Page 90 - Biblical Backgrounds student textbook

When Alexander died, the entire expanse of his conquered land was up for grabs. Prominent officers
divided, each wanting full control, ended up dividing all the empire. All of Alexander’s successors were
Greek. For the sake of this study, the focus will be on Ptolemy and Seleucus. Ptolemy took charge of
Egypt and Seleucus of Mesopotamia.

Ptolemy ruled from Alexandria, a city founded by and named after Alexander the Great himself. While
he was at the apex, power also lay within the Greek aristocracy that settled there. He also convinced the
people that he was the rightful Pharaoh. The Egyptians considered Alexander the Great to be pharaoh,
and since Ptolemy was succeeding Alexander, it was only logical that Ptolemy was now pharaoh. To
validate his move, Ptolemy moved Alexander’s body and buried it in Egypt as per custom of the
Egyptians. At this time Judah was under the control of Egypt. This dynasty continued to flourish but
would later be overshadowed by the Seleucids (Seleucus’ line) and much later overpowered by Rome.
Seleucus formed his capital at Antioch (where believers would first be called Christians). His dynasty
later proved to be superior leading to the time to the Maccabean revolt and the emergence of the
Romans.

Both the Ptolemies and Seleucids employed well-developed military and political strategies in their
governance. At the same time, they engaged a form of “ruler cult” unifying their subjects. In any case,
the “ruler cult” was simply meant to give the subjects a common political ground in their reverence
(worship) of respective rulers. Of course, the ruler cult presented horrendous problems for believers in
all ages—for Daniel’s friends in Nebuchadnezzar’s day (Daniel 3); for the Maccabeans who finally
revolted against Syrian rule and established an independent Jewish state; and for Christians who
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suffered great persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the Romans.

Religion

Greeks and Macedonians were predominantly polytheistic. They were intensely preoccupied with
mystical gods. “The Greeks always had an unclear distinction between what was human and what was
divine. Their gods were always human—they were simply more powerful human beings and had
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immortality.”

We have seen in the last section that Alexander might have begun to look at himself as a god, especially
at the peak of his daring venture, or at least many of his admirers thought so of him. His successors
presumably inherited this and raised it into forms of “ruler cult.” For Ptolemies, deifying himself was
much simpler as the Egyptians always considered pharaohs to be divine. Ruler cults helped leaders
maintain loyalty; they didn’t really satisfy the heart needs of people. For the people, the system
maintained a way of keeping maintaining and keeping in touch with their gods.

The Jews had been under Ptolemy since 301 BCE There is not enough evidence to suggest that he
subjected them to worship him to an extent that it conflicted their monotheistic belief in Jehovah. In
fact, one of the Ptolemies, most likely Ptolemy II (285–247 B.C), authorized the translation of the Jewish
scriptures into what would be known as the Septuagint. The seventy translators (hence the name

132 Vos, H. F. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible manners & customs: how the people of the Bible really lived (p.
352). Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers.
133 Ibid., p. 348.

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