Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.)
The fall of Jerusalem was a devastating experience for the Jews. This was a people who found their identity in a covenant relationship with God. They were "Temple-centered." Sacrifices were necessary for covenant renewal and these took place at the Temple. This was the only place where worship of the true God was to occur in terms of sacrifice (cf. Deut. 12:13?14).1 Many Jews were taken captive into Babylon. In 539 B.C., God raised up another king, however, who had arisen to power and conquered Babylon (viz. Cyrus the Great of Persia). This king was predisposed to allow the Jews to repatriate to their land and rebuild their temple and reinstitute temple sacrifice. If they thought they would also be able to achieve political independence, complete with a reigning king, they were to be disappointed. Of course, many Jews did not return to their homeland, but had fully assimilated into the Babylonian culture and were content to forego their homeland and temple and await a future day of redemption.2 This led to antagonistic attitudes toward the two groups of Jews. Those who had never been carried away into captivity but remained in the land viewed those who had been taken away as being under the judgment of God and thereby, guilty of personal sin and a life worthy of God's judgment and rejection. The repatriating group, on the other hand, saw the situation just the opposite. They viewed themselves as specially favored by God that he would choose them out of all the other Jews who chose to remain in the land of captivity. Thus, when the two ideologies converged, there were competing, or at least antithetical, attitudes of the one group toward the other.
To understand how this developed even further click here: Alex the Great (332 B.C.).
Notes
1Chilton notes that provisions were made for long journeys. Cf. Bruce Chilton, "Temple," in Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, eds. Ralph Martin and Peter Davids (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997): 1159.
2Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987): 29.
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