Page 18 - Advanced Life of Christ - Student Textbook

In the passage in Luke, Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth to read from the scroll of Isaiah,
chapter 61. Jesus, however, shocked the listening crowd as He stopped mid paragraph, rolled up the
scroll, gave it back to the attending scribe, and sat down. Then he said, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing.” Not only was He claiming to be Messiah, but He broke a cardinal rule in the
synagogue. The crowd’s response was to take Him out to a precipice and cast him down to his death.

Septuagint
With the emphasis of Greek culture and language, the Jews became primary Greek speaking people.
According to legend, 72 scholars were brought together to translate the Old Testament into Greek in
250 BCE. The legend says they accomplished the work in 72 days. The Latin word for 70 is “Septuagint”.
This name was attached to the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew text.

By the second and first centuries BC, most people in Israel spoke Greek as their primary language and
many no longer spoke Hebrew. That is why the effort was made to translate the Hebrew Bible into
Greek—so that those who did not understand Hebrew could have the Scriptures in a language they
could understand. The Septuagint represents the first major effort at translating a significant religious
text from one language into another.

Pharisees
This group of religious leaders was known as the “holy ones” associated with the
resistant movement during the Maccabean Revolt. They fought against the
Hellenization of Israel and thus “separated” from all other religious
establishments that compromised with the Greeks. The Pharisees interpreted the
law strictly in accordance with the developing oral traditions and mandated that
all observe their judgments. They believed that all circumstances that affected
the lives of Jews were divinely ordained. They also believed that a Jewish Messiah
would come and bring peace to the world and rule in Jerusalem. Though few in
number, they enjoyed the favor of the majority of people in Palestine. They were
members of a ruling body called the Sanhedrin.

Sadducees
These religious leaders were the more progressive Hellenized group of aristocratic Jews who became
guardians of the temple policies and practices. They rejected the Old Testament Scriptures except the
Torah, as well as any teaching that they felt was not found in the Torah, for example, the resurrection
from the dead.
Here’s what we know about Sadducee theology:
• With special emphasis on the first five books of Moses (the Torah), they believed the Bible,
our Old Testament, was the only authority on matters of faith and life. Sadducees flatly
rejected the Pharisee teaching that oral tradition was equal to Scripture in authority.
• They believed in unrestrained free will—meaning God had no role in the personal lives of
humans. Everyone was master of his or her own destiny.
• Sadducees rejected entirely the supernatural, refuting belief in angels, demons, heaven, hell,
and resurrection. To their way of thinking “souls die with the bodies.” The End.
• In spite of the previous, they believed strongly in ritual purity as prescribed by Moses. They
didn’t want anything to disqualify them from “leading the temple services that generated
income.”

17