Old Testament Survey - Session 6 (2019-02-23)

I'm gonna probably start without a review. So this is, if you haven't been here in a few weeks, that's fine. We're gonna just go right into the intertestamental. And then at the end, we'll review basically the whole Old Testament together. Okay? But let's pray and then let's get started.

Father, we thank you for teaching us your word. And we pray that you would help us really to hunger for it as a newborn baby hungers for milk. Help us, Lord, as parched souls to truly long for the water that you provide. Help us really just to feed. And as we feed, would you strengthen us and help us to be better students of your word today so that we would, just by our passion, God, we would communicate to people that your word is true, that it is living and active, and that it really is food for our souls.

Help us to know you better through the word. Help us to learn from the mistakes of your people. Help us to glean from the passions and the successes of your people as well. So we thank you for this morning and pray these things in Jesus' name. So we're going to be covering the intertestamental period, which is pretty much between Malachi and Matthew today.

Again, just like how we've been doing with the whole Old Testament, we're not going to go into all this detail because you can read that in a book. Okay? My goal is to make it less scary. My goal is to just give you stuff that you can kind of take home.

So when you read either the Old or the New Testament, you can kind of figure out what goes where. Okay? So the hardest thing about doing an Old Testament survey and even the intertestamental period is all the stuff that I had to cut out, thinking like, you know, this is going to be too much.

So just know that if you want to read more into this, there are books that I could point you to. There's chapters in books that I could point you to that are excellent resources. And so this is going to be an overview, hopefully, that will help you remember little cheesy acronyms and silly stuff.

I'm not a corny guy by nature, but for this class, having to do it, yeah, I have to step out of character and, you know, goof around. So bear with for today. What is the intertestamental period? Generally, it's a time between the Hebrew Bible and then the period covered by the Christian New Testament.

When we say Hebrew Bible, usually they say the Law and the Prophets, right? The whole of the Old Testament until the period covered by the Christian New Testament. Okay? So that's kind of what that is. So all you really need to do is think, okay, Malachi to Matthew, that page in the middle of your Bible.

Some people call it the 400 years of silence. It's not that there was nothing going on. It's not the dark. I used to think the dark ages when I was younger because of television commercials that said the dark ages. I literally thought it was because, like, there was no light.

I didn't know that it was because, like, it's just dark on our end or, like, in terms of the knowledge of the people. But I used to think it was, like, oh, it's because they had no candles. So the intertestamental period is often called the 400 years of silence.

There's a lot that happened. And you can just go from the Old Testament and then start in the Gospels. You can see it's a different world. And it's 400 years of silence because God said he would deliberately not speak. Amos 8, 11, I'm going to send a famine in the land, a famine not of food or a thirst for water but of hearing the word of the Lord.

Okay? So basically between the time of Malachi to John the Baptist, what are our primary sources? This has to come from somewhere. There are three. The first one I didn't write on there. It's basically extra biblical, other countries, other history records. Okay? One thing about history is it can be pretty skewed.

A Japanese person writing about the Korean War, a South Korean person writing about the Korean War, a North Korean person writing about the Korean War, a U.S. person writing about the Korean War, you'll have a different take. Okay? So history is not just about facts. It's usually about the why or how certain things happen.

And so the same thing goes for the intertestamental period. There's a lot of perspectives on it. But we have like extra biblical material from different like people groups' history. And also Josephus where we got a lot of our early church history. One time Pharisee military general against Rome. And if he's a one time Pharisee, he's well learned.

Okay? So he is very well versed in Old Testament documents. He eventually supported Rome and he wrote a lot because the Roman courts actually asked him to write about just the people of God. Okay? And then the second is the Apocrypha. And we're going to talk about that a little bit.

Apocrypha means hidden. And there are 15 books that have now been accepted into the Roman Catholic Church. So the Christian Bible has 66 books, 39 in the old, 27 in the new. But the Catholic Bible actually has 15 additional or if you clump it together, it's 14 or 15 books in their scriptures.

Okay? So if you guys have grown up in a Catholic background, you are aware of this. And from the books that were written in the Apocrypha, there are similarities to Jude. There are similarities to 2 Peter, parts of 2 Timothy 3, and then the end of Colossians. Okay? So there are similarities.

I think there's a book called the Laodicea, something amongst the Apocrypha that has something to do with either Laodicea or Colossae. So just know that they were circulated as well in the early church. Okay? Just a quick note on the Apocrypha. So when the Protestant Reformation came about, the church, the Catholic Church actually in response, they had a council at Trent.

And they included the Apocrypha then. Okay? So that's one of the things I'm like, why did you say the canon is closed and then open it up again saying it was incomplete? So the Catholic Church, there was a lack of consistency throughout their history. But it was included after the Protestant Reformation in 1563.

And there are very strong words. Even something like, "If anyone does not receive these books as sacred and canonical in their entirety with all their parts, according to the text usually read in the Catholic Church, and as they are in ancient Latin Vulgate, let them be anathema." It means cut off and accursed forever.

Okay? So just very quick note on why it's not in Scripture. First of all, it was written in the 400 years of silence. And God said he's not going to speak. So you don't want non-inspired books included in the Holy Scriptures. Secondly, there are internal contradictions or errors that have been found that are not consistent with the rest of the teaching.

And third, it was included so late that because of just the timing of it, it's suspect. So there are things about the Apocrypha that if you really want to dig, you can. But just know that it came after the Protestant Reformation. Now, going into the Intertestamental Period. So the three sources were just history, Josephus, and the Apocrypha.

So what is this Intertestamental Period? Now, there is no problem, but just to help you guys remember, what's the problem? All right? And I'll try to help you remember. Anyone know what this is? Are you sure? What do you do with it? You turn pages in a book? What do you do with it?

Who used to own one? Okay, who never owned one? Dorks, okay? So the pager, we used to like -- when I was in college, everyone had one. Okay? And we used to -- like you would text each other stuff, and you'd text each other like a phone number to tell the person to call you back.

Or if you don't need a callback, you just type in like secret codes. Okay? If it was 8282 in Korean, "palli palli" means like hurry up. But if it was like really urgent, 911. Okay? So they would like say the phone number and then 911, and you would really have to like pick up and call or check the voicemail.

So the people of God in the Intertestamental Period, they had a problem of God not speaking. Okay? That's the problem. And they had a problem with people in general. Okay? Internal, external. So just to help you remember, who is the chief manager of all human resources? Who would you say that is?

I am Dr. Jesus. And then who is the chief manager? Jesus. Okay? So from Malachi to Jesus, you have to have a bridge. You have to have a spiritual "palli palli" or a 911. Right? So this is how you want to remember. Okay? Laugh or something. Okay? Malachi, pages, Mr.

HR. Okay? So just to help you remember, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. Pages is the acronym that we're going to learn. Mr. is part of that. And who is the Mr. human resource in human history? Just Jesus. Okay? So Malachi to Jesus, just think Malachi, pages, Mr.

HR. And we're going to look into this real quick. The P, okay, Malachi and then the P, you can either remember it as Persia and/or Philip. Okay? Persia and/or Philip. So you can kind of date it in your head. Like Medo-Persians returning Greeks, right? So from the Medo-Persians to the Greeks, that whole period, Persian rule was in place.

And then the first major Greek general leader that was in place was Philip of Macedon. He actually named a city after himself. And that city, Paul went to and wrote the letter to Philip, P. Okay? So you could either think of it as Persia or Philip as the P.

The AG, I put together as Alexander the Great. In 12 years, he basically conquered the whole world in 12 years. But the thing is, he died at 33. And he didn't have kids. So usually with a great general or a leader, your power is kind of passed down. So there was a big division on what would happen to this Greek empire.

Okay? Because they were conquering everybody. But now this powerful empire, obviously because it's a powerful empire, it's a very coveted position. So they basically just, it broke off into four dynasties, four families, four groups. And I'm not going to go into that because you don't really need to know those groups for the purpose of inter-temporal study.

Okay? So P is Persia or Philip, depending on how you want to remember, or both, if you can remember both. The AG is Alexander the Great. And then E is Egyptian rule. Okay, Egyptian rule. Now, they're not Egyptians. Okay? But by this point, the Greeks conquered everybody. So it's the people who are based in what we know as Egypt, okay?

They're called the Ptolemies. The Ptolemies. They're the ones who actually took over as the dominant force. And then S, Syrian rule. And they were known as the Seleucids. Okay? It's all on your paper for you. So if you're reading history books and you see the Ptolemies, just think of Egyptian Greeks.

If you think of Seleucids, they're the Syrian Greeks. But something happened where there is a power struggle, and these groups started fighting with each other. And basically, the people of Israel, or the Jews, are basically being passed back and forth. Okay? So obviously, that's not going to bode well.

So Malachi, Pages, Mr. H.R. Malachi, Persia, Alexander, Egypt, Syria. Okay? You don't need to know the specific times, but just think Pages. Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria. Philip, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria. Okay? Hope you're tracking along. And then the M.R. is the Maccabean Revolution, which is huge.

Okay? The Maccabean Revolt. That's the M.R. Followed by the Hasmonean Dynasty. So, let's go into this. And this is when the people of God had their own land. For the last, like, for 80 years, they enjoyed power. And not until World War II. Okay? So for 2,000 years, they did it.

The Hasmonean Dynasty. And then Rome. Wipe that all out. So, Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, the Maccabean Revolt, the Hasmoneans, and the Romans. Okay? So I'm going to do a quick quiz. Malachi, Pages, Mr. Human Resource. Pages, Mr. HR. Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean Revolt, Hasmoneans, Romans.

Okay? And then we're at the time of the New Testament. So, this is the big framework. This is going to be like the I am Dr. Jesus framework. And then we're going to put pieces in. Like we did with the rest of the first five weeks. Okay? So, Persia, Philip, Alexander the Great.

I'll go this way. Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean Revolution, Golden Age of the Hasmoneans, and then Rome. And then we're at Jesus. So that's just, if you just remember it like that, then you can kind of track what's going on where. Egypt and Syria, not that important.

The only reason they're important is so that we can kind of understand where some of the cultural things came in. So that you'll understand the New Testament. So, first things first. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." Do you guys remember flah?

What did they lose? Freedom? Land? Arms? Wealth? They lost all of that because they believed it's because we disobeyed God. So, we need to obey God fully to get it all back. And that's so important because that kind of dictates the rest of their history. We need to get God's favor back so we can get flah back.

So we can get our freedom, our land, our arms, our wealth. We need to obey. Okay? And one of the first things that happened once they got back to Jerusalem and they built the second temple, three things developed. First thing was, and you can kind of think of sola.

All right? Sola means only. You can also think of it as one. So the very first thing that developed after the return from captivity was synagogues. Okay? First thing that happened was synagogues. So they stopped doing idolatry. They blamed all of their failure on disobedience to God's word. Synagain is Greek for -- what's syn in Greek?

S-Y-N. Together. With. Right? Gain means to bring. So synagain, synagogue, it means to kind of get together. It's an assembly. And that's what I guess a Jewish place of worship today would be called that. And you needed ten men to make a synagogue. And during the time of the Babylonian captivity, people would still get together to pray together.

Right? Daniel and his friends did. And other Jewish people, they would pray together, but they would have to be very careful. Okay? But that culture started then. You gather around the elders of the community, and then we pray together. And so that kind of mentality formed while they were building the temple.

Okay? So they started getting together in synagogues. And if you just think of kind of our church today, that's what that was. Just a place for people to get together to pray and to study the Torah. That was their purpose. So it's like church. So synagogues developed. And then oral law.

So kind of if you think of the Old Testament from the five books of Moses. And then let's make commentaries about the five books of Moses so we can obey better. So they actually started saying, okay, keep the Sabbath holy. What does that mean? And they started numbering steps.

Well, you can only walk 1,200 steps for you to keep this holy. What does it mean to tithe? Then you have to take down 1.9% for this. So they started legalizing everything. Okay? If we're going to obey God's word, let's obey it almost so well that he's so impressed.

So this culture of the oral traditions also comes into play. And third, Aramaic is the language of the times. Just in a 50-year period, people can lose a language. Would you guys agree with that? How many guys who are Asian speak worse your mother tongue than your parents? Yeah, my Korean is by far far inferior to my dad's.

Okay? If you are a fourth-generation Chinese person, you probably only grew up speaking in English because your grandma can talk to you in English. So just in 50 years, all of that can go away. So when they returned, their Hebrew language kind of got muddied. So the language of the time became Aramaic.

And that's important because a section of Daniel is written in Aramaic. And during the time of Jesus' day, they spoke Aramaic to each other. So let's say Jeremy Kim is Korean blood, right? I'm Korean. Do we ever speak to each other in Korean? Jeremy, have we ever spoken in Korean?

Have you ever even said "Annyeonghaseyo"? No, you said "Hi, Pastor Peter." Right? You don't even do the Korean bow. So you've lost all that. So in Jesus' time, a lot of things like "sefas," which means "Peter," "raboni," these are all Aramaic words. They're not Hebrew. So the language changes to Aramaic.

So by the time you get to the time of the disciples, people are generally trilingual. Okay? So they speak English -- I mean, sorry, not English. They speak Aramaic, which is their mother tongue. When they have to read the scriptures, they would read in Hebrew, and they memorized in Hebrew.

And they had to learn Greek because -- and we'll get to that. Greek becomes a business language. So Aramaic is the language that they start to use. Eventually, this becomes Arabic. Arabic becomes the main language, but that's not until after Jesus. So Aramaic is the main word for the Jews day to day.

So first things first, what happens after the Jews return? "Sola." Synagogue culture. What else? Oral law. And then Aramaic. None of these are in the Old Testament. But all of these are in the New. Does that make sense? Synagogue, oral law, and like Sabbath rules and washing hands rules, all of those things are mostly oral law.

They were not written in scripture. They were expounded upon by the people like the Pharisees. Okay? So synagogue -- and Paul, where does he go when he preaches? Wherever he goes where there's Jews. Synagogue. Okay? Synagogue, oral law, Aramaic. Like I said, the Jews of Jesus' day are mostly trilingual.

Possibly quadrilingual. Anybody here trilingual or more? Even if you don't speak Spanish, you've heard Spanish. Right? "Como estas?" "Bien." "Como te llamas?" "Me llamo Pedro." Right? You can speak in Spanish. Right? You can understand it. Right? Like "Mi casa es su casa." People don't even speak Spanish, they can say that and understand what that means.

So it becomes just a big hybrid area. Okay? The next key to know is during the time of the ages, Alexander the Great, Egyptians, and the Sirians, all of them, they just need a hug. Okay? Just think of the, "When you get old, you just need hugs." I don't know if that's true, but I would like a hug probably when I'm 70 also.

All right? Ages, there's a need for a H-U-N-G. So the first things that developed were synagogue, oral law, and Aramaic, but around the time of the Greeks, a couple hundred years later, you have hug. What's hug? Hellenization. Everything becomes Greek. And Greeks prided themselves in their wisdom and their philosophy and their literature.

So guess what starts to form? Advanced education. So in order to be respected by the Greeks, you have to be learned. So university culture starts. Libraries start. So the Greeks had collections of all the literature from all over the world. Hellenization. Okay? So everything starts to become Greek. Greek way of thinking, Greek philosophy, Greek way of learning.

They probably had their own math. So their own way of doing medicine. All of that starts infiltrating into the culture. You guys are probably more Americanized than you realize. Your parents, you may have had trouble with your parents because you've been Americanized. I did. Okay? There are certain things that my dad got upset with me about that was just not part of my culture.

Right? In just one little generation. So Greek start -- so a young Jewish child thinks, I want to go into university one day. Oh, I want to study the philosophies of these people. Because these Greeks have built these grand libraries. I'd rather be that than just do slaughtering of animals in the tabernacle, dad.

You guys can kind of see how this works. So Hellenization. Second urbanization. You used to have traveling merchants. But traveling merchants stopped traveling. They just all clumped together so people would come to them. So a big city started to form. And later when the Romans laid the roads, it made it easier.

So by the time you have Paul, you have cities. Okay? So there used to be tribal boundaries, but now it's just major cities. So urbanization. A lot of people getting into the major cities. And you're going to start having, like, large metropolises. Big, giant cities. And that started with the Greek culture.

Okay? Sola. Synagogue. Oral law. Aramaic. Hug. Hellenization. Urbanization. And then everyone started to learn how to function in Greek. In the United States, can you function without English? You can, actually. My aunts and uncles have been here for 40-plus years. They don't speak any English. If they went to Tennessee, oh, their English would be good.

It would have a little bit of an accent. But in Los Angeles, they never had to learn English. Okay? But if you want to do any kind of business, you had to learn Greek. My dad speaks English. He speaks in Korean. He picks up English when he needs to.

And then he's a roofer, so his workers are Mexican. So he goes, "Andale come today, okay? Andale come." So they'll come. So somehow it works. And the Greek of this time, it evolved into this hodgepodge, like, business Greek that we call koine, K-O-I-N-E. And that's the language that the Bible is written in.

It's not the Greek of, like, Socrates or Aristotle. It's not that kind of Greek. It's a lot more watered-down, common people's Greek. That's what the scripture is written in. And at this time, if I'm a Jew and I want to study the Old Testament, okay, I go to the synagogue, I'm learning my oral law, but at the same time, like, we're organizing universities, I need to figure out, like, how to read the Hebrew Bible.

But the problem is, how many of you guys have ever tried reading the King James? It's not -- it's fun because you go, "Hath, doth, thine," you know? "Seeketh thine glory, dost thou" -- it's just -- you don't speak this way. "Seek ye first" -- I've never used "ye" in my life.

But whenever I think of Matthew 6:33, I go, "Seek ye first," right? You guys know what I'm talking about. Sometimes our praise songs, some of our praise team members sing "you," and then some people sing "the." That's just in religious literature, but we don't speak this way. My first Korean Bible, when I was a child, had Chinese characters in it.

I didn't know what those were, and I didn't realize you're supposed to read from back to front and down from right to left. So the Chinese Bible had to become simplified. Korean Bible had to become simplified. Even today's Korean young people my age, they don't understand the Korean Bible.

So they actually really dumbed it down to, like, everyday speak Korean Bible because that's what happens. So if I'm a Jew living in the time of post-Alexander, I want to read the Bible. I'm not going to function well in Hebrew. So 70 elders got together and came up with a Greek version of the Old Testament, and that's called the Septuagint.

Have you guys ever heard of the Septuagint? So when you see the Old Testament quoted in the New Testament, and then you go back to the Old Testament, you see the words are different. Have you guys ever noticed that? If you're seeing a New Testament usage of an Old Testament passage, and then you're like, "The words are different.

That's so silly. Why didn't they do that?" It's because the Bible that Paul and his contemporaries used was a Greek Bible of the Hebrew language. So the English version that you have, like NASB, the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, not the Greek. But the New Testament is translated from the Greek.

But the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus had was Greek. Are you guys following me? That was called the Septuagint. Okay? So first things first, what happens? Synagogue, oral law, Aramaic. Time of Alexander, they need a hug. Hellenization, urbanization, Greek becomes extremely common. So far so good? Okay. Then you have this guy.

So now the Jews are starting to be very unhappy. So what's smata? Anti-what's-mata? So first just think of sola, hug, and then anti-what's-mata. All right? So this is the stuff that's leading up to the Maccabean Revolution. Remember, Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean revolt, Hasmonean, Rome. Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean revolt, Hasmonean, Rome.

Synagogue, oral law, Aramaic. Fast forward. Hellenization, urbanization, Greek language. Fast forward. Now the Jews are mad. Okay? And this is why. King Antiochus IV, he's extremely important in history, especially in the intertestamental times. I don't think he shows up in the Bible by name. All right? But here are some things that he did.

First of all, he started severely taxing the Jews. Severe taxation of the Jews. But he would take that money and start dedicating it to his gods. For a very highly sensitive, idelphobic Jewish populace, this isn't a good thing. If you guys knew that 80% of your tax dollars went to funding abortions, would you guys be okay with that or no?

Absolutely not. If your tax dollars, you found out most of it, okay, went to a polygamous organization, a polygamous cause, or a transgender cause, you wouldn't be happy about this. So for the Jews being severely taxed, but having all their money go to these pagan things, they weren't happy.

So that's a first S. Second S, Antiochus, because he hears the Jewish complaints, slaughters a whole bunch of Jews. When does he slaughter them? On the Sabbath. What will Jews not do on the Sabbath? They will not fight. That's how strict they became. So I'm watching people get slain in front of me, but now I'm torn.

God says don't work on the Sabbath, which means don't fight on the Sabbath, but they're getting hurt. By the time I've decided, someone just knifed me. Okay, I'm done. So Antiochus knows how strict the Jews are. So he taxes them. He slays them on the Sabbath. And then he goes into the temple, and guess what he sacrifices?

Not a bull or a goat, not a sheep. Do Jews like pigs? No. He sacrifices the dirtiest animal that a Jew can think of and burns them on the altar and calls that temple the house of Zeus. Eee! So you guys can see that there is a mounting tension.

I'm already being taxed, and I'm not happy about this. And then all of a sudden, you come and slay all of our people. And that's not nice. And then you go into our house of God, and you sacrifice pigs. And they're still all frozen because it's the Sabbath. They don't know what to do.

And then Antiochus actually tells one of the Jews, "Hey, I want you to do this. Help pick up the pig onto the altar. If you guys don't, I will kill and rape all your women." And he just starts threatening them. And one Jew actually moves forward to help with the process because he doesn't know what else to do.

And a priest named Mattathias, what's a matta, he is so enraged at this, he kills that Jew. He breaks the Sabbath law, and he kills that Jew. And then he and his five sons start like, "These must have been trained boys." He's a priest, but the man can fight.

Anyway, he starts fighting and killing, and then they run away. It's interesting, the drama. Antiochus, Anti, three S's. What's the first one? Severe taxation, slaughter on the Sabbath, sacrifice of pigs, and then you get Mattathias, the priest, and five sons start a revolution. So you guys follow me so far?

Pages. Persia, or Philip. A.G. is Alexander the Great. Egypt, Syria, Maccabean revolt, which is this, Hasmoneans, Rome. Persia, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean revolt, Hasmoneans, Rome. Synagogue, Oral Law, Aramaic, fast forward. Hellenization, urbanization. Greek, fast forward. Antiochus, severe taxation, slaughter on the Sabbath, sacrifice of pigs, and then Mattathias comes and starts a revolution.

I'm going to take a quick pause. Antiochus the fourth, some people think that that's Daniel chapter nine. When he forced Daniel chapter nine, like just what's happening between nine and 11, the prophecies of the future, we think, happen in Daniel nine through 11. That's what some camps will take.

So I'm just going to explore this. So seven years, 70 weeks, those numbers are very important for the time of Revelation. So I'm just going to point to you, Daniel nine and 11, maybe in reference to Antiochus. I'm undecided. But a lot of scholars think it is both Antiochus and a foreshadow of the future.

Because the whole book of Daniel, remember they have three visions, right? The statue, second one. Beasts and son of man. And you know the statue and the beasts both had the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, all of that symbolized. So Daniels nine and 11 may talk about Antiochus and foreshadow something that's going to happen in the future.

Okay, so I think this is on your paper. And I'm going to read this for you. This is Daniel 11. Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination of desolation. This also shows up in Matthew, okay?

But what did he do with the temple? He turned it into a temple of Zeus and sacrificed not just unauthorized fire, he sacrificed pigs. By smooth words he will turn the godlessness, those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display their strength and take action.

Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many, yet they will fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join them in hypocrisy. And some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge, and make them pure until the end time, because it is still to come at the appointed time.

And actually Jesus warns them, when you see the abomination of desolation, so he's still talking about it as the future, okay? But this is where this is from, abomination of desolation. And some Christian camps would argue that perhaps Antiochus' deed, which started the Maccabean revolution, was part of this.

Okay? This isn't boring. Have I lost anybody? Is this interesting stuff or boring? Undecided? Okay. So, here we go. Go through this together with a partner. Okay? Hopefully these are easy to remember. Okay? And then we'll take a five-minute break. >> All right. We're going to start. So find your way back to your seat.

Kirby got paid. So lunch on you. Just kidding. All right. So quick review. Persia, Alexander, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean Revolution, HR, Hasmoneans, and Rome. Sola, synagogue, Orla, Aramaic, fast forward, Hellenization, urbanization, Greek, what starts to brew the tensions? Because under Persia they were okay. But now tensions are arising because, and then it blows up when Antiochus, in addition to the severe taxation, slaughters on the Sabbath, sacrifice of pigs in the temple, calling it, the temple of Zeus.

And then Mattathias comes with his sons and they start a revolution. Okay? So the Hasmonean dynasty, Hasmonean means priest kings. Okay? But I'll just try to remember it as Hasmonean. Okay? Because this is totally racial stereotypical. But Jewish people are known to be wealthy. Just in general. So just think it has money.

All right? Don't judge me. I'm just trying to do what helps me to remember. Okay? So Hasmonean, G-H-I-J-K-L. We're just going to try to go, remember that as the revolution period. Okay? First one, it's all on there for you. Guerrilla warfare. So for not just 25 days, but for how many years?

25 years they start, they start like killing and slaying because they're starting with these tactics to get rid of the the Seleucid influence in their life. Okay? So there's guerrilla warfare going on. Okay? But there's a huge victory in the beginning. They take the temple back. They take the temple back, and they have a feast of dedication, and that's what you get.

That's what's called Hanukkah. That's where that comes from. Okay? And again, all of these things, we can write, or we can read chapters on all of this, but we're going fast like we did with the Old Testament. So if you're interested, you can continue to just do your research.

And then there's 80 years of independence, and this is called the golden years of all of Jewish history. This is when they have their freedom, their land, their arms, their wealth, and it's not until 1949 when they get it back. So 63 AD to 1949, that's 2011 years. So for 2011 years, Israel's like gone.

And like I mentioned before, that changed a lot of people's theology. All the Old Testament promises do not look like they're going to come true, so most people in the early 1900s, they were pretty much covenant theologians. But guess what happens when 1949 hits? Israel comes back. That threw off everybody.

What? Because sociologically, humanistically, that's impossible for a people to be gone for 2,000 years and then to regather. Okay? And so that caused a lot of people to rethink their eschatology. And we're not going to go into that, but they have independence for 80 years, and that's the last time.

They are led by Judas. Are there a lot of Judas's in the New Testament? There's a lot of them. Three of the disciples are named Judas, and they had to distinguish Judas of Iscarioth, the son of Simon. We know him as Judas Iscariot. And then two of the other disciples, I forget which ones, but they're called Judas something else.

If you actually look through the disciples' names, you'll see that Judas is very common. Okay? It's kind of like calling someone-- I've actually met a Shaquille recently. Who do you think he's named after? A big basketball player, right? So, and I met a-- we used to have a guy at our church.

His name was Jordan. You know who he was named after? His dad was a big basketball fan. He named him after Michael Jordan. So, you start naming your people after heroes. Judas Maccabeus was the hero. Okay? So, that's why so many people in the New Testament are named Judas.

But he is Mattathias' son. And then later, they call him Maccabeus. And the whole-- the period is the Maccabean Revolution, the Maccabean Revolt, the Maccabean Reign, whatever it is. Maccabees, you've probably heard before. But that's Judas Maccabeus is his name. Okay, so Judas is a very common name in the New Testament.

But no one names their kid Judas now. Why? That's a bad name. Lots of people named their kid Jesus, right? But not Judas. Okay, so just a little note. Now, everything is anti-Gentile. Okay, keep Gentiles out. I hate Gentiles, basically. Anybody that's-- and then, people who are half-Gentile, they also hate.

But a lot of half-Gentiles-- do you remember the song and the cheer that we learned last week, right? About the women? The local ladies? Marry me, right? So there's a whole half-breed area called Samaria that they hate. So anything Gentile-related, they just don't want to do anything with, okay, during this period.

And lastly, it's all about the land, law, and loyalty to Judaism. And people who could trace their ancestry to specific tribes really were esteemed. But at this point, you can only trace Judah and Benjamin. Because what happened to the North? Much earlier, they basically just got squished, right? But for people of Judah and people of Benjamin, they try to keep their lineage pure.

So when Paul actually writes, "I am a Hebrew of Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin," that's kind of saying, "Dude, I'm pure blood. "I have everything you could possibly want "in a Pharisee of Pharisees in Philippians 3. "I have all that. "All that is, like, rubbish." Okay? So land, law, loyalty.

Now, has money. G-H-I-J-K-L. So what's G? Guerrilla. Tactics. H. Hanukkah. Okay? I. Independence. How many years? 80. I don't know why I did six, but it's 80. All right? J. Judas led them. Or he was the hero. He didn't lead them all 80 years. I'm assuming he probably died.

Okay? K. Keep Gentiles out. And then L. Land, law, loyalty, liberty. Whatever L good word you can think of. Love. That's probably in there. Okay? Very good. So with all the Sola stuff, the Hug stuff, the G-H-I-J-K-L, now you end up under Roman rule, and there are people who are like, "We should do that again.

"We should be like this again." And then you have four distinct groups that are organized in some way kind of like a party. Like a Democratic, Republican, blah, bada, blah. And then you have crowds. You have just -- but these are four distinct entities that appear. And it doesn't mean that every single person had to be in one.

Because there is a lot of kind of overlap and -- but these are the ones that kind of are the most prominent. First one, the Essenes -- and it should be on your paper here. The Essenes are not really mentioned in Scripture, but they are important. What did they live by?

It says the Old Testament. And what do they think about Rome? Eh, they don't care. Focus on the future to come through the Messiah. Social action revolution will not bring change because the problem is in our hearts. That sounds like a modern-day Christian, right? Devotion to the law of God and withdrawal from society.

They were living in an area called Qumran. It's a desert community. Many people believe John the Baptist to be a member of this community. And this is the community that preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls. They became more famous as of late. Because they preserved the word of God to the best of their ability.

Because that was what was most important. Then you have a group of the Zealots. They wanted to have the time of the Maccabean Revolution, the Hasmonean Dynasty, to rule again. Rome. They hated Rome. They were called Dagger Men. Including Simon the Disciple. We call him Simon the Zealot. But he's Simon the Disciple.

And their thing is, violence is key. God is for you. Down with all Gentiles. So if they could get away with it, they would come and knife people down. Possibly Barabbas was a Zealot. You guys know who Barabbas is? Do you want Barabbas or Jesus? Give us Barabbas. The murderer.

So that's not fully confirmable. But that's a hypothesis. And then you have two groups that are a little bit more well known in the New Testament. The Pharisees. Their main thing was the Old Testament and the oral law. But it's kind of like guys who are into theology. They're into theology more than the Bible.

And that's a dangerous thing. So the Pharisees were more into their oral traditions, written stuff passed down from the scribes, than they were the Word of God. Make sense? Okay. And Rome. They hated Rome. And they wanted to be like the Hasmoneans. Separate. Priests, kings. And apply the law to everyday life and God will restore and reward us one day.

And then lovers of money. They were lovers of money. It says that multiple times. Luke 16, 14. Now, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things that Jesus was teaching and they were scoffing at him. And Jesus taught a lot about what? Money. Partially because, you know who was always near him listening to what he was saying?

The Pharisees. If it was always Sadducees with him, I think you would have some different scriptures. And that's just hypothesis. But the Pharisees were always there. So he's addressing things that the Pharisees are confusing the people about. Fourth, Sadducees. They are -- they only went by Moses. The five books.

That's all they needed. About law. About, like, Jewish culture. They don't care about the oral law. They think it's silly. And they were the only ones who were pro-Rome. And they were composed of a bunch of rich elites. Usually, in any situation, the rich elites, they don't want overthrow.

They don't want revolution. Because what happens when there's an overthrow revolution? They lose. So the Sadducees are rich elites. And obviously, because of what they valued, their theology possibly changed. Their freedom of the human will. There is no resurrection. There is no spirit. There is no angel. We are just -- we're here.

Then we pass on and we die. Okay? So that's the four groups that we see influencing the New Testament world of Jews. Does that help a little? Okay? And it helps to know where this is all coming from. Synagogue, oral law, Aramaic, boom. Hellenization, urbanization, Greek, boom. Maccabean revolution was traumatic.

They hated everything Gentile. Those pig eaters. Those people who love bacon and sausage. They would hate us. It's like, ah! And then when Rome conquers them, they're basically like, okay, all over again. And then they have to be like, okay, how do we survive? So I mean, it's just like Democratic and Republicans and just like the way they divide now.

Because you're trying to figure out -- here's a problem. This is how we fix it. And I will show you how we need to fix it. And then the other side is like, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's going to cause another problem. That's what's going on here.

The same people by blood who cannot agree. And they are -- and Paul actually uses this to his advantage. If you look at the book of Acts, he goes and there's Pharisees and Sadducees. And he throws out the topic of the spiritual world. And then the Pharisees and Sadducees start fighting and then Paul slips out.

So interesting. Okay? Acts chapter 23. Look at it. And you see it very comical. He says, hey. So Paul throws that out there and they start yelling at each other. Why are you made there is no spirit? What about in the book of Judges? We don't believe in the book of Judges.

The book of Judges is all about this. We only believe the Torah. And they're fighting back and forth. And then Paul is like, he kind of -- he got the tension off him. So the Bible has a lot of fun stuff in there if you dig. Okay? So the learning structures of the New Testament world is going to be the last thing I cover before we do an all six-week review.

This is loose. Okay? So this is so that you can kind of be helped to understand the time of the New Testament. And there are groups that I took out. There are groups that I just chose to just ignore. And these are the groups that I'm going to highlight because that will help you read your Bible.

So the first one, you have the emperor. And that's easy to remember. Okay? But the emperor now is more like almost like a symbolic figure. So you have the senate. Okay? And then you have provincial authorities representing Rome. So Pontius Pilate is a Roman representing Rome. He's like a district representative who has to answer to Rome.

And what the Romans did was they gave cities to conquered peoples as a gift to get their allegiance. And one of those was -- so he established client kings. Your family has done great service to Rome. We will give your family rightful claim as king of that area of Galilee or something like that.

Okay? So they actually have a Roman ambassador, if you will, and you have a client king. And in the case of the New Testament, it's the Herods. It's a family. Okay? Herod family from Edomaea. And Herod actually means hero. Okay? But that's the Herod family, the clan. And it's just one family that got different plots of land and there were four ruling at one time and then there were three.

And you see this all the way up to like even the time of Paul. This is a clan. Okay? And they were the ones in charge of approving of the high priesthood and the Sanhedrin. Sanhedrin was a group of elders leading the Jews. Okay? And the high priesthood, he was the one in charge of approving it.

That's why when you get Jesus' trial, there's all kinds of confusion. If you actually notice, they take him to Herod. And then take him to Caiaphas, the priest. And then they're like, wait, take him to Herod. So then he goes to Herod. And then he goes back to Caiaphas and back to Herod.

And then to Pontius Pilate. So he's getting taken all these places because they're trying to figure out how do we execute him. Because there's a chain of command here that they have to abide by. You guys follow me? But historically, Pontius Pilate actually was under a lot of tension.

He did some bad stuff. He was under scrutiny by the Roman government, which possibly could explain why he actually agreed to be the one who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus. Because he doesn't want any more trouble. So if you actually look through the history books, you see different kind of stuff that is not scripture, but that highlights a little bit of, like, that gives us insight into this New Testament world.

And what I did for you on this paper, I put just a chart of all the Roman emperors. And behind this chart, you have all the first century prefects of Judea. And the prefects are the provincial authorities representing Rome. So Pilate, you see him 26 to 36. Okay? And then you'll actually also see, like, some of these other people mentioned in the Bible.

And then here are the Ptolemies, who are the ones from Egypt. And then the Seleucids, who are the ones from Syria. These are Greek people living in that area. And then you have the Maccabean people. And then you have the Jewish high priests. And then there's a lot of Jewish high priests.

And at the very end, I gave you a chart of the Herodian dynasty. Okay? And all of this just to help you navigate through reading the New Testament. But this isn't an NT survey. This is all OT stuff. Right? But there is so much change that happens between the OT and the NT that I figured this would help.

All right? We're going to do a quick review. Here we go. Division of Old Testament books. Five, 12, five, five, 12. You know that one. What's a big picture timeline? A-M-D-R, Jesus. You guys remember that one? These are easy because this is week one stuff. 1500 Mount JK. Rest.

Relapse. Ruin. Repentance. Restoration. Rest. This was mostly in what book? Judges. Good. King, king, split. A-B-C-D. Medo, Persians, return, and Greeks. Perfect. Kings of Judah. One, six, 11, and 16. King Raya Jojo. Reboam. Isaiah. Jotham. Josiah. Israel geography. Gals. Jordan, dead. Whodunit. Sorry. Here are my Philistines. Hittites, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines.

Yeah, they're in there too. I skipped it just to keep you guys on your toes. Saul. Bad. Benjaminite. Arrogant. Disobedient. David. USA. United the 12 tribes. Established Jerusalem as a center for everything. Armies. Solomon, TCPT. Temple, culture. Taxes. Oh, pieces. Peace. Taxes. Kings of Judah one through five. Reboam, Abaz, Gigi.

Reboam. Abijah. Asa. Jehoshaphat. Jehoram. Split, two. 722, actually that's just, that's there for you. And then what do you have to remember? We are Jamen. War, Elijah, Elisha, Syria. And what are the books? Jonah. Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Nahum. And what are the two books about, like book ending Assyria?

Jonah and Nahum. Kings of Israel. Jeh-ra-bo-am. Right? Jeroboam. Jeroboam. B. Baasha. O. Omri. A. Ahab. Jeroboam number two. And then H. Hosea. Right? Just think that's when they got hushed. Kings of Judah six through ten. The queen's, aha, queen's lashes, right? Ahaz. Athaliah. Jeholash, Jehoash. Who else? Amaziah. Uziah, okay?

Uziah. B. C. De Polam. Six, twelve. Assyria shelved. Judah soon to follow. Five, eight, six. Temples nixed. Jeremiah lamentations, laments and wallows. Very good. Lesson learned from lamentations, flaw. They lost all their freedom, land, arms, wealth. What were the prophecies? You guys remember? Heads. Habakkuk. Ezekiel. Daniel. Z. Phaniah.

Kings of Judah 11 to 15. Jotham. Haz. Aha, what was it? Haz. Man. His. Man. Amen. Okay? So, Hazakai. Wait, what is it? Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Ammon. Oh, the Hallelujah Chorus. We're going to sing it together, okay? If you take out last week's paper. Five, three, ocho. Five, three, ocho.

Cyrus lets the exiles go. Five, three, ocho. Five, three, ocho. Five, three, ocho. They're supposed to build a temple. Five, three, ocho. Ezra. One, two, three, four, five, and six. 50K Jews return to that place. Okay? Hakariah. Hakariah. Samaritans oppose Ziah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah. Hakariah.

Temple is finished in 516. Hakariah. So, if you know this, you know all the return. One stuff, right? The second return we have. Okay? The R2, R3 rep. You guys remember this? Let's turn the page. Four -- okay, you can't say four. It's a fo, five, eight, and fo, fo, fo.

Artaxerxes twice opens up that doe. As leads two, Nehi joins three. Juicy local ladies, marry me. Ezra, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Nehemiah beginning to the end. Two's revival. Three's the wall. But in both, ladies bring that fall. So, if you can remember this, you can kind of piece together R2 and R3.

Kings of Judah, 16 to 20. Remember, Rehah, Jojo. So, Josiah, and then they're all Jeho, right? Jehoahash. What else? Jehoiakimcheezi. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and then Zedekiah. And then he gets basically his eyes gouged out, taken away. Today we learned -- first one is Malachi, Pages, Mr. H.R. Malachi, Persia, Philip, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Syria, Maccabean revolt, Hasmonean dynasty, Rome.

Okay? The first one, first things first, Sola. What happens right after? Synagogue culture. Oral law. Aramaic, which later turns into what's the main language later? Arabic. People are saying Chinese Mandarin is actually now going to be -- replace English as the main. Okay? Actually, there's a fun fact you may not know.

There are more people who speak English in China than in the United States. Such an interesting fact. But anyway, that's just -- yeah. I think I might have made that up. No, I read it somewhere. I read it. I read it. It's a fun fact. I think I read it somewhere.

Anyway, so Aramaic, Sola. Greek time. The ages need -- as people age, what do they need? They need a hug. What's the Greek Bible called? Hellenization. Urbanization. Greek. What's the Greek Bible called? So next time you see the Old Testament being quoted in the new and it looks different, now you understand because they're reading from the Greek.

I don't read Korean Bible. I could. It just takes me a lot longer to process. You guys probably don't read the Bible of your ancestors, right? You read it in English, I think. Why do you read it in English? Because it's the most comfortable. The next section that we have is anti-what?

Mathathias. So how do you remember that? Antiochus IV, Epiphanes, he becomes the king and he starts causing problems that lead to the Maccabean revolt. Severe taxation, slaughter on the Sabbath, then slaughter of the pigs, and then he turns it into like this is for Zeus. And then Mathathias, the priest, and his five sons start guerrilla tactics.

Okay? Has money ends. G-H-I-J-K-L. Guerrilla tactics. Hanukkah. Independence. Judas Maccabeus. What else do you need to remember? Keep Gentiles out. Everything anti-Gentile. And then law, land, loyalty. And is that all that we -- is that it? That's it. Oh, easy peasy. Oh, I didn't point your attention to easy peasy.

Easy peasy is a way to remember the four groups. Easy, Essenes, Zealots, peasy, Pharisees, Sadducees, peasy, PC, okay? PSE. Whatever. You guys remember. Easy peasy. The Essenes, Zealots, Pharisees, Sadducees, and just review the distinctives. You don't need to be able to like quote chapter, verse, for when they appear, but just kind of have that distinction in mind.

Okay? Genesis. Exodus. Wilderness wandering. No. Egypt. Okay? Leviticus. Okay? Numbers. Do it, run on me. Laws of the second generation. Joshua. Conquest. Judges. Ruth. One Samuel. Saul. He's holding a Saul, right? Two Samuel. One king. Solomon. Two kings. Civil war, exile. One chronicle. David, again, going backward. Two chronicle.

All of Judah. What was that chronicle? Ezra. New temple, right? Five, three, Ocho is when that happens, okay? Nehemiah. Law. And that's all R3. Okay? Remember, Nehemiah beginning to the end is all R3. Okay? Esther. Persia. Job. Sovereignty of God. Psalms. Praises and prayers. Proverbs. Life skill, wisdom before a holy God.

Okay? Ecclesiastes. Emptiness, vanity. Song of Solomon. Beauty of love in a love song talking about beauty of a marriage covenant. Okay? Isaiah. Isaiah. 39 chapters of? Mourning because of Judah's ruin and fall. 27? Hoping the Messiah to come. 39, 27. Right? Jeremiah. The rottenness of this people. Lamentations. Weeping because of the flaw.

Right? Freedom, land, arms, wealth. Ezekiel. Dry bones, God's going to resurrect it. 1949, what do you think people thought about? These dry bones have come to life. Right? Ezekiel. Daniel. Dreams and visions. There are three. Statue. Beasts. Son of man. Hosea. Harlotry. Joel. Jello. Joello. Locus. Amos. Plum line.

This is God's standard. You dumb dumbs. It's not praise nights. It's not prayer meetings. This is God's standard. Amos. Obediah. Brother's keeper. Jonah. God's heart for the wicked. Okay? Micah. Judah's day in court. Nahum. Nineveh's destruction through what? Flood. Habakkuk. Watchtower because of the transition between A and B.

Zephaniah. The day of the Lord that's coming with the arrival of Messiah. Haggai. Rebuilding the temple. And because they're not rebuilding the temple, so they get a spiritual meme. Zechariah. The Messiah to come. The kingdom of the Messiah. The temple that the Messiah is going to build. The everlasting one.

Malachi. Heart and hearts. Pages. Persia. Alexander the Great. Egypt. Syria. Maccabean revolution. Hasmonean dynasty. Rome. Synagogue. Orla Armean. Greek time. Hellenization. Urbanization. Greek. And then you have the revolution. Antiochus the fourth. Severe taxation. Slaughter on the Sabbath. Sacrifice of pigs. Maccabeus. Or Mattathias. The priest starts a revolution. And then the biggest hero of that is Maccabeus.

His name is Maccabeus. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest.

And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest. And then the biggest hero of that is the priest.

Old Testament Survey - Session 6 (2019-02-23)

Transcript