Sunday, August 17, 2014

The Second Temple ends.

The Second Temple was from approximately 586 BCE to 70 AD. There is some differences in the time frame or the end of the first temple and the beginning of the second. But, basically there was a change in the status of Hebrews around the middle of the 500 BCE to 600 BCE.

...Because of these unrests (click here) on 39 AD Romans' Emperor Caligula forced Jewish King Herod Antipas and his wife Herodias into exile in Gaul (France). Then, Caligula granted King Herod Antipas's territory of Galilee and Perea to King Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of King Herod "the Great", who was ruling on other part of Palestine since 37 AD. Around 39 AD Emperor Caligula announced that he was God and he wished to be worshipped throughout the Romans' territories. Emperor Caligula sent an army to place his statue inside the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This was a disastrous order which for sure would have caused uprising in Palestine. Luckily on 41 AD Emperor Caligula was assassinated before his order to be carried out....

The time of Jesus was a time when the Hebrew religion was again undergoing a great upheaval. The world was radically changing. The Rome Empire was splitting, the Second Temple was about to be ended. The time of Christ was not really a time of consistency. It was a time of revolution. The people were ready for a new ministry and he offered it to them. There was still peril in his life. Obviously. Rome was still the authority over the life and breath of Jesus. 

The end of a strong and sustained faith doesn't occur in an instant. It occurs over time, so Jesus was in step with the peril people were facing then. He found his greatest support among the wealthier citizens as a Rabbi.