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Notes on video lecture:
Four Stories of Empire in Judea: Babylonian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on February 4, 2014 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Aristotle, Judea, Judaism, Cyrus, Roman, corruption, Greece, Nero, Herod, organized, Persian, Nebuchadnezzar, Shamayin, Hellenism, Levant, Hasmonean, Zeus, Daniel, Issus, Pontius, Rome
•
Paul was a Jewish man writing in the context of the            Empire
•
writes to Jews and Gentiles who are interested in participating in               
•
four contextual stories of empire
•
1. Babylonian and                Empires
•
587: Jerusalem destroyed by                             , king of Babylonia
•
many of the elites of Judah were taken into exile to Babylonia
•
this is where the story of              happened
•
a story written during another time time of repression under Antiochus IV
•
539 BC, Babylonian Empire taken over by Persian king           
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Persians allowed Jews to return
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some Jews stayed in Babylonia
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520-515 BC: Persians allowed the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem
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Judah became a typical client temple state
•
2. Macedonian Empire
•
had long been culturally allied to             
•
considered itself a disseminator of Greek culture
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Alexander the Great
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well educated in Greek culture,                    one of his teachers
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conquered Persian Empire
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333 BC: Battle of           , gained control of Palestine and Jerusalem
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327 BC: reached India
•
323 BC: died in Babylon which he had chosen to be the capital of his empire
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a time of cultural mixing but also of the spread of                   , i.e. Greek language, traditions, and culture mixed with local traditions to the east
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after he died, generals spent a lot of time fighting over the empire
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two dynasties that emerged from the successors of Alexander: Seleucids and Ptolemies which rushed up and down the              area conquering back and forth
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3. Ptolemies vs. Seleucids (300BC-30BC)
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Jewish high priest is allied to the Seleucids
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receives permission to constitute Jerusalem as a Greek city
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a time of Hellenization of the region, including the association of the Jewish God with         
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this offended many Jews
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Jason was ousted
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169: Antiochus IV conducted campaigns against Egypt
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168: on way back, plundered Jerusalem temple in order to pay his soldiers
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Jews rebelled, Antiochus captured Jerusalem and turned it militarily occupied city
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Antiochus brought the sacred rock of Zeus Baal                  into the temple
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annulled Jewish laws, told in Second Maccabees
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                   Jews retake Jerusalem
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Jews from the country took the temple from Jewish elite as well as from Antiochus
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force circumcisions and conversion on many inhabitants
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some Jews (Essenes) retreated to desert in disagreement with what they saw as                      and improper rule of Hasmonean Jews
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awaited a day when two messiahs, a warrior and a priest would help them retake the temple
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4. Roman domination of           
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63 BC: Romans enter Jerusalem and end Hasmonean rule in Palestine
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Rome established a new dynasty loyal to         
•
           the Great
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tried to be king over all, not just Jews
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built pagan cities, temples, as well as Jewish cities
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after Herod the Great, Roman administrators were even less sensitive to the needs of the populace
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brutality of                Pilate, under whom Jesus was killed
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66 AD: Jews were revolting against the Roman power, but not very                   
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68 AD: chaos at the head of the Roman Empire,          committed suicide
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70 AD: Titus besieged and captured Jerusalem, destroyed the city and the Second Temple
•
132 CE: Simon bar Kokhba, Jewish leader of a revolt against the Roman Empire, established an independent Jewish state which he ruled for three years as Nasi ("Prince"), his state was conquered by the Hadrian in 135 following a two-year war
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Rome printed coins to celebrate the victory over Judea
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587 BCE to 70 CE: Second Temple Period
•
Paul's existing letters only take up a decade of that time in the mid-first century before the destruction of the second temple

Vocabulary:

satrap (pl. satrapies), n. [SAH-trap] name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid (Persian) Empires and in several of their successors, also used today to refer to world leaders or governors who are heavily influenced by larger world superpowers or hegemonies and act as their surrogates ⇒ "Seleucus [say-LOO-kuss] was an infantry general under Alexander the Great, was appointed Satrap of Babylon, and from 312 BC, he ruthlessly expanded his dominions and eventually conquered the Persian and Median lands."
diadochi, n. [digh-AD-oh-kee] the rival generals, family and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for the control of Alexander's empire after his death in 323 BC ⇒ "Seleucus I Nicator (ca. 358 BC – 281 BC) was one of the Diadochi, having previously served as an infantry general under Alexander the Great, he eventually assumed the title of basileus and established the Seleucid Empire over much of Alexander's near eastern territories."

People:

Antiochus IV (215-164 BC)
[an-TIGH-oh-kuss]
Greek king of the Seleucid Empire (312-63BC, Iran/Levant/Turkey)
  • near-conquest of Egypt
  • had been a political hostage of the Roman Republic
Seleucus (358-281 BC)
[say-LOO-kuss]
Infantry general under Alexander the Great, was appointed Satrap of Babylon
  • from 312 BC, he ruthlessly expanded his dominions and eventually conquered the Persian and Median lands
  • he not only ruled Babylonia, but the entire enormous eastern part of Alexander's empire
Herod the Great (74-4 BC)
Known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
  • Roman client king of Judea, has been described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis",
  • "the evil genius of the Judean nation"
  • "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition"
  • "the greatest builder in Jewish history"
  • the Second Temple in Jerusalem was known as "Herod's Temple"

Spelling Corrections:

Isreal ⇒ Israel

Flashcards:

what is the difference between the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah?
KINGDOM OF JUDAH (930 BC - 586 BC): referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" whereas the "Northern Kingdom" was the Kingdom of Israel, at the beginning, the Kingdom of Judah tried to establish rule over the north, 587 BC: Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem, KINGDOM OF ISRAEL (930 BC - 720 BC) conquered by the Assyrian Empire
empire from 215BC-164BC in Iran/Levant/Turkey
Seleucid [sel-OO-sid] Empire
northern Iranian empire from 678-549 BC
Median Empire
western and central Asian empire from 550–330 BC
Achaemenid [ah-KEE-men-id] Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great
kingdom founded 305 BC after death of Alexander the Great, ended with the death of Cleopatra and Roman conquest in 30 BC
Ptolemaic [tall-ah-MAY-ik] Kingdom
ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions between 140-116BC
Hasmonean dynasty
Paul's Letters: Authorship and Audience
Form and Physicality of Ancient Letter Writing
Paul's Letter Writing Within the Tradition of Ancient Rhetoric
Ancient Responses to the Letters of Paul
How Ancient People Wrote about Their Place in History: Polybius and Daniel
Four Stories of Empire in Judea: Babylonian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman
The Roman Empire's Knowledge of Early Christian Communities
Josephus on the Definition of Jew and Christian in the Ancient World
Understanding the Historical Josephus
The Priene Inscription
Intertwining of Religion and Politics in the Roman Empire
Letters to the Corinthians
Slavery and Freedom in Roman Corinth
Slavery in First Corinthians