Jews in Palestine
• Because of a different set of circumstances, Jews in Palestine
experienced greater tensions with Gentiles, as well as greater and
sharper divisions among themselves.
• The dominant cultural and political forces of Greece and Rome were
experienced as an “irresistible force” from the outside against the
“immovable object” that had been post-Exilic Judaism in Palestine.
o The reform of Judaism after the Exile had connected religious
devotion to the Lord with specific social and political
institutions: king, land, Torah as law of the land, and temple.
Religious observance, then, was intimately connected to
specific social institutions.o Thus, the pressure of Greek language, culture, and religion
could be regarded as a fundamental threat, and Roman rule
(abetted by taxation and military presence) could be regarded
as oppressive.• The same tensions of assimilation and separation were, therefore,
more fraught because they involved material realities rather than
simply ideas.
o Some Jews, especially those among the aristocrats, were
comfortable with Hellenization and advocated a policy of
accommodation.o Others, such as the Maccabees and their descendants, identified
loyalty to Torah (and God) with Jewish possession of social
and political institutions. To be a Jew meant having a Jewish
king. To be a Jew meant having a safe and holy temple. To be
a Jew meant having Torah as the law of the land, not simply
something that is read in the synagogue. These Jews resisted
“outsider” influence.o As philosophical schools, the “sects” described by the Jewish
historian Josephus, represented distinct political and religious
positions. For example, the Essenes and Zealots were militantly