Why Did The Kingdom Movement Begin c.28 C.E. ?

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Tod Stites
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Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:46 pm

Why Did The Kingdom Movement Begin c.28 C.E. ?

Post by Tod Stites »

If we go by the dating given in Luke's Gospel (3:1), and estimate that the Baptizer John heard the call of God c.28 C.E., and accept that he began preaching the "good news" (Luke 3:18) of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 3:2), then we are faced with the question of why John heard the call and came forward when he did, and why so many crowds "came about him" that Herod Antipas feared sedition (1) at that particular time and not earlier or later.

Was there something extraordinary about those particular days, as Jesus is remembered for hinting in the Q tradition (Matt 16:2-4):(Luke 12:54-56) ?

In fact we have reason to believe so. For it had been written that at "the time of the end" "forces sent" by a wicked ruler "shall occupy and profane the Temple.. and set up the abomination that makes desolate", after which "the people of God shall stand firm and take action"(Dan 11:31-32):(2). Now in this period of the Pilate administration, conventionally dated 26-36 C.E., quite possibly in it's early phases, when the new governor was yet unfamiliar with, and thus liable to underestimate, the zeal of the Jews regarding their customs, the historian Josephus tells us that Pilate "sent by night those images of Caesar that are called Ensigns into Jerusalem"(3).This prompted a huge outcry among the Jews according to Josephus, and "a vast number of people came running out of the country", flocking in droves to Pilate's headquarters at Caesaria, and ultimately offering their lives rather than see their customs violated, at which point the governor relented, and had the Ensigns removed (3).

Now clearly the "abomination" warned about in Daniel had appeared, but "the people of God" had responded by resolving to "stand firm and take action", fulfilling what had been written in the Book of Daniel (11:31-32). Yet "the time of the end" could be seen as fast approaching, even if Pilate had not ended the daily burnt offering, for he had still helped fulfill prophecy about the last days, now only 1,290 days (about three and a half years) away, as implied in the prediction of Daniel (12:9,11).

Indeed the third century church father Origen says that Daniel's prediction about the "abomination of desolation" WAS believed to have been fulfilled when Pilate brought the standards into the city with the Emperor's image upon them, and Jerome too, in the fourth century, possibly through his rabbinical advisors who helped him translate the Bible, was aware that contemporary Jews had seen the imposition of the standars as fulfilling the prophecies in Daniel (4).

Moreover, while the city of Jerusalem was probably itself considered "holy"(cf.Matt 5:35):(5), a lost work of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Pilate, says that the prefect intruded the Ensigns into the Temple itself, and this work is quoted by Eusebius (6), even as Origen too appears to have known the same tradition, describing how "andrianta Kaisaros anatheinai ("dedicated") en tou ierou"(4).

If then a threat of judgment, the expectation of which was
intensified by the standards incident, was what drew people out to
John, much more than any call to virtue (as attributed to the Baptist
by Josephus):(7), then any promise of a new Covenant, accompanied
by a sprinkling of clean water (Ezek 36:25) at the hands of the Baptizer,
would have drawn inspiration from the same prophetic passages where
God threatens the nation of Edom (Ezek 36:5).

And this is significant, for while Josephus tells us that the Herods
were of Idumean descent (8), i.e. from the nation of Edom, the Baptist is
remembered for aiming his invective at one of their members, the
tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, Herod Antipas (Mark 6:18).

But there may be an additional reason why the kingdom of God
movement arose when it did, and this too may derive from prophecies
contained in the Book of Daniel.

For it is prophecized here that "from the time that the word went
out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the time of an anointed prince,
there shall be seven weeks"(Dan 9:25).Now the "anointed prince" is
obviously a messianic figure, since "Messiah" means "anointed", and
indeed the Greek translation of this passage refers to "Christ the prince"(Dan 9:25 LXX).

But the term "weeks" in biblical parlance could mean "year-weeks", i.e. a "week"
of years (Lev 25:8), and this seems to be the meaning of the term as used in Daniel's
unfolding of the prophecies of Jeremiah (Dan 9:2), given centuries before the passages
in Daniel were written.

Thus seven "year-weeks" would be 49 years, and are here applied
to the time elapsing between the order to rebuild Jerusalem and the
coming of the anointed prince. And if we count backwards from the
reported time of the call of John in the desert (c.28 C.E.), we see that
an order for rebuilding did go out c.20 B.C.E.(9), from the king Herod
the Great, not for the rebuilding of all Jerusalem, but for the rebuilding of the Temple
(10), remembered as still under construction in the days of the Jesus ministry (John 2:20).

Now it is said that in undertaking this ambitious project
Herod enclosed twice the area of the existing Temple (10), so that it
it is easy to imagine a public perception of a complete renovation
of the entire city, since the renovation of the Temple complex
continued down to the year 62 according to Josephus (11).

Even so, it is clear that the Jerusalem Temple and it's environs
could be and were considered a "city", as we know from a decree
issued by one of the Hellenistic kings of Judea at the beginning of the
second century B.C.E., which refers to the Temple and the immediate
neighborhood as a "city"(12).

And so if the "anointed prince" of Daniel was to arise 49 years
after the order went out for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, then if John
the Baptist received his history-changing revelation c.28 C.E., the
rebuilding work started in the city by Herod had entered it's 49th year.

And since it was foretold that when the end of days had come
there would appear an "abomination of desolation", presumably in the
Temple (Dan 11:31):(12:11), the imposition of the idolatrous standards
upon the sacred precincts of the Jews triggered a Messianic excitement the
consequences of which would never have entered the wildest dreams of any
of the principals involved.





Notes:
1.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 18.5.2.Mark 1:5.Luke 3:7.That John the
Baptist preached the kingdom of God is further supported by Luke 16:16.

2.Dunn "Christianity In The Making" v.1,p.368n146,notes that the
unprecedented "time of anguish" predicted in Daniel (12:1) is echoed
in the Damascus Document and the "Assumption Of Moses".

3.Josephus "Judean War" 2.9.2-3.
Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 18.3.1.
Since Josephus says that Pilate's men were to take up "winter quarters"
at Jerusalem, the Ensigns may have been meant to honor the Emperor
on his birthday (Nov.16).

4.Origen "Origenes: Der Kommentar zum Evangelium nach Mattaus:
Teil 2 Buch XIV-XVII"(Vogt 1990):17.25.
Jerome "Commentary On Matthew" 24:15 ed.Vallarsi 7.194.
Eisler "The Messiah Jesus And John The Baptist" p.101,316.

5.Rajak "Josephus: The Historian And His Society" p.140,that Jerusalem
was considered "holy" is attested on coins minted during the Judean War.
That Qumran ideology considered the city of Jerusalem holy is attested
in the scrolls according to:
Schiffman and Vander Kam "Encyclopedia Of The Dead Sea Scrolls"
v.1,p.403.
Schiffman and Vander Kam "Encyclopedia Of The Dead Sea Scrolls"
v.2,p.725.
Schniewind in "The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years" eds.Schiffman,
Tov, Vander Kam p.90.
The Roman practice of sacrificing to their standards is alluded to in
1QpHab 6.1-6.See:
Brown "Death Of The Messiah" p.698n55.
Schiffman and Vander Kam "Encyclopedia Of The Dead Sea Scrolls"
v.1,p.470.

6.Eusebius "Demonstratio Evangelica" 8.2.403.

7.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 18.5.2.
Dunn "Christianity In The Making" v.1,p.363,thinks it more likely that
John's threat of judgment, rather than his reported call to virtue,
is what drew the crowds out to him.

8.Josephus "Judean War" 1.6.2.123.

9.Josephus "Judean War" 1.21.1.401.
Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 15.11.1.380.
Cassius Dio 54.7,refers to the trip of the Roman emperor to Syria in
20 B.C.E. and Josephus coordinates this with the beginning of Herod's
renovation (cf."Judean War" 1.20.3.394).
Schrenk in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament v.3,p.233,
dates the renovation of the Temple by Herod to 19 B.C.E. based on
the "Antiquities" entry cited above, with the dating given in "War"
considered "incorrect".
Goguel "Life Of Jesus" p.227-8.
Meier "A Marginal Jew" v.1,p.380.

10.Josephus "Judean War" 1.21.1.401.

11.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 20.9.7

12.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 12.3.4.146.
Tcherikover "Hellenistic Civilization And The Jews" p.84-7.
Safrai and Stern "The Jewish People In The First Century" v.1,p.190,
cite references from the rabbinic literature regarding city maintenance
paid for by the half-shekel tax because the city was regarded as an
extension of the Temple.
See Fohrer in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament v.7,p.310,
on the steady extension of holiness from the Ark to the Temple, then
to the Temple hill, then to the whole city.
Davies and Allison ("Gospel According To Saint Matthew")v.1,p.132, as
far as ancient literature is concerned, one may speak of the interpretation
or identification of city and Temple;p.365,in 11QTemple
from Qumran, the city is really an extension of the Temple;v.3,p.322,
Jewish texts do not always distinguish between the Temple and the
capitol.
Schiffman "Qumran And Jerusalem" p.266-7,the Damascus Document
and the Temple Scroll from Qumran refer to the "city of the sanctuary",
which some have taken to refer to the city of Jerusalem as a whole,
including residential areas.
outhouse
Posts: 3577
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2013 6:48 pm

Re: Why Did The Kingdom Movement Begin c.28 C.E. ?

Post by outhouse »

The whole article poorly put together and is grasping at straws while over attributing historicity.

Fact is Aramaic Judaism were oppressed in terrible ways for a very long time and uprisings and revolts common.

NO ONE can date the traditions behind Johns popularity

Because we don't know enough about Johns actual movement using only the Hellenistic lens we possess to study here.

BUT we do have a certainty that Aramaic oppressed Jews were never happy being owned BY Hellenist and Romans.

John born around the time Sepphoris was leveled and Jews murdered and sold into slavery, anti social and with no monetary value, would not be feeding the Roman machine.

As a child he would have seen terrible things under oppression, and his teachings did not come out of nowhere. he learned them all his life by all rights growing up around oppressed Aramaic Jews who bitterly hated their oppressors. This theology should have existed long before Johns time.

Had Jesus not been martyred, we would never know about Johns fame or theology, less a little blurb by Josephus.
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