Before Christ
Jesus of Nazareth had some exceptionally tolerant ideas. In order to understand them, we need to know more about Jesus's Jewish background: the history of the Jewish people, their god and their law.
In this newsletter I will outline the context in which Jesus of Nazareth came to his views. For Jesus was first and foremost a Jewish preacher who never made any attempt to make his views known outside his own people. The applicability of Jewish law was also never in question for Jesus.
We will delve into the origins of the Jewish people, the origins of their distinctiveness from other religions in the region, their constant struggle for religious autonomy under foreign rule. We will take a look at their monotheism and at the prominent position of their religious law.
Jesus grew up in a civilisation that was not only Jewish, but also heavily influenced by Greek culture and philosophy. Due to an erosion of the authority of the high priests, there was much religious debate amongst Jewish commoners. It was a time of religious polarisation, sectarianism, charismatic lay preachers. Mostly due to Roman mismanagement, Palestinian society in the first century CE was in a state of agitation. Many believed that the end of times was near, and that Roman occupation was a trial before the day of judgement would arrive. According to a biblical prophesy, a messiah would lead the righteous out of their misery. Could Jesus be that messiah?
The mysterious origins of the Jewish people
On the border of Lebanon and Syria lies the mighty mountain Hermon. In winter you can enjoy skiing there. The meltwater flows south towards the Red Sea, forming the Jordan River. To the east, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, lies a fairly fertile hilly landscape. People have lived there since time immemorial. The city of Jericho has existed for almost 12,000 years. The area lies between two huge river deltas: the Egyptian Nile in the west, and Mesopotamia, the land in the east, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia met in Canaan, which became a melting pot of cultures.
Much yet very little is known about the origin of the people of Israel. It is described in the collection of books that we know as the Old Testament and that the Jews call the Tanakh. As a historical source, the collection is unique, but not as reliable. It is a religious, legal, mythological, literary and historical document in one; it is not easy to isolate the historical elements from the others. And as it was handed down from the narrator's devout perspective; don't expect objectivity. The work was partly transferred orally; it was probably not collected in its entirety until around 120 BCE, or perhaps even later. Without independent additional evidence, we are primarily in the realm of faith, not science. I have nothing against believers, but this is not a place for those who want to be confirmed in their faith. What you are going to read here is based on scholarly literature on the history of the Jewish people. I mainly rely on the book The Jews, a history by the historians John Efron, Matthias Lehmann and Steven Weitzman (2009/2019). For those who want to delve more into the subject, I can wholeheartedly recommend that book. It is thorough, nuanced and easy to read.
The first verifiable mention of a people of Israel can be found on the so-called stele of Merenptah, which dates back to about 1210 BCE. Canaan was then an Egyptian province. The pharaoh Merenptah then describes that he subjugated a number of cities and tribes in that area. "Israel is devastated, seedless."
But what that mention of Israel refers to is not clear. It is clear from the context that they were a people or a community, not residents of a city-state. But beyond that, there are no indications of what community Israel was, or where it lived, let alone where it originally came from.
Canaan was inhabited by Canaanites. Archaeologists in the eleventh century BCE distinguish three distinct population groups in the area: inhabitants of city-states such as Jericho, the so-called sea peoples in the west, and the inhabitants of the higher areas surrounding the Jordan River. It is thought that the latter group were the ancestors of the people of Israel, but the indications are not very strong. The group would then have been driven deeper into the highlands (perhaps due to the attack of the pharaoh), where they led a relatively isolated existence and developed a separate culture. That culture would then be distinguished by a disapproval of pork, a specific form of housing, a characteristic, unadorned form of pottery (indicating a more egalitarian society), and circumcision to distinguish itself from other peoples. But that theory is speculative.
The sea peoples were recognisable by, among other things, richly decorated potsherds, which are an indication that these peoples came from a Hellenic civilisation. The most famous of those sea peoples were the Philistines. They lived mainly on the coast. Canaan was initially an Egyptian colony, but when the sea peoples came sailing in, Egyptian control was already waning. According to the Tanakh, the people of Israel were constantly at loggerheads with the Philistines; since they were neighbouring peoples and the Philistines were invaders with different cultural backgrounds, that is plausible.
In the ninth century BCE there was a king of Israel and a king from the house of "dwd", according to an inscription found south of Mount Hermon. "Dwd" possibly refers to the house of David, according to the Tanakh a dynasty from the kingdom of Judah. And from an Assyrian inscription from 853 BCE, it can be deduced that King Ahab of Israel controlled cities, an army, temples and a court culture. This is when the Tanakh becomes somewhat verifiable. The Tanakh describes history from the perspective of the kingdom of Judah, the area around Jerusalem. The kingdom of Israel was located north of it, around the later capital Samaria. According to the Tanakh, both kingdoms were united under the house of David, but there are no other sources to confirm this.
A dominated people with a law and one God
In the eighth century BCE, the expansion of the peoples of Mesopotamia towards Canaan began: successively the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Around 722 BCE, the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians. Around 701 BCE, the Assyrians also gained control of large parts of Judah. Jerusalem was left unscathed, and Judah became an Assyrian vassal state. It remained that way for over a hundred years, until the Babylonians took over from the Assyrians. The people of Judah saw their chance to regain autonomy, but that rebellion failed. In response, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, the royal family killed, and he took a substantial part of the population of Judah to Babylon, where they had to live in exile. Gradually, these new citizens of Babylon learned to deal with the new situation; they became grounded, and some even embraced the gods of Mesopotamia.
We have to talk about Yahweh, the main character of the Tanakh. Initially, he was a god with special powers when it came to war and weather. The first mentions, from the 14th century BCE, indicate an origin in the area south of the Dead Sea, but its fame extended to a larger area. In the kingdom of Israel, he became a national god, merged with powerful gods like Baal and El. But the people of Israel were far from monotheistic: all kinds of gods were worshipped. The Tanakh contains all kinds of references to other gods and remarkably few statements that there is only one god. It was only around the Babylonian exile in the 7th century BCE that the characteristic monotheism of the people of Judah emerged. Why that happened is a mystery. Possibly it was to oppose the polytheism of the Babylonians. It wasn't entirely unique; Egyptian civilisation also had a period in which only one god was recognised, and also the Assyrians and Babylonians sometimes tended to lump all their gods together to forge one almighty god.
As we read earlier, King Cyrus of Persia took Babylon in 539 BCE. Cyrus and his later successor Darius were capable administrators, who liked to rule aloof and from a distance; the peoples of Judah and Israel regained a measure of autonomy; they could return from Babylon if they wished, and their religion was left untouched. The area of the former Canaan would remain under Persian rule for two centuries, until the Hellenic culture of Alexandros the Great would take over. In the Tanakh, Persian rule is generally described favourably.
In Judaism as we know it, knowledge of the Book and the Law is very important. How did the Tanakh come about? We don't know much, but if we know one thing, it's that the Tanakh is a collection of stories and writings from all kinds of sources. The book of Genesis is a combination of ancient stories that were widespread in the ancient Middle East. The other books of the Torah, Jewish law, were certainly not written by Moses, but are presumably a compilation by four different authors. Most biblical stories were handed down orally before they were written. Presumably, the process of written recording was mainly undertaken during the exile in Babylon. Due to foreign domination, the people became more aware of their own identity, and the need to give more emphasis to their own history increased. It seems that in the 4th century BCE, on Persian authority, the prophet Ezra first imposed the law of Moses, the Torah, binding on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and its surroundings. The Tanakh in its present form was not standardised until the second century CE.
Toleration in the Tanakh
Toleration is hard to find in the Tanakh. God's laws are strict, and Yahweh did not let himself trampled on. He started his career as a war god for a reason. Setbacks on his people were usually a punishment from God. One just had to guess what one was being punished for.
Genesis 6-9 describes the Flood. God saw that all people on Earth were evil. They were dishonest and mean, and only came up with bad things. God regretted his creation. He wanted to undo it. There was only one virtuous man, Noah. God flooded the Earth with huge masses of water. Everything that lived perished. Except for Noah and his family and the animals that God told him to take on his boat.
God was not particularly successful with his great cleansing. The further course of history is known. The misdeeds of the following centuries are extensively recorded. But God had made a statement. Bad people shouldn’t count on his mercy.
Furthermore, God interfered intensively with his people. Countless enemies were destroyed by him. God punished the Egyptians with the ten Plagues of Egypt because Pharaoh did not allow the Israelites to leave the land (Exodus 7-11). With God's help, Joshua caused the walls of Jericho to collapse (Joshua 6). By order of God, Saul exterminated all the people of the Amalekites, except the king and their cattle. The latter to the anger of God, who had ordered everyone to be killed. (1 Samuel 15). There is no scientific support for any of these stories; It is unlikely that they took place in real life.
God issued a huge load of laws to the Israelites. The most important were the Ten Commandments. Most of the offences had to be punished by the people themselves, and not exactly gently. The death penalty — often stoning — included murder and manslaughter (Exodus 21:12), mistreatment of your father or mother (Leviticus 20:9), adultery (Leviticus 20:10), incest (Leviticus 20:11-21), sodomy (Leviticus 20:13), bestiality (Leviticus 20:15), spiritism (Exodus 22:17), sacrifice to other gods (Exodus 22:17-19), and on being under the influence of false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:13-19).
In a general sense, too, God demanded obedience to his precepts:
If you turn against the Lord, he will quickly destroy you.
— Deuteronomy 7:10
For a select few offences, God himself would administer the punishment: serving other gods (apostasy, idolatry) and pronouncing God's name, without thought (swearing, blasphemy, nomen sacrum). God clearly got upset easily. But remarkably, he is considerably more lenient about people who deny his existence. They may be off their rocker, but they don't have to die. God will deal with them later.
Only a fool would say: “There is no God!”
— Psalms 14:1
God took a similar attitude towards the deists:
Evil people say, “God does not know what we are doing! God Most High does not know!”
— Psalms 73:11
In any case, God was not to be scoffed at, and anyone who toys with his commands is screwed. Yet there are also tolerant texts in the Tanakh:
Remember, in the past you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. So you should not cheat or hurt anyone who is a foreigner in your land.
— Exodus 22:21
Oppression of foreigners was therefore not permitted, but befriending foreign peoples was discouraged. In fact, it must be ensured that foreign peoples could not continue to live in the Jewish land. For the risk was too great that the Israelites would worship foreign gods and live a wicked life. (Exodus 23:32-33).
In a separate short series of newsletters, we will later discuss toleration in Judaism in more detail.
Hellenic influences
Before this interruption, we were talking about Persian rule until the 4th century BCE. In this more or less chronological approach, we now consider the Hellenic influences on Judaism. In the series on the classical sources of toleration, I already pointed out the Hellenic influences on Jesus' views.
The Macedonian Alexandros the Great conquered Palestine from the Persians. That happened in 331 BCE. Eight years later, Alexandros died, aged only 33. He died so unexpectedly that he had not properly arranged his succession. He was barely dead, or the battle for dominion over his empire erupted. Eventually, the empire was cut up. Alexandros' general Ptolemaios secured the Nile Delta and the east coast of the Mediterranean, including Palestine. He established his dynasty there, with Alexandria as his capital. The Macedonian dynasty of the Ptolemies (with the famous Cleopatra as its last scion) appropriated the title pharaoh and usually married Egyptian aristocracy. Thus, a mixed Egyptian-Hellenic culture arose in the kingdom.
According to good practice, Jewish culture and religion was largely left untouched by the Ptolemies. De facto authority in Judea was exercised by a dynasty of high priests. There was hardly any evidence of Hellenic influences on Judea, although the Jewish upper class naturally came into contact with it: they learned Greek, and also started reading Greek authors.
In 200 BCE, Palestine came into the hands of another Hellenic dynasty, founded by another general of Alexandros, Seleukos. That Seleucid dynasty pretty much controlled the former Babylonian empire. For Judea, not much changed at first. It was relatively autonomous. Until a certain priest Jason had himself appointed high priest by the Seleucid king, for a fee. That position was apparently for sale with the sovereign. Had that already hit a nerve with the Judeans; his successor Menelaus made it even worse. He also had to buy the high priesthood from the king, but to pay for the purchase, he made a grab in the temple treasures. That was definitely not taken on the chin by the Judeans. Their grievances were directed not only against the unseemly interference of the Seleucids in matters of religion, but also against the increasing hellenisation of Palestine which was not discouraged by the high priests Jason and Menelaus. Things got out of hand, and the Seleucid king Antiochus decided to outright ban expressions of the Jewish religion.
Long story short: the Judeans rebelled. That revolt is known as the Maccabean revolt of 167 BCE. And the revolt succeeded: the Seleucids were expelled; a new dynasty of high priests was established who actually ruled the country, the Hasmoneans. But soon the Hasmoseans lost their popularity: the tax burden was high, and their regime took on tyrannical traits. And hellenisation did not stop: even under the Hasmonean dynasty, Greek culture stood for civilisation and modernity. For the common people however, it stood for decadence.
With all these entanglements, the high priesthood had lost considerable authority for many a Jew. Did the high priests formerly represent the highest authority in religious matters; for the common believers, the high priests had now forfeited that authority. The high priests were in charge of the temple and its surroundings, that was uncontroversial, but outside of it, their religious authority was shrugged. In addition, the Hellenic influences had also left their mark on religious issues. Believers started thinking for themselves. Issues that the people had hardly thought about before, were now widely discussed. Think of issues like the immortality of the soul, the role of fate and free will, spiritual or worldly possessions. There were scribes and charismatic figures (such as John the Baptist) who promoted their views and managed to gain a following. In Greece you had the Cynics, the Epicureans and the Stoics. In Judea, various religious-philosophical movements also emerged, each with their own adherents: the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. Some were loosely organised around a philosophical approach, or formed the following of a particularly astute scribe. These kinds of movements are usually associated with the beginning of rabbinic Judaism: authoritative interpretation of God's law by scribes, from which the Talmud later emerged. But there were also groups with a sectarian belief in seclusion and an obsession with the end of times. To such a last group of Essenes we owe the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The end of times?
In 67 BCE, the Roman general Pompeius defeated the Seleucids. This brought him to the threshold of Palestine, which was still ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans at that time were dealing with a succession issue: two sons both claimed the succession of their late mother. Roman power could be the deciding factor in the conflict. By taking sides with one of the sons and arresting the other, Pompeius effectively took power. In 63 BCE, to show who was in charge, he walked into the Temple, the holiest of the holy. For Jews, that was a shocking humiliation; only priests were allowed in.
According to good Roman custom, the Jewish people were largely left untouched and the Hasmoneans kept their position under Roman rule. But the Hasmoneans could hardly be tamed, so the Romans had a loyal king, Herod, flown in. He took control firmly. The country was ably governed for forty years until his death. He built a gorgeous new temple and maintained good relations with the Romans. The Hellenic-Roman culture was given plenty of space. But after Herod's death in 4 BCE, the doldrums came. His sons sucked, so the Romans appointed governors to run the country. But Judea was a backwater for the Romans; Rome appointed prefects and procurators of the second league who did not understand the subtleties in dealing with the headstrong Jews.
Due to misrule, high taxes and a number of crop failures, the Jewish people began to become rebellious again. Groups such as the Zealots emerged that actively opposed Roman rule. Now the Romans could have quite a lot, but those who actively resisted their presence could count on a harsh reaction.
In addition, Jewish eschatology came into vogue. As already mentioned, Jews believed that God rewarded obedience and punished sinful behaviour. The troubled period under the Roman governors, with economic hardship and brutal Roman violence, was incompatible with this. Why were the pious Jews being punished? It had to be the end times, as predicted in the Tanakh. A new Jewish king, a messiah, would arise and redeem the land under God's guidance, as the prophets had predicted. Roman rule was seen as a period of divine trial that would precede the final judgment.
In that historical context lived Jesus of Nazareth, to which we will devote the next newsletter. As you are probably aware, the end of times is still some time away. But a dramatic apotheosis awaited the Jews. The resistance movement grew in strength and in 66 CE the weapons were taken up. The rebellion was initially successful; the Romans withdrew and an interim government was formed. But they should have known better: the emperor's power was not to be scoffed at. Emperor Vespasian sent his son Titus to head a huge Roman army. In 70 CE, Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, and the temple destroyed. Jewish resistance led to a cascade of ethnic conflicts between Jews and non-Jews, also outside Judea. Many Jews sought refuge in various cities around the Mediterranean, where small Jewish communities were formed. That diaspora would eventually form the network in which Christianity would spread throughout the Roman Empire. But we'll come back to that.
This was the first newsletter in a new, long series: toleration and Christianity. You will see several storylines return in the upcoming newsletters. Of course, the Jewish background of Jesus. The Hellenic elements in his views. The role of the Jewish diaspora in the spread of Christianity. Jewish monotheism. The question of whether Jewish law also applies to Christians. And later also the Jewish influences on Islam. And much more. Keep reading!
Further reading
Flavius Josephus, Historia Ioudaikou polemou (75 CE), translated into English as The wars of the Jews
John Efron et al., The Jews, a history (2009 /2019)
Philip Davies, The history of ancient Israel (2015)
Susan Niditch (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to ancient Israel (2016)
George van Kooten, Jacques van Ruiten (ed.), Intolerance, polemics, and debate in Antiquity (2019)
This was the first newsletter in a long series on toleration and Christianity. The next episodes are:
Before Christ
Jesus of Nazareth had some exceptionally tolerant ideas. In order to understand them, we need to know more about Jesus's Jewish background: the history of the Jewish people, their god and their law.Where Jesus' tolerant ideas came from
In some ways, Jesus was a tolerant thinker. But he didn't have all his views of his own. About Jesus' simple origins, the halakhic tradition and Hellenic influences.How this contrarian apostle accidentally founded a world religion
About the tragic life and the miraculous survival of Paulos of Tarsos, the orphaned Jesus community in Jerusalem, the mission in the pagan West and the irrelevance of the Jewish Law.No Jewish law for Christians, but what then?
Why Christian law is not in the Bible. About Paulos's selective application of Jesus' instructions, and his remarkable views on sex, women, and men with long hair.With blood on their hands and tears in their eyes
In the 4th century, the Church of Rome gained power and lost its innocence. The unity of the church became the main thing, and heresy a sin. After Augustinus’ struggle, the church got a killer instinct.Christianity, slavery and the conversion of pagans
On conversion of pagans without compulsion. And Christian approval of slavery. About sex slaves, the conversion of a tourist paradise, and exploitation by the village priest.The clean hands of the Church, the dirty hands of the State
How the popes let the Christian monarchs do the dirty work. But separation of church and state later came to mean something else: a secular government.The just war against Islam
A clash between Christianity and Islam was inevitable. Not only because they got into each other's way, but also because they used different justifications for warfare.