• Last lesson:
    • Simon
    • John Hyrcanus
    • Expansion of Judea
    • Doctrine of proselytizing
  • Effects of expansion
    • Observance of law vs. proselytizing
    • Hellenized cities vs. Easternized
    • Idumea
      • Mass forced conversion
      • Defections
      • Conversion not necessarily assimilation
    • Galilee
      • Hick town north of Samaria
      • Barriers to interaction
  • Who were the Samaritans?
    • Occupiers of northern kingdom of Israel
      • Other nations that had been deported
      • Deported yet again – to Samaria ~ 700 BC
    • Perplexed at problems
      • Attacked by wild animals
      • Wanted to appease “god of this land”
  • The fix
    • Assyrian king sends a priest
      • Good choice?
      • Did he teach them well?
    • Initial results
      • “Feared God”
      • Kept high places
      • Jehovah treated as just another god
  • Samaria often refuge for renegades
    • Priest named Manasseh (409 BC – Nehemiah 13:28)
    • Builds temple
  • Samaritans begin abandoning other gods
  • Doctor scripture to reflect their “reality”
  • Progress of Samaritan “Jewishness”
  • Destruction of temple at Mt. Gerizim
  • Continued use of Mt. Gerizim
  • Speaking of temples
    • Temple at Elephantine
    • Temple at Heliopolis
  • Justification
    • Isaiah 19:19
    • Does this work?
    • Highlights problems of interpretation
  • What happened to them?
  • John Hyrcanus designates wife as heir
    • As ruler, not as priest
    • He dies in 104, son imprisons her
  • Aristobulus now rules
    • Declares himself as both priest and king
    • Conquers the rest of Galilee and Iturea
    • Imprisons his three brothers
    • Dies of illness after one year
  • Wife of Aristobulus nicer than husband
  • Jannaeus now high priest and king
    • Marries brother’s widow, Alexandra
    • Spent younger years in Galilee
    • Vigorous military campaigns
      • Gained much territory
      • Lost same within several years
    • Persecuted Pharisees
    • Mocked the feasts
  • Civil war
    • Pharisees vs. Sadducees, Hasmoneans
    • 50,000 killed in six years
    • Pharisees appeal to Seleucids for help
      • Jannaeus dies in 76 BC
      • Queen Salome Alexandra takes throne
      • She sides with Pharisees
      • Pharisees dump foreign tyrants for native tyrant
  • Queen Alexandra
    • Establishes Sanhedrin
      • Rabbinical council
      • Religious legislative powers
      • Judicial authority
    • Strengthens Judean army
    • Appoints son, John Hurcanus II, as high priest
    • She dies in 67 BC
    • Son takes throne
  • Coming weeks
    • Fall of Hasmonean Dynasty
    • Roman intrigue, dominance
    • Beginning of the Herodian Dynasty
    • The role of women in Jewish society
    • The social strata of Jerusalem
    • Unclean, unwhole
    • The Sabbath and its laws
  • Homework!
    • Read:
      • Matthew 2:1-22
      • Mark 3:6
      • Luke 3:1, 19-20; 8:1-2; 9:1-9; 13:31-32; 23:6-12
      • Mark 6:7-29; 8:15; 12:13
      • Acts 12:1-23