Intertestamental Period

Intertestamental Period

Introduction

The paper is to explore the Intertestamental period in a clear and thorough way. The period right from the Maccabees to Herods is to be discovered in the paper. Legacy of Christianity is the term "intertestamental period." Since the "New Testament" is the "end" of the "Old Testament," the centuries that linked the two were dubbed "the intertestamental period." This perspective is not necessarily prejudicial to its subject, but it usually is, because it regards "intertestamental period" as the preparation for the emergence of Christianity. Books with titles like 'Judaism in the Age of Jesus" or "The Jewish Background to the New Testament" often have as their purpose, whether explicit or implicit, the demonstration that "intertestamental period" was somehow "fulfilled" or "completed" when it gave birth to Christianity. But ancient Judaism is worthy of study in its own right, not only because it is the matrix of early Christianity.

The Maccabees to Herods

Throughout the Maccabees and Herods periods the Jews maintained a quiescent attitude toward their rulers. There is no indication of any serious uprising by the Jews against the empires that ruled them. This changed dramatically in the 160s B.C.E. In 168-167 B.C.E.Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid king of Syria, profaned the temple and persecuted Judaism.In the temple he erected an altar to Zeus, and everywhere he compelled the Jews to violate the laws of the Torah. Various groups of Jews rebelled against the king, the most prominent of them being the clan of Mattathias has monean and his son Judah the Maccabee (hence the entire dynasty is often called Maccabean or Hasmonean). In 164 B.C.E. the Maccabees reconquered and purified the temple; the end of Seleucid rule followed twenty years later.

The most striking feature of the Intertestamental period is its spectacular finish, but in their own quiet and poorly attested way the fourth and third centuries B.C.E. emerge as an important transition period in the history of Judaism. These centuries witnessed the growth of the diaspora, the "scattering" of the Jews throughout the world; the beginnings of the "canonization" of scripture; the writing of the earliest nonbiblical works that have been preserved; the gradual transformation of prophecy into "apocalyptic"; the emergence of a class of scribes, lay people learned in the sacred traditions. Some books of the Bible were written during this period, all of them anonymous, but they are impressive in both number and importance (for example, Jonah and Job). The latest book in the Bible, Daniel, was written at the very end of the Intertestamental period during the dark days of the Antiochian persecution.

The rise of the Maccabees within the Jewish polity was just as phenomenal. They began as insignificant country priests and became high priests and kings, the rulers of an independent state. They pursued an aggressive foreign policy, seeking alliance with Rome against the Seleucids and carving out for themselves a kingdom larger than that of David and Solomon.

Their fall from power was caused by both internal and external ...