Why would someone interested in the New Testament study the history of the Greco-Roman world? This history is important because the key to understanding the New Testament is context….If we do not try to put ourselves into the context of the original readers of the Scriptures, we can very easily read our own culture into a passage and reach wrong conclusions about what it meant to the author and therefore what it should mean to us. James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999), 293.
The years between the two Testaments are critically important for understanding the New Testament. Let me offer two easy examples. First, the conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees are often based on-going discussions in the Second Temple Period over Jewish practice. The Pharisees have a rich history prior to their role in the Gospels. Most Christians think of the Pharisees as the evil, works-for-salvation religious leaders who hated Jesus and were constantly trying to trick him into saying something worthy of death. But this is far from the case! Anyone who thinks this mischaracterization of the Pharisees is accurate is reading their own culture back into the New Testament (As Jeffers says in the quote above).
A second example is Paul’s struggle against what he calls Judaizers in Galatians. This group of Jewish Christians insisted Gentile converts submit to circumcision in order to fully convert to Judaism. There are a number of factors here, but these Pauline opponents should be understood in the light of circumcision as a boundary marker during the Maccabean Revolt. What define a person as “Jewish” 200 years before Paul’s day was the ritual of circumcision and to reject that practice struck at the heart of what it meant to be Jewish at that particular time.
The main struggle of the Jews during this 400 year period was how to integrate into a world which was decidedly not Jewish. As Greek and Roman culture came to pervade the post-exilic world, how could a Jewish person live out their lives in faithfulness to God’s Law yet also live in a pagan world?
One option is it withdraw entirely, as the Essenes will in the mid-second century. I do not think the Essenes were a monastic community who lived completely separate from other people (this is a misreading of the evidence and imposes a later Christian view of asceticism on the Essenes). But they certainly separated themselves from the mainstream of Judaism as we know it in the first century. For the group at Qumran, it appears they sought to live in a state of ceremonial cleanliness required for priests in the Temple as the waited for the messiah (or messiahs) to come to their community and lead them into battle against the “sons of darkness,” the Jews who were in charge of the Temple!
A second option is to become wholly integrated into the culture, as many Jews did. Philo of Alexandria’s brother is a chief example of this, since he rejected Judaism entirely. Although Herod the Great kept some Jewish practices, for the most part he intentionally lived as a Roman and he certainly ran his kingdom as a Roman. Throughout the Second Temple period there were Jewish people who completely Hellenized and walked away from their ancient Jewish practices.
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Christians fall in-between these two extremes since they found ways to remain loyal to God’s Word, yet also found a way to interact with the pagan world. In the case of Christianity, the motivation was to reach the lost world with the Gospel of Jesus.
This is exactly the same struggle American Christians face today as our culture becomes increasingly post-Christian. It is the same struggle Christians face in countries where Christian was never the majority religion. It is impossible to completely withdraw from the world, although some Christian communities have tried to be as separate as possible. It is also the case many Christians have become so integrated into their culture they have ceased to be Christian by any objective definition of the word.
Can the struggle of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period be a model for contemporary Christians as they struggle with similar issues?
Have you read Larry Helyer’s: Exploring Jewish Literature?
I have, it was close to my choice for textbook for this class. I went with Tomasino’s Judaism before Jesus. I thought it was a bit better on the historical side of things, Heyler was better on the literature.
Gotcha. How much of Josephus do you have your class read?
Wow! This background helps to shed light on the N.T, and especially the fledgling new Christian community as it tries to find its place in a society hostile to its teachings.
I’ve been concentrating on second Temple Judaism (which covers a lot more centuries than just the intertestamental period) for a few years now, because I was particularly interested in Christian Origins and how the idea of the messiah(s) developed in Jewish/Israelite thought. There are many fine (small) introductions, such as Lester Grabbe’s. It is a fascinating period that sheds enormous light on the perfect storm into which Jesus was born.
For those interested, Eerdmans published a comprehensive dictionary of early Judaism in 2010. A shorter version that contains only the essay portions is also available at a more modest cost.
http://www.eerdmans.com/Products/2549/the-eerdmans-dictionary-of-early-judaism.aspx
Thanks for the recommendations, I have been using Grabbe as I prep for this class. Also, the Eerdmans Dictionary is excellent. I reviewed it here:
https://readingacts.com/2013/03/05/book-review-early-judaism-a-comprehensive-guide/
I should also add that anyone interested in apocalyptic literature or thought (which permeates the NT) would be well advised to study Second temple Judaism, which ends, of course, with the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, encompassing the formal New Testament period of Jesus and Paul.
It is so true that our culture, and we as Christians, are dealing with a society that is a post-Christian culture. We need to learn about the society Jesus was ministering to in the Intertestamental period and the origins of their ideals to better understand Jesus and the Scriptures. The only way to grasp their ideals is by understanding the history of the men and women in Israel who dealt with conquerors. As I study this period, I get a deeper understanding of how rich the hope was that people had for a Messiah who would bring militant results. Anthony Tomasino tells us in his book Judaism before Jesus, that the Israelites were good at being influenced by the culture, but not influencing the culture around them. The Jews were constantly falling into apostasy. I find it most encouraging that Israel becomes what God called them to be while they were in exile. They held tightly to their family units, collected and organized Scriptures, and most famously, Daniel and other Jews, find high places in the new society’s government for influence. God even uses the Kings ruling over Israel during the exile for his glory. He drags King Nebuchadnezzar through a beastly keyhole, and after making an example out of him uses Cyrus to release the Jews, so that they may return to Israel and build their temple (Ezra 1:1-4). What is the task for us if we are going to be a counter culture in society?
The process of understanding the culture that exists, and had existed for many years, in the New Testament is absolutely crucial to being able to fully understand what the scripture states. I especially appreciated your remark about how the level of knowledge we have has drastic effects on how we perceive certain groups throughout the New Testament. Too often the Pharisees are painted as the enemy of Christian progress, and while they often oppose the early church, at least if we can understand their history, we can better understand their intentions. This is why it is so crucial that we devote time learning the stories behind people, both in a biblical sense and a personal sense. When we begin to put in effort to understand people, it paints them in a whole new light. This is why it is crucial that Christians study the second temple period. When we understand the motives behind actions it can be much easier to act with grace and mercy.
As far as whether or not the second temple period can be a model for our current issues, I think it can absolutely provide certain principles that apply to our lives today. While we struggle with similar issues, acting as a Christian in our current culture carries drastically different repercussions. We, as Americans, don’t risk imprisonment, beatings, or stoning at the hands of our persecutors. With this in mind, we should have at least the same sense of boldness as the figures we see in the scriptures. If Paul, Peter, and Stephen can risk their own physical lives, we should not be hesitant to risk our social standings. I concede that this is in no way some original thought, and pretty much every single Christian would agree wholeheartedly with that statement. The important part is doing more than agreeing and stating it. How can the leadership in the modern American church move Christians from agreeing to risk more to actually doing it?
The intertestamental period is extremely important for understanding the transition to the New Testament. Historical context is a key component in order to avoid reaching “wrong conclusions about what it meant to the author and therefore what it should mean to us” (Jeffers, 293). Long provides an excellent example of the common misconception of the Pharisees as the enemy, and the dangers of reaching false conclusions when not put into the proper context. Thus making it essential that Christians understand this second temple period as accurately as possible to fully understand the struggle of God’s people.
During this time period, the Jews struggled with how to remain obedient and faithful to God’s law while living in a pagan world. So when asked the question: “can the struggle of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period be a model for contemporary Christians as they struggle with similar issues?” I would say that the same principles can be applied even though the circumstances slightly differ. Christians today struggle with how to be “in the world” but not “of the world”. Nehemiah 1:8-9 talks about the instruction given to Moses saying that if they obey His commands, God will gather them and “bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name” (1:9). It is vital that Christians remain strong in their faith and obedience to God even in a world where religion, in particular Christianity, is not well received.
I think that what the Jewish people were conflicted with during the second temple period can totally be related to the struggle that modern day Christians face in today’s society. Today I see more and more Christians abandoning righteous works and fully assimilating themselves into what the church would consider a secular society. I can imagine how challenging it would have been for the Jews of the second temple period to discern how to carry out their faithfulness to God in the midst of a religiously cultural shift. In the same way, I notice many Christians today struggling to determine which cultural norms to except, and even practice, and which norms they would consider to be “too worldly”. I think it is so important to study the second temple period because it is a great example of the history of the church “repeating” itself (so to speak). During the 400 year period culture, doctrine, and practices shifted immensely, and the same is happening today (especially with the most recent presidential election). It is this concept that helps the modern church understand the relatability of the scriptures, and to not discredit or be ignorant to its teachings because of “how-our-culture-is-so-different-today-from-what-it-was-back-then”.
I agree that Christians in today’s culture can accurately be compared to the Jews in the Second Temple Period. There is a fine line of how much one should be completely “in the world” and how much one should be seperated from the world. I think that there was a fair point being made here regarding how we read our own culture and our own circumstances in the scripture. It is vital to seperate the two so that we can fully understand how the culture was back in this time period. Studying the Second Temple Period is not seen as crucial to many Christians in this day in age; however, it is important when looking at how we are to remain in Christ but also be living in the world for the time being.
Wow, lots of comments on this post. You would think that living in exile in Babylon would teach the Jews how to exist in a non-Jewish culture. However, as it stands, there were Jews who were enthusiastic about returning to rebuild Jerusalem and others who couldn’t care less. There was clearly a spectrum of reaction to the culture which surrounded them. The same case applies both to the Judaism of the first century and the Christianity of the modern west. In both cases, it is clear that every Jew at that time and every Christian today reckons with this tension in a different way. Thus, you have a spectrum of ways to deal with it.
Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 5 provide some insight. “I wrote…not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler-not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (v. 9-13)
I read a comment on this subject from a blogger: “There isn’t any question that American culture is in a transition from a dominantly Christian culture to a dominantly secular culture. We can no longer expect America society to uniformly embrace Christian values or morality. How the Christian community chooses to respond to this will be critical. Angry rhetoric, and bitterly contested lawsuits and elections create adversaries, but no one ever made an enemy by offering the hand of friendship, helping the down and out, mentoring kids, giving generously to others or helping people after a hurricane get their lives back together. Paul was right – “against such things, there is no law”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-stearns/living-as-an-authentic-christian-in-a-non-christian-world_b_2171648.html
I think the idea of having to withdraw from a world that is decidedly not a certain religion or concrete belief system is something most people — Jewish, Christian, Pagan — struggle with. Because who is to decide?
When we look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees(and boy do I love to), I would go as far as to say that they had a great amount of success in integrating. Perhaps because they were in a position of political power in their own right, but even though Pharisees and the like weren’t inherently bad despite how a fraction of them went against Jesus, their theological beliefs were law. So why would they have to submerge with any other belief system or pay heed to it?
If we look at the withdrawal tactic with the Essenes — do contemporary Christians not have the same mindset? Of course this isn’t conclusive to all of them, but one can either attempt to adapt to the cultures around them — even if not participating. I would raise the question, does integrating into a world that is not Christian really mean we are in an unholy place?
Would it be more appropriate to shun the ideas of other belief systems or to not make peace with them? The meek inherit the earth — and that includes more than just us.
I do believe that we as Christians today can relate what the Jews were facing in the Second Temple period. I didn’t have to think for long before multiple examples came into my mind of the sinful things that the world promotes such as indulging in sexual sins. For Christians who are supposed to follow the way of Christ and not the way of the world, I think that it can be tempting to either fully integrate into society or go fully Essene. However, we are called to be in the world, but we are not called to follow it. As the post says, “the motivation [for Christians should be] to reach the lost world with the Gospel of Jesus” (Phillip Long). This doesn’t mean hiding from the world, nor does it mean fully immersing ourselves into it. It means obeying Jesus’s words when he said to “[g]o into all the world and preach the Gospel” in Mark 16:15 and to “let [our] light shine before men” in Matthew 5:16 (HCSB).
We can’t escape the world that we live in, but we can live a life pleasing to God by following His word. There will be times where every Christian will struggle with the temptations the world presents, but because of God’s grace our mistakes don’t define us. Our job on this Earth is to bring to light God’s grace, salvation, and love to others who see nothing but darkness. I believe it’s important that we study the Second Temple Period because it shows us that what we are going through is nothing new and it helps us to understand why the religious groups of the first century did what they did.
As a Christian I feel that a lot of time we get stuck in the idea that we only need to understand the Bible and nothing further. This is simply not possible. To truly understand and learn the history and the culture of the Jews in the Old Testament and to learn the circumstances of the newly founded Christian Jews and the Gentiles, we have to dig deeper than what is provided on the Bible. It is extremely important to understand the background of Scripture. Tomasino words it well in the sense of learning what happen between the gap of the Old and New Testament, “But we can’t fully appreciate the way these two bodies of literature relate to one another without knowing something of what the Jews experienced between the time of the prophet Malachi and the time of Jesus” (Tomasino, 14). I find it interesting that sometimes it seems like Christians followed the same ideas as the Jews during this time did. We either swing too far to one side and get stuck in the idea that we are supposed to be completely separate from the world because it is so corrupt. Then there is also the other side that goes far too deep in the idea that we need to look like the world, and they begin to look exactly like it. I think that this proves how important it is to learn about this time in history as a believer.
I would say yes the Jewish people paved a way for Christians today in regards to what happened in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Contemporary Christians do have similar issues that happened in the Old Testament, it’s all based on context like Jeffers stated in his quote. We cannot just assume that things we read in the New Testament are only pertaining to what is going on in today’s society, but what happened back then in that specific time frame. I feel we have a similar situation as the Jews did in regards to living in a world that is not primarily their religion. You could most likely take any verse you read in any part of the bible whether that be Old Testament or New Testament and pertain that to what is going on in your life today, but if you don’t read whats around it or know the context of the message then you might be mixing up what the author intended that message to be. This in return can change how we use that verse and message. We have seen this happen a lot in today’s society with what the bible says about marriage, and drinking. These two things have been debated in many different ways. Each person has their own opinions and views from what scripture says about these situations. In Conclusion I would say that the struggle the Jewish faced in the second temple period is pretty close and similar to what contemporary christians are facing in today’s society.
It is so true that the years between the two testaments are important because they provide context to the New Testament, and some to the old testament. Literature from the Second Temple period helps connect the Old and New Testament. As Anthony Tomasino explains in the first chapter of his book Judaism before Jesus, “when the Old Testament historical narrative ends, the Jews are still the insignificant subjects of the mighty Persians… When the New Testament story begins, the world is entirely different” (p.14). I think that the common Christian often forgets that the Old and New Testaments are part of the same story, because of the lack of context connecting the two. How do we get from Persians to Romans, who are the Pharisees and Sadducees? Where did they come from? This post does an excellent job explaining the Pharisees and Sadducees are two of the groups of Jews who fall in between the two extremes of the options Jews had in this time period. Some completely isolated themselves so they could live in accordance with God’s laws. While this helped them keep their faith, isolation never gave these people the opportunity to evangelize and share their God with the peoples around them, as passages, even in the Old Testament, tell them to do. Psalms 96:3-5 tells the Jews that they should “declare [God’s] glory among the nations” and that “the gods of the nations are idols.” living in complete separation from the world around them does not give them this opportunity.
The other extreme for Jews was to completely assimilate with the culture around them. They could reject Judaism and become pagans. Many Jews found a balance somewhere in between, not living in complete isolation, but separate enough that do not compromise what they had heard from God for the culture around them. And, as explained, modern Christians face this same issue. In a world where we just want to fit in, we have to stand out. We cannot simply conform to the world around us, especially when that world is not following the truth. The Second Temple period not only connects the dots and fills in the gaps between the two testaments, but it can also be an example for modern Christians as we still struggle with how much of the culture around us we should accept.
Studying the intertestamental period is vital to fully grasping the context of the inspired New Testament. To address such a collection of works with no prior background knowledge is to inevitably read one’s own culture into the text. As mentioned in your other blog post, “Why Study the Second Temple period?,” one example of a common mistake that occurs at the hands of those who lack knowledge of the intertestamental period is the tendency to view the Pharisees as an evil group, attacking Jesus without cause; the reality is that there is a lot of tradition and beliefs that cause the Pharisees to have the conversations we find between them and Christ in the Gospels.
Addressing your questions within your article, these texts should be considered useful, yet not inspired. 2 Timothy 3:16 confirms that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” But the intertestamental books are not authoritative, and therefore would be wise to study for cultural context and historical knowledge, but unwise to consider with the same weight as our canonical Scripture. It would be wise as well for someone studying these texts to have a prior knowledge of inspired Scripture and a deep faith, so that they are not confused by texts that are not authoritative. Of course much of these texts exist in fragments, as you have mentioned, and that is one limitation to our understanding of this time. You also mentioned some of the issues relating to pseudepigraphal books and their dating, which may pose issues in our understanding of them (not to mention the fact that they are considered false writings in and of themselves).
In sum, these sources are all massively important discoveries that are very informative of their times, but one should address them not as inspired canonical texts and first with a firm faith that cannot be shaken. Tomasin in “Judaism Before Jesus” attests to the vast wealth of knowledge that can be gained from such intertestamental texts and highlights some major shifts during this time in language, the eastern map, religious beliefs, and so on (2003). Undoubtedly this period is vitally important to our approach to the New Testament.
Bibliography: Tomasino, A. J. (2003). Judaism before Jesus: The events & ideas that shaped the New Testament world. InterVarsity Press.
For many modern Evangelical Christians, the time period between the Old and New Testaments is usually known as the “silent 400 years”, supposing that not much activity occurs during this era of Jewish history and literature. Yet, this is a deceiving moniker, as the Second Temple Period contained a plethora of significant and influential works of literature, although none came to be considered inspired by God by later Jewish audiences. This period of Judaism experienced several key theological developments which heavily impact New Testament thought, such as a more advanced understanding of the afterlife and an increased emphasis on personal obedience to the law. The cultural interactions between the Jews and the surrounding nations during the exilic and post-exilic periods led to the expansion of thought on many aspects of Jewish theological and philosophical issues, although some of these changes most likely have their roots in older Jewish thought as opposed to solely external influences.
If one desires to understand the historical and cultural context of the New Testament, then one must begin to study the Second Temple Period, as it helps inform your understanding of the issues and activities evaluated in the New Testament. For example, modern evangelicals often interpret the Pharisees as a hyper-legalistic religious group that advocated for a works-salvation and simply always hated Jesus and desired His execution, but this may be a mischaracterization of a highly sophisticated and nuanced religious party (Long, 2017). Furthermore, when Paul rejects the necessity of circumcision for gentile believers, opposing the “Judaizers” who believed that circumcision was necessary for entry into Judaism. It is easy to characterize this as the Jewish Christians advocating works-based salvation, but this may mischaracterize the disagreement, as it was more centered around one’s identity as a member of God’s family. During the Maccabean Revolt, circumcision was an essential boundary marker for determining that one was Jewish and the residue of this central ritual practice during this period certainly impacts the New Testament interaction between Paul and the Judaizers. Overall, the Second Temple Period is a significant period of time and drastically influences the New Testament. If one yearns to understand the nuances and complexities of the New Testament world, it is essential to have a grasp on the historical and religious developments that occurred between the Old and New Testaments.
Educating ourselves especially as Christians on the Second Temple Period is such an important part of understanding the context and connection between the Old and New Testament periods. The quote by James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999), 293, really captures the essence of why we should take the time to study the 400 years in-between the Old and New Testament. By understanding the context, we can better apply the struggle of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period as a model for contemporary Christians as they struggle with similar issues. These 400 years offer a lot of insight on how these groups such as Pharisees and Sadducees came to be in the New Testament. Without applying our naive perspectives of the Pharisees and people in the New Testament we can apply the knowledge from the Second Temple Period to help us better understand the why’s and how’s of actions taken by people groups in the New Testament. By taking the time to understand the two extreme options for the Jews during the Second Temple Period after the Old Testament: To withdraw entirely; as the Essenes will in the mid-second century, or to become wholly integrated into the culture, we can see how limited and difficult it was for Jews to not only stand out as Children of God, but to also integrate themselves into the culture around them as a means of surviving and reaching out to unbelievers. Balancing between a world of Greeks and Romans and Hellenism surrounding them, it is clear to see the difficulty and also provide a kinder perspective to who the Pharisees represented. “Pharisees, Sadducees, and Christians fall in-between these two extremes since they found ways to remain loyal to God’s Word, yet also found a way to interact with the pagan world. In the case of Christianity, the motivation was to reach the lost world with the Gospel of Jesus.” It is so similar to today, where modern Christians find themselves either assimilating too much into the world’s culture or completely separating themselves making it hard to reach unbelievers and do our work as believers to disciple to the world around us (Matthew 28:19-20). By understanding the Second Temple Period and the connections between the Testaments, we can better understand our roles as Christians to reach out to unbelievers while at the same time shedding the light of God unto this broken world, we live in (Matthew 5:14-16).
The importance of studying the Second Temple Period never resonated with me until learning more about it. Not only is the Second Temple Period an important time in history, but it can lead to a clearer understanding of the history behind different New Testament events as well. Studying Second Temple Period history can help people understand the culture of this time period as well. For instance, during this time in history, there were two choices when it came to culture: One could either withdraw from culture altogether or one could become a part of the culture. Groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees were able to find ways to both remain loyal to God while also being integrated into the current culture. However, this was not just a problem that occurred back then. This is still a prevalent problem today. Modern Christians are either being persecuted for their faith in other countries or they are ashamed to be associated with the word Christian. In America, a common theme that I have noticed is that Christians are no longer resembling God. For example, it is not uncommon to find Christians on social media who post inappropriate content or support the LGBTQIA+ community. If someone is truly a Christian and lives by the Word of God, they would not be doing these things on social media. When you compare the Second Temple Period to today, it is easy to see what has changed but it is also possible to see what things have stayed similar to how they were. For instance, there are still Christians out there today who are struggling to find a way to be in the world but not of the world. I believe this is something that will always prove to be difficult.
Yes, I agree that the struggle of contemporary Christians living in a post-Christian culture can be compared to the challenges faced by the Jewish people during the Second Temple period. However, I believe we can do better than completely withdrawing from the world or becoming fully integrated into the culture. Change is inevitable, and as time passes, new developments—such as advancements in technology, AI, and more—will continue to emerge. We now live in an age where everything must be scientifically proven and rooted in reason, making it harder for people to believe in a supernatural God. For many Christians, this threatens their faith and practices, leading some to withdraw from society, while others try to counter these changes by rejecting anything new. This includes resisting the ways their children or teenagers engage with the world, or the changes they bring to church worship, such as music or dress codes.
But can this really be fixed? Can we guarantee that in the next 5 or 10 years, everything will return to what we consider “normal”? I believe it’s important to keep an open mind and look ahead to the future, considering how we can best do ministry in whatever context may arise, without surrendering our faith or isolating ourselves from the secular world. We are called to be the light of the world and ambassadors for Christ. We must ask God for wisdom to live wisely, so that we are not influenced by secular values, yet are still able to share the gospel and do ministry in a way that resonates with people today.
The second temple period gives an important light to the road map of the story of God. The time in between the Old and New Testament gives the reader an understanding of what they are reading in the Gospels. When the Gospels begin there is an entire culture inside of the Greco-Roman culture. This adds layers of context to understanding the struggle of who Jesus was on earth and the progression of Christianity as written in Paul’s letters. “The main struggle of the Jews during this 400 year period was how to integrate into a world which was decidedly not Jewish” (Long,2017). This brought forth issues with Christian Jews, there was a deep culture that they could not give up as they entered the faith. Not only did they struggle with this, but they desired the gentiles to fall to their culture. “A second example is Paul’s struggle against what he calls Judaizers in Galatians. This group of Jewish Christians insisted Gentile converts submit to circumcision in order to fully convert to Judaism” (Long,2017). Culture is incredibly important; it carries traditions and values for generations. However, when your culture becomes more important than the truth you run into issues. This same issue is alive and well today. I reflect on my Roman Catholic Grandmother; she deeply loves the Lord yet is dedicated to her tradition of the Roman Catholic faith to the point where it blurs the lines of truth.
By our modern evangelical standards, we frequently consider the 400 years of the Second Temple (or Intertestamental) Period to be one of relative silence. Most commonly, It is known by some members of the Protestant community as the “400 Silent Years” because it was a span where no new prophets were raised and God revealed nothing new to the Jewish people. However, this seems to be a deceptive phrase that does not truly encompass what occurred. Many of the deuterocanonical books, accepted as scripture by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy, were written during this time, alongside pseudepigraphal works, the Biblical apocrypha, the Jewish apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. To overlook these writings is to eschew canon Scripture in the perception of some and integral early Jewish thought for others. In reality, this rich history is vital in understanding several of Jesus’s arguments and the dialogue that ensues in the Gospels. According to Long (2017), “ First, the conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees are often based on-going discussions in the Second Temple Period over Jewish practice. The Pharisees have a rich history prior to their role in the Gospels.” Strauss (2020) similarly writes, “The Second Temple (or intertestamental) period of Israel’s history—running from approximately the fifth century BC to the end of the first century AD—provides the historical background for Jesus and the Gospels.”
Misreading or ignoring this span of history entirely results in Protestants mischaracterizing the Pharisees as this hyper-legalistic religious group, despising Jesus. However, additional study challenges assumptions and allows a nuanced party to speak for itself. Long (2017) quotes Paul’s rejection of circumcision as a necessity for Gentile believers as an example where Judaizers are misquoted as advocating a works-based salvation. Correctly characterizing the disagreement lifts the debate from Judaizers being gauche and archaic in practice to them simply having a different view of what it meant to be a member of God’s family. Gentiles who wished to join the early Christian movement before Paul’s conversion, which at the time comprised mostly Jewish followers, were expected to convert to Judaism, which likely meant submission to adult male circumcision for the uncircumcised; following the dietary restrictions of kashrut; and more. It is also likely that this existed as a boundary marker between paganism and Judaism, done to preserve a people who desperately wished to maintain their identity.
While one cannot claim nowadays the precise same historical-cultural pressure to assimilate into a broader culture or separate from it entirely, there are principles to be gleaned from this period. As written by Long (2017), “It is the same struggle Christians face in countries where Christian was never the majority religion. It is impossible to completely withdraw from the world, although some Christian communities have tried to be as separate as possible.” I know many Christians who are virtually indistinguishable from the world besides for the fact that they attend church Sundays. I also know some Christians who have gone “off the grid,” so to speak, in fear of having their religion silenced in the future. Although the situation is not the same, the impending feelings certainly are. How can the church respond to these personal crises if, in a post-postmodern world, some people refuse to show up entirely?
The Intertestamental period is important to learn about for many reasons. I agree that the stories display a Jewish people going through the same struggles that we go through today. As modern-day Christian we face many of the same struggles as the Jewish people during that time. However, I do not think that modern day Christians should be looking at these books to see what steps we should be making. I think that it serves more as an example of how Jewish people also went through a similar time and it can be very thought provoking and raise awareness for Christians. I do think that learning about the intertestamental period is important to fully understand the story of the Bible. By connecting the two testaments and filling in the crucial information that happened, we can understand the culture of Judea during the New Testament. DeSilva also highlights that a reason to study intertestamental literature is that the authors of the New Testament books were familiar with them (Desilvia). There are many instances where authors make connections to the different books, specifically those in the Apocrypha. One example is that the authors of Matthew and James seem to be familiar with the teachings of Ben Sira (DeSilvia). Apocryphal literature was likely used as stories passed down through the Jewish families to remember the persecution and the heroes of the wars that went on during this time. Understanding these stories helps us understand the motives of all the characters in the New Testament, from the disciples to the Pharisees.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” Romans 12:2. It’s very unfortunate that the Intertestamental books have been not only ignored by the majority of protestant Christians, but demonized (Desilvia). I personally wonder if this is because of a lack of distinction between apocryphal and gnostic writings, but that is neither here nor there. When Paul writes this in Romans, an interesting question comes to mind, “what kind of world is Paul living in at this time?” Though temptation and human flaws have been based upon the same sins all throughout time, the intertestamental books help us see what Paul (and as an extension the church of Rome) would have been fighting against. both in the Hellenistic and Judaic senses. The tensions that Jesus face with the pharisees is a very clear example of the importance of historical background information. Ironically, the term “Pharisee” becomes a slur against those modern-day Christians that seek to uphold biblical discernment (Biases noted here). The view of Jesus versus the Pharisees lacks any depth since, without an understanding of who the Pharisees were and what they believed, the only take away is that the Pharisees are the “bad guys” in the Gospels.
Understanding the second temple period is important as is interpreting all of the Bible. The 400-period time gap mentioned in this post is important in analyzing the second temple period. Tying in current issues American Christians face today does a great job of helping the reader understand what is being discussed in this Blog post.
In the 4th edition of the Hermeneutics book Grasping God’s Word, the authors talk about the importance of using historical context to interpret scripture. It is vitally important that we grasp the text in their town and culture. This blog points out how someone can misunderstand the new testament if they miss the second temple context. The blog notes that Jews struggled with how or if they should be Jews and what that means in an increasingly greek culture. This maps onto our experience as Christians today! The U.S. culture is increasingly shifting and Christians disagree about how to adjust.
There is a fascinating example of such a culture shift. Many Christians seek pre modern or modern forms of spirituality and theology, rather than staying up to date and adapting to the culture. Many scholars have noted that we are in a new cultural period, after the postmodern era called metamodernism. Christians have not only struggled to adjust to this cultural/artistic framework but have been unaware of its very existence. Thus, Christians, like the Jews of the second temple period, must understand cultural dynamics of today before they can understand how to adapt to them as Christians. If Paul and others knew and used the culture to their advantage, why shouldn’t we?
I can attest to the reality of growing up and being taught about the Pharisees in a manner that always made them seem like bad people. In fact, it has not been uncommon to hear Christians compare others to the Pharisees in their manner of following Christ. However, the reality of looking at the second temple period paints a new perspective that in fact makes both sense and reason for the skepticism that the Pharisees came with when interacting with Jesus. The very fact that one of the extreme responses to living in a non-Jewish world during the second temple period was full integration to worldly culture makes it so that faithful followers of the Law would question and take caution against new teaching.
I would say then that the struggles faced by Second Temple Jews do compare to our struggles as Christians today. When we read teachings, such as that of Paul’s where we are told to “not conform to this world”, to be renewed in mind and thus be tested to discern what is good, we interpret what we believe is acceptable in different manners (ESV Study Bible, 2008, Romans 12:2). Sure, there is a guideline for many biblical principles that we would say constitute Christlike living, but how we discern what secular things are “too worldly” for the Christian life will undoubtably change amongst Christian groups, and the individual themselves.
Educating ourselves especially as Christians on the Second Temple Period is such an important part of understanding the context and connection between the Old and New Testament periods. The quote by James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999), 293, really captures the essence of why we should take the time to study the 400 years in-between the Old and New Testament. By understanding the context, we can better apply the struggle of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period as a model for contemporary Christians as they struggle with similar issues. These 400 years offer a lot of insight on how these groups such as Pharisees and Sadducees came to be in the New Testament. Without applying our naive perspectives of the Pharisees and people in the New Testament we can apply the knowledge from the Second Temple Period to help us better understand the why’s and how’s of actions taken by people groups in the New Testament. By taking the time to understand the two extreme options for the Jews during the Second Temple Period after the Old Testament: To withdraw entirely; as the Essenes will in the mid-second century, or to become wholly integrated into the culture, we can see how limited and difficult it was for Jews to not only stand out as Children of God, but to also integrate themselves into the culture around them as a means of surviving and reaching out to unbelievers. Balancing between a world of Greeks and Romans and Hellenism surrounding them, it is clear to see the difficulty and also provide a kinder perspective to who the Pharisees represented. “Pharisees, Sadducees, and Christians fall in-between these two extremes since they found ways to remain loyal to God’s Word, yet also found a way to interact with the pagan world. In the case of Christianity, the motivation was to reach the lost world with the Gospel of Jesus.” It is so similar to today, where modern Christians find themselves either assimilating too much into the world’s culture or completely separating themselves making it hard to reach unbelievers and do our work as believers to disciple to the world around us (Matthew 28:19-20). By understanding the Second Temple Period and the connections between the Testaments, we can better understand our roles as Christians to reach out to unbelievers while at the same time shedding the light of God unto this broken world, we live in (Matthew 5:14-16).