Scattered communities of Jews existed both inside and outside the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian Era. Taken toether these scattered Jews are commonly referred to as the diaspora, "Dispersion". Jewish communities in the cities of the Roman Empire displayed degrees of Hellenistic culture. In the rural areas of Phrygia, Cappadocia, Cyprus, Cyrene, and Egypt the Jewish communities undoubtedly assimilated many aspects of the local indigenous culture. In the rural areas of Syria and Palestine and beyond the imperial frontiers to the East most rural Jewish populations spoke the local dialect of Aramaic and displayed other aspects of the various indigenous cultures.
A comparatively less prominent type of Hellenistic influence was still evident in the cities east of the Roman frontier in what is now Iraq and western Iran. Like Syria and Palestine, these eastern areas had been subject to hit and miss Seleucid domination until the late second century BC when the Parthian rulers from Iran pushed westward to the Roman frontier.
It is very difficult to make generalizations about Jewish existence in the dispersion because of the attested influences of so many different localized cultures.
The population of Jerusalem was a cosmopolitan mixture of all the multitude of Jewish cultures from the Dispersion. The Rabbinical tradition that there were 480 synagogues in Jerusalem is not an exact count of cultures, as such, but it gives an indication of the diversity of the Jerusalem population. Another witness to that diversity was the list of languages and dialects given by Luke in Acts 2:9-11. The latter also points to the transient nature of substantial parts of the population. Both these evidences underline the importance of regular ongoing communication among many distant parts of the Dispersion through Jerusalem as the central hub.
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As a matter of practice the leaders of all kinds of organized Jewish communities whether laymen or priests were elders. The Hebrew term, zeqen, bearded or mature man, is normally translated elder. There are two Greek terms translated elder. The Greek term, presbuteros, is a masculine comparative of the adjective presbus, "old", used as a noun meaning "the older", "the more elderly" or "the more honorable", but usually translated simply "elder". The other Greek word is gerôn, simply means "old man", "elder". Such terms are used to properly designate the most highly honored male of every family. It is generally thought that all a man's sons became elders in their own families while still subordinate in some way to their father. However, an eldest son eventually heads the main family when his father passes on and will outrank his younger brothers. Poor families have elders just as rich ones do, so there are various gradations of status within the group of elders.
Elders constitute the only politically empowered class in Jewish society. The rulers in service are always elders. An elder might progress up the social and political ladder as high as his birth status would permit. Hence, those elders chosen for the highest leadership roles in the local community earned the right to participate in higher level government, but that was no guarantee they would be chosen as leaders at the higher level. The selection process is very obscure, but it is generally agreed that each body or council of elders was self-perpetuating. When the death of a member depleted a council the surviving members co-opted or selected a replacement for the deceased. Obviously the council may theoretically evaluate all the eligible elders before making its selection. Most positions were apparently held for life, but an elder could be deposed from office by the action of a higher level council.
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One of the big debates has been when the Synagogue originated. Did it originate in Palestine, in Babylonia during the Exile or perhaps among the Jews of the dispersion living in Egypt? One of the reasons for this question was the assumption that the institution called a "synagogue" in Hellenistic times was a purely religious institution (like the church later) and needed to begin somewhere at some time. That assumption is based on the notion that leaders of villages and settlements of Israelites wouldn't automatically have religious duties like villages and settlements of polytheists! There are many instances in the Old Testament where the importance of religious leadership in the family is stressed. They also stressed the role of the King, and the Temple with its priesthood. So far this parallels polytheism but skips over all the people groupings between the family and the kingdom.
The major mistake in our thinking results in several crucial errors. First we need to correct the notion that the synagogue was essentially and primarily a religious institution (like a church today in our secular society). As the primary small-group socio-political-religious institution its existence can be assumed as reasonable at least as early as the early agricultural village settlements. It could probably be argued that a similar organization existed among primitive nomadic pastoralists where we have been used to thinking of it as a clan or tribal government headed by a chief or executive ruler. Village communities had chief executives too regardless of the kinship groups in residence! Those chiefs certainly had religious duties to carry out for the benefit of their people in addition to their many other responsibilities. These officials presided over the village government association (Hebrew: khever) or other official gatherings of villagers for whatever reason.
The Jewish villages and regional populations in Palestine did show initiative in religious matters. We may overlook this because of the successful royal and prophetic opposition to such grass roots religious activity. I dare say we have failed to recognize these local "high places" (Leviticus 26:30 et al) as having been deliberately developed by organized groups of people, that is agricultural villagers and/or urban dwellers. These organizations are of the same sort that we identify as synagogue organizations in the Hellenistic period.
Curiously, the Hebrew word translated "high place" is a sound-alike cognate for the Greek word naming the spot where a court convened or deliberative assembly was addressed. The vocalization of the Hebrew bma was typically bamah; the Doric Greek was bama while the Aeolic Greek was béma.
Clearly, these "high places" were places of worship; hence, they were also places of assembly where community business was transacted. The particular religious rites and rituals practiced in these local high places reflected the indigenous local polytheistic cultural development among the Israelites just as it would if these places were in Greece or Italy. If a central govenment was going to gain and maintain control over the local population these "high places" would have to be subordinated to the central government. The grass roots religious and political autonomy had to recognize the sovereignty of the higher religious and political authority. The King and the Jerusalem Temple were relatively successful in Judea after the division of Solomon's kingdom, but in the area of the northern tribes the religious and political authorities failed to provide coherent leadership.
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Wherever Jews were settled they formed small organized communities for civic, educational and religious purposes. The typical name for the local Jewish community in the Greek-speaking areas was synagôgé, synagogue. In isolated villages of Jews the name was applied to the village government association (Hebrew term vocalized: khever), whose officials presided over the "gathering" or "assembly" (Hebrew terms vocalized: qahal and ‹edah; Aramaic kenishetha; Greek ekklésia) of villagers for whatever reason. In cosmopolitan urban settings like Alexandria and Jerusalem, the synagogues provided an organization of culturally related Jewish families within a larger urban population. For example, rabbinical traditions report that 480 synagogues existed in Jerusalem in the first century AD. It was not that the resident population of Jerusalem was that huge, rather this was a testimony to the ideological and cultural fragmentation of the Jewish race.
While the building in which they meet can be called a "synagogue" it is more common to qualify it as "the place of the assembly" (Aramaic be kenishetha) or "the assembly house" (Aramaic beth kenishetha; Hebrew beth hakhever; Late Hebrew beth hakenesseth; Greek oikos tais synagôgais). In urban communities where there were multiple synagogues the meeting place might be called "the prayer house". Josephus (Life 54.) gives the one example from Palestine at Tiberius in Galilee. The Greek term is proseuché. This term was also used in Alexandria. There is another instance where a sabbateion "sabbath house" is mentioned, and still another referring to Antioch, Syria, where a hieron "temple, shrine" is mentioned pertaining to Jews. Such meeting places might be constructed and maintained by some community benefactor or become part of the corporate property.
The most influential people in each synagogue were the elders. As a class, the elders constituted the sovereign body of any population or group. Community leadership was vested in an association of local elders three of which were called "rulers" or "heads" (Hebrew roshim--heads; Aramaic reshin--heads; Greek archontes--rulers or heads, prostatai--leaders, rulers, presidents). The larger association of elders is sometimes referred to as pronoétai--curators, caretakers, prôtoi--foremost or principle [men]). The whole body of elders is sometimes collectively referred to as the "good men," i.e., the men in charge of goods, or as "almoners," i.e., those who distribute alms from the community treasury to the needy. Typically depending on the size of the community this larger group consisted of seven, ten or 15 elders, and included those three "rulers" who had specific responsibilities. The "overseer" (Hebrew: mebaqqer, Greek: episkopos, Latin: bishop) had charge of community property and funds. Aside from the meeting house community property might consist of a cemetery, the scrolls of the Scriptures, and the community's funds. The other two rulers served as administrators, the one charged with civil and political matters and the other with religious matters. The three together constituted a court of first instance for all members of the community. Depending on the status of the three rulers one might be designated as "the chief ruler of the synagogue" but none of the New Testament references, even those with the definite article (ho archisynagôgos, "the synagogue ruler"), seem to justify that translation.
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Typically, local Jewish communities, like pagan groupings everywhere, exercised religious functions as a matter of routine civic responsibility. The Jews of the organized community assembled to carry out their religious duties on Monday, Thursday and twice on Saturday. The "ruler" of the community's religious affairs placed the worship service under the leadership of an individual called merely "the assistant" (Hebrew hazzan, Greek hyperetes) or sometimes, "the messenger" (Hebrew shiliakh, Greek angelos). Some think the messenger was the forerunner of the much later "cantor" who lead the congregation in singing the appropriate prayers. This official would not bring out the Scrolls--expensive community treasures not owned by all Jewish communities--if there were fewer than ten mature males present. If there were seven or more women and children present he would proceed with only the first part of the regular service leaving out the scripture reading.
The worship service on weekdays and Sabbath afternoons seems to have involved three components. First, those in attendance recited the shema in unison, together with set invocations and the prayer called the "Eighteen Benedictions". Secondly, a designated weekly passage from the Torah (seder) was read by three, five or seven designated men. In Hellenistic synagogues the entire passage was reread from the Septuagint for the benefit of the women and children. In Aramaic synagogues as each verse was read in Hebrew it was translated orally by the translater (meturgman). We do not know whether the set prayers were done in the local language or whether they were also translated from Hebrew originals. We do know they were usually recited in unison by the congregation. Then the Torah scrolls would be returned to the box where they were kept. Thirdly, a scroll from the Prophets was brought out, and a reader called upon. The reader selected the passage. Again the translations were made (Aramaic) or read (Greek) and set invocations and benedictions were recited. Scripture passages were always read in Hebrew for recitation from memory was forbidden.
In the Sabbath morning service a fourth component was added; namely, a sermon. Someone in attendance might be invited to deliver the sermon on the spot sometimes apparently without any formal advance notice. Normally the sermon would relate to one of the passages already read. When the invitation was extended to those in attendance in Acts 13:15 the sermon was referred to as a "word of exhortation" (logos parakléseôs). This translation masks the deeper connotation of that which is called or drawn along beside to provide support. In other contexts the same word would be translated "encouragement" or "consolation". The corresponding Aramaic term for "the sermon", darasha or Hebrew haderash denotes a learned discourse. Compare the Hebrew midrash meaning "that which is (to be) learned".
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In places like the city of Alexandria and territory of Judea, and perhaps elsewhere, where the Jewish population was consisted of hundreds of smaller organized communities, a ruling council of 70 elders (Cf. Numbers 11:16) sometimes shared in the administration of the Jewish population. Such a council whether of seventy or smaller is frequently called a "Sanhedrin" by modern scholars.
The Hebrew term, Sanhedrin, first appears in Talmudic Hebrew texts (fifth and sixth centuries AD) and it is obviously based on the common Greek term for an assembled body or council, synedrion. The Talmudic scholars seem to have used "Sanhedrin" specifically in reference to "the Council" of the Jews. Earlier Rabbinic sources do not use either the Greek or the Hebrew terms, but when the Greek synedrion is used in the New Testament we are not justified in assuming that it refers exclusively to the great council.
During and perhaps even before the Hasmonaean kingdom, a council had existed, as we discussed above. Moreover, its two most prestigious members carried the Hebrew titles, nasi (Exalted One) and av beth din (Chief Justice, Father of the Court). Its powers were basically administrative and judicial.
When Herod came to power (37 BC) he executed probably most of the surviving older members of this council in part because ten years earlier they had attempted to indict him for tyranny when he was governor of Galilee. They had also been staunch supporters of Antigonus the Hasmonaean who ruled Jerusalem from 40 to 37 BC. Thus Herod decimated the Sadduccee party which had supported the Hasmonaeans for many years. Whether Herod made an effort to reestablish or utilize such a council is inconclusive, but the elders of Judea did themselves perpetuate the honors of nasi and av beth din which they conferred on Hillel and Shammai, the most prominent Pharisee rabbis in Judea in those days. [More on the Sadducees.]
After Herod eliminated the traditional Hasmonaean council of seventy, he placed the responsibility of political administration of his kingdom in the hands of a small executive council of "ruling priests" (pl.) (archiereis, cf. Luke 3:2 where it is often translated "high priests" as thought there were two.). This arrangment prevailed even after Herod's successor, Archaelaus, was deposed in 6 AD; for, the ruling council of priests was perpetuated under the Roman governors. This small council of ten foremost men (cf. Josephus, Antiquities 20,8.11) was built around the office of high priest and often contained his closest male relatives and friends. Somewhat surprisingly the evidence from Josephus and the Rabbinnical tradition suggests strongly that 4 or more members of this council were very wealthy lay elders who were successful businessmen.
During the New Testament period Ananas (Annas in the New Testament) who was high priest for 9 years (6-15 AD) remained the senior member on the council of ruling priests for a period of years (Luke 3:2; Acts 4:6; 5:24-26). Nine members of the family of Ananas served as high priest between AD 4 and 70. Another important member of this council of ruling priests was titled, the Captain of the Temple (Greek: ho stratégos tou hierou; Aramaic: segana hekala). He and his assistants are mentioned in Acts 5:24-26, together with the former High Priest, Ananas, and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, the current High Priest.
The ruling priests apparently honored the strong tradition that a council of seventy should be the highest court in the land. We have no certain knowledge of when such a council was reconstituted, how membership was determined, or how it was administered, but a number of sometimes difficult to interpret details emerge from New Testament references and Rabbinical traditions. While this is not the place to review the New Testament authors' varied terminology in reference to the council, we can generally conclude that it consisted of elders of the people (both priests and laymen), ruling priests, and scribes. (Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66; Acts 4:5, 5:21, and 22:30.)
The appearance of a new title for the most honored elder in the land may signal the reactivation of this council. Shammai is the last elder known to hold the honor of av beth din. Hillel's son Simon succeeded to his father's honor of nasi about 10 AD. Gamaliel I succeeded Simon in that honor about 25 AD. This conjectural date comes at the end of the reign of the Judean Praefect, Valerius Gratis, and just before the appointment of Pontius Pilatus. Gamaliel and all his successors carried a new Aramaic title rbn, vocalized rabban. Rabban is cognate to the Hebrew word vocalized as rabbi, and is typically translated into Greek as patriarchos, literally, "ruling father", or "patriarch". This Aramaic title and its Greek translation seem to perpetuate the connotation of the Hebrew title ab, vocalized as av "father", better than it does the Hebrew nasi "Exalted One" or "Prince".
The amount of authority exercised by any of the Jewish councils and courts was determined by the policies of the resident Roman governor. His role was that of a supreme judge and sovereign supervisor who could extend, or limit any existing Jewish governmental practice. While any action that created too much turmoil might get him in trouble with Rome, the governors were usually left to their own devices unless special orders came from Rome. Both ruling priests and timid Roman governors might favor curtailing the independence of such a large council for fear that it would become the basis for open rebellion, but when it could serve their own purposes they would be willing to take the risk.
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The Temple of Jerusalem was the most important center of worship and corporate Jewish life. Herod's rebuilding of the Temple began in 20 BC with the major part of the work on the building itself completed within the first couple of years. The Central court around the Temple was completed and dedicated in 12 BC, but the structures in and around the larger Temple court may not have been completed until 65 AD. Daily activities in the Temple drew a constant stream of visitors in Jerusalem year round but especially during the fair traveling months of mid year. The presence of the Temple gave Jerusalem a unique character among the cities round the Mediterranean world. It was the hub of a world wide communications network of scattered Jewish communities.
The Torah (Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 16:16) admonished all Jewish males to appear before the Lord at the Tabernacle, and presumably at the Temple, three times each year. These feasts were Passover in the Spring, Pentecost in the Summer, and Tabernacles in the Fall. The Three pilgrimage feasts, as they came to be known drew the largest concentrations of Jews to Jerusalem even in New Testament times.
One of the twenty-four divisions (courses) of the Jewish population was responsible for an entire week, from mid-day Saturday through the same time next Saturday. Traditionally, every Jewish lay or priestly family belonged to one of the twenty-four courses. So every priest between 30 and 50 years of age had two weeks during the year when he was to serve in the Temple with his course. In addition it is understood that all the courses were to serve during the three special feasts mentioned above. Hence, they each apparently attended Temple service and worship during five weeks of the year.
The original assignment of courses is usually attributed to David (1 Chron 24:7-14; Cf. Josephus, Antiquities, 7.14.7; Apion 2.8) and dealt with only priests and Levites. Some argue that it was probably elaborated in the days of the Judean Kings, if not in the days of Nehemiah, to include all lay families as well. Later, families in the dispersion seem to have identified their course by genealogical means.
The known procedures and activities of Temple worship suggest that each week there were approximately 300 priestly duties to be performed as well as duties for some 400 Levites. Most courses had more than enough priests and Levites for the tasks, which were assigned on the basis of genealogy and casting lots. Their most prominent members or elders usually represented the families of the course. It would seem obvious that economic status could determine whether families living at great distances could participate regularly or not. Many Jews from the dispersion made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to serve with their "course" and to participate in one or more of the seven annual festivals.
The expense of Temple operation included among other things the upkeep of the buildings, the altar and the housing for the visiting priests and Levites. In addition it included vestments for the priests and Levites, fuel for the daily sacrificial fire, lamp oil, incense, as well as the feeding and tending of animals to be used eventually for sacrifices. Loyal adult male Jews from all over the world were in the habit of contributing a one-half shekel offering (tax) annually to the Temple treasury in Jerusalem.
The High Priest was the executive supervisor of the Temple activities although he directly participated only on special occasions. His staff of priestly and lay assistants policed the Temple, organized and assigned the weekly tasks to the priests and Levites, and administered the Temple's funds. This group of supervising priests at the Temple had under Herod and Archaelaus acquired the status of a political council replacing the Hasmonaean Sanhedrin as noted above.
The Socio-Economic Impact of the Temple was considerable. Private economic activity in Jerusalem was greatly stimulated by the Temple traffic. Housing, feeding and providing travel supplies for the hundreds of visitors every week and the thousands that came for the festivals was big business. Providing animals and birds suitable for personal sacrifice was another entrepreneurial activity. Because of the cosmopolitan nature of the visiting Jewish population money changing was a necessary service so that visitors could make purchases in the local Jerusalem markets and pay their bills. Many Jerusalem residents made their living at the expense of the visiting worshipers.
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Before the first century BC the term "elders" seems to have included priests, laymen and scholars. By the New Testament period, however, the priests and scholars, i.e., scribes, were noted separately from the lay elders. The Hebrew term vocalized sofer was typically translated into Greek as grammateus. Both terms mean "scribe", but modern Jewish scholarship insists that sofer would better be translated as "sage", "scholar" or even "wise man", than simply "scribe". There is a Hebrew term for "scholar" or "wise man", vocalized as hakam (sing.), hakamim (pl.). This is the equivalent of the Greek sophistés, "wise men". In the New Testament scribes with advanced training are sometimes distinguished from common scribes (e.g. see Luke 5:17; where the scribes of Luke 5:21 are called nomodidaskaloi, "teachers of the law".). Scribes were drawn from both the laity and the priesthood.
Common scribes or notaries needed to be proficient in several languages. The primary language of rural Palestine was Aramaic. The native language used in communities of the diaspora may not have been a literary language in some cases. The religious language was Hebrew. The language of culture and civilization was koiné Greek and the language of the Roman political and military power was Latin. Not every scribe would be proficient in all of these; we are probably correct if we assume that some specialization occurred. Scribes frequently served as teachers at the elementary levels as well as the more advanced levels. Another important skill of the scribe was the manufacture of pens and ink as well as the selection and preparation of leather or papyrus for making documents and scrolls. Additional specialized training in several areas was open to them specifically related to the Hebrew Scriptures. Additional training was given to those involved in reproducing copies of the Scriptures.
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Another type of special training dealt with the study of the oral traditions for interpreting the scripture, (mdrsh vocalized midrash, "learning"), and the oral record of judicial decisions, (tqnt vocalized taqqanoth, "enactments"; gzrt vocalized gezeroth, "prohibitive regulations") regarding questions of the law since the time of Ezra the Scribe in the fifth century BC.
Advanced training was generally acquired by apprenticeship, i.e. discipleship. Scholars attached themselves to their master (Hebrew: rb vocalized rabbi; Greek: didaskalos, teacher) virtually as slaves, or better perhaps, as members of his family. The scribes known as "teachers of the law" are thus designated as scribes with disciples. The individual teacher's home could then be described in vocalized Hebrew as a beth ha midrash, "house of the learning". Much of Jesus' ministry falls within this pattern. Like many other teachers his scribal training, so far as we know, seems to have consisted of the ability to read the scriptures.
When we transliterate Hebrew or Aramaic words into English we always supply vowels based on the standard vocalization patterns. In the first century AD both Hebrew and its close cousin, Aramaic, were written with almost no consideration for what we would call phonetics; the words were "spelled" with consonant letters only. For example, the Hebrew words mdrs, tqnt, gzrt, and rbi are transliterated with vowels in the above paragraph. The consonants, represented by our letters A and I, are not to be confused with the Greek or English vowels. It would be several centuries before vowel signs would be developed and added to the writing system. In reading any Hebrew or Aramaic text aloud the pronunciation of most words depends on three factors. First, the reader must recognize the word's root meaning. Second, the grammatical function of the particular word in the sentence must be understood. And thirdly, the syntactical relationship between that word and other words in the sentence must be recognized. Even if you identify the root meaning correctly you will both mispronounce and misunderstand it if you fail to read the syntax and grammatical function correctly. In most cases syntactical relationships and grammatical functions were indicated by additional letters inserted at the beginning, in the middle and/or at end of the word or between the words and sometimes by word order.
We do not know how widespread basic Hebrew literacy was. Many if not most synagogues probably owned the scrolls of some of the Hebrew Scriptures, and there was public reading of them three or four times a week. Writing aside, learning to read requires access to texts and opportunity to practice. Speculation is that Hebrew letter recognition was probably taught at home. A few of the brightest boys may have practiced reading using family letters and documents to begin with, and eventually the synagogue's scrolls, under the supervision of a scribe. Factor into this picture the fact that Jews in the dispersion often learned the particular language spoken in their region. Greek and to some extent Aramaic were also literary languages with texts to be read. Although Hebrew and Aramaic used the same alphabet, the Greek alphabet was different.
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The sacred scriptures of the Jews came to be known by the above Hebrew acronym, usually vocalized as Tá · nak. The T stands for Torah, the books of Moses. The N stands for Nebiim, the Prophets, and the K stands for Ketubim, the Writings. These texts written in parallel columns with pen and ink across a strip of leather or papyrus were very expensive. The scribes that copied the scripture texts were highly trained and took awesome pride in their work. According to Rabbinical traditions when scribes involved in copying the text discovered a variant reading in two or more existing manuscripts they consulted the three very old manuscripts kept in the Temple Court. The rule was to adopt the reading that at least two of the three Temple manuscripts supported. The flawed manuscripts would then be destroyed or taken out of circulation because no one would trust a manuscript with even one correction.
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Alexandria continued both in the first century BC and the first century AD to attract the most advanced and innovative scholars of the Hellenistic world regardless of their cultural roots. Thus, it is not surprising that the Jewish population at Alexandria produced the most highly educated Hellenistic Jews in this period. Two important literary achievements, one from each century, record the most significant achievements of this intellectual tradition. Both were attempting to reconcile and harmonize knowledge from various diverse cultural heritages, including the Jewish, into a single, coherent, systematic worldview focusing on a common core of truth.
The first century BC work is entitled Wisdom of Solomon. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to identify the author of this work by name, but at the very least he seems to have been a product of the intellectual climate of Alexandria. This Apocryphal book represented a culmination of Jewish speculation about the Wisdom of God in the light of Hellenistic concepts. The wisdom of God is personified as in the eighth chapter of Proverbs and equated with the word of God. This wisdom and/or word of God is understood both as God's substantive plan for creation and God's active agent of creation. (Wisd. of Sol. 7:17-21; 9:1-2).
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The writings of Philo Judaeus (20 BC-AD 42) who was a member of one of the leading Jewish families of Alexandria is the second and most important testimony to Jewish intellectualism. Philo's brother was a friend of Agrippa I and held high office in Rome in the days of Emperor Gaius. Philo was a loyal Jew, a prolific writer and a powerful apologist for the Jewish heritage in Hellenistic circles. Philosophically speaking, Philo's work represents the oldest surviving and most elaborate example of what is today called Middle Platonism.
Philo is sometimes faulted for appropriating the concepts, methods and terminology of pagan philosophy, but when he does so his purpose is to vindicate the Jewish heritage. For example, using the allegorical method of interpretation borrowed from the philosophical interpretation of ancient legends and myths Philo discovered hidden truths in the Old Testament and demonstrated that Moses was already in possession of most truths later taught in fragmentary form by pagan philosophers.
In support of the idea of monotheism Philo seems to have been the first to synthesize the Hebrew Scriptures, the Pythagorean Monad concept, Plato's (**) absolute beauty and the Idea of Good, and Aristotle's (**) unmoved mover and self-thinking thought. In his understanding of God he reconciled the Platonic notions of transcendence with the Stoic notions of immanence. In his commentary on the Torah, he presents a hierarchy of creative and regulative powers connecting the singular but transcendently incomprehensible God and the multiplicity of things material. Both the powers that bridge between God and the cosmos and the products of those powers, the material cosmos itself, are the result of God's overflowing goodness. In elucidating the role and function of the powers he drew on the concepts of contemporary angelology (**), Plato's forms, Stoic (**) logos concepts, Aristotle's' self-thinking thought, as well as the wisdom formulations mentioned above. For Philo the logos or "word" had a great variety of connotations including, among others, the glory of God, the idea of Good, the name of God, the first born of God, the instrumental cause of creation, the world soul, the heavenly man, and the high priest. Further discussion of Middle-Platonism in the following period is found in Lecture/Essay Five
The point to remember here is that intellectual formulations of the best minds in the Hellenistic world were, in the providence of God, struggling forward with the formation of concepts and methodologies that would in future centuries provide Christians with the intellectual building blocks for a comprehensive world view integrating science, philosophy and theology.
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The Jews were neither unified nor uniform in their interpretation of their Scripture. At least five fundamentally different positions or "traditions" can be identified with regard to the interpretation of Mosaic Law and its application. Only three of these are fairly well known; others doubtless also existed but our awareness of them is murky at best.
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The tradition of the "ignorant and unlearned" or "the people of the land" consisted of the local folk culture and tradition in the villages of Judea and south Syria. This Aramaic folk culture was treated as normative "Judaism" among the uneducated masses of common folk. They distrusted the educated, mostly urban, purveyors of the oral traditions. The rulers of their synagogues administered traditional justice, collected and distributed alms, and held the traditional prayer services. Scholars speculate that most village synagogues owned copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, but we haven't the evidence one way or the other. In any case these humble rural folk probably interpreted the Mosaic Law from the point-of-view of their own illiterate cultural tradition. Arguably, one of the more interesting conjectures about the significance of this group is that they traditionally observed the Sabbatical Year in their agricultural activity. Presumably this would mean that every seven years these lower class food producers would not plant or harvest crops.
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The tradition developed and maintained by the highly educated Scholars and their disciples who together were called Pharisees represents a synthesis of both Greek and Aramaic urban cultural elements. They were known for their simplicity of life, their self-discipline, and their legalism. They placed great confidence in the body of oral interpretation attached to specific passages of Scripture. This learning (mdrsh vocalized midrash) was preserved by memorization and transmitted orally. This oral tradition either explained the application of the passage (hlkh vocalized halakah), or illustrated a concept from the passage by means of a story (hgdh vocalized haggadah). Another part of the oral tradition consisted of judicial decrees (tqnh vocalized taqqanah; gzrh vocalized gazerah) that clarified or further defined regulations in the Torah. Both priests and laymen adhered to this tradition.
Already by the early first century AD the Midrash Halakah began gradually to be disengaged from the Scripture and orally repeated (Hebrew verb vocalized shanah, to repeat) separately, independent of the Scripture. This oral recitation (mshnh vocalized mishnah) was not written down until after about 200 AD.
The oral tradition (halakah and haggadah) included many Hellenistic and Aramaic religious concepts not clearly or fully present in the Scripture; e.g. rewards and punishments for the dead, bodily resurrection, divine providence on both an individual and cosmic scale, angelology, demonology, etc. The Pharisees supplemented and interpreted the Mosaic law by means of Midrash and Mishnah, both bringing it in line with Hellenistic and Aramaic culture and creating a legal barrier of oral laws to prevent people from inadvertently breaking the written law under the pressures of contemporary culture.
The origin of the Pharisees and their name is discussed elsewhere. The sources of the oral tradition and how it was transmitted are also discussed elsewhere.
The following of the Pharisees came largely from among the more highly educated both in the dispersion and in Palestine. The Pharisees by 20 AD were still divided on some issues between the disciples of Hillel and the disciples of Shammai. When Josephus tried to explain the Pharisees to the non-Jewish world he characterized their position as a "philosophy" which he seems to compare to the Stoics. [More on the Pharisees.]
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The rich, most thoroughly Hellenized, urban-dwelling, aristocratic Jewish families indigenous to Judea; namely, the Sadducees, preserved a distinctive Jewish tradition. Both priestly and lay families were found in the Sadducee camp. Josephus describes their "philosophy" in terms very reminiscent of the Epicureans on one hand and Skeptics on the other. The sources of Sadducee movement and the possible meaning of their name have been discussed elsewhere.
They had a much smaller following than the Pharisees and were relatively unpopular with the masses. Their political stronghold in the early first century AD was in the council of ruling priests. They had little or no concern for the oral tradition except as it supported their vested interests, specifically the rituals of the Temple and regulations regarding priests. Aspects of the Torah that no longer applied literally and directly to the cultural conditions and religious practices that had come to prevail since the Exile were ignored as having "passed away". Yet, they staunchly defended a traditional interpretation of the Mosaic Law with regard to the priesthood and Temple ceremonies that opposed both Pharisee and Essene teachings on these points. [More about the Sadducees.]
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Another tradition was preserved by a relatively small group of Jews that scholars call the Essenes. Debate rages among Jewish and Christian scholars today about the origin and identity of this very vocal group. The possible moments when Essenes might have emerged and the possible meanings of their name have been discussed elsewhere.
Happily for us, at least part of this group found it advisable to write down their teachings and interpretations more often, evidently, than the Sadducees or Pharisees. At least, texts of works currently attributed to them have survived in much greater number, but that may be due to the preservative circumstances of the Judean hills and caves northwest of the Dead Sea. Apparently these scholars busied themselves also writing commentaries on the Scripture, especially the prophetic passages, any and all of which they saw as pointing to the immanent destruction of the old order and the reestablishment of "righteousness." They emphasized the teachings of a heroic leader of an earlier age known only as "the Teacher of Righteousness," and they looked forward to the rise of future messianic figures as heralds of a New Era.
The Essenes rejected the religious and cultural innovations of the post-exilic era, as they understood them, and preached that the corruption and confusion caused by these changes was soon to be swept away by the appearance of messianic leaders in the offices of prophet, high priest and king. Like the Pythagorean and Cynic philosophers among the Greeks, they condemned the evils and vices of their contemporary society. Unlike the Greek philosophers they announced the immanent destruction of the contemporary corrupt order and the beginning of a New Era. Essene scholars, like the Pythagoreans, gained a reputation as healers through their teachings about diet and their knowledge of medicinal herbs and the properties of dietary minerals.
Their attitude toward the Jewish Law was rigorous. They not only rejected the teachings of the other Jewish sects, they wanted their daily lives to conform to a literal interpretation of the Mosaic Law and thus to recreate a culture and religious practice as much like pre-exilic Israel as possible. They not only separated themselves by their ethical and ritually pure behavior; they considered themselves the only true Israelites.
Before leaving the subject of the Essenes we need comment on some other dimensions in the current scholarly debate. Foremost is the prevailing but problematic identification of a small patch of ruins, near the wadi Qumran at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, as those of an Essene community residence. These unique ruins represent an enigmatic expression of allegedly Essene behavior that resembles a cross between a medieval European monastery and a medieval European castle. Many other possible explanations of the structure and its function have been suggested, each built around one problem or another with the prevailing view. Similarly, hypotheses have been forwarded that attribute at least some of the Dead Sea Scrolls to writers representing schools of thought other than the Essenes.
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For his gentile readers Josephus characterized the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes by pointing out parallels between them and the Hellenistic philosophical schools popular in that day. He also reported on what he referred to as a "fourth philosophy" among the Jews. He describes them as agreeing with the Pharisees on all points, but one. This unique position is described as having "... an inviolable attachment to liberty; and say[ing] that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." (Josephus, Antiquities, 18.1.1-6.) This point of view was first expressed in connection with an unsuccessful rebellion against a Roman census and tax collection in 6 AD (**). Josephus associates two people with its beginning: Judas the Gaulanite, also known as the Galilean, and a Pharisee named Zadok (Sadduk). Josephus never gives this Jewish party a name, but modern scholars identify it with an organized movement that surfaced sixty years later at the beginning of the Judean revolt against Rome. Before 67 AD there was no organized body known as Zealots, but individuals were frequently so characterized (Simon the Zealot) or described as "zealous for" this or that. For example when a gentile wandered into the sanctuary of the Temple, those who arrested and executed him were described as zealous. The Apostle Paul described himself as zealous when he persecuted the Jews who converted to Christianity (Galatians 1:13-14). Broadly speaking, before 67 AD zealousness among Jews can be seen as an active and domineering adherence to the precepts of the Torah as the essence of Jewish ethnic identity in the face of advancing tide of Hellenization and Romanization.
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The contents of this page, ht3463b04.html, is copyrighted 2003-2009 by Harlie Kay Gallatin and is accessible as an Appendix 4 from Part One of Christian History Handbook. The Table of Contents for this page is on ht3463aa04.html.