12.4 Establishment of iniquity on her base

DIGRESSION 12.4 - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INIQUITY ON IT’S BASE

“To build her an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.” (Zech.5:11)

The history of Israel after A.D. 70

At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Babylonian Jews had lived for 200 years under Parthian rule. The homeland of the Parthians was the mountainous region south—east of the Caspian Sea (now in northern Iran). Noted for their martial skill as horsemen and archers, they swept through Persia and Mesopotamia and estab1ished a new empire. When Rome moved into the Near East during the 1 century B.C., and occupied Palestine and Syria, its further expansion eastward was blocked by the Parthians.

The Jews found themselves on both sides of the imperial power struggle, but the Babylonian community maintained its close links with the land of Israel. The government of Babylonian Jewry for the first 12 centuries A.D. lay in the hands of the Exilarch or “the prince of David.” The Exilarch was the official head of the Babylonian community. It was a hereditary office with its incumbents claiming descent from King David. The Exilarchs lived in princely style, wore an ornamental sash of a high official and had an honoured position at the courts of the rulers.

During the period that the Mishna and the Talmud were compiled they exercised great power and even managed to expand their power in A.D. 642 in the wake of the Islamic conquests. The Exilarchs played an important role in political, social, judicial and religious affairs. They represented the Jewish minority to the Caliph, took part in public religious debates, appointed the leaders of the various religious Academies as well as the judges, supervised the punishment of lawbreakers, interceded between the various Jewish communities when difficulties appeared and controlled money that had been gifted for charitable purposes. Income was derived from the taxes paid by the communities under his jurisdiction and which received government protection. The Exilarch also derived incomes from divorce bills. The Jews paid him 1/5 of their income, as well as redemption fees for male children and animals!!

Rabbinic traditions trace the origin of the institution to the last years of the exile of Jehoiachin on the basis of 2 Kings 25:27 Further data were derived from 1 Chron 3:17. Whether such an institution existed before Parthian times is not known, and certainty is impossible. It seems likely however that the Parthian government under Vologases I (died 79 A.D.) probably established a feudal regime to govern Jewry as part of its reorganisation of the Arsacid administration. The consensus seems to be that around the time of Jesus 2/3 of Jewry lived outside Palestine especially in adjacent areas in the eastern Mediterranean. Jacob Neusner conjectures that at this time the Jews must have formed minority communities in almost every city of the Euphrates valley and throughout the western satrapies of Parthia. Josephus speaks of, “not a few myriads” of Jews in the Babylonian area under Parthian rule.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 the Jews had two focal points; the Exilarch in Parthian controlled Babylon and the Sanhedrin in Roman controlled Palestine. The survival of the Jewish polity after the destruction of Jerusalem was due in large measure to Yohanan the son of Zakki, who amid the disaster received Roman permission to set up a school of rabbinical study at Jamina in western Palestine. Here the Sanhedrin was reconstituted. The old Sanhedrin, consisting of the chief priests and the elders of the people had come to an end. The new Sanhedrin, established at Jamina, consisted, like the old one of seventy one members, but these elders were all doctors of the law, and their president was regularly one of the most distinguished rabbis of the day.

The Parthians, perhaps earlier contented to allow local Jewry to receive instruction from Jerusalem, certainly took advantage of the change in Palestinian politics and the anti-Roman turn in Jewish world opinion, to establish local control of Jewry under close supervision. In the next century Jews were the most loyal supporters of the Parthian cause against Trajan, Septimus, Serverus and Alexander Severus. In Palestine, circles of Jewish Messianists were prepared to cooperate with the Parthians against Rome. (= THE BAR KOKHBA REVOLT.)

After the Bar-Kokhba revolt many survivors in Palestinian Rabbinic Jewry began to look toward Parthian Babylon for solace and the hope of a brighter future. The community in Babylon numbering at least a million ran its own internal affairs. The Exilarch known in Jewish records by the Aramaic “Resh Galuta” or head of the exile remained intact through the change of the new Persian Sassanid dynasty in A.D.226 and survived in somewhat modified form the conquest of the country by the Arab followers of Mohammed in A.D. 642. The intellectual leadership no longer resided with the Exilarch but with the goan, the head of the Academy.

The Babylonian Jews felt no need to reconcile their Judaism with Persian culture. All their intellectual and spiritual energies were funnelled into the task of developing and enriching the Jewish Legacy they had received from the land of Israel. The mainstream of the Oral law of Talmudic and rabbinic Judaism passed_through Babylon and from there spread throughout the Jewish world. That process was facilitated by the Arab conquest the double organisation under goan and Exilarch continued until the 11th century. Tamerlane ended the Exilarch in 1401.

THE TALMUD

With the suppression of the revolt of A.D. 66-70, the Zealots who had formed its spearhead were crushed. The Essenes, with their quietest outlook, exercised little or no influence on public life. The Sadducees, who had supported the interests of the chief priestly families, disappeared as a party with the end of the old order. Most of the rabbis belonged to the party of the Pharisees. And it was precisely this party, because of its relative detachment from the temple order, which proved its capacity to survive the catastrophe and reorganise religious life in Israel.

The chief point in the Pharisee’s code wherein they differed from the Sadducees was their insistence on the validity of a mass of oral tradition. (Mtt.15:2; Mk.7: 3 ) which had accumulated in the course of the centuries as a supplement to the written law. This oral matter had largely originated among the scribes since the time of Ezra, although most of the literary class undoubtedly believed that it descended from Moses. They consequently went so far as to lay down the principle that, in case of a contradiction between a written and an oral precept the preference must be given to the oral.

When the oral traditions were written down is not certain, it is generally assumed that this happened about 200 A.D. but some of the material may have been written down earlier. It had in any case assumed a fixed shape or arrangement by A.D. 200; and thenceforth it became the discussion both in the Palestinian and the Babylonian schools.

· The Mishna (A.D. 200) is the interpretation of the written law.

· The Gemara (300-600 A.D.) is a collection of commentaries on the Mishna.

· Mishna and Gemara together constitute the Talmud or Talmuds.