subject: Jewish Thought and Character Throughout History [print this page] Jewish Thought and Character Throughout History
The Jews are the children of an idea. The idea of Jehovah - God of supreme universal significance and power with whom they have a particular unique and exclusive relationship. It was this idea that kept them alive as a people through years of trials and tribulation, living a life that was jealously aloof from other religious ideas and influences around them. Although the Hellenistic religions and philosophies affected the Jews as they affected everybody else, they affected the Jews in a contrary fashion. By making them resist assimilation - by steering their nationalism. [The Hellenistic period begins in 323 with the death of Alexander the Great and ends with the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Hellenistic therefore refers to all territories which were under Greek cultural and religious influences, and Palestine, the land of the Jews was part of this].
Superstition and magic were practiced widely during this age. Throughout the Hellenistic world, people would consult oracles, and use charms and figurines to deter misfortune or to cast spells. Also developed in this era was the complex system of astrology, which sought to determine a person's character and future in the movements of the sun, moon, and planets.
In the year 167 BC, Anchiocus IV who ruled Syria and Palestine started a campaign designed to unify his realm by wiping out competing religions and traditions. [During last few remaining years leading to the Roman Empire and then the Birth of Jesus Christ, the land of Israel was under the rulership of the Greek empire, either by Alexander the Great himself or the military commanders and their successors who had divided up his kingdom after his early death. Seleucus was the commander who took control of the Syrian region of Alexander's empire, thereby establishing the Seleucid dynasty. Antiochus IV was the eighth of the Seleucid kings, ruling from about 174-164 BC. Antiochus IV was also called Epiphanies ("Manifestation of god")].
Antiochus prohibited circumcision and dietary laws amongst the Jews - the two key tenants which were central to Jews. The Jews refused to give up their traditions, they refused to worship Antiochus as manifested god, and they refused to subordinate their religion to Antiochus. The friction and conflict got worse until it finally erupted in the bloody Jewish revolt. The revolt was so bloody, that even today the French slang for corpse is Maccabeus referring to Jewish revolt.
The results of the Jewish revolt against Antiochus IV went well beyond practical issues that set it off. The chief result was that in the Jewish resisting Anchiochus - their religion was fortified as a distinct and a very conscious belief. The persecutions and the fighting produced a sought of revival of Jewish traditions across the entire Hellenistic world, partly as nationalistic manifestation and partly as a search for consolation in those times of bloody troubles. And so when the Jews thought about all these persecutions they found relieve and satisfaction in the fact that when they die they will go to heaven to be with Jehovah, their God.
