Today’s Scripture Reading (June 26,
2014): Zechariah 11
When
Jerusalem fell during the first Jewish-Roman War, the political structure and
the spiritual nature of Israel was rocked. With the destruction of the Temple
came a series of socio-political changes for the nation. The Sadducees – one of
the prominent political organizations of the time – was destroyed. In modern
terms, the Sadducees were the movers and shakers of the culture. They consisted
of people who were both rich and powerful. But their activity tended to revolve
around the Temple – in fact, they were the main group that oversaw the
maintenance of the Temple. So with no Temple, there was also no purpose for the
Sadducees and the group simply disappeared.
About the
same time, the Essene’s also disappeared. The Essene’s were a group that had
disengaged themselves from the main stream of society. Their core belief was
that Israel had degraded itself to the point that there was no coming back for
the nation. Israel needed to be discarded and rebuilt with the Essene’s in
control. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem would seem to have played
right into their hands and yet at about the same time the Essene’s disappeared.
Some have wondered if the Roman armies had mounted an attack against the main
Essene compound – a place called Qumran. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered during
the middle years of the 20th Century are thought to be a portion of
the Essene Library – and they were discovered at Qumran. John the Baptist is
often thought to have been one of the prominent members of the Essene
community.
Three years
after the destruction of the Temple, the last battle of the First Jewish-Roman
war was fought at Massada with the Zealots, another Jewish political party that
believed in the violent military overthrow of the Roman army that had occupied
the Jewish homeland. The Zealots were responsible for a number of uprisings in Israel
during the years around Jesus ministry and at least one disciple (the second
Simon or Simon not Peter often referred to as Simon the Zealot) was a member of
this violent wing of Judaism, but it is thought that he was not the only Zealot
that was a part of the disciples of Jesus.
The final
major political group of this Jewish era was the Pharisees. The Christian Bible
describes Jesus interaction with this group. While Jesus often seemed to stand
in conflict with the Pharisees, it is sometimes forgotten that the tomb that
Jesus was buried in belonged to a Pharisee – Joseph of Arimathea. But the
Pharisees also found themselves often in conflict with the ruling Sadducees. And
the Pharisees were the only major Jewish political group to survive the
destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman war. They
were the only group whose theology seemed to be able to continue past the
existence of a temple. According to the
teachings of the Pharisees following the destruction of the temple, the ritual
atonement which up until then had only been available at the Temple in Jerusalem was
now available to all through acts of loving-kindness. You can atone for you sin
by loving everyone that you come in contact with. It is believed that the
Pharisees became the Rabbis of the post Second Temple Judaism.
There have
been many attempts to identify the three shepherds that God had cast out in
Zechariah 11. But the explanation that makes the most sense is that God was
speaking about three classes of people. The time parameter of one month really
just indicates a short period of time – and not a literal month. So for many,
the three classes of Shepherds that failed God and who God removed has been thought
to be the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Pharisees. And this argument seems to
make some sense. However, I would argue that it needs to be adjusted because
the Pharisees really didn’t disappear during the First Jewish-Roman War.
Instead they morphed into the sect of the Rabbis which has continued to lead
Judaism even to this day (and some Pharisees at this time actually joined in
the Christian church.) Jesus struggle with the Pharisees was not because they
were so far away from the truth, but rather because they were so close to the
truth but were either unwilling or unable to make that final step. But the fact
that they were so close to the teachings of Jesus may have also served as the
reason why the Pharisees were able to survive the destruction of both Jerusalem
and the Temple.
So here is
my modification of the traditional theory, the three shepherds that God cast
out were not the Sadducees, Essenes and Pharisees – they were the Sadducees,
Essenes, and Zealots. All three represented a spiritual dead end in the pursuit
of God – the Sadducees found God in the wealth and power, the Essenes in their
isolation from society (refusing to be salt and light) and Zealots in their
pursuit of violence. And none of these would ever lead to the one, true God.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Zechariah 12 & 13
No comments:
Post a Comment