The Intertestamental Period

1
The Intertestamental Period

• Dan. 7-12

2
www.dhcc.faithofreason.com
3
Daniel 7

• Four creatures
• Lion with eagles wings
• Bear with 3 ribs in its mouth
• Leopard with four wings
• Creature with iron teeth and ten horns
• Four Kingdoms
• Babylon
• Media/Persia
• Greece
• Rome

4
Daniel 8

• Ram with two horns
• One higher than the other
• Went everywhere conquering
• Goat from west with one horn
• Goat defeated the ram
• Goats one horn broke into four horns
• Out of one of the four pieces comes another
  smaller horn

5
Daniel 8

• Ram was Media and Persia
• Goat was Greece, the one horn its first king
• He will fall and his kingdom split into four
  separate kingdoms
• Out of one of these will come one who will
  persecute the Jews.

6
Daniel 11

• During Darius the Mede
• 3 more kings, then the fourth will be richer than
  all the rest
• He will stir up the king of Greece
• His kingdom will be broken up into four pieces

7
Historical Background

• Israel had existed under Persian rule for quite a
  while
• Malachi was written around 420 BC.
• 336 BC Alexander the Great become king of
  Macedonia
• 333 BC Alexander defeats Darius III at the battle
  of Issus, but does not conquer him

8
Historical Background

• 332 BC-Alexander attacks Tyre

9
Historical Background

• 332 BC-Alexander also sieges Gaza
• He then sets his eyes on Jerusalem
• The High Priest comes out of the city
• Alexander bows down before him
• The High Priest tells him that they had been
  waiting for him
• Alexander leaves the Jews to be semi-independent
  because of this but begins the process of
  Hellenizing the Jews

10
Historical Background

• 332 BC-Alexander finds and defeats Darius III and
  conquers Persia

11
Historical Background

• When Alexander died, his kingdom did not go to
  his family
• It was divided up among his four main generals
• Antigonus (Lysimachus), Cassander, Ptolomy, and
  Seleucus
• They divided the kingdom up into four areas

12
Historical Background

• Ptolomy took Egypt
• Cassander took Greece
• Seleucus took Babylon/Persia
• Antigonus took Asia Minor
• He was killed in battle in 301 BC and succeded by
  Lysimachus

13
Historical Background

• 281 BC-Seleucus conquers Lysimachus
• 168 BC-Rome conquers Cassander and takes Greece
• 63 BC-Rome conquers Egypt and the Ptolomic
  Dynasty
• 30 BC-Rome conquers Syria/Middle East and the
  Selecuids

14
Historical Background

• Since the kingdom was broken up, the Selucids and
  the Ptolomies fought for control of Palestine for
  almost 125 years
• In 198 BC Antiochus III defeated Egypt and made
  Israel a part of his kingdom
• He originally gave the Jews their autonomy, but
  after a defeat by Rome started to force the Jews
  into a Greek style of life

15
Historical Background

• The Jews resisted heavily and Antiochus III
  decided to leave them alone
• 176 BC his son, Antiochus IV or Antiochus
  Epiphanies took the throne and would not let up
  on the Jews
• He outlawed the Sabbath, ordered any women who
  circumcised their children to be put to death,
  with the child

16
Historical Background

• He also put an alter to Zeus in the temple
• He offered a pig upon the alter and commanded
  everyone to offer a pig sacrifice there every
  year on his birthday
• Many Jews did this because the Hellenizing
  influence had been so strong

17
Historical Background

• In the city of Modein, 17 miles NW of Jerusalem
  lived a priest named Mattathias
• When the Kings official came to make the city
  comply, he refused.
• When a Jewish man from the city moved to make the
  sacrifice, Mattathias killed him and the official
  and took his family out to the wilderness with
  all who felt the same way

18
Historical Background

• Mattathias had five sons
• John
• Simeon
• Judas
• Eleazar
• Jonathan
• These are the Hasmonians, or Maccabees
• Maccabee means hammer

19
Historical Background

• The waged a guerilla style war on Syria
• Mattithias died in 166 BC and Judas took over
• Judas led the men to defeat several large enemies
  of the Syrians and eventually freed Jerusalem in
  165 BC
• They rededicated the temple on December 25, 165 BC

20
Historical Background

• 160 BC-Some of the Hellenized Jews convince the
  Seleucids to attack JudasJudas and his 800 men
  were killed
• Jonathan then takes up the leadership
• Jonathan watched as a civil war erupted in Syria,
  by aligning himself with the winner he was
  appointed High Priest of Israel and Governor of
  Judea

21
Historical Background

• 143 BC-Jonathan was captured by some of the
  Seleucids.
• When they were moving in to attack Jerusalem, a
  snowstorm made their movement impossible.
• They killed Jonathan and went back to Syria

22
Historical Background

• 142 BC-Simeon takes over
• With another civil war in Syria, Simeon
  negotiates Jewish support for freedom
• When the war was over, Israel was granted their
  freedom for the first time in over 400 years
• 135 BC-Simeons son-in-law, governor or Jericho,
  made a move to overthrow him and had him killed.

23
Historical Background

• The Jews made Simeon both King and High Priest
  and made it a hereditary positionthis became the
  Hasmonian Dynasty
• They ruled Israel until two bothers fought over
  who should be king
• They had the bright idea to ask Rome to mediate
  the dispute

24
Historical Background

• In 63 BC Pompey who had just conquered Greece,
  gladly came in and solved the problem
• Pompey didnt annex it into Rome
• It was Julius Caesars defeat of Pompey in 48 BC
  when Israel became a part of Rome
• Caesar allowed the Jews to be semi-autonomous

25
Historical Background

• IT was Caesar who put the Idumeans (the Edomites)
  in control.
• Herod the Great married a Hasmonian princess and
  thus was given the rule over Israel (37-4 BC)

26
Historical Background

• It was during the time of the Maccabees that it
  is believed that the Pharisees, Sadducees and
  Essenes developed their ideology.
• The Pharisees were fighting against the
  Hellenization of the Jews
• The Sadducees had accepted some of the Greek
  influence. They had also been closely connected
  to the Hasmonians

27
Historical Background

• Because of this, the Sadducees were generally the
  higher up, aloof Jews while the Pharisees were
  part of the common people
• Herod, in order to maintain some power, appointed
  a Sadducee as High Priest, but lowered his
  importance. He then appointed a Pharisee as his
  deputy that had control over all the temples
  functions

28
Historical Background

• The Pharisees also controlled the Synagoguesan
  invention after the return from Babylon
• The Pharisees believed in the Torah plus the oral
  law
• The Sadducees only followed the Torah (the
  written law)
• The Essenes got tired of both of them and went
  off in the wilderness to live

29
Historical Background

• All of this was leading up to the birth of Jesus.
• The political maneuverings had created the way
  for the Jews to have semi-autonomous control
  while opening up the whole world for
  communication
• The religious world was ripe for change and
  reform, and His message would be accepted by many
  who saw the need to return to following Godthe
  way God wanted to be followed

30
www.dhcc.faithofreason.com