Christ and the Clash of Cultures
When we became Christians we had already been influenced by our culture. Conversion means removing that influence and being influenced by God.
What deprogramming and reprogramming has to go on in order to produce fruit?
Examining the clash of cultures in the first century is a great way to understand how this process takes place.
Roman culture was very proud – if you didn’t do it their way you were a nerd.
Will you create “culture” Christianity or the culture of the cross?
What do people transform and conform to?
How are people being programmed? What are people being fed/consuming. Asking what programming has gone on is a great way to then reach people who are “programmed”…
The Clash of the Two Kingdoms
Christ and the clash of households
Christ and the clash of cities
Christ and the clash of courts
Christ and the clash of cults
The birth date of Augustus was declared to be the beginning of all things (in the same year as the birth of Jesus).
The quest of the Davidic dynasty.
The house of David becomes a very important theme – Jesus is declared to be the son of David. We often forget about the space between the OT and the NT. Israel was caught between two kingdoms – the Persians and Greeks.
The Persians allowed Israel to operate within certain parameters. The kingdom of David is essentially being ruled by foreign kings.
333BC – Alexander the Great takes Judah into the Greek empire. This is the case until Rome takes over in about 56 BC.
Now no cultural boundaries. Greek culture invades the empire. The gymnasium is next to the academy. Even the synagogue is built in Greek style. Although Israel is meant to operate according to the Torah they have been almost completely influenced by Greek culture.
ATG died ten years later. His kingdom is split amongst generals. Egypt takes control of Israel – the unExodus.
Where is the kingdom of David?
Israel was the pathway between two great kingdoms. This went on until 198BC when the northern empire defeated Egypt and took control of Israel.
Outsiders set up as governors.
Antiocus Epiphanes – intervened in Israel in 156BC – invaded Israel, looted the temple and set up an image of Zeus on the altar.
Abomination of Desolation - referred to in the Maccabees (the book – not the people).
From Wikipedia:
While Antiochus was busy in Egypt, a false rumor spread that he had been killed. The deposed High Priest Jason gathered a force of 1,000 soldiers and made a surprise attack on the city of Jerusalem. An official Antiochus appointed as High Priest, Menelaus, was forced to flee Jerusalem during a riot. On the King’s return from Egypt in 167 BC enraged by his defeat, he attacked Jerusalem and restored Menelaus, then executed many Jews.[6]
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When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.
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— 2 Maccabees 5:11-14
To consolidate his empire and strengthen his hold over the region, Antiochus decided to side with the Hellenized Jews by outlawing Jewish religious rites and traditions observed by more orthodox Jews and by ordering the worship of Zeus as the supreme god.[citation needed] This was anathema to the Jews and when they refused, Antiochus sent an army to enforce his decree. Because of the resistance, the city was destroyed, many were slaughtered, and a military Greek citadel called the Acra was established.[7]
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Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God; also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place requested…They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws. A man could not keep the sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew. At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended. Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall. Others, who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the sabbath in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned to death.
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The Maccabeans revolted against Antiochus, returning Israel to its former glory. Seen as the arrival of the Messianic Kingdom.
From Wikipedia
Most modern scholars argue that the king was in fact intervening in an internal civil war between the traditionalist Jews in the country and the Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem.[8][9][10] According to Joseph P. Schultz:
Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the jewish camp.[11]
These competed violently over who would be the High Priest, with traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contesting with Hellenizers with Greek names like Jason and Menelaus.[12] Other authors point to possible socio/economic motives in addition to the religious motives behind the civil war.[13]
What began in many respects as a civil war escalated when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenizing Jews in their conflict with the traditionalists. [14] As the conflict escalated, Antiochus took the side of the Hellenizers by prohibiting the religious practices the traditionalists had rallied around. This may explain why the king, in a total departure from Seleucid practice in all other places and times, banned the traditional religion of a whole people.[15]
In the 2nd century BCE, the land of Israel lay between Egypt and the Seleucid empire. Both Egypt and the Seleucid empire were states descended from the break up of Alexander the Great’s Greek empire. Since the rule of Alexander in 336–323 BCE, a process of Hellenization had spread through the near East. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ca. 215–164 BCE), became ruler of the Seleucid Empire in 175 BCE, Hellenizing Jews had been long-established in Israel. They had built a gymnasium, competed internationally in Greek games, “removed their marks of circumcision and repudiated the holy covenant”[1]
Conflict over the appointment of the High Priest and corruption contributed to the causes of the Maccabean Revolt. The High Priest in Jerusalem was Onias III. His brother Jason, who favoured the Seleucids, bribed Antiochus to make him High Priest instead. Antiochus was insensitive to the views of religious Jews and treated the High Priest as a political appointee and one from whom money could be made. To Antiochus the High Priest was merely a local governor within his realm, who could be appointed or dismissed at will, while to orthodox Jews he was divinely appointed.[2]
Menelaus (who was not even a member of the Levite priestly family) then bribed Antiochus and was appointed High Priest in place of Jason. Menelaus had Onias assassinated. His brother Lysimachus took holy vessels from the Temple, causing riots and the thief’s death at the hands of the rioters. Menelaus was arrested and arraigned before Antiochus, but he bribed his way out of trouble. Jason subsequently drove out Menelaus and became High Priest again. Antiochus pillaged the Temple, attacked Jerusalem and “led captive the women and children”.[3] From this point onwards, Antiochus pursued a Hellenizing policy with zeal. This effectively meant banning traditional Jewish religious practice. In 167 BCE Jewish sacrifice was forbidden, sabbaths and feasts were banned and circumcision was outlawed. Altars to Greek gods were set up and animals prohibited to Jews were sacrificed on them. The Olympian Zeus was placed on the altar of the Temple. Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence. The king’s motives are unclear. He may have been incensed at the overthrow of his appointee, Menelaus,[2] he may have been responding to a Jewish revolt that had drawn on the Temple and the Torah for its strength, or he may have been encouraged by a group of radical Hellenizers among the Jews.[4]
The revolt
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Israel under Judah Maccabee
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Jonathan’s conquests
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Simon’s conquests
After Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias’ place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. After Mattathias’ death about one year later in 166 BCE, his son Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Jewish collaborators, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed pagan altars in the villages, circumcised children and forced Jews into outlawry.[4] The term Maccabees as used to describe the Jewish army is taken from its actual use as Judah’s surname.
The revolt itself involved many battles, in which the Maccabean forces gained notoriety among the Syrian army for their use of guerrilla tactics. After the victory, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Maccabee as high priest. A large Syrian army was sent to quash the revolt, but returned to Syria on the death of Antiochus IV. Its commander Lysias, preoccupied with internal Syrian affairs, agreed to a political compromise that restored religious freedom.
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple following Judah Maccabee’s victory over the Seleucids.
Maccabean rule
Following the re-dedication of the temple, the supporters of the Maccabees were divided over the question of whether to continue fighting or not. When the revolt began under the leadership of Mattathias, it was seen, in the view of the author of the First Book of Maccabees, as a war for religious freedom to end the oppression of the Seleucids. However, as the Maccabees realized how successful they had been, many wanted to continue the revolt and conquer other lands with Jewish populations or to convert their peoples. This policy exacerbated the divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees under later Hasmonean monarchs such as Alexander Jannaeus.[5] Those who sought the continuation of the war were led by Judah Maccabee.
On his death in battle in 160 BCE, Judah was succeeded as army commander by his younger brother, Jonathan, who was already High Priest. Jonathan made treaties with various foreign states, causing further dissent between those who merely desired religious freedom and those who sought greater power.
In 142 BCE Jonathan was assassinated by Diodotus Tryphon, a pretender to the Seleucid throne, and was succeeded by Simon Maccabee, the last remaining son of Mattathias. Simon gave support to Demetrius II Nicator, the Seleucid king, and in return Demetrius exempted the Maccabees from tribute. Simon conquered the port of Joppa and the fortress of Gezer and expelled the garrison from the Acra in Jerusalem. In 140 BCE, he was recognised by an assembly of the priests, leaders and elders as high priest, military commander and ruler of Israel. Their decree became the basis of the Hasmonean kingdom. Shortly after, the Roman senate renewed its alliance with the Hasmonean kingdom and commanded its allies in the eastern Mediterranean to do so also. Although the Maccabees won autonomy, the region remained a province of the Seleucid empire and Simon was required to provide troops to Antiochus VII Sidetes, the brother of Demetrius II. When Simon refused to give up the territory he had conquered, Antiochus took them by force.
Simon was murdered in 134 BCE by his son-in-law Ptolemy, and succeeded as high priest and king by his son John Hyrcanus I. Antiochus conquered the entire district of Judea, but refrained from attacking the Temple or interfering with Jewish observances. Judea was freed from Seleucid rule on the death of Antiochus in 129 BCE.[4]
Hasmonean rule lasted until 63 BCE, when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem and subjected Israel to Roman rule, while the Hasmonean dynasty itself ended in 37 BCE when the Idumean Herod the Great became king of Israel[2] and king of the Jews[4][6].
The Qumran community set itself up as a desert community waiting for the kingdom of David.
In 63 BC the Romans take over. The governors always went to their communities in order to conduct criminal trials. Their other responsibility was tax collection. They ruled by carrot and stick.
Herod the Great constructs the Jewish temple while simultaneously establishing Caesarea, which becomes the Roman capital of Israel. (Where is the house of David – Herod is “king of the Jews” (not a governor, but a half breed Jew) established somewhere other than Jerusalem.
Roman culture gave the impression that it was very funky. Sculptures were created from pictures of the Emperor and Empress.
“We are here and we have brought our “superior” culture to you” – many examples of “Jewish” culture are compromised by Rome.
In 4BC the reign of Herod the Great comes to an end. Herod’s sons were sent to Rome for education. Herod was not “born king of the Jews” - though Jewish he had no connection to the house of David.
The temple took 46 years to build, 1,000 members of the house of Levi contributed.
Herod kills one of his sons a few days before he dies because he doesn’t want him to succeed him. He has no problems killing a generation of boys (trying to get rid of Jesus).
When Herod died the kingdom was split up (Luke 3:1-2) – John the Baptist started preaching in 29AD.
1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.
Rome promises “Pax Romana” for those playing the game – but Messianic Israel was awaiting the fulfillment of prophecies (especially the line of David).
Luke 1 v 67
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to shoe the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.
Israel must now serve God with holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives – holiness and righteousness was not anywhere near the top of the priority list for Roman culture.
JTB prepares the way by giving knowledge of salvation from sins (not from enemies). Israel was looking for the wrong sort of salvation.
Baptising Jews was a sign that Jews needed to baptized in order to enter the covenant – traditionally baptism was for first generation gentile converts. Jewish anthropology said “we are ok” they had systems in place to deal with sins (day of atonement/sacrifices etc under the law). John heralded a new system.
We now have a clash between Rome and the Kingdom of God – there’s another clash between those who believe that they are part of the covenant and the new covenant. A clash of theological cultures.
Jesus said man’s problem is not external (like the solution Israel expected) but internal – Israel needs a new heart. We see this clash in the controversy of Jesus’ ministry as recorded in the gospels.
His kingdom is not the kingdom they expect. Heading towards Jerusalem the disciples were excited because they thought Jesus was going to literally sit on the throne of David.
Not pax Romana but a lasting peace. Rome gave the promise of peace for the obedient – God gives a promise of lasting and eternal peace. True peace.
To follow the everlasting kingdom requires major transformation.
Luke’s gospel sets the agenda which helps to understand the clash of cultures. Jesus isn’t interested in converts (people who are saved) but disciples.
The competitor is there right from the time of the birth of Jesus – Augustus v Jesus – Augustus birth changes the calendar.
