Palestine

St. Paul's conversion had probably taken place a few years earlier, dated variously as AD thirty, Harnack, thirty-three, Ramsay, thirty-four, Lightfoot, and thirty-five through thirty-six, C.H. Turner, Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, Article Chronology.

His life of upwards of sixty years falls into two nearly equal parts, spent respectively in Palestine and in Rome.

The Palestinian portion, again, is sharply divided into the pre-war period to AD sixty-five, of which we know comparatively little, and the great four years war, AD sixty-six through seventy, of which we know a great deal.

Of his precocious youth, when, if we may believe him, rabbis flocked to hear the wisdom of the boy of fourteen, how he himself two years later did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, making trial successively of the three sects of his nation, and ending his education by three years passed as an ascetic with a hermit in the wilderness.

Of the 47-day siege of Jotatapa and the various machinations and counter-machinations of the belligerents, Josephus has given us a graphic account in the third book of the Jewish War.

The story of its fall, July AD 67, and of the sequel, the capture of the general after a narrow escape through a ruse from death at the hands of his compatriots, and his prophecy of Vespasian's rise to power, will be found in the text.

Selection 43 By the end of AD 67, I quote from what I have written elsewhere, the whole of northern Palestine was in the hands of the Romans.

Only Jerusalem, where a bloody civil war was raging, remained to be taken.

So I'll start with a bit of a background to those terms and how they were understood in the Jewish first century, right, in Israel.

So do you know the four groups of Jews, the four different denominations of Jews around Judah, around Israel, Palestine of the first century?

Like the Pharisees, Sadducees.

There you go.

Amazing interaction.

So telling.

But The Samaritans were this, I mean, as far as the Jews were considered, it was, to use a politically charged analogy, it was like Israel and Palestine today.

It was like bloods and crips.

Let us first glance at the land where he lived, surrounded by influences that directed his life and molded his character.

palestine was called by god himself the glory of all lands he made it the home of his people the jews who long waited for the promised time when it should have greater glory by becoming the home of the messiah the son of god Before he was born, the Jews were conquered by the Romans and governed by them instead of the Jewish judges and kings.

The country was divided into three parts.

The southern part was called Judea, the middle Samaria, and the northern Galilee, which was the most beautiful part.

These things understood not his disciples at the first.

But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

John chapter 12 verse 16 daughter of zion virgin queen rejoice clap the glad hand and lift the exulting voice he comes but not in regal splendor dressed the haughty diadem the tyrian vest not armed in flame all-glorious from afar of hosts the chieftain and the lord of war messiah comes let furious discord cease be peace on earth before the prince of peace hebrews palestine zechariah foretold the coming of christ five hundred years before the angels over bethlehem heralded his birth the prophets saw him as the messiah king but not such a ruler as most of the jews of christ's day expected even the disciples believing him to be the messiah had mistaken views of his kingdom Yet he was the king foretold by the prophets, the son of David who sang of him as the king and as the Lord's anointed, the Messiah or Christ, the king of the Jews, not only, but of all men.

As such he would make a triumphal entry into the city of the great king.

Authorship As the various parts of the book clearly belong to different dates, diversity of authorship is what one is naturally led to expect, and of this there can indeed be no shadow of doubt.

The author of the earliest portions was a Jew who lived, as Burkitt has shown, in northern Palestine, in the land of Dan, southwest of the Hermon Range, near the headwaters of the Jordan.

This is important as it tends to show that the book, or books, is really Palestinian.

and one which therefore circulated among jews in palestine if moreover the author came from the north that helps to explain the influence the book had upon the religion that was cradled in galilee of the authors of the other three books of which enoch is made up viz the dream visions the book of the heavenly luminaries and the similitudes we know nothing save what can be gathered from their writings as to their religious standpoint charles holds that though there is not unity of authorship there is none the less uniformity for according to him all the books were written by chasidim or by their successors the pharisees this contention has been strongly assailed and much weakened by leszczynski in a recent work on the sadducees while frankly recognizing the composite character of the book leszczynski holds that the original portions of it emanate from sadducean circles and that the special object of the book originally was the bringing about of a reform of the calendar he points to the ascription of the book to enoch as supporting his contention for enoch lived three hundred and sixty five years i e his years correspond to the number of days in the solar year the basis of reckoning time was one of the fundamental points of difference between the pharisees and sadducees for whereas the former reckoned time by the lunar year three hundred and sixty days the latter did so by the solar year here a significant remark of burkitt's is worth recalling in writing about the false titles given to all the apocalyptic books he says there is another aspect of pseudonymous authorship to which i venture to think sufficient attention has not been given it is this that the names were not chosen out of mere caprice they indicated to a certain extent what subjects would be treated and the point of view of the writer further the fact that enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him i e that he ascended into the heavens is also significant for he would thereby be just the one to know all about the heavenly luminaries he was just the most appropriate author of a book which was to deal with astronomical questions the sadducean character of the original work says lisinski is seen most clearly in the discussion regarding the calendar chapters seventy two through eighty two are rightly called the book of astronomy the book of the courses of the luminaries of the heaven the relations of each according to their classes their dominion and their seasons according to their names and places of origin and according to their months with regard to all the years of the world and unto eternity till the new creation is accomplished which endureth till all eternity seventy two one that sounds almost as though the author of the book of jubilees had written it that it is not a merely scientific interest which impels the writer to give expression to his astronomical theories may be seen from the words at the conclusion of the section blessed are all the righteous blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverseth the heaven entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days eighty two verses four through seven herein one can discern quite clearly the tendency of the writer he desires the adoption of the solar year while his contemporaries wrongly followed a different reckoning and therefore celebrated the feasts at the wrong time the sinners who sin in the reckoning of the year are the pharisees and the righteous ones who are blessed the zedekim who walk upon the paths of righteousness zedek as the name is made to imply are the sadducees the point may appear small to us but we may compare it with the quarter-deciman controversy in the church during the second century it is at any rate a strong point in favor of the sadducean authorship of the book of the heavenly luminaries The pre-Maccabean portions, assuming that some portions of it are pre-Maccabean, of the book of Enoch must certainly be ascribed to the chastisdom, but it is not on that account necessary to ascribe all the later portions to the Pharisees.

In this instance, it appears that Pharaoh felt it to be advantageous to ally himself with Solomon, giving him not only his daughter but also Gezer as a wedding gift.

This would give him clear trade routes throughout Palestine.

Solomon, on the other hand, could by this mean secure his southern border.

So Solomon is acting well.

Authorship As the various parts of the book clearly belong to different dates, diversity of authorship is what one is naturally led to expect, and of this there can indeed be no shadow of doubt.

The author of the earliest portions was a Jew who lived, as Burkitt has shown, in northern Palestine, in the land of Dan, southwest of the Hermon Range, near the headwaters of the Jordan.

This is important as it tends to show that the book, or books, is really Palestinian.

and one which therefore circulated among jews in palestine if moreover the author came from the north that helps to explain the influence the book had upon the religion that was cradled in galilee of the authors of the other three books of which enoch is made up viz the dream visions the book of the heavenly luminaries and the similitudes we know nothing save what can be gathered from their writings as to their religious standpoint charles holds that though there is not unity of authorship there is none the less uniformity for according to him all the books were written by chasidim or by their successors the pharisees this contention has been strongly assailed and much weakened by leszczynski in a recent work on the sadducees while frankly recognizing the composite character of the book leszczynski holds that the original portions of it emanate from sadducean circles and that the special object of the book originally was the bringing about of a reform of the calendar he points to the ascription of the book to enoch as supporting his contention for enoch lived three hundred and sixty five years i e his years correspond to the number of days in the solar year the basis of reckoning time was one of the fundamental points of difference between the pharisees and sadducees for whereas the former reckoned time by the lunar year three hundred and sixty days the latter did so by the solar year here a significant remark of burkitt's is worth recalling in writing about the false titles given to all the apocalyptic books he says there is another aspect of pseudonymous authorship to which i venture to think sufficient attention has not been given it is this that the names were not chosen out of mere caprice they indicated to a certain extent what subjects would be treated and the point of view of the writer further the fact that enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him i e that he ascended into the heavens is also significant for he would thereby be just the one to know all about the heavenly luminaries he was just the most appropriate author of a book which was to deal with astronomical questions the sadducean character of the original work says lisinski is seen most clearly in the discussion regarding the calendar chapter seventy two through eighty two are rightly called the book of astronomy the book of the courses of the luminaries of the heaven the relations of each according to their classes their dominion and their seasons according to their names and places of origin and according to their months with regard to all the years of the world and unto eternity till the new creation is accomplished which endureth till all eternity seventy two one that sounds almost as though the author of the book of jubilees had written it that it is not a merely scientific interest which impels the writer to give expression to his astronomical theories may be seen from the words at the conclusion of the section blessed are all the righteous blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverseth the heaven entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days eighty two verses four through seven herein one can discern quite clearly the tendency of the writer he desires the adoption of the solar year while his contemporaries wrongly followed a different reckoning and therefore celebrated the feasts at the wrong time the sinners who sin in the reckoning of the year are the pharisees and the righteous ones who are blessed the zedekim who walk upon the paths of righteousness zedek as the name is made to imply are the sadducees the point may appear small to us but we may compare it with the quarter-deciman controversy in the church during the second century it is at any rate a strong point in favor of the sadducean authorship of the book of the heavenly luminaries The pre-Maccabean portions, assuming that some portions of it are pre-Maccabean, of the book of Enoch must certainly be ascribed to the chastisdom, but it is not on that account necessary to ascribe all the later portions to the Pharisees.

and of this there can indeed be no shadow of doubt.

The author of the earliest portions was a Jew who lived, as Burkitt has shown, in northern Palestine, in the land of Dan, southwest of the Hermon Range, near the headwaters of the Jordan.

This is important as it tends to show that the book, or books, is really Palestinian, and one which therefore circulated among Jews in Palestine.

If, moreover, the author came from the north, that helps to explain the influence the book had upon the religion that was cradled in Galilee.

Of the authors of the other three books of which Enoch is made up, V's The Dream-Visions, The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries, and The Similitudes, we know nothing save what can be gathered from their writings as to their religious standpoint.

And when they saw the Lord of the sheep, they turned to flee before his face, but that sea gathered itself together, and became as it had been created, and the water swelled and rose till it covered those wolves.

And I saw till all the wolves who pursued those sheep perished and were drowned.

Chapter 89, verses 28 to 40, Israel in the desert, the giving of the law, the entrance into Palestine.

For on the one hand, the Gospel tells us that St. Joseph remained in Egypt till he received word from God, and on the other hand, there are good grounds to admit that St. Joseph received the divine message very soon after the death of Herod, and that he then did not delay, but rather hastened his return.

Considering how numerous were the Jews in Egypt, how constant their communications with Palestine, how great their hatred of Herod, it is certain that the news of Herod's death would have soon reached St. Joseph in the ordinary way, but it was first made known to him by the angel of the Lord, so that a very short interval must be admitted between the death of the monarch and the angelic message.

That Saint Joseph hastened his return upon this divine message is implied in the fact that he did not know that Archelaus was Herod's successor till he reached the Holy Land.

The intention of Joseph was to settle down in Bethlehem as the proper place in which to rear the son of David, near Jerusalem, from which the Messiahs was expected to extend his rule over the world.

He, Jesus, went down with them, Joseph and Mary, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.

But, with our present knowledge of the circumstances of the time and place, it is possible, and may prove interesting, to obtain a distinct idea of our Lord's surroundings during the long years of obscurity which preceded, and in some measure extended to, his public ministry.

The province in which Jesus spent no less than thirty years of his mortal life is Galilee, the northernmost of the three parts of Palestine, west of the Jordan.

It lay almost wholly inland and was divided into Upper and Lower Galilee.