In order to understand the difference between what the prophets of the Hebrew Bible proclaimed, and what came to be the views of apocalyptic Jews, I need to sketch a set of historical events that the people of Israel had to live through. Without this kind of historical knowledge, you simply will not understand ancient Judaism at the time of Jesus. That is to say, you really have to know what happened among ancient Jews in order to make sense of what their theological beliefs were, since these beliefs were molded by and informed by nothing so much as the historical context out of which they emerged. And so here is a very brief sketch of the history of Judea over the four hundred years from approximately 540 BCE, when the Persians were in control, up to 63 BCE, when the Romans came in and took over. I’ve taken the sketch from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction. Read by Petra Ortiz
When the right idea gets the wrong result... Read by Ken Teutsch.
Dr. Ehrman introduces the idea that scribes of the first three centuries introduced anti-Jewish changes.. Read by John Paul Middlesworth
Bart details the different ways that the translators of the NRSV handle three NT passages that are later scribal additions. Read by John Paul...