The Second Temple Period

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Thesis Statement1

Introduction1

Discussion1

Zadokites1

Alexander the Great and Hellenism2

Antiochus3

Maccabaean Revolt4

Pharisees and Sadducee7

Pompey and Caesar7

Herod's Period8

Jewish Diaspora9

The Jesus Sect10

Conclusion11

Endnotes12

The Second Temple Period

Thesis Statement

The study of the Second Temple period provides a connection between the events of the Old Testament and the commencement of the New Testament period.

Introduction

According to the scholars of History, the Second Temple Period is expanded from 538BCE to 76 CE. The release of Israeli people with the help of Persian King Cyrus marks the beginning of the Second Temple Period. King Cyrus defeated the Babylonians and hence managed to bring the Israelis back to their home country. After their return to Jerusalem, the Jews started to rebuild the Temple adding a new chapter in the history of Jews. One of the consequences of their return was, the people of Moses, who once called themselves as Israelis or Hebrew, now started to call themselves Jews. These were the people who came back from Judah after a long exile.

Discussion

Zadokites

After their return, Jews were permitted to worship and live their lives according to the teachings of their religion, Judaism. Right after the release, the reconstruction of the Temple was started by the governor of Jerusalem, Sheshbazzar. Here, it is very important to know the role of Zadokite hullabaloo in the early period of Second Temple. It was believed that Ezra was the priest of Zadokite. This caused a controversy which remained a bone of contention among various sects in the Jerusalem during the start of the first century. Zadokites were the custodian of the Temple. This fact remained a critical debate in the history y of Jews.

The priesthood of Zadokites, as taken by Torah, provided Ezra with the grounds on which they could build the religion of Judaism. It was said that Jews might get in to the darkness of paganism if they had dropped away from God before. In order to ward off this, Jews badly needed a religion on which they could make their hopes and beliefs. This ground was evidently the inscribed words in the Torah.

Alexander the Great and Hellenism

In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Near East. After the conquest, Hellenism gradually spread in the area. It was the Alexander's intentional attempt to inculcate the Greek beliefs and culture in to minds of people throughout the world. According to the historians, Alexander the Great was the most arrogant king and warrior, who was in the view that Greek culture had the potential to influence any other culture in the world, and every nation could benefit from its universality.

The Hellenistic philosophy extremely influenced Judaism which started in the third century. This philosophy brought the Jews under the rule of two Greek opponents, the Ptolmeys and the Seleucids. After the demise of Alexander the Great, his wife and sons fought for the control of his empire. The whole empire was divided among his generals and the Ptolmeys and the Seleucids were founded. The empire of Ptolmeys was the present countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and ...