Restoration

Ninth Tuesday after Pentecost

Did I say this Acts Bible Study would be 16-20 weeks? Of course I meant 16-20 years. OK, not really, but at my current pace....

Sorry, I never mentioned in yesterday's blog that where I taught was Greensboro College, a small UMC college, originally for women. In 1954 they began to admit men. By the time I was there the ratio was fairly even.

In Acts 1:6 the Apostles ask Jesus, "Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" This verse makes me wonder whether the Apostles understood Jesus' preaching on the Kingdom of God. 

So here's the background. The Southern Kingdom, called Judah after the split of Israel into two kingdoms when Solomon died (922 BC) existed with kings who were descendants of David down to 586 BC. Solomon's Temple was the center of Jewish worship for this long period. In 586 BC the much more powerful kingdom of Babylonia destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and took most of the Jews there into exile in Babylonia where they were slaves for 50 years. In 538 BC the Persian Empire conquered Babylonia. The Persian king, Cyrus, freed the Jews and allowed all who wanted to return to Jerusalem. Over the next several decades four groups of exiles made that return. When the second group came in 520 BC, they began rebuilding the Temple. The second Temple was completed in 515 BC, although the second Temple lack the splendor of Solomon's. 

The Persians did not allow the Jews to reestablish a self-ruling kingdom with a Davidic heir. The Jews would continued to be ruled by a succession of kingdoms: the Persians (538-332 BC), the Greeks under Alexander the Great and his successors (332-302 BC), the Ptolemies, who were Greeks who ruled Egypt (302-200 BC), the Seleucids, who were Greeks who ruled Syria (200-141 BC). In 167 BC the Jews began a revolt under the leadership of five brothers, the Maccabees. They gained independence in 141 BC and remained independent until 63 BC. Although they had an independent nation during this period, they did not restore the Davidic dynasty. Rather, the descendants of the Maccabees established their own dynasty of priest kings. The dynasty was called the Hasmoneans. In 63 BC the Romans conquered Jerusalem and all of Palestine and ruled until their empire split in 336 AD. 

And you thought those last two paragraphs were complicated! Rome went into a Civil War after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. One of those who sought to be emperor was Mark Anthony (Marcus Antonius in Latin). He married the ruling Queen of the Ptolemies, Cleopatra. The Civil War evolved into a war between Anthony and Cleopatra, on the one side, against Octavius (later naming himself Augustus) on the other. During the Civil War Anthony and Cleopatra ruled Jerusalem and all of Judah (at this point called Judea). They appointed a puppet king for this territory. His name was Herod. He called himself Herod the Great. He is the Herod of the "slaughter of the innocents" in Matthew 2. Herod took on the project of rebuilding, perhaps we should say remodeling, the Second Temple to make it exactly like what Solomon's Temple looked like. He began the project in 19 BC. The rebuilding went on well past Herod's death in 4 BC. It was finally completed in 62 AD. So the rebuilding was going on throughout the entire lifetime of Jesus. 

Augustus defeated Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC and took over the Ptolemaic Kingdom (Egypt). He kept Herod as his puppet king. After Herod's death, his puppet kingdom was divided into three parts and ruled by his three sons. The northern part Galilee was ruled by his son Herod Antipas (this was the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. The southern part Judea, was ruled by the incompetent son Archelaus, who was deposed in 6 AD and replaced by a succession of Roman governors. One of those Roman governors was Pontius Pilate, who governed Judea from 26 to 36 AD. 

Sorry for so much packed in info, and, yes, I wrote all that from memory.

By the time of the resurrection and our verse, Acts 1:5, there still had been no Davidic King since 587 BC. The Temple had been restored but not the Davidic dynasty, not the kingdom. Jesus was from the line of David. Pilate mockingly called him King of Jews, before he executed him.  Jesus' apostles were hoping that the resurrected Jesus would now be King Jesus, King of the restoration of the Kingdom. They did not understand that Jesus' Kingdom was of a different sort, spiritual not territorial, and for the whole world, not just the Jews in Galilee and Judea. They would quickly come to understand. 

Jesus then told them that it was not for them to know when his kingdom would be restored but that the Holy Spirit would soon come upon them and bring them power. Their job was to be his witnesses throughout the world.  Jesus then ascended into heaven. We have discussed the Ascension in our series on the Apostles' Creed. In our next study we will move to Pentecost in Acts 2. I promise not to have another grand mass of facts and dates. Acts really is interesting, even if, at some times, I am not. 

Faithfully,

Christian