Page 162 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

various sects present in Judaism during the time of Jesus and the early church. It will explain why various
socially significant groups gained influence. What were the major social groups that defined the culture
of that time? Jewish life and background were not limited to the land of Israel (called Judea by Romans).
As we have already seen, many Jews were scattered throughout the empire. What about their lives?
Many different views of the coming Messiah were dominant throughout Jewish thought at the time.
What was the messianic hope of the Jews? Another major issue from biblical interpretation is what was
discipleship at that time? How does that understanding inform our reading of the Gospels, Acts, and the
epistles? All of these subjects are vital snapshots of the world the New Testament was written in. They
open our eyes to see the meaning of the text of Scripture as the readers would have likely understood it.
One of the most vital to understand is the honor-shame culture of Israel.

Exile and purity rituals in Jewish culture

The Jewish culture of Jesus' time had survived the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus had sent them back to
Jerusalem. The Greeks had ruled them. At the time of Jesus, the Romans ruled Judea. They were
oppressed by Roman rule. The prophecies said that when the Messiah came, he would establish his
kingdom and rule on the throne of David from Jerusalem. At this time, however, Jerusalem was
occupied, and the Messiah did not rule, so in the Jewish mind, the exile had not yet ended. This had led
to an earnest desire to understand what had led to the exile and what would need to happen to bring
them out of it. What they settled on was that they had gone into exile because of their sins. As a result
of their impurity, God had left the temple, and they had been taken captive. The Hebrew scriptures told
them that God had come to reside in the temple when it had been purified and made ready for God to
come. The seemingly obvious conclusion of this was that if God was to return, the people would have to
purify themselves so that God could dwell among them again. Reasoning in this way, they concluded
that to entice the Messiah to come, they needed to purify themselves nationally. This gave rise to some
the Jewish sects. Qumran was a community that
intentionally committed to developing themselves
in purity rituals in order to prepare for the return of
the Messiah. It also gave rise to many the distinct
rabbinic schools.

The Qumran, as well as other eschatological groups
and the rabbinic schools, were deeply concerned
with ushering in the Messiah through corporate
and individual purity. This drove the Pharisees to
develop many laws to ensure that Torah was not
violated. It guided the schools to participate in
ritual bathing known as “mikveh.” The purpose of
these washings varied. These were daily washings
to restore purity. The Mikveh pictured is from Masada. 211 Some of the washings were initiated. That
means that they were public demonstrations that the person being baptized was confirming that the
rabbi in charge of the group he belonged to had the correct interpretation of the Torah and the correct
purity rituals to bring about the coming of the Messiah and the return from exile. It is important to
notice that the washing was normally not associated with conversion. The Jews did not see the act of
switching from one rabbi to another as a conversion to a new religion. It also was not seen as the ritual

211 Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain Image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada,_mikveh_-
_katsniffen.jpg

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