The World of the New Testament

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0:00 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, I ask for special blessings this evening upon a particular parishioner who is going through an extremely troubled time. I ask for you to bless her, and to bless her struggle, and to give her the courage and the fortitude, the patience and the peace that she needs to overcome this incredibly difficult moment in her life. I also pray for the gift of the Spirit this evening, that we would be given the sevenfold gift of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

1:06 Lord Jesus Christ, be present now, and let your Holy Spirit bow all hearts and love and truth today to hear your word and keep your way. Give us the grace to grasp your word, that we may do what we have heard. Instruct us through the scriptures, Lord, as we draw near, O God adored. To God the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one. To you, O blessed Trinity, be praised throughout eternity. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I'd like to begin this class today with a quote from N.T. Wright's book, The Challenge of Jesus. So his first initials are N.T. Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T, The Challenge of Jesus.

2:03 And this is what he says in the front of his book. He says, We study Jesus because of the Christian commitment to mission. The mission of most Christians likely to read this book takes place in a world where Jesus has been a hot topic for several years now. In America particularly, Jesus and the quest for him has been featured in Time magazine, on television, and elsewhere in the media. And the people whom ordinary Christians meet, to whom they must address the gospel, have been told over and over by the media, on the basis of some recent book or other, that the Jesus of the gospels is historically incredible, and that Christianity is therefore based on a mistake. It simply will not do to declare this question out of bounds, to say that the church's teaching will do for us, thank you very much, so we do not need to ask historical questions.

3:03 You cannot say that to a serious and inquiring person who engages you in conversation on a train, or to someone who wanders into a church one Sunday and asks what it is all about. If Christianity is not rooted in things that actually happened in first century Palestine, we might as well be Buddhists, Marxists, or almost anything else. And if Jesus never existed, or if he was quite different from what the gospels and the church's worship affirms him to have been, then we are indeed living in a cloud, cuckoo land. The skeptics can and must be answered, and when we do so, we will not merely affirm the various traditions of the church, whether Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, or whatever. We will be driven to reinterpret them, discovering depths of meaning within them that we had never imagined.

4:00 This year that's coming up, the year 2007, has been designated by our bishop, Bishop Gregory Amund, our bishop of the Diocese of Austin. Bishop Gregory Amund has designated 2007 as the Year of the Word, and he's mandating Bible studies in every parish, even the smallest little mission parish. He's mandating a scripture study. He's saying, good grief, people, why aren't you studying the scriptures? And so, 2007, he wants for us to focus upon the Word, the revelation that has been given to us, both in the Old and the New Testaments. And especially as that Word is contained in the words of sacred scripture, or the words of sacred scripture actually are the Word of God.

4:56 It's not that they just contain the Word of God, but they are the words of God. He used human authors to say what he was going to say, just as he used his humanity to bear his divinity in the Incarnation. And so, this year, I'd like to make a challenge to each of you, because we're reading, you know, we're seeing lots of scripture here in the scripture study, and we're also reading a lot about historical events, you know, within the Old and the New Testament. We're in a lot of scripture. But I'd like for you guys to spend some time in the New Testament, and to take the opportunity to sit down and to read one of the Gospels from front to back in one sitting. And the Gospels actually are not that long. I mean, the chapters are just a couple of paragraphs. I mean, they're very short when we say a chapter of the Gospel, whether it's, you know, the shortest Gospels, the Gospel of Mark, 16 chapters long.

5:52 I recommend starting with either Matthew or Luke, because they have the infancy narrative. Different types of infancy narratives. They tell it from a different angle. Like, for instance, Luke doesn't talk about the three Magi. And Matthew doesn't talk about the presentation in the Temple. So, there are different focuses. But I'd like to read here from the Church's dogmatic constitution on divine revelation from the Second Vatican Council, De Verbum, which is Latin for God-Word, or the Word of God, De Verbum. And this is what it says in section 17, what our bishops have to teach us. The Word of God, which is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe, is set forth and shows its power in a most excellent way in the writings of the New Testament.

6:46 For when the fullness of time arrived, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us in His fullness of grace and truth. Christ established the kingdom of God on earth, manifested His Father and Himself by deeds and words, and completed His work by His death, resurrection, and glorious ascension, and by the sending of the Holy Spirit. Having been lifted up from the earth, He draws all men to Himself, He who alone has the words of eternal life. This mystery had not been manifested to other generations, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Holy Spirit, so that they might preach the gospel, stir up faith in Jesus Christ and Lord, and gather together the Church. Now the writings of the New Testament stand as a perpetual and divine witness to these realities. So, my challenge to you is to read at least one of the gospels in one sitting if you can.

7:42 Maybe in two sittings, you have to go to the restroom. But, you know, don't drink a lot of water before you start. And then read all four, if you can. And it's really not that hard. I mean, the gospels are beautiful. And don't spend all your time in the footnotes trying to figure out what everything means. But just read it. You can always study it later. But just allow for it to touch you. And I promise you that you will notice things in the gospel that you've never noticed before. Even though that you've most likely heard everything that's in the gospels just by going to mass. But most of the times when you're in mass, you know, somebody in front of you has a cute baby or, you know, guys. You know, there's a woman wearing a strapless, you know, dress. And you're trying not to look at her.

8:30 And the whole time you're trying not to look at her so you can focus on the liturgy. But then you're not focusing on the liturgy. And so don't wear strapless dresses, girls, to church. It's not a good thing. So this will give you an opportunity to really encounter Jesus in his word. Now, I'm going to do a, very quickly, we're going to look at last week at one particular thing. Remember how Antiochus IV was a Greek king. He was a Seleucid king. Antiochus IV Epiphanes. And he practically outlawed Judaism and enforced a strict Hellenization of Judea, of the land, and of the Jews living within it. And this caused an uproar among the Jews. In fact, it was the cause for the Maccabean revolt, for the Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, including Simon and Jonathan, Eleazar, for these sons of Mattathias to kind of revolt.

9:31 And so eventually, they won Jewish independence in what year? Jewish independence was won under Simon, one of the Maccabean brothers, in what year? 142. Jewish independence was won. But later on down the line, in the year 63 B.C., what happened? Right. Pompey conquered Jerusalem. And so when Pompey came in, who was a Roman military commander, so the Romans conquered Jerusalem, and now Judea became a Roman province, became part of Rome, of the Roman Empire. And he conquered Jerusalem, and he conquered Jerusalem after a three-month siege.

10:27 It's not like the Jews just let him march on in, but they closed the gates to him after a three-month siege. They finally gave in, and he took over Jerusalem. Now, Herod the Great is the next main big character that we're going to talk about in this line of history. And we know a lot about Herod the Great from the first century historiographer Josephus. Josephus. He's a Jewish historiographer. And he wrote in the first century A.D. I also just want to point out, if you didn't know this, A.D. stands for what? Anno Domini. The year of our Lord.

11:14 And so now, you have scholars who, who wants to call it A.D.? So they call it C.E., Common Era. But they're still dating it from the birth of Christ, so I don't get it. It's like happy holidays, but you can't escape it, because you're saying happy holy days, right? That's what holiday comes from, is holy day. So it's just like, whatever, you know, sure, we'll use C.E. Whatever floats your boat. But you're still dating it from Jesus, his birth, even though it's off probably by about three, four, five years. The calendar, because when it, our current calendar. So Jesus was probably born in either 3 B.C., 5 B.C., or 6 B.C., depending upon the various studies that you do. He was, he was born in one of those years. But I'm not going to get into, I'm not going to get into that. C.E. stands for Common Era.

12:05 Common Era. Because, you know, it's just common to all of us. Just how we all commonly celebrate the holidays, you know. Okay, so Herod the Great came into power in, let's see, I'm going to go ahead and draw this whole timeline, it's still going. He came into power in 37 B.C. 37 B.C. And by the way, you know Jesus couldn't have been born at zero, in the year zero, because Herod died in the year 4 B.C. And Herod was the one who commanded the massacring of the innocents. So how could Herod be commanding the massacre of the innocents four years after his death? You know, this is how we know that the, our way of. But Herod might have died in 1 B.C.

12:55 That's another, that's a whole other issue. He died in either 4 or 1 B.C. Depending upon how you read Josephus. Upon what manuscript of Josephus you're using. So. Okay. So he came from a wealthy Idumaean family. I'm going to write here, Herod the Great. He was called Herod the Great because of his wealth and his building projects. Unlike John Paul II, the Great, because he was holy. Kind of a better way to look at greatness. And so he came from a wealthy Idumaean family. And the Idumaeans, basically they were the Edomites. They were the descendants of the Edomites from Edom in the Old Testament. And in the time of, in the day of Jesus, it wasn't called Edom.

13:49 It was called Idumea. It was the name of the land, you know. Terms had changed. So, um, Idumaeans were successors of the Edomites. And most Idumaeans had converted to Judaism under John Hyrcanus' reform. Remember, John Hyrcanus came after Simon. He was Simon's son. And John Hyrcanus Judaized the land. He basically said, get circumcised or get out. John Hyrcanus. And when John Hyrcanus did this, the Idumaeans who were down in the south, in Idumaean, basically converted to Judaism where they got out. Because if you're going to be a part of the Hasmonean kingdom, you have to do what the king says. But Herod was a ruthless ruler.

14:38 He was incredibly ruthless. And he was an ambitious builder. So he was very politically minded. And, uh, let's see here. Let me give a little bit of history here. In, back in 47 BC, his father was made procurator over Judea. And his father ended up dying. Uh, and I believe he was, he was murdered. And then Herod came after his father. But in 40 BC, the Parthians, who were in the east, you know, after the Seleucids, you had the Parthians. The Parthians. The Parthians way in the east came in and attacked Jerusalem. And they, they basically conquered it.

15:26 And Herod fled Jerusalem to Rome. And when Herod was in Rome, he was elected king of the Jews by the Roman Senate. So here's Herod. He's elected king of the Jews by the Roman Senate. And so he returns to Jerusalem, which is under Parthian control, with how many troops? 60,000. Right. This is in this, this is in, uh, uh, chapter 16. No, it was probably 60,000 troops. Yeah. And so 60,000 troops came in because the writer who was writing, who Josephus, uh, wrote more historically minded. He would write more how it happened, not exaggerating.

16:14 Okay. And so 60,000 troops, he, uh, comes in, in 37 B.C. with 60,000 troops and reconquers Jerusalem. And this is why we say Herod the Great's rule began in 37. He kind of began back before that, but the Parthians kicked him out. Then he came back with 60,000 Roman troops. Um, I'm going to go ahead and give you guys some other important markers here in the, the history of Herod the Great, the Edomaean. In 23 B.C. he built a huge palace in Jerusalem. His palace. Remember before how King David had a palace in Jerusalem and then the temple was built by his son Solomon?

17:04 Well, now, Herod built his palace because he wanted to be the king, you know, like David of old. And in 22 B.C., he actually built up the port city of Caesarea. Let's see here. Caesarea. No. Caesarea Philippi. Let's see here. This is the Sea of Galilee and south of that is the Jordan River and south of that is the Dead Sea. Caesarea Philippi is way up here northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Caesarea Philippi was over here on the Mediterranean. Turn your books open to page 295. And on page 295, you'll see Caesarea on the sea.

17:52 Now, it's a lot of ruins. But it was incredible. It was one of the hugest, like, seaports. It was absolutely amazing back then. I mean, people come from all over to see Caesarea. And the apostles used the port at Caesarea quite a bit. Like when Paul and Peter went on their missions. In fact, Paul and Peter probably left for Rome from Caesarea. That was a major port. That was built up by him. Obviously, it's named after Caesar. You know, he's trying to pay tribute to the emperor so he can gain favor. In fact, I don't know whether he named it Caesarea. It may have already been named that. So, in 20 BC, he began a massive expansion of the temple in Jerusalem. A massive expansion to where it was such an expansion that it's called the third temple.

18:46 It's not like the second temple was destroyed and then he built a third temple. But he expanded it so much that it's actually called by biblical scholars the third temple. So, you can divide the Israelites into first temple, second temple, and even third temple if you want to. Because Herod started this on 20 BC. And a lot of the basically it was inaugurated like his expansion was inaugurated in 10 BC. But he continued to add on and to expand even into the day even into 33 AD when our Lord walked the Holy Land. Herod the Great is described in chapter 2 of Matthew.

19:33 So let's turn to chapter 2 of Matthew's Gospel. By the way, did you guys know that nowhere in Matthew's Gospel does it say that it was written by Matthew? I mean, you can turn to the front of it and it says Matthew's Gospel. But we only know that from apostolic tradition. In the same way that we only know that John wrote John and who Luke was, if you turn to the beginning of Luke, he says, I too have decided after investigating everything to write down what has happened in an orderly sequence for you, Theophilus.

20:22 But he doesn't say who he is. Same thing with Mark. The four Gospel authors we know from apostolic tradition, not from sacred scripture. Kind of a cool little tidbit. So, but let's turn to, if we turn to Matthew 2 here, we'll read about Herod the Great. Okay, you ready to read, Barbara? It's been quite a while, huh? Just keep reading and I'll cut in. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

21:12 They said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet, And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the child, when you have found him bring me word that I too may go and do him homage. After their audience with the king they set out and behold the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

21:59 They were overjoyed at seeing the star and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod they departed for their country by another way. When they had departed behold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said Rise take the child and his mother flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.

22:46 He stayed there until the death of Herod that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled. Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the Magi he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem in its vicinity two years old and under in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the Magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet. A voice was heard in Ramah sobbing and loud lamentation Rachel weeping for her children and she would not be consoled since they were no more. When Herod had died behold the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said rise take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead.

23:46 He rose took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel but when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judah in place of his father Herod he was afraid to go back there and because he had been warned in a dream he departed for the region of Galilee he went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled he shall be called a Nazarean thank you Barbara are you a professor of English? that's why you read so well yes what is the difference between Judah and Judea? explain to you the difference between Judah and Judea Judea is just another way of saying Judah because whoever would conquer the land would call it something so you know they call it Judah or Judea or Edumea or we'll see in a moment even another name when all of them are combined so basically they're the same thing it's the same place okay so we have Herod and we have

24:55 Herod's death right after you know Jesus is born he dies about the same time right after Jesus is born while they're in Egypt and then they return because they find out that Herod had died and Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of Herod his father but then they were afraid to go back there so they went up to Galilee to Nazareth now don't let this confuse you or make you think that you know they didn't go to Nazareth until that point in time we find out that they were in Nazareth to begin with in Luke's gospel and then they went down to Bethlehem for the census and that's when Jesus was born in Bethlehem so we get two different angles of the narrative so they were in Nazareth before they went to Bethlehem then they returned to Nazareth after that I mean they had been gone from their hometown for so long that they probably just said well let's just go back to Bethlehem or let's go back to Judea

25:58 but then they're like no we're going to go back up to where all of our kinsmen are because Archelaus is in power and Archelaus is not a good guy and so that's where Herod the great is in the scriptures where we can really see him up close and after his death his kingdom was divided among three of his sons one of his sons got half of his kingdom and the other two sons got about a fourth and so those two sons who got a fourth of his kingdom are called tetrarchs because tetra means one fourth so it's not that there were four rulers and so we call them tetrarch because there were four rulers there were only three and we're going to look at those real quick we just saw Archelaus I think that's how you say his name Archelaus and just know that in Greek arche means rule so I don't know whether he was named by his father because he knew it was going to succeed him as a ruler but Archelaus had one half

27:04 of his father's kingdom Herod the Great's kingdom and that was the region of Judea now Archelaus we'll find out in six about six AD the people hated his rule they thought he was such a poor ruler that in six AD they petitioned Rome to get him kicked out and he did they kicked Archelaus out in about 6 AD so he was dismissed and when he was dismissed in 6 AD Judea became a part of Ayudea and Ayudea if you looked if you turn to that map that we were looking at earlier on page 295 you'll see the blue region with Idumea in the south Judea north of that and Samaria north of that well Judea became part of Idumea and Samaria and it was called Ayudea and I'm gonna it's I-U-D-A-E-A that's the transliteration and so that was a combination of Judea Sumerian Idumea and it was thereafter governed by prefects not kings and there's just a difference in rule I don't know what all the details are God bless

28:33 you and so Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate is one of these prefects during the time of Jesus' ministry and death and Pontius Pilate ruled from 26 AD to 36 AD and he was one of those prefects over Ayudea which was a combination of Judea Idumea and Samaria now the other son one of the other sons was Herod Antipas and when remember when Jesus was at his death and there was Herod and Herod there was this Herod that they were dealing with that was not Herod the Great this is Herod Antipas and he was given one fourth so he's a tetrarch I'm sorry I drew one half let me reset two and put a four he was given one fourth of his father's kingdom and that was the combined regions of Galilee and Perea and you can see it there on page 295 Galilee and Perea and then the third son was Philip and Philip got the northern he got one fourth of the kingdom so Philip was a tetrarch and he got what can be called the

30:07 northern trans Jordan because it's east of the Jordan and it's up north that's where Caesarea Philippi is was in the region of Philip in fact I think it might have been named after Philip yeah after Caesar and Philip so we have the northern trans Jordan so that's the other fourth so we have two tetrarchs and one who had one half of the kingdom and that's Archelos but he only had it until 6 AD and then it was given over to prefects and Philip dies in the year 34 AD so Philip is alive during the ministry of Jesus Herod Antipas dies in 39 AD so Herod Antipas is alive and well during our Lord's reign so these are characters in the New Testament that we're dealing with we'll see Philip now there was also another guy not to confuse you guys and his name was Herod Philip and he was not a ruler he was one of the sons of Herod the great but he was not a ruler and you can see him back where it shows

31:17 a genealogy going down from Herod the great you can see these individuals there you go Barbara it's on page 293 so you can see these various people on 293 yes okay now so now we've seen kind of the political landscape who's who of first century new testament and it should be noted that Herod the great was wanting to be king in the sense of king David this is why he built the temple expanded it and we have what we call third temple judaism the temple building the temple was connected with being messiah remember the first messiah was who in the old testament not David you know David actually was the first messiah when you think about it yeah he was the anointed one he but who was his son Solomon and Solomon built the temple so the messiah built the temple and so built temple building was connected with messiahship we should always look at this so when we see Jesus doing all these things in

32:34 the temple when we see him presented in the temple we see him cleansing the temple we see him teaching in the temple courtyard this is a messiah type action what the king is going to do and so herod the great wanting to have David's kingdom and be a Davidic king he can't be why not no he wasn't a Levite he was he was an Idumean that's right he wasn't even a Jew he was a Judaized Idumean and so the we saw the Hasmonean dynasty they were Levites we see that with Herod the great he's not even a Levite he's not even on the scale he's an Edomite though he does marry a Jew if we look at his genealogy is earlier he actually does marry it's in the previous chapter he does marry a Jew so that's kind of how he gets in but you can't change your ethnicity and the Jews knew that of David which is the tribe of Judah very good okay and so this is why Herod was all upset when he saw that Jesus was going

33:48 to be born you know he's like uh-oh the real Messiah is going to come to power and in a Jewish mind this is what the Messiah was going to do the Messiah when he came God somehow in connection with the Messiah was going to destroy the pagans liberate Israel and vindicate Israel and somehow save the whole world in the process through Israel and cleanse and renew the world now how exactly this was going to happen they didn't really know but they knew that this was going to happen so Herod knew so Herod you know when he's looking at this Messiah coming up he's like oh my gosh you know my days are numbered we need to get rid of this guy you know he didn't quite understand what divine providence really is and what I want to do right now is I want to quote from the Harper Collins Bible dictionary it's an article written by Carol Myers who is who I know she was I don't know if she is anymore a professor

34:50 at Duke University and Carol Myers in the Harper Collins The birth of John the Baptist was announced in the temple remember Luke chapter one and the sacrificial offering for every Jewish male child was offered there for Jesus that's what Mary was doing there with you know offering a turtle dove the turtle dove right is that what it was yeah the temple was also the place his future prominence was announced by Simeon and Anna in the presentation in the temple Jesus religious significance was first by the way when do we celebrate the presentation in the temple February the father the second it's also known as candle mass or candle mass because you have the blessing of candles in that time traditionally and so it's actually traditional to leave your Christmas decorations up for the 40 days after Christmas until candlemas so if you want to really be traditional leave your leave your Christmas

36:13 leave your yeah if you want to be really strict put up your Christmas decorations on Christmas Eve when Christmas really begins with vespers so you know if you really want to do it liturgically correct so to speak and so we have the presentation in the temple Jesus religious significance was first seen in the temple as he taught in its precincts when he went to Jerusalem in fact what's the one mystery of the rosary that has to do with Jesus being 12 years old the finding of the temple where he was being taught the teachers were discussing things with him he was asking them questions and then he was kind of giving them the answers and they were all amazed and then he said I have to his mother asked him she said how can you do this to us and he says well didn't you know I must have been about my father's business it actually doesn't say didn't you know I be in the temple the word temple isn't

37:10 used there he says I must be about my father and so we translate as my father's business in the same way when John got Mary at the foot of the cross it doesn't say that he took it was cool things to get to study the Bible and get to see what words are actually there it kind of affects the meaning a little bit but he was about his father's business in the temple and then whenever he went to Jerusalem in his public ministry when he finally went to Jerusalem remember Jesus went to Jerusalem to die I mean that was his purpose for going there he in the gospels he went there basically to give up his life and so when he went there and he taught in the precincts and in John's gospel how long does Jesus ministry last in John's gospel three years because there are three Passovers that Jesus celebrates in his adult life before he does give up his life so he was in Jerusalem several times but then eventually

38:19 he went there to our Passover lamb and so his later purging of its worship practices you don't remember when Jesus cleansed the temple by the way you know how he quotes he says you have made my father's house a den of thieves he was specifically quoting Jeremiah when Jeremiah was prophesying what did Jeremiah prophesize what was one of his big prophecies the destruction of the temple Jesus was quoting where Jeremiah said this temple is going to be destroyed and so many scholars see Jesus action of the cleansing of the temple not of just saying oh you guys you know let's get the gumball machines out of the cathedral let's just clean it up but that it was a prophetic enactment of the destruction of the temple he was doing what was going to happen the destruction of the temple because the world is too small for two temples Jesus and the temple you know and then we'll see in the book of revelation

39:24 etc that the church is the temple and the temple in the old testament gives way to the church and so actually we're told when he is being condemned to death that one of the major charges that's brought up against him in his death is that he cleansed the temple so the temple even had a part in why he was crucified by the Romans and early Christians continued to gather in the temple in Acts we see that John and Peter go to the temple to pray the liturgy of the hours in the beginning of Acts of the Apostles and Paul was arrested there at the instigation of his opponents so the temple is a huge part of the New Testament and it should be no you know we should expect that because the temple was like the central symbol that everything else revolved around the central symbol in Judaism was the temple in fact the temple temples back then not only in Jerusalem but also in Greek you know the Greek city

40:36 states the temples were like the bank that's where the records of debts were kept out it was a political religious entity it wasn't just merely religious it's not like you go to Wells Fargo then you go to church it's like you went to church to make your deposits and to pay your debts that's why you had a temple treasury and that's why the temple kept being looted it was like robbing a bank okay and so but at that time many Jews were disapproving of the existing temple because it had a rich corrupt aristocrats running it that committed systematic injustices now from your reading of chapter 16 who figured prominently among these aristocrats not the Pharisees they figured among them but not as much the Sadducees the name Sadducee it was most likely we don't know for certain but most likely comes from the word of the priest under Solomon Zadok okay Zadok is most probably what the word Sadducee

41:54 comes from and the Sadducees I'm going to go ahead and write it down here Sadducees I think did I spell that right who's looking at their book yeah no there's one C okay and what two D's one C okay thank you two D's one C two E's okay so the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body they didn't believe in the afterlife they didn't believe in angels in demons they didn't believe in spirits they only accepted the first five books of the Bible the Torah like the Samaritans so the Sadducees I guess you could say are a little odd for a Christian because we know that Jesus sided with the Pharisees regarding all these issues you know Jesus expect you know accepted both the law and the prophets and the prophets included the writings in Jesus day that's how you'd say it and Jesus of course you know believed in the resurrection of the dead and he believed in spirits and demons in the

43:02 afterlife so Jesus kind of shows us that the Sadducees were wrong so we have the Sadducees and okay so the temple was kind of had this rich corrupt leadership and also at the same time many of the Jews believed that Israel was being brought by God to a great moment of climax a great moment of climax where God would fulfill the vocation of Israel I've already said it where he would defeat the pagans and vindicate his people and usher in something new and the way that Jews would talk about this was in apocalyptic literature and apocalypsis means to unveil to reveal so that's why we call the book of revelation is called the book of apocalypsis which means literally revelation to unveil okay and apocalyptic literature was very popular during this first century and Jews would talk about this great event that was about to happen that they were expecting

44:26 to happen in apocalyptic terms as if it was going to be the end of the world the end of the space-time continuum like the stars are going to fall from the sky and the sun's going to be blotted out and everything's just going to dissolve but they didn't mean it literally they meant it allegorically so they didn't actually expect for the entire space-time continuum to somehow stop and it's going to be the end of the world they would use that type of language to talk about this huge event that would be the end of a world and so the Jews are expecting for this to happen and at the same time we have this temple the people around it are corrupt the king wants to make a name for himself he's an Idumean and basically there were three options open to Jews in that day let me give you the three options that a Jew could do the first option was one of complete separation complete separation where you

45:28 would you would separate yourself from the temple from Jerusalem you'd go off into the desert you'd form a monastic community and you'd wait for God to do his thing and you just live the law to the best of your ability the Torah does anybody know who these people were that took this route the Essenes yes the scenes so the Essenes took that route the second route is to stay in the pagan world you know not to leave Jerusalem in the temple but still to participate with what's happening there but yet to still be separate to stay and be separate and to vigorously uphold the law to be zealous for the law and by the way to be zealous for the law for them this type of zeal would you would part of that would be to brandish your knife have you guys ever heard of the saccari the dagger men these were Pharisees okay and it wasn't like they were mad or they were upset they were just defending the law

46:47 they were just doing what any good jew would do like if you drive through some quarters of jerusalem today you'll get stones thrown at your car because you're breaking the sabbath you know so this type of zeal would involve violence and it did several times and Rome would put down these uprisings and eventually it ended up culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in 70 AD so to stay and to be separate who are these people I just said it the Pharisees and the Pharisees you know we get this name from Perushim which means to be separate Perushim means separate or to be separated so you have the Pharisees and the third option was that of compromise where you would compromise yourself with the pagans and this was like Herod the Great and the Sadducees and they would you know they would go ahead and work with Rome you know God is going to do his thing but let's do

47:59 what we can for ourselves let's not worry so much about our national independence let's just kind of go with the flow in a certain sense and these were basically the three options that you had and so it's kind of like today you could be the Christian that you know sits in your little cubbyhole and watches EWTN all day long or TBN whatever your preference is and just sits there and just waits for the world to go to hell in a hand basket or you could be the Christian who lives in the world you don't partake in the world sin and you know but you still live in the world but you don't partake in whatever is pagan and then there's that of compromise where you can be a Christian and you can say well it's okay to do this or that God knows our hearts let's just live our lives loosey goosey that's just kind of an analogy but let's not forget that Israel in a Jewish sense of the word was very political

48:56 very political it had to do with geography and who was in power and this type of stuff it wasn't just a pie in the sky when we hope for the afterlife I mean if that was the case then there would be no place for the Sadducees okay and now what I'm going to do now is I'm going to divide the Pharisees because the Pharisees were not all alike there were major differences between the Pharisees and this is going to make a big difference okay the Pharisees numbered in the thousands how many we don't know 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 somewhere there but they were in the thousands we know from Josephus and the Pharisees were divided into two schools in the time of Herod the great there were two rabbis Shammai and Hillel okay Shammai and Hillel and the Shammai or the Shammite Pharisees were very strict this school was very strict in its adherence to Torah to the law and the Hillelite Pharisees were

50:25 more lenient they had more of a live and let live mentality they were more like the Sadducees they weren't one of compromise they still wanted to separate themselves but you know they weren't quite as harsh okay like the Hillelite Pharisee would say a man could issue a bill of divorce for pretty much any reason if he dislikes her he can submit a bill of divorce but a Shammai Pharisee would say only on grounds of adultery if she commits adultery can she can a man offer a bill of divorce it's more strict okay and so these were the different ways of looking at how to be a Pharisee and also notice the Pharisees did not have an office it wasn't like you ascended to the office of a Pharisee and now I'm a Pharisee or it was like a club no it was more like a way of thinking a way of thought a way of living okay so it wasn't like there were official Pharisees and the Pharisees were like the official

51:30 you know executive branch of Israel and they went around and made sure everybody was doing things right by slapping them with a ruler on their wrist no it wasn't like that but the Pharisees were interested God bless you sister the Pharisees were interested in what other people were doing because they wanted everybody to be following the law in their own interpretation whether lenient or strict they were concerned both of these were concerned with purity now here's a very important thing to note incredibly important the Pharisees were not concerned with purity because they just wanted everybody to get to heaven and so you had to be ritually pure to get to heaven this is not what the Pharisees were like rather this purity this ritual purity you know keeping the Torah not eating ham keeping calendar observances washing your hands you know at the right times you know these ritual cleansings all

52:39 these keeping the Sabbath these purity codes symbolized it symbolized the political struggle to maintain Jewish identity and to realize the dream of national liberation it had to do with independence guys if we keep Torah we'll get our independence God will be faithful and because we've kept Torah he'll give us political independence and so everybody keep Torah stop it the pagans are ruling over us again because you haven't kept Torah and so why does Paul or Saul of Tarsus get authority from the chief priest to go persecute Christians what does that matter let them do what they want to do why is Paul so concerned about them because they're Jews who are not keeping Torah in fact they're accepting this other guy's messiah and they're worshipping him stop it guys we're not going to be liberated ever because we're not keeping Torah again it had more of a national political idea and remember when we

53:52 learned about the law why was animal sacrifice commanded to begin with they were the Egyptian gods that they would have to sacrifice but what was the ultimate reason why God command that what was God trying to do I'm sorry foreshadow Christ was definitely part of it but also more immediately it was to purify their hearts you know it's as if I was an alcoholic and I had to go to Father David every day with my bottle of Jim Bean and I was like okay here you go father and he takes it and smashes it on the ground the next day I have to take my Smirnoff vodka give it to Father David and Father David crashes it and I do this every day it's a way of rooting out idolatry from my heart my idolatry to alcohol God was concerned about the heart he wanted to convert his people and so he would give them these laws so that you don't become so overly concerned with your work I'm going to give you the Sabbath

54:59 so you can rest and worship me okay so he's concerned about the heart but at this time because of what had happened with Hellenization under Alexander the Great and the Ptolemaic kings and the Seleucid kings the law had become an end unto itself and Pharisees were more concerned about keeping it to maintain your Jewish identity as opposed to the Hellenized pagans or the Hellenized Jews they were like you know they would be so concerned with the ritual in and of itself to stay Jewish to be the true Israel the true Israelites keep the Torah the false Israelites don't keep Torah and so where the Torah was an end unto itself and I'm going to quote N.T.

55:49 Wright in the challenge of Jesus again here's what N.T. Wright who's on the brink of some of the best biblical scholarship right now and this is what he writes passage after passage in Jewish writers of the period and indeed in modern Jewish scholarship emphasizes that the Jewish laws were not designated as a legalist ladder up which one might climb to heaven but were the boundary markers for the beleaguered people Jesus' clash with the Pharisees came about not because he was an antinomian means lawless doesn't want laws he's against law nomos remember the Greek word for law or because he believed in justification by faith while they believed in justification by works but because his kingdom agenda for Israel demanded that Israel leave off her frantic and paranoid self defense reinforced as it now was by the ancestral codes and embrace instead the vocation to be the light of the world the salt

57:05 of the earth see the Pharisees couldn't do what Israel was originally sent to do Israel was sent to convert the nations but now Israel was so concerned about herself and being separate from the nations that she couldn't do what she was sent to do and so Jesus is like guys man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man the Sabbath is not in and of itself so you own good not just for political ideology now remember how back in the law you know the ceremonial precepts of the law were not given until after what great event in Exodus 32 what happened in Exodus 32 that triggered the ceremonial law remember we went through this the ancient rabbis would say just as the forbidden fruit was to Adam so blank was to Israel the golden calf Exodus 33 the Exodus 32 the golden calf when they constructed that golden calf God took away the priesthood from 11 of the tribes and gave it to

58:35 the tribe of Levi and he instituted all these laws to keep Israel in check and Paul in Galatians calls it a pedagogos which is like a servant that takes care of the children of the family until they grow up and become mature and then they they'll be on their own so the law was given after this sin let's turn to Galatians let's turn to the book of Galatians in the New Testament Galatians chapter three by the way all of this knowledge of the Old Testament when the law was given why what was happening with the Pharisees between you know by the way Paul was I mean we're pretty certain he was a Shemite Pharisee because he was strict I mean he real quick keep your fingers on Galatians three actually just stay there and I'm going to read real quick from Philippians chapter three and this is what Paul writes in Philippians three if anyone else thinks he can be confident in flesh all the more can

1:00:09 I circumcised on the eighth day of the race of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin very good a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage in observance of the law a Pharisee in zeal I persecuted the church remember when I talked about the zeal in righteousness based on the law I was blameless Paul didn't consider himself blameless because he was morally perfect he didn't consider himself to be morally perfect like in the sense that he was always good it's that he kept the Torah he kept the ceremonial prescriptions he rested on the Sabbath he didn't eat pork you know he kept calendar observances he was circumcised he kept these things that made him a Jew and that's why he was blameless were these works let's look here in Galatians 3 what's happening is Paul converted these Galatians he's writing to Christians these Gentile Christians who became Christians they were pagans and they became Christians they weren't

1:01:14 Jews they became Christians but they were pagans and so Galatians 3 we read verse 1 oh stupid Galatians who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified I want to learn only this from you did you receive the spirit from works of the law or from faith in what you heard are you so stupid I like he's just so out there he's so blunt you know they probably needed that that's right we do too that's right after beginning with the spirit are you now ending with the flesh did you experience so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain does then the one who supplies the spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard thus Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness do you know what chapter of Genesis he's quoting from there no Genesis 15 do you know what Genesis 15 was before the

1:02:35 command to give circumcision Abraham was considered righteous before he was ever circumcised so you know Paul strategically quotes the Old Testament you're supposed to know the Genesis narrative to get what he's saying it's not just you know I need to find a proof text here's one no he knows the whole narrative it's all about circumcision stay right there I'm just going to read from Galatians 5 he says it is I Paul who am telling you himself circumcised Christ will be of no benefit to you once again I declare to every man who has himself circumcised that he is bound to observe the entire law you are separated from Christ you are trying to be justified by law you have fallen from grace it's about circumcision it's about these that when we when in the 1940s they first discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls the Dead Sea Scrolls were these writings of the Essene community at Qumran and Masada and in

1:03:39 the Dead Sea Scrolls that were on earth we have all these writings of the Essenes and there was a standard idiom it's kind of like the smoking gun it kind of like shows us oh that's what that means for years scholars have been debating what does Paul mean when he says works of the law it's been kind of blurry works but we found out from the Essene writings at Qumran I'm going to go ahead and write this up here Qumran and if you're ever looking through scholarly works these documents are called NMT in Greek this is an idiom like and it's ergon which means to work or works nomos and that's law we saw Deuteronomy means what Deuteros nomos second law so Paul whenever he says ergon nomos he's saying works of the law and this is a standard catchphrase if you I'm trying to think of an analogy for today but like for instance if I say I'm going to go to mass for instance we all know what that is we all

1:05:04 know that you dip your hand in some holy water you make the cross to remind you of your baptism you genuflect towards the tabernacle to give honor to Christ you sit in the pew you listen to readings you listen to a homily you have the offering you have the epiclesis the calling down the holy spirit you have consecration you holy communion you have a thanksgiving prayer that's part of the eucharistic prayer we know what's going to happen well whenever somebody said works of the law ergon nomos that meant specifically the ceremonial precepts of the mosaic law these things that made you a pharisee that made you a jew as apart from a pagan you were circumcised and what was happening in paul's day is these people were going around to his converts and they were saying oh you have to keep the mosaic law to be a true christian and this was a heresy in paul's day and they were called the judaizers

1:06:01 they said that unless if you kept the ceremonial precepts the works of the law you cannot be a true christian you have to become a jew you have to keep these works before you can become a christian and this is why you know at the council of jerusalem in acts chapter 15 you know they're debating this kind of stuff works of the law okay and so let's look at let's see here let's go down to verse 19 this is a great chapter by the way i urge all of you guys to go home and read it with what we've said in mind galatians chapter 3 verse 19 and this is what paul says why then the law it was added for transgressions remember even in the book of numbers israel sins laws given israel sins laws given the law is continually given because of transgressions it's you know i use the analogy i don't know if you guys remember that if your 16 year old son gets the car you say be home by 12 he gets home at 1230

1:07:16 you say okay be home at 11 he gets home at 12 be home at 930 on the dot you keep tightening the reins you add law and it's for their own good it's not just because oh god wants to tighten the news no why then the law it was added for transgressions until the descendant came to whom the promise had been made what promise the promise to Abraham by the way he talks about it before this I skipped over that part the promise to Abraham the promise of the descendant of Jesus it was promulgated by angels okay so we know that Paul's not a Sadducee right because he believes in angels at the hand of a mediator who was the mediator through which the law was given Moses now there is no mediator when only one party is involved and God is one is the law then opposed to the promises of God of course not for if a law had been given that could bring life then righteousness would in reality come from the law

1:08:18 but scripture can find all things under the power of sin that through faith in Christ Jesus the promise might be given to those who believe you know the law just pointed out your sinfulness every time you had to bring the firstborn of your flock that you used to worship to get slaughtered I mean you're being reminded of your sin we saw this if you guys went home earlier in the study and read Exodus 20 you saw that you saw how he talked about how he gave them a law that reminded them of their sin and in a certain sense Paul knows Exodus 20 quite well I'm sorry Ezekiel 20 not Exodus but Ezekiel 20 before faith came verse 23 we were held in custody under law confined for the faith that was to be revealed consequently the law was our paedagogos this is where he uses that word like pedagogy you instructors you people who have taken classes on how to teach pedagogy is how to teach the law was our

1:09:20 disciplinarian this slave that would take care of the children until they were mature this is the image he's using from his day consequently the law was our disciplinarian our paedagogos for Christ that we might be justified by faith but now that faith has come we are no longer under a disciplinarian we no longer need all these ergonomos for through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus for all of you who were baptized for Paul baptism is not a work of the law I mean it's not in the Torah St. Thomas Aquinas said in the Old Testament you had many sacraments that were hard to complete I mean these sacrifices were difficult they took a lot of money but they were inefficacious they had no power but in the New Covenant we have sacraments that are incredibly easy they're few and they're incredibly powerful and so he says that there were sacraments in the Old Testament because what does sacrament

1:10:24 mean? oath you're doing these oath actions for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ and if this is true then guess what guys if we don't have the law to separate Jew from Gentile guess what that means we can all come into one we can be one church we don't have to be Jew and Gentile we don't have to have the separation because there's nothing to separate us we don't have the circumcised and the uncircumcised the Sabbath keepers but the Sabbath breakers those who eat pork but those who don't there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free person there is neither male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's descendant heirs and that promise was first made in Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3 works of the law let's turn to Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3 verse 27 and Paul by the way in the next

1:11:45 chapter Romans 4 he employs that Abraham argument again if you look at where he's quoting he quotes again Abraham believed God and was credited to him as righteousness and he does the whole Abraham was considered righteous by faith before he was circumcised and by the way why was Abraham circumcised because the punishment fit the crime Abraham went into Hagar instead of his wife Sarah entrusted in the promises of God so God said okay we're going to nip you at the bud Romans 3 27 what occasion is there then for boasting and what he's talking about is the racial boast of the Jew the Jew who's boasting because he has he's been keeping the ergonomos it is ruled out on what principle that of works no rather on the principle of faith for we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from ergonomos works of the law does God belong to Jews alone does he not belong to Gentiles too see here again

1:13:00 you have the works of the law are what separate a Jew from a Gentile not just morality I mean there were lots of good Greeks out there I mean you know what separated them wasn't just being good no you had lots of Jews who weren't good and he condemns them in this chapter this is what he's doing he's condemning the Jew who thinks he's alright because he's been keeping the ceremonial precepts but he says things like Romans 2 17 now if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of God and know his will and are able to discern what is important since you are instructed from the law and if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness that you are a trainer of the foolish and teacher of the simple because in law you have the formulation of knowledge and truth then you who teach another are you failing to teach yourself you who preach against

1:13:49 stealing do you steal you who forbid adultery do you commit adultery you who detest idols do you rob temples you know he's saying guys you guys who think that you're righteous based on the ceremonial precepts of the law you don't keep the whole law you just keep those ceremonial precepts the law also includes you know commands against adultery and idolatry ok I'm going to go back to the passage where we're at here I'm sorry Romans 3 29 that was in Romans 2 17 I'm sorry I've spent a lot of time in Romans it's kind of like it's the back of my hand Romans 3 29 does God belong to the Jews alone does he not belong to Gentiles too yes also to Gentiles for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith are we then annulling the law by this faith of course not on the contrary we are supporting the law ok chapter 4 verse 1 what then can we say

1:14:59 that Abraham found our ancestor according to the flesh indeed if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works he has reason to boast but this was not so in the sight of God for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and was credited to him as righteousness quoting Genesis 15 6 a worker's wage is credited not as a gift but as something due when one does not work yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited as righteousness so David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works and he quotes Psalm 32 which is a confession of David's faith does this blessedness apply only to the circumcised or to the uncircumcised as well again there's that circumcision question now we assert that faith was credited to Abraham's righteousness under what circumstances was it credited was he circumcised or not see this is where

1:16:00 he kind of gives the punchline he was not circumcised but uncircumcised oh my gosh father Abraham you know our father Abraham was righteous but he wasn't circumcised and he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believed so that to them righteousness might be credited as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised it's just amazing stuff you know when you know the narrative you know how it goes you can understand Paul very well also okay so there we go we have the world of the New Testament we have we saw Herod the Great his three sons in the time of Jesus there's no king ruling over Judea because there's a prefect Pontius Pilate but yet the other kings

1:17:11 are still alive Herod Antipas and Philip Philip rules over the area where Caesarea Philippi is we have the Shemite Pharisees the Hillite Hillite Pharisees we have the Sadducees and now when we come back next semester boom we're going to get in the New Testament it's going to be exciting if you didn't think tonight was exciting or if you're completely lost because you're like what chapter are you in Romans you're just in 3 but now you're in 2 and you're in 328 but now you're in 217 but then you're in 329 again but then you mistakenly say chapter 4 so I'm trying to chapter 4 while you're still on chapter 3 yes Barbara before you boom us out of here I want you to explain one more time why in the King James version there is no Maccabees why is there no Maccabees you went over that last time because the Septuagint was the Greek thing sure let me let me do that let me go over that right after we close

1:18:08 in prayer for the people who are listening to this I know we'll do it right now after we pray I promise you I give you my word I'll let my yes mean yes my yes be a yes my no be no okay in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen Father thank you for a faith that is so beautiful and easy to keep with your grace for your yoke is light Lord we we thank you for the gift of faith for the gift of the Spirit the new law the interior indwelling of your Spirit in our lives we thank you for the gifts that we prayed for at the beginning of this lesson for wisdom knowledge understanding counsel fortitude piety and fear of you our most heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever love ourselves we ask for your blessing as we depart we ask for a blessed Christmas keep us well and safe both in body and in spirit keep us safe from sin amen you