Scribes, Monks and Priests

Abstract

JUST as the early, uniquely Yahwistic cultic confederation of Israel (1.40) had been superseded by the monarchical religion which had its centres in the royal temples of Jerusalem and Samaria, and which shared many features with the religion of neighbouring oriental monarchies, so in turn this was superseded, so far as Judah, the southern kingdom, was concerned, by the emerging form of religion which has since become known as Judaism. In 587 B.C. the kingdom of Judah came to an end, the capital city Jerusalem was largely destroyed and the region became a Babylonian province. For just over 400 years Jerusalem had been ruled by the Davidic dynasty; in 587 B.C. this chapter ended, and Judah was successively under the rule of Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks, and finally in the First World War, almost exactly 2,500 years later, became a British mandated territory. The period with which we are now concerned is that covered by the six and a half centuries of Babylonian (586−539), Persian (539−333), Greek (333−63), and Roman rule (63 B.C.-C.E. 70), for during this period the foundations of the religion known as Judaism were laid. The new developments which occurred during that period may be summarised as scripture, Sabbath and synagogue, together also with certain developments in the realm of theology, notably the growth of dualism, belief in angels, the doctrine of resurrection, and ideas of an apocalyptic kind concerning the future.