The Second Temple Period

Israel survived under the rule of the Medo-Persian Empire from 539 to about 332 BC, when the Greek Empire, led by Alexander the Great, conquered the known world. Alexander’s rule would not last long. Following his death in 323 BC, Alexander’s territories were partitioned among his military generals, who established their own kingdoms (e.g., the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt and the Seleucid Kingdom in Syria) and continued the former emperor’s systematic spread of Hellenism, or Greek culture (1 Macc 1:1 – 9; 2 Macc 4:7 – 17). These kingdoms, which were often embroiled in war with one another, also created challenges for the Jews, who were positioned geographically between them. 

The Seleucid Kingdom in particular, under the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 BC, raided Jerusalem (1 Macc 1:20 – 40), desecrated the temple (1:47, 54, 59), outlawed observance of the covenant (1:41 – 53), and prohibited possession of the Torah (1:56 – 57). In his pursuit of Hellenization, Antiochus banned the Jews’ customs (1:41 – 44) and violently forced their assimilation (1:50, 57 – 58, 60 – 64). But Antiochus’s persecution was not passively tolerated. The Jewish resistance that arose in response (the Maccabean Revolt, 167 – 142 BC) resulted in the Jews’ repossession of the land, rededication of the temple, and institution of the festival of Hanukkah (1 Macc 4:36 – 59; Josephus, Ant. 12.316 – 325). 

With the renewed national sovereignty of the Hasmoneans (the family that led the Maccabean Revolt), various groups held differing opinions about how to manage the political and temple leadership of Israel. This infighting eventually led to the weakening of the Jewish national leadership, and Pompey, a Roman general contemporaneous with Julius Caesar, seized control of Israel in 63 BC, making it a territory of the Roman republic. Although Rome largely tolerated Jewish religious practices, pressures leading toward political, cultural, and religious assimilation were ever-present. Eventually, the Zealots (a Jewish resistance group) fomented the hopes of another successful revolt. But the Romans, under the soon-to-be emperor Titus, defeated the Jews and destroyed the second temple in AD 70 (Josephus, J.W. 6.220 – 270), thus bringing an end to the Second Temple Period. 

The Second Temple Period (516 BC – AD 70) began with the Jews under the control of the Persians and ended under the control of the Romans. This was, without question, a time of crisis for the Jewish people, and devout men and women reflected on their experiences in a variety of ways. With the pressures from a consecutive transfer of foreign nations pushing the Jews toward assimilation, numerous Second Temple Jewish literary works preserve their thoughts and hopes about God and life in the covenant. These reflections survive in the numerous literary works produced during this period. We turn now to survey these texts.

--- Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich & Jason Maston, Reading Romans in Context. Zondervan Academic, 2015.