What Is The Second Temple Period?
The beginning of the Second Temple period (586 BC-AD 70) is marked by the return of Jews to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon in 538 BC. They were allowed to return under an edict issued by Cyrus King of Persia. By 515 BC the reinstated Jewish residents had completed building the Second Temple. But in AD 70, the Second Temple was destroyed, along with Jerusalem, by Titus’ army.
What is a second temple Jew and why should we care?
A second temple Jew lived during the Second Temple period. Second temple Jews did theology. Second temple literate Jews read stuff. We have some of the literature they read. For example, the book of Enoch. Many of these books are not considered inspired scripture. But just because a book is not canonical doesn’t mean it is not important. Some of the New Testament writers (Paul, Peter, Jude) pick up on this second temple theology.
Why Is The World Corrupt?
If one were to ask a modern Christian, “Why is the world and all humanity so thoroughly wicked?” the chances are very high that the answer would be “the Fall”. We have been conditioned by church history (ancient and modern) to look only to Genesis 3 for such theology.
But, if you asked a Jew living in the Second Temple Period the same question, the answer would be dramatically different. Yes, the entrance of sin into God’s good world occurred in Eden, but the unanimous testimony of Second Temple Judaism is that the Watchers are to blame for the proliferation of evil on the earth.
The New Testament writers, being predominantly Jewish and products of the Second Temple Period, more often than not telegraphed the same outlook. We just can’t see it because we don’t have Second Temple Jewish eyes. We miss what the original audience would have seen.
Over the next three Mondays we will look at Genesis chapters 3, 6 and 11 because these three events impact and inform the supernatural world view of the Bible.
This short video clip was posted before but is especially relevant here. https://youtube.com/shorts/U4IU9zMIYuk?si=f5zC_SQJXLaCm85o
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