Lecture 3: The First Cultural Context—Judaism
opposed to foreigners and those who accommodated them.
The Sadducees identified themselves with the Temple and
the Sanhedrin (the Jewish court) but preserved them through
cooperation with foreigners.o The sect that represented the future of Judaism, the Pharisees,
remained politically neutral and centered their community
commitment on the observance of Torah, reinterpreted through
scribal technique (midrash).• Jews within Palestine expressed resistance to Greek culture and
Roman rule in a variety of ways.
o The active aggressive stance was found among those, such
as the Zealots, who battled for Jewish liberation through
the Jewish War (67–70 C.E.) and the Bar Kochba revolt
(132–135 C.E.).o The passive resistance stance was found among those, such as
the Maccabean mother and sons, who suffered martyrdom in
witness to Torah rather than abandon the Law.o The stance of imaginative resistance was found among writers
of apocalyptic literature, whose highly symbolic and dualistic
reading of history imagined the reversal of fortunes brought
about by God. Within this literature, we find the development
of two fundamental convictions that would influence
Christianity: a belief in the resurrection of the dead and a belief
in the coming of a messiah.o The stance of physical withdrawal was found among the
Essenes at the Dead Sea (Qumran), who created an alternative
life based on a distinctive interpretation of the Law and saw
themselves as the fulfillment of Torah’s prophecies.o The stance of ritual resistance was found among the Pharisees,
whose practice of purity laws made it possible to live among
those different from them and whose highly flexible midrashic