Last week, we were looking at an incident that occurred between 175 and 165 BC and the results of the breakup of the Greek Empire into four parts. Eventually, Israel came under the rule of a group called the "Seleucids," one of Alexander the Great’s four generals. The rulers of the Seleucids were named "Antiochus I, II, III, and IV." Antiochus IV is the one who started persecuting the Jews, burning all the scrolls, slaughtering a pig in the Temple, etc. It became a real challenge for the Jews to maintain their religious heritage.

I asked you at the end of last week, "Can you understand why they were so zealous for the Law by the time we get to the New Testament?" Because what we’ll read in the New Testament is that Jesus seemed to be at odds with groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees a lot. The Jews wanted to maintain their "purity." They wanted to go back to the Old Testament and be zealous for who they thought God was. The Ten Commandments in the Old Testament show that God says, "Worship me and me only." With the Babylonian Captivity and the persecution under Antiochus IV, they said they wanted to maintain their "purity." It was from this idea of "purity" that the Pharisees came in.

There were actually two groups: the scribes and the Pharisees (who could also be scribes). A "scribe" was someone who could read the Old Testament and interpret or embellish the scripture. Eventually that developed into the "Talmud," a further explanation, interpretation, or discussion of the Old Testament. The Pharisees said, "We want to maintain purity in our Jewish religion." The opposite of the Pharisees were the Sadducees. The Sadducees were wealthier and more political. Whenever anybody has money, they usually control things. The Sadducees separated themselves from the Pharisees. This is what we’ll see in the New Testament. We’ll see these groups oppose each other and work together (e.g., the Sanhedrin). The "Sanhedrin" was like our Supreme Court but included 70 individuals. We’ll read about that in the New Testament. Jesus was presented to the Sanhedrin during his trial.

After 165 BC (until 63 BC), the Jewish Nation experienced independence. The Greek Empire is gone. The Roman Empire has come into play but has yet to exert its’ influence on the Nation of Israel, Palestine. Around 63 BC is when Rome actually takes control of Palestine. This 100-year period is referred to as the "Period of Independence" or the "Hasmonean Dynasty." It started with a ruler called "Hasmon."

What happened during this time was that the Pharisee and Sadducee groups grew in size and power. There was not civil war but there was strife and discord within the Nation. They were competing over whom to name as the High Priest, etc. Eventually the Sadducees with the most money bought their way into the position of High Priest. That’s why the priesthood in the New Testament was not as "clean" as it could be. The Pharisees, on the other hand, didn’t like the Sadducees because they were doing this. They said, "You’re not remaining pure. You’re not doing what you should be doing.

Even though they were both Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees believed very different things. The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament (the "Torah"). They didn’t believe in a Messiah. They didn’t believe in resurrection. That gives you an idea of why the Pharisees didn’t like the Sadducees. We’re going to see that in the New Testament.

The Sadducees disappeared around 70 AD, the time when the Temple was destroyed. The Pharisees continued and today we call them "Hasidim Jews," which means "more pure." They wanted to be more pure. In other words, "We’re going to make sure we’re doing what God told us to do in the Old Testament."

Rome takes over Palestine. If you’ve studied the Roman Empire, you know that it conquered the whole, known world. It’s an unbelievable and amazing story. They remained in power until around 450-460 AD. We’ll be talking about the fall of Rome when we look at the history of the Church.

When Rome took over Israel, it was declared a "province" of the emperor. That made a significant impact on how it was governed. There were senatorial provinces in Rome as well as emperor provinces. The senatorial provinces did not get as many soldiers and as much domination by Rome. You were treated as an ally. The emperor provinces got all the soldiers in the world. They were considered belligerent and possibly revolutionary. That’s why the "zealots" were so zealous about the Roman rule.

This makes it easier to answer the question, "How could the Jews have missed Christ?" What kind of Messiah were they looking for? Someone who would come in and relieve them of this Roman rule. They’ve been independent. Now they’re dominated. They’re looking for a Messiah warrior (like David) to relieve them of the Roman rule. That’s why Jesus didn’t fit what they wanted as a Messiah. They said, "Wait a minute. This is not what we wanted. We thought we were getting the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Rome. We don’t see a Messiah working against the kingdom of Rome. We want a warrior king to come in and kick Rome out of our Land."

In 63 BC, the Romans put into power a part-Jew, named "Antipater." He was a Jewish leader but had Roman influence. He was dominating. You can read about him in secular history books but I want to talk about his son. Around 37 BC, Herod the Great came into power. If you know the story of Jesus’ birth, you know about Herod the Great, son of Antipater. He was in power from 37-4 BC. Secular history records this. If Herod the Great issued an order to kill all babies under two years of age, what year must it have been? It had to be 4 BC or earlier, meaning Jesus Christ was born somewhere between 6 and 4 BC.

That’s the kind of thing we want to study. The world has thought one thing all along, but here’s the truth. In other words, when the "calendar" was created a thousand years ago, it was off a little bit. They didn’t have it exactly right.

We’ll study more about Herod the Great in Matthew and Luke. Remember the little Temple that had been rebuilt 400 years earlier. It was not fancy and grandiose like Solomon’s Temple. Herod was known as the great builder. He started building projects to add to the Temple that lasted from 37 BC to 64 AD. He is the one who added all the things we read about in the New Testament about where Jesus taught: the porches, the area of the Gentiles, etc. We’re going to read that.

Herod was part-Jew, like his father. Rome recognized him as "king of the Jews." That’s why he was so jealous of anyone else being named king. When the wise men visited him, they said, "We have come to worship the King of the Jews." What do you think Herod said? "Wait a minute! I’m king of the Jews. You can’t do that." The Pharisees did not recognize Herod as king of the Jews because they were purists. The Sadducees put up with him because of political power. Rome said, "We put him in control. He is the king of the Jews."

In spite of the conflict and oppression, Herod wanted to be "in good graces" with the Jews. So he improved the Temple. He could not touch the Temple, itself. The Jews were very protective—the purists were saying, "You will not touch that!" They allowed him to build around the Temple. Herod added porches, colonnades, and other buildings. The Temple area became a huge, elaborate, and ornate place. This is the Temple Jesus visited and taught in.

The western wall of Herod’s additions is all that remains of this Temple today (known as the "Wailing Wall.") The rest of it was destroyed in AD70.

The birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) cover 0-33 AD or 4 BC to AD30 —however you want to look at it.

Around 33 AD, the "Church" begins. When Peter and John got together, they said, "Let’s call it the First Baptist Church of John." No, they didn’t do that. They met in homes. We’ll see more of this in Acts. Acts gives us the formation and early history of the Church through 55-60 AD.

The emperor-control of Israel continued until about 70 AD when General Pompeii came in and destroyed the Temple. The Jews were dispersed. Israel was not a country again until 1947.

This finishes the time between the Testaments. I wanted to cover this so that you’ll better understand what happens in the New Testament. The books of the New Testament were written somewhere between AD 49 and 100. Some scholars want to argue exact dates—earlier and later. It is important to think about the "when a book was written" but don’t get hung up on it.

Look at the short period of time in which these books were written: 50-60 years.

The Old Testament was written and compiled over 1200-1400 years. That will make a significant difference when we talk about the formation of the New Testament.

After Acts, the other books in the New Testament are primarily letters or epistles written between 55 and 100 AD in various places. Parts were written in Corinth, parts in Asia Minor and Turkey, etc. When you’re reading these books, understand that Paul wrote these letters while on his journeys throughout the Roman world.

How and why are we reading our "New Testament" as it is today, including Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, etc?

When the "Day of Pentecost" occurred in Acts, there were a lot of Jews visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. They heard the good news, the gospel of Christ, and accepted Christ. What did they do? They went back to their homeland and told others about Christ. But after you’ve accepted Christ, you need something to read, study, and refer to. That’s why these 27 books became written, copied, and scattered throughout the world at this time. The formation of the New Testament is an amazing story.

Isn’t this a wonderful story: why the Jews are the way they are and what Christ is going to be involved it?

How do we know our Bible is God’s Word? How do we know that what is written here is what God intended for us to read today? There were many ancient books that made references to the Bible. I hope that by the end of this, you feel very comfortable about what you’re holding in the Bible.

First of all, when we get to the New Testament (0 – 33 AD), the only thing that existed was referred to as "the Scriptures," the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew and a little Aramaic. We call this the Old Testament. It wasn’t called "Old" at this time; it was called "the Testament," "Torah," "Bible," or "Tnkh," pronounced "TAN-uk." This is what existed at the time of Christ.

The formation of the Old Testament occurred sometime between 250 and 100 BC. We’ve already covered it in the Old Testament class, but it is a fascinating story. There was a Council of Jamnia convened around AD 90 that confirmed the books included in the Old Testament.

Now here’s something significant. You will hear me ask you about this from now on. Around 250 BC, the first translation of the Hebrew Bible was created. There wasn’t one before this. If you wanted to read the Hebrew Bible, you had to learn Hebrew. There were 70 scholars who translated the Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint (Roman numeral LXX). This is an example of the Greek influence. Remember that the Jews had been spread out everywhere because of the Babylonian Captivity (Egypt, Antioch, etc.). They were learning Greek. In New Testament times, they came to Jerusalem to worship but their home was elsewhere. They said, "We want a Greek version of the Bible so that we can teach our kids." So in 250 BC, in Alexandria, Egypt, these 70 men got together and translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek, called the Septuagint.

You have to remember that. The Septuagint gave us the order of the books of the Bible that we use today. The Hebrew Bible has the same books but not in the same order. 2250 years ago, these scholars said, "OK. It’s going to be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc."

From 250-100 BC, they also added books called "the Apocrypha." Apocrypha means "hidden" books. These books were added to the Septuagint. Most are either works of fiction or history books. If you wanted to read about the Maccabbean Revolt, Antiochus IV, and how bad things were, you could read it here in the books of 1^st Maccabbean and 2^nd Maccabbean. But they added these books to the Septuagint.

What is the New Testament written in? Greek. There’s the Greek influence again. The New Testament was written in what is called "Common Greek." It was not written in "Classical Greek." This gets so exciting. Scholars studied Common Greek, Classical Greek, and all the manuscripts of the New Testament. There were 500 different Greek words in the manuscripts of the Bible than existed in Classical Greek. Therefore, the authors were using Common Greek, a kind of Greek slang. We have slang words and phrases that we use today. For example, "Get outta here!" doesn’t mean "get out of here." It means, "you’re kidding me." That’s slang. That’s what Common Greek was like. They found over 500 such words or phrases in the New Testament manuscripts.

What difference does this make? It tells us a lot about what was going on at the time of Christ. It was written for all of the people who knew Greek but not necessarily Classical Greek.

We have the New Testament Greek, the Old Testament Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Greek Septuagint (including the Apocrypha).

What was the official, formal language of Rome? Latin. So guess what? We need a Latin translation of the Bible (Old and New Testaments). So around 200 AD, they made a Latin version of the Bible. Why do you want to know about this? Why should you care?

When these people sat down to make the Latin version, what source do you think they would use? The original Hebrew and Aramaic Bible? Guess what they used? The Septuagint. They didn’t use the original Hebrew. What does this mean? They took an original word or phrase in Hebrew, translated it into Greek, and then translated it into Latin. Do you think I might lose something in the translations? Yes. Hold onto that. That’s why we have so many newer versions of the Bible today. It’s not just that they’re putting it into common-day language. They also used some of the original manuscripts or copies to come up with better translations of the original intent. That’s why we have the New International Version, the Revised Standard Version, the American Standard Version, and all those others.

The key translation was made around AD400 by a man named "Jerome." He said, "That’s not right. They should not have created the Latin version from the Septuagint. I’m going to create a Latin version based on the original Hebrew." Jerome’s translation is called the "Vulgate." At the same time these translations were being made, the books of the Apocrypha were being included. He said, "They’re there. I’m going to include them." So they were kind of attached. They rode along with all the other translations. Understand that the Jews never recognized the Apocrypha. With the Septuagint, they translated the Bible and then added the Apocrypha. Subsequent translations kept including the Apocryphal books.

The Vulgate becomes the standard Bible for Christianized nations for over a thousand years. It is the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church, established around AD 400 with Pope Gregory as the first Pope. The Greek Orthodox Church, headquartered in Constantinople, also comes about around this time.

The English translation of the Vulgate is called the Douay Bible. The Vulgate was used from AD 400 – 1500. That was it. That was the Bible. That was one of the reasons Latin was used for so long within the Roman Catholic Church. This is true. I’m not making this up.

The Apocrypha was removed from the Protestant Bible around AD 1500-1600 with the Protestant Reformation. The Vulgate kept the Apocrypha as did the Catholic Bible. There are two versions of the Catholic Bible. One version interspersed the fourteen Apocryphal books throughout the Bible and the other version includes them between the Old and New Testaments. The Catholic Church decided to accept the Apocrypha. The Protestant Reformation rejected the Apocrypha, stating, "No. They were never quoted in the Hebrew Bible. They were never quoted in the New Testament. A lot of them are fictional." They had all kinds of reasons to say that they were not part of canon. The "canon" was a "measuring stick," or list of criteria that had to be met for acceptance. In the New Testament, for example, the books had to meet this criteria:

1. Apostle Association: The book was from an eyewitness or someone who talked to an eyewitness.
2. Apostle Doctrine: The book talks about loving, sharing, etc.
3. Morally Edifying and Accepted.

This is the criteria that was used.

I’ve already mentioned that the books of the New Testament were written all over the place: Carthage, Thessalonica, Athens, Rome, etc. Yet they came together. Back then, there were no printing presses. Everything was copied by hand. This should speak volumes to you about the Christian Church. These people were so serious about their religion that they copied the letters by hand and sent them to other churches. We’ll read in here where it says, "Please read these letters to the other churches." You’ll read that in the New Testament.

All of these letters were written, copied, and distributed. Over time, all the different New Testament churches accepted the 27 books you hold today. By AD 397, the Council at Carthage asked, "What books should we accept as the New Testament?" They were pressured by the churches to accept the same 27 books you have today. All the representatives from all the churches agreed on these books. In other words, it wasn’t a group of people who said, "OK. We have 100 books here. Let’s figure out which 27 to keep." It didn’t work that way. It worked like this: all of you scattered throughout the world, read all the potential New Testament books, and then sent back word and said, "These 27 are THE New Testament." They all agreed. It’s an amazing story. When they convened the Council, there was no conflict. It wasn’t like the Old Testament, "Well, should Esther be in or out?" When they got together, they said, "That’s it. There’s nothing else. It’s these 27 books."

Eusebius was a prolific reader and writer in AD 300. He was a bishop during the time of Constantine, a Roman Emperor. Constantine became a Christian and mandated that the religion of Rome be Christianity. Until this time, Romans were persecuting the Christians. It’s a wonderful story. Constantine saw a cross in the sky before a battle. The battle was won. He converted and became a Christian. He turned to Eusebius, one of the bishops, and said, "You know what you can do for me? You can make 50 copies of this great Word of God for me, the Old and New Testaments." You can read about what Eusebius included or excluded and about his thoughts. It’s fascinating.

You’re not holding something that just fell out of the sky. There are volumes and volumes of information that support the Bible.