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Second Temple Judaism is theJewish religion as it developed during theSecond Temple period, which began with the construction of theSecond Temple around 516 BCE and ended with thedestruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. This period was marked by the emergence of multiple religious currents as well as extensive cultural, religious, and political developments amongJews. It saw the progression of theHebrew Bible canon, thesynagogue, andJewish eschatology. Additionally, therise of Christianity began in the final years of the Second Temple period.[1][2]
According to Jewish tradition,authentic prophecy (נְבוּאָה,Nevu'ah) ceased during the early years of the Second Temple period; this left Jews without their version of divine guidance at a time when they felt most in need of support and direction.[3] UnderHellenistic rule, the growingHellenization of Judaism became a source of resentment among Jewish traditionalists who clung tostrict monotheistic beliefs. Opposition to Hellenistic influence on Jewish religious and cultural practices was a major catalyst for theMaccabean Revolt against theSeleucid Empire. Following the establishment of theHasmonean dynasty, traditional Judaism was reasserted by theMaccabees across theLand of Israel as they expanded their independent territory. The later years of the Second Temple period saw the development of severalJewish messianic ideas. Fromc. 170 BCE to 30 CE, five successive generations of theZugot headed the Jews' spiritual affairs.
The late Second Temple period saw the emergence of several Jewish schools or groups. ThePharisees, an influential group, included members from both the priesthood and the general population, and believed both theWritten Torah and ancestral traditions were equally binding.[4] TheSadducees, consisting of high priests and aristocrats, rejected theresurrection of the dead.[5] TheEssenes criticized the temple's practices, deeming the priests illegitimate and the rituals flawed. They expected a victory of good over evil, with some members choosing to live in isolation.[5] Nonetheless, most Jews were not affiliated with any particular group and practiced common traditions such as observing theShabbat, celebratingholidays, attendingsynagogue, makingpilgrimages to the Temple, followingdietary laws, andcircumcising their newborn males.[6]
After the Temple's destruction in 70 CE, Judaism shifted away from temple-based rituals, includingsacrificial worship, and adapted to a new framework without its sacred center. Jewishsectarianism disappeared,[7] while the Pharisees, later succeeded by the rabbis,[8] emerged as the leading force.[9] This transition focused onTorah observance,ethical deeds,[10]communal prayer, andrabbinical law, giving rise toRabbinic Judaism, the dominant form since late antiquity.
(Note: dates and periods are in many cases approximate and/or conventional)
In 586 BCE,Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar II capturedJerusalem, destroyed theTemple of Solomon, and deported the elite of the population to Babylon (the "Babylonian exile").[11] In 539 BCE, Babylon fell to the Persian conquerorCyrus, and in 538 BCE, the exiles were permitted to return toYehud Medinata, a Judean province of thePersian Empire.[12] The Temple is commonly said to have been rebuilt in the period 520–515 BCE, but it seems probable that this is an artificial date chosen so that 70 years could be said to have passed between the destruction and the rebuilding, fulfilling a prophecy ofJeremiah.[13][12][14]
The Persian period ended afterAlexander the Great's conquest of the Mediterranean coast in 333-332 BCE. His empire disintegrated after his death, and Judea fell to thePtolemies, who ruled Egypt. In 200 BCE, Israel and Judea were conquered by theSeleucids, who ruled Syria. Around 167 BCE, for reasons that remain obscure, the Seleucid kingAntiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress Jewish worship; this provoked aJewish revolt that resulted in the end of Greek occupation.[15]
Hasmonean Judea was a client kingdom of the Romans,[16] and in the1st century BCE , the Romans replaced them with their protégéHerod the Great. After Herod's death,Judea became a province under Rome's direct rule.[17] Heavy taxes under the Romans and insensitivity towards the Jewish religionled to a revolt, and in 70 CE the Roman general (and later emperor)Tituscaptured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, bringing an end to the Second Temple period.[18]
The Jewish exiles in Babylon were not slaves or prisoners, nor were they badly treated, and when the Persians gave permission for them to return to Jerusalem the majority elected to remain where they were.[19][20] They and their descendants formed thediaspora, a large community of Jews living outside Judea, and the 1st century CE historianJosephus reports that there were more Jews in Syria (i.e., the Seleucid Empire) than in any other land.[21][22] There was also a significant Egyptian diaspora, although the Jews of Egypt were immigrants, not deportees, "... attracted by Hellenistic culture, eager to win the respect of the Greeks and to adapt to their ways."[23] The Egyptian diaspora was slow to develop, but by the Hellenistic period it exceeded the Babylonian community in importance.[24] In addition to these major centres there were Jewish communities throughout the Hellenistic and subsequently the Roman world, from North Africa to Asia Minor and Greece and in Rome.[25] There is also evidence for Jewishmissionary activities in the Greco-Roman world.[26][27][28][29]
Overall, Second Temple Judaism andSamaritanism were two religions that gradually split from the common religion ofYahwism.[30][31] For most of the Second Temple period,Samaria was larger, richer, and more populous than Judea—down to about 164 BCE there were probably moreSamaritans than Judeans living in Palestine.[32] They had their own temple onMount Gerizim nearShechem and regarded themselves as the true Israel, who remained afterEli, a wickedhigh priest, convinced the other Israelites to abandon Gerizim and worship at Shiloh.[33] Second Temple Judeans, however, derided them as foreign converts and the impure offspring of mixed marriages.[34] By the late 2nd century BCE, the Jews and Samaritans permanently split after a Hasmonean king destroyed a Samaritan temple at Mount Gerizim; before that the Samaritans seem to have regarded themselves as part of the wider Jewish community, but afterwards they denounced the Jerusalem temple as anathema to Yahweh.[35][36]
In recent decades it has become increasingly common among scholars to assume that much of theHebrew Bible was assembled, revised and edited in the 5th century BCE to reflect the realities and challenges of the Persian era.[37][20] The returnees had a particular interest in the history of Israel: the writtenTorah (the books ofGenesis,Exodus,Leviticus,Numbers andDeuteronomy), for example, likely existed in various forms during the Monarchy (the period of thekingdoms of Israel and Judah), but according to thedocumentary hypothesis (disputed by some Christians)[38] it was in the Second Temple Period that it was edited and revised into something like its current form, and theChronicles, a history written at this time, reflects the concerns of the Persian Yehud in its almost exclusive focus onJudah and the Temple.[37]
Prophetic works were also of particular interest to the Persian-era authors, with some works being composed at this time (the last ten chapters ofIsaiah and the books ofHaggai,Zechariah,Malachi and perhapsJoel) and the older prophets edited and reinterpreted. The corpus ofWisdom books saw the composition ofJob, parts ofProverbs, and possiblyEcclesiastes, while thebook of Psalms was possibly given its modern shape and division into five parts at this time (although the collection continued to be revised and expanded well into Hellenistic and even Roman times).[37]
In the Hellenistic period, the scriptures were translated into Greek as theSeptuagint by the Jews of theAlexandrian diaspora in Egypt, who also produced a rich literature of their own covering epic poetry, philosophy, tragedy and other forms. Less is known of theBabylonian diaspora, but the Seleucid period produced works such as thecourt tales of theBook of Daniel (chapters 1-6 of Daniel - chapters 7-12 were a later addition), and the books ofTobit andEsther.[39] The eastern Jews were also responsible for the adoption and transmission of the Babylonian and Persianapocalyptic tradition seen in Daniel.[40]
The Hebrew Bible represents the beliefs of a small sector within the Israelite community who were exiled by the Babylonians and emphasized onorthodox worship, genealogical purity and adherence to the codified law.[41][42] In the earliest stages of the Persian period, the returnees insisted on a strict separation between themselves ("Israel") and those who had never gone into exile ("Canaanites"), to the extent of prohibiting intermarriage; this was presented in terms of religious purity, but there may have been a practical concern for land ownership.[43][44][45] Ethnic markers for Israelite (or later, Jewish) identity were radically reformed, with increased emphasis on genealogical descent and/or faith in Yahweh, compared tocircumcision.[44][46]
Views ongentile integration varied across Jewish schools of thought. TheSadducees doubted the possibility of gentiles becoming Jews but were tolerant of cross-cultural interactions. TheEssenes community believed gentiles, including proselytes, were ritually impure, but the Essenes were even stricter and regarded other Jews as impure until they completed a prolongedinitiation ritual. Likewise, theZealots andSicarii heldxenophobic views but were willing to ally with Idumeans (orEdomites).[47][45][48] Whilst the Zealots shared beliefs with thePharisees, the latter were more democratic, respected the status quo, and believedJewishness was a matter of choice rather than birth. Some historians argue the Pharisees were more interested in converting non-Pharisaical Jews.[49][47] As a Jewish sect,early Christians also saw themselves as "true Israel". Compared to other Jews, they believed gentiles couldassimilate without adopting customs such as circumcision. These beliefs, among others, caused Judaism and Christianity to separate as distinct religions.[50][51][52]
Whilst most contemporary Jews had no problem with integrating gentiles, a minority adopted views fromJubilees and4QMMT, which promoted the idea that Jews were "radically discontinuous with the rest of humanity".[45][52] Those works were of Essene,Hasidean or Sadducee origin.[53][54] Other Jews were dissatisfied with thePentateuch's national-geographic definition of Jewishness, which did not sufficiently distinguish the multi-ethnic inhabitants of Judea from Jewish diasporas. For example, the Hasmoneans were criticized for blurring the line between gentile and Jew when they converted Idumeans but others, who held a strict interpretation ofDeuteronomy 17:15, feared the Idumean Herodians would usurp the Hasmoneans. But most Jews believed the Idumeans were acceptable converts since they lived in thePromised Land.[45][47] C.L. Crouch states that pro-integrationist Jews were more likely to descend from Jews who were re-settled in Babylonian urban centers.[55]
Second Temple Judaism was centered not on synagogues, which began to appear only in the 3rd century BCE, but on the Temple, and a cycle of continual animalsacrifice. Torah, or ritual law, was also important, and the Temple priests were responsible for teaching it, but the concept of scripture developed only slowly. Thus the reading and study of scripture was a late development. The written Torah and the books of the Prophets were accepted as authoritative by the 1st century CE, but beyond this core the different Jewish groups continued to accept different groups of books as authoritative.[56]
The priesthood underwent profound changes with the Second Temple.[57] Under the First Temple, the priesthood had been subordinate to the kings, but in the Second Temple, with the monarchy and even the state in the hands of foreign rulers, they became independent.[58] The priesthood under the High Priest, which was unheard of in earlier times, became the governing authority, making theprovince of Yehud ade factotheocracy, although it seems unlikely that they had significant autonomy.[57] In the Hellenistic period, the High Priest continued to play a vital role with both cultic and civic obligations, and the office reached its height under the Hasmoneans who made themselves priest-kings.[59] Both Herod and the Romans severely reduced the importance of the High Priest, appointing and deposing High Priests to suit their purposes.[60]
Since the Hasmonean era, the Idumeans were heavily integrated in Judean society. Idumean-majority populations existed in southern and western Judea, and they intermingled with Judeans.[61][62] It is disputed whether this integration was forced or voluntary.[63][64] Regardless, their presence was believed to influence Second Temple Judaism, particularly Pharisaical Judaism. They introduced religious innovations such asritual immersion in baths, burial in caves withkokhim, and the perforation of pottery vessels so they could be purified. The Herodians continued this trend, with Judea, Jerusalem and the Temple being shaped by Idumean culture. Their contributions were obfuscated by religious Jews belonging to later variants of Second Temple Judaism andRabbinic Judaism.[65] Hayah Katz sees these ritual immersion rituals as being stricter than the rituals found in the First Temple era. For example, many Jews argued that only full-body immersion could achieve ritual purity.[66]
The day in the Second Temple in Jerusalem until the time of Jesus unfolded as follows:[67][68][69]
There was a sharp break between ancient Israelite religion and the Judaism of the Second Temple.[70] Pre-exilic Israel was mostlypolytheistic (seeYahwism).[71]Asherah was probably worshiped as Yahweh's consort, within his temples in Jerusalem,Bethel, and Samaria featuring what seem to be standing stones for another deity, and a goddess called theQueen of Heaven, probably a fusion ofAstarte and the Mesopotamian goddessIshtar, was possibly also worshiped, though this is often viewed as another title for Asherah.[72]Baal and Yahweh coexisted in the early period but were considered irreconcilable after the 9th century.[73] The worship of Yahweh alone, the concern of a small party in the monarchic period, gained ascendancy only in the exilic and early post-exilic period,[71] and it was only in the post-exilic period that the very existence of other gods was denied.[74]
The Persian period saw the development of expectation in a future human king who would rule a purified Israel as God's representative at the end of time – that is, amessiah. The first to mention this wereHaggai andZechariah, both prophets of the early Persian period. They sawZerubbabel as a figure similar to a Messiah, as a descendant of the House ofDavid who seemed, briefly, to be about to re-establish the ancient royal line. Zechariah writes of two messiahs, one royal and the other priestly. These early hopes were dashed (Zerubabbel disappears from the historical record, although the High Priests continued to be descended fromJoshua), and thereafter there are merely general references to a Messiah of (meaning descended from) David.[75][58]
Wisdom, orhokmah, implied the learning acquired by study and formal education: "those who can read and write, those who have engaged in study, and who know literature, are the wisepar excellence".[76] The literature associated with this tradition includes the books ofJob,Psalms,Proverbs,Ecclesiastes,Song of Songs,Sirach and theWisdom of Solomon, the so-calledSapiential books.[76]
During the Hasmoean dynasty, Jews were conflicted on whether to be religiously or politically oriented, which was represented by the thematic differences in1 Maccabees and2 Maccabees. 1 Maccabees, for instance, focuses on Judean affairs, generalizes all gentile rulers as being evil, believes Jewish martyrs were "pious fools", makes little mention of God and prayer, and attributes events to blind chance. 2 Maccabees argues that anti-Judean persecution by the hands of Gentiles is divine judgment for Judean wickedness. Daniel R. Scwhartz considers 2 Maccabees to be implicitly anti-Hasmonean and pro-Pharisee. One reason for the covert criticism includes 2 Maccabees being written too early and their authors being diasporic.[77]
In his seminalProlegomena zur Geschichte Israels,Julius Wellhausen argues that Judaism as a religion based on widespread observance Torah law first emerged in 444 BCE when, according to the biblical account provided in theBook of Nehemiah (chapter 8), a priestly scribe namedEzra reads a copy of the Mosaic Torah before the populace of Judea assembled in a central Jerusalem square.[78] Wellhausen believes that this narrative should be accepted as historical because it sounds plausible, noting "the credibility of the narrative appears on the face of it."[79] Following Wellhausen, most scholars throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries have accepted that widespread Torah observance began sometime around the middle of the 5th century BCE. However, scholars such asDavid Zvi Hoffmann andUmberto Cassuto devote lengthy treatises to refuting Wellhausen's theories.
More recently,Yonatan Adler has argued that in fact there is no surviving evidence to support the notion that the Torah was widely known, regarded as authoritative, and put into practice, any time prior to the middle of the 2nd century BCE.[80] Adler explores the likelihhood that Judaism, as the widespread practice of Torah law by Jewish society at large, first emerged in Judea during the reign of the Hasmonean dynasty, centuries after the putative time of Ezra.[81] Nonetheless, this view conflicts with the scholarly consensus.[82]
The issue of conversion to Judaism and Jewish proselytism in Second Temple Judaism has occupied many scholars from the 19th century to the present day. Research has not yet yielded a consensus among scholars: some believe that Judaism was a missionary religion, and others reject their conclusions. Some assess that the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods was a wide-ranging phenomenon of great demographic importance, while others doubt this. Modern research does not have the possibility to determine how many Gentiles converted, and it is not possible to determine what their share was in the total Jewish population.[citation needed]
Some scholars suggest thatJesus' quote in theGospel of Matthew, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are",[83] is evidence of Jewish proselytism during the time period. However, scholars such asMartin Goodman, for instance, argue that phrase relates to the Pharisees' attempt to persuade Jews to join their school of thought rather than their efforts to convert non-Jews.[84]
Early Christianity emerged within Second Temple Judaismduring the 1st century, the key difference between Judaism andJewish Christianity being the Christian belief that Jesus was the resurrected Jewish Messiah.[85] Judaism is known to allow for multiple messianic figures, the two most relevant beingMessiah ben Joseph and the Messiah ben David. The idea of two messiahs—one suffering and the second fulfilling the traditional messianic role—was normal in ancient Judaism and possibly even predated Jesus.[86][87][88][89][dubious –discuss] Alan Segal states "one can speak of a 'twin birth' of two new Judaisms, both markedly different from the religious systems that preceded them. Not only were rabbinic Judaism and Christianity religious twins, but, like Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca, they fought in the womb, setting the stage for life after the womb."[90]
The first Christians (thedisciples or followers of Jesus) were essentially all ethnically Jewish or Jewish proselytes. In other words,Jesus was Jewish, preached to the Jewish people and called from them his first disciples. Jewish Christians regarded "Christianity" as an affirmation of every aspect of contemporary Judaism, with the addition of one extra belief—that Jesus is the Messiah.[91] The doctrines of theapostles of Jesus brought theearly church into conflict with some Jewish religious authorities (e.g., theBook of Acts records a dispute over theresurrection of the dead, which was rejected by the Sadducees) and possibly later led to Christians' expulsion from synagogues (seeCouncil of Jamnia for other theories). WhileMarcionism rejected all Jewish influence on Christianity,proto-orthodox Christianity instead retained some of the doctrines and practices of 1st-century Judaism while rejecting others. They held the Tanakh to be authoritative and sacred, employing mostly the Septuagint orTargum translations and adding other texts as theNew Testament canon developed. Christianbaptism was another continuation of a Judaic practice.[92]
Recent work by historians paints a more complex portrait of late Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Some historians have suggested that, before his death, Jesus created amongst his believers such certainty that theKingdom of God and the resurrection of the dead was at hand, that with few exceptions[93] when they saw him shortly after his execution, they had no doubt that he had been resurrected, and that the arrival of the kingdom and resurrection of the dead was at hand. These specific beliefs were compatible with Second Temple Judaism.[94] In the following years the restoration of the kingdom, as Jews expected it, failed to occur. Some Christians began to believe instead that Christ, rather than simply being the Jewish messiah, wasGod made flesh, who died for the sins of humanity, marking the beginning ofChristology.[95]
Some scholars additionally note the role ofHellenistic Judaism in Christianity and believe that the doctrine of Jesus's death for the redemption of mankind was not possible without Hellenism.[96][a]
While on one hand Jesus and the very first Christians had all been ethnically Jewish, the Jews by and large continued to reject Jesus as the Messiah. This affected early Christianity's relationship with Judaism and the surrounding pagan traditions. The anti-Christian polemicistCelsus criticises Jews for deserting their Jewish heritage while they had claimed to hold on to it. To the EmperorJulian, Christianity was simply anapostasy from Judaism. These factors hardened Christian attitudes towards Jewry.[97]
The people did not spread, but the Jewish religion spread. Judaism was a converting religion. Contrary to popular opinion, in early Judaism there was a great thirst to convert others. TheHasmoneans were the first to begin to produce large numbers of Jews through mass conversion, under the influence ofHellenism. The conversions between theHasmonean Revolt andBar Kochba's rebellion are what prepared the ground for the subsequent, wide-spreaddissemination of Christianity. After thevictory of Christianity in the 4th century, the momentum of conversion was stopped in the Christian world, and there was a steep drop in the number of Jews. Presumably many of the Jews who appeared around the Mediterranean became Christians. But then Judaism started to permeate other regions – pagan regions, for example, such asYemen andNorth Africa. Had Judaism not continued to advance at that stage and had it not continued to convert people in the pagan world, we would have remained a completely marginal religion, if we survived at all.
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