LITMIR.BIZ

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664587046

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       Section XCII. EZEKIEL'S MESSAGE TO HIS SCATTERED COUNTRYMEN

       Section XCIII. THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE BABYLONIAN RULE

       Section XCIV. THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE

       Section XCV. ZECHARIAH'S VISIONS AND ENCOURAGING ADDRESSES

       Section XCVI. ISRAEL'S TRAINING AND DESTINY

       Section XCVII. CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS WITHIN THE JUDEAN COMMUNITY

       Section XCVIII. THE PROBLEM AND TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK OF JOB

       Section XCIX. THE TRAINING AND MISSION OF THE TRUE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH

       Section C. NEHEMIAH'S WORK IN REBUILDING THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM

       Section CI. NEHEMIAH'S SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORMS

       Section CII. THE TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE ADOPTION OF THE PRIESTLY. LAW

       Section CIII. THE JEWISH STATE DURING THE LAST CENTURY OF PERSIAN RULE

       Section CV. THE WISE AND THEIR TEACHINGS

       Section CVI. THE DIFFERENT CURRENTS OF THOUGHT IN JUDAISM DURING THE. GREEK PERIOD

       Section CVII. THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH

       Section CVIII. THE CAUSES OF THE MACCABEAN STRUGGLE

       Section CIX. THE EFFECT OF PERSECUTION ON THE JEWS

       Section CX. THE VICTORIES THAT GAVE THE JEWS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

       Section CXI. THE LONG CONTEST FOR POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

       Section CXII. PEACE AND PROSPERITY UNDER SIMON

       Section CXIII. THE RULE OF JOHN HYRCANUS AND ARISTOBULUS

       Section CXIV. THE PHARISEES, SADDUCEES, AND ESSENES

       Section CXV. THE LIFE AND FAITH OF THE JEWS OF THE DISPERSION

       Section CXVI. THE DECLINE OF THE MACCABEAN KINGDOM

       Section CXVIII. HEROD'S POLICY AND REIGN

       Section CXIX. HEROD'S TEMPLE

       Section CXX. THE MESSIANIC HOPES AND THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF JUDAISM

       APPENDIX

       II

PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      The period represented by this volume is in many ways the most complex and confusing in Israel's history. The record is not that of the life of a nation but of the scattered remnants of a race. It was inevitable that under the influence of their varied environment, the survivors of the Jewish race should develop very different beliefs and characteristics. The result is that many different currents of thought and shades of belief are reflected in the literature of this period; some of it is dross, but much of it is purest gold. While the period following the destruction of Jerusalem was a reflective and a retrospective age in which the teaching of the earlier priests and prophets gained wide acceptance, it was also a creative era. Fully half of the literature of the Old Testament and all of the important writings of the Apocrypha come from these tragic five centuries. Although the historical records are by no means complete, the great crises in Israel's life are illuminated by such remarkable historical writings as the memoirs of Nehemiah, the first book of Maccabees, and the detailed histories of Josephus.

      The majority of the writings, however, reveal above all the soul of the race. Out of its anguish and suffering came the immortal poems found in Isaiah 40–66, the book of Job, and the Psalter. Instead of the distinctly nationalistic point of view, which characterizes practically all of the writings of the pre-exilic period, the interest becomes individual and the outlook universal. During these centuries Israel's prophets, priests, and sages became not merely teachers of the nation but of humanity. Conspicuous among the great teachers of his day stands the noble sage, Jesus the son of Sirach, who gleaned out and presented in effective form that which was most vital in the earlier teaching of his race. In his broad, simple faith in God and man, in his emphasis on deeds and character, as well as ceremonial, and in his practical philosophy of life he was a worthy forerunner of the Great Teacher whose name he bore.

      This period represents the culmination and fruition of the divine Influences at work in Israel's early history. It was during this period that Judaism was born and attained its full development, Israel accepted the absolute rule of the written law, and the scribes succeeded the earlier prophets and sages. Out of the heat and conflict of the Maccabean struggle the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees sprang into existence and won their commanding place in the life of Judaism. Hence this period is the natural historical introduction to the study of the birth

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