilding of Temple (Second Temple) begins under King
Darius the Great (Book of Ezra)
One of the ways the
Bible text becomes more modern over time is that when the Tabernacle
is built in Sinai, the names of teh people who do the work is given.
When Solomon builds the First Temple, the text gives the name of the
construction company (well, the supervisor of the work). When Ezra
and Nehemiah build the Second Temple, the text gives the names of
the principal donors.
326 BC, Alexander the Great comes through, conquering just about
everyone and pretty much ending the Old Testament.
323, Death of Alexander. He leaves no heir and the generals divide
the empire. Judea comes under the rule of Egypt (Ptolemy
I) and the Fertile Crescent (Syria / Persia) is ruled by
the Seleucid dynasty.
200 BC, King Antiochus III the Great of Syria defeats King
Ptolemy V Epiphanes of Egypt at the Battle of Panion. Judea becomes
part of the Seleucid empire of Syria.
167 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes ordered an altar to Zeus erected in
the Temple. He also banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be
sacrificed at the altar of the Temple.
167 BC Mattathias the Hasmonean, a Jewish Priest takes to the hills
and revolts. His five sons become known as the Maccabees (the
Hammers). First leader is son Judah, then Simon. A delegate is
sent to Rome and, after speaking with a general by the name of
Sulla, signs a mutual defense treaty with the Roman Senate (First
Maccabees Chapter 8). From then on, worship of the Jewish God is
legal in Roman territory. (Thus in 200 AD or so, when the
Christians are being persecuted by the Romans, the Jews are exempt.)
160 BC. The Maccabees (under son Jonathan) conquer Jerusalem;
Chanukah. According to the story, when the Temple was recaptured,
there was only enough pure oil to light the lamp over the altar
(which according to the Bible, "must never go out") for one day.
Miraculously, it lasted for eight days until new oil could be
obtained. Hence we celebrate by lighting candles for eight
days.
A Seleucid Army is prepared to attack but
Antiochus IV dies and the army calls off the attack and the new King
permits religious freedom in Jerusalem. There are ups and downs of
local authority for the next 20 years. Jonathan is captured by
the Seleucids.
142 BC Simon is now King and High Priest in Jerusalem, as a client
state under the Seleucids.
139 BC Judea is recognized as independent by the Romans, who don’t
want Persia to invade Egypt.
135 BC. A son of Simon, John Hyrcanus, is King.
110 BC The Hasmoneans under John Hyrcanus are fully independent of
Persia. Starting from Judea, they conquer Galilee,
Iturea, Perea, Idumea and Samaria. The conversion of Galilee
to Judaism during this time makes the Galileans “newcomers” to
Judaism and “country bumpkins” in the eyes of most residents of
Jerusalem, which plays out in New Testament stories.
103-76 BC King Alexander Jannaeus. The Pharisees said, based
on his ancestry, that he could not be both King and High
Priest, the Sadducees said he could. So he allied himself with the
Sadducees This is when the Sadducees gained control of the Temple.
After this, there is
civil war between various claimants to the throne. They seek support
from the Romans. Different Roman Generals (e.g. Julius Caesar
and Pompey) support different claimants. Antipater the Idumean gets
himself put on the throne (as procurator) by the Romans.
Antipater makes his son Herod Governor of Galilee. There are a lot
of ups and downs in this civil war. In the meantime, a new kingdom
is coming out of the Fertile Crescent: Parthia is expanding and
taking Roman territories
40 BC. Herod, who is losing out in his battle to keep some
power, goes to the Romans and says that there needs to be
strong leadership in Judea to hold the line against expansion by the
Parthians. Some historians assert that Herod went nominally as
the envoy of one of the Hasmonean descendants, saying he'd bring
back troops to support that candidate, but Herod double-crossed his
boss and presented himself to the Romans as the rightful king.
From Wikipedia: “Antigonus, whose
Hebrew name was Mattathias, bore the double title of king and High
Priest for only three years, as he had not disposed of Herod, the
most dangerous of his enemies. Herod fled into exile and sought the
support of Mark Antony. Herod was designated "King of the Jews" by
the Roman Senate in 40 BC. "
37 BC Herod, with Roman troops supporting him, defeats his principal
adversaries. He sets out to kill other claimants to the
throne, including descendants of David and of the Hasmoneans. When
he started killing off competitors for the throne - including babies
- a lot of young parents of the Hasmonean or Davidic lines with
babies did flee to Egypt; there is a record of the synagogue in
Alexandria taking up a collection to support the refugees.
(Later Herod even executed his own children). The Jews in Alexandria
complained to their government (Cleopatra) about that crazy king in
Jerusalem. She told about the problem to a friend in the Roman
Army (Marc Antony). From then on, the Roman Army took a major
interest in who was appointed High Priest, in an attempt to keep
some supervision on King Herod.
1 BC +/-? Herod dies and Rome divides the Kingdom and appoints local
governors. After this, the High Priest was a Roman appointee who
felt that the Roman Army was the effective way to keep the peace and
avoid further civil war.
Various revolts by the Jews against the Romans follow, leading to
the Great Revolt of 67-73 CE, with the Temple destroyed in 70
CE. The final major revolt was the Bar Kochba rebellion
starting about 131 CE and ending in 135 CE with huge numbers of dead
on both sides; the Romans then expelled all Jews and Christians from
Jerusalem. During some of these revolts, the Romans banned the
celebration of Chanukah - obviously it was not in Roman interests
for the Jews to celebrate a successful rebellion against an
occupying power. But the Romans had nothing against gambling
meetings, so the Jews holding meetings cast dice (actually a
four-sided spinning top, the "dreidel", to conceal from the
Romans the nature of the meetings. The version at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel
is a bit different, but no harm is done by the
difference. Interestingly, the many Jews living in the
rest of the Roman Empire suffered very little during these revolts,
generally being well integrated into the Roman population, although
there was at least one Jewish revolt in North Africa.
