1. WELCOME to NT101C-03: A Survey of the New Testament
“There is no heavier burden than a great potential!”
WELCOME to
NT101C-03: A Survey of the New Testament
CHAPTER 2: Intertestamental and New Testament Historical Background
“The Middle East in
the Days of Jesus” (pp. 21ff.)

2. Ancient Empires and Daniel 2:31-45, 7:1ff. & 8:3ff.

3. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
Before the Greek Period
The united Israelite monarchy under Saul, David and Solomon was divided into the Northern Kingdom–Samaria and Southern Kingdom–Jerusalem.
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
Samaria was taken by Assyria in 721/2 BC
Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 586/7 BC
Persia took the power and allowed the exiled Jews to return to their native land.
Alexander’s Greece defeated the Persians.

4. Empire of Alexander the Great
from Macedonia in the west to India in the east

5. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
The Greek Period
Alexander the Great and His Conquests
Hellenization policy brought the language and culture of the Greeks to the colonized then known world.
Greek and oriental cultures mixed to produce a Hellenistic culture.
The universal language became Greek which has supplanted Aramaic.
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents

6. Palestine became the battle ground for the Ptolemies against the Seleucids so that the Jews were always affected by wars.

7. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
The Greek Period after Alexander the Great
Diadochi – successors of Alexander the Great
Ptolemies of Egypt vs Seleucids of Syria
Hebrew Bible to Greek Septuagint (LXX)
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
Diplomatic Defeat and Romans in the East
Persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Mattathias and Sons Fought the Seleucids

8. Coin of
Antiochus
Epiphanes

9. Greek God Dionysius -
an enforced processional marching in his honor became part of the program of Hellenization by Antiochus IV Epiphanes
(The Jews abhorred this pagan practice as well as the other things done by the Seleucids to defile the temple in Jerusalem.)

10. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
The Maccabean Period
Rise of the Maccabees
(Hasmonean Dynasty)
Revolt
Mattathias
Judas
Jonathan
Simon
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
Independence
under Simon made him and his heirs to rule in perpetuity.

11. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
The Roman Period
Rise of Rome/Pompey in Jerusalem
Roman Administration/Pax Romana
Roman Emperors/Herodian Dynasty
Caesar Augustus
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
The Roman Empire

12. 1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
New Testament Times During Roman Period
Herod the Great (an Idumean) who rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and his father Antipater were puppets of Rome.
Herodian Rulers: Archelaus, Antipas and Philip; then later on Agrippa I and Agrippa II
1 – Political, Cultural & Religious Antecedents
Roman Governors and Jewish Revolts
From the First Jewish War (fall of the temple in AD 70) to the Second (defeat of Bar Kokhba in AD 135)  Search for the Messiah