 The Bible as the Memory of God’s People

Pabillo,B. (1994). The Bible: 100% Divine 100% Human. Makati, Metro Manila:
Salesiana Publisher, pages 33-55.
The Bible as the Memory of God’s People
Books are privileged memories of peoples. In books are preserved the events, persons
and circumstances that formed a people and gave identity to them. By reading these books, the
people become more aware of who they are and what they are for.
A people does not start its history writing books. It first experiences, then it remembers,
and finally it puts its remembrances in books as lessons and reasons for life for the coming
generations. The same is true of the Bible. In it are recorded remembered events that helped
shaped the people of God. In general, then, there are three moments in writing down the books of
the Bible:
1. the moment of lived experiences
2. the moment of remembering
3. the moment of writing.

Taken in themselves, the events narrated in the Bible seem to be trivial, or even meaningless.
It is when they are seen together and with the eyes of faith and love that they become meaningful
and very significant. Let me quote a story and its applications taken from the books of Etienne
Charpentier, How to Read the Old Testament, to illustrate this point.
It was the ever of their golden wedding. When I arrived they were alone. Their children had
already left. We spent the evening together, and it was marvelous.
I thought I knew these old friends well enough: simple people who had lived together for half
a century, sharing joys and sorrows. That evening, however, I saw them with new eyes, because
they showed me their ‘treasure’: a plain cardboard box held it all. Of course there were
photographs, from the family wedding photograph, posed and very solemn, to snaps of a child’s
smile or a holiday view. There were postcards, trite and conventional, some in pieces because he
had carried them round in his uniform pocket all through the war. As I looked through them, the
couple gave me a commentary and explained why they had kept them, and these common objects
became sad or happy mementos of moments in their lives.
And it was their lives which took shape through their family papers. The family
genealogy, a monotonous list of old-fashioned names, here became pride at belonging to a line,
at having roots in a particular area. A lease was no longer a pretentious and minutely detailed
document, but the final realization of a life-long dream of work and savings: they had their own
house. Letters exchanged during their engagement (‘Hey, you mustn’t let him read that,’ the old
man protested, delighted that it would show me the tenderness of their love) had been put next to
prayers composed for the great moments of their life. Their marriage sermon lay next to rather a
bad poem sent by a grandchild.
The evening went like a dream. I thought I knew these old friends well, and all of a
sudden, with them and alongside them, I discovered the meaning of their life. All these papers
and photographs were trivial, valueless. Yet for us they became priceless: they were no longer
just objects, but the whole of a life, summed up and interpreted. Each one of these commonplace
things had a place in a story of which it formed part of a fabric.
Now we must go back to some of the important points of this illustration.
This married couple showed me photographs and documents; these objects were
interesting, not only in themselves, but above all because they were so to speak the life of the
couple in concentrated form. Through them and by means of them, I was able to go to a little
way into the world of my friends and share in their adventure of love.
Similarly, the various books of the Bible can often seem trite and uninteresting to us. But
through them we shall discover the adventure of a people of believers, and will be able to enter
into their world.
‘That’s our first love letter,’ my old friend said to me with a wicked smile. I read it in
amazement: it was an algebra problem. At that time he and his future wife were still at school.
Because she was away ill, he had been given the task of writing to her with the math homework.
An ordinary enough letter, but it started something and it had been followed by others. Taken by
itself, the letter would have been completely uninteresting; kept by chance and reread after their
marriage, it had really become their first love letter.
So there are events which make no sense by themselves: they make some sense by
becoming part of our history. At the moment when they are taken, photographs are not very
interesting; looked at afterwards, they become important.
Thus, each event can carry within it a number of meanings which we may not see all at
once; if however, it is important, we shall be led to think about it again, and by thinking about it,
we shall discover its riches. The more one goes on, the richer the original event becomes.
Describing an event is not the same as giving an exact amount, like a photograph or what
happened; it is rather like recreating this event and showing the meaning that it now has for us.
And as we talk about it later, we discover yet other things. For example, a friend may tell us
something; we don’t pay much attention, and then later, often a good deal later, we exclaim, ‘So
that’s what he wanted to tell me …’ How are we going to describe the friend’s original statement
– in terms of what he told us or in terms of how we now understand it? In other words, are we
going to reproduce his exact words or add the meaning that he truly wanted to convey?
Unlike the Koran of
the Muslims, the Bible is not “The Fertile Crescent” in the Ancient Near East
a book fallen down from
heaven or copied from a
heavenly original. For the
Muslims, the Koran is the
exact copy of a book that
exists in heaven. Because of
this belief, they do not admit
any translation of the Koran,
nor do they submit it to
critical, historical studies. Our
Bible is different. It has no
original in heaven. We know
that it has been written by
human authors – yes, inspired
by God, but still by human
authors. Moreover, it was
written in varied literary types in a span of about a thousand years, reflecting different cultural
and historical circumstances. To understand it properly then, we have to take account of the
historical periods that produced it. This means that to understand the history of salvation traced
out in the Bible we have to be familiar with the history from which it came out. We shall now
embark into tracing the main lines of the history of salvation in the history of the people of Israel
both to know the contents of the Sacred Book and the circumstances that gave birth to the
composition of its various books.

From Abraham to Moses

The biblical account of the history
of salvation starts with the stories of
creation in Gen 1-2, the fall of mandkind
(Gen 3-9) and the spread of mankind all
over the world (Gen 10), the differentiated
not only by their places of habitation but
also by the languages spoken (Gen 11). All
these accounts in the first 11 chapters of
the Book of Genesis are to be taken as
setting the stage for the common adventure
of God and mankind in history. The
accounts found in these first chapters are
more of theology in the form of stories
rather than what had really taken place in
history. The historical part of the Bible
starts with Abraham, i.e., from Gen 12.

In the Bible we find Abraham as a wanderer. His family started out from Ur, then they
settled in Haran, where Abram received the strange call to leave his kinspeople and move on to
the land his God promised to give him. So he set out; his journey brought him to Canaan (Gen
12, 1-5). Although he had a stint in Egypt (Gen 12, 10-20), he finally came back and settled
down in Canaan. If we trace the journey of Abraham we see that he practically traversed the
whole length of the Fertile Crescent. How so? It is probable that Abram and his family were part
of a wave of migrations of peoples that occurred in the 19th – 18th century B.C. So we can date
Abram around 1800 B.C.
Abraham is known as the “Father of Faith”, not only because the people of faith directly
as physically descended from him but also because his faith was truly remarkable and exemplary
that it has become the model and the source of faith for all peoples. He was willing to leave the
security of his family in Haran due to a voice of a God who beckoned him to land that he knew
not. He believed the promises of God about a great posterity and possession of a land in spite of
very unfavorable, and much more, very hopeless situations for the fulfillment of these promise.
God promised him a great nation coming from his loins, yet he had no child from his wife Sarah,
and both of them were so old, way beyond the age of childbearing. And to make matters more
hopeless, Sarah was barren. He was promised a land, but when his wife Sarah died, he had
nothing, He had to negotiate with the inhabitants of Canaan to buy a piece of land as a burial
ground for his wife (cf. Gen 23). But despite all these, Abraham believed (cf. Heb11, 8-19).
Hence he became the Father of all who believe.
From Abraham we have Isaac. Nothing much is said of him. He is little more than a
transition figure. From Isaac the line is traced to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. From
him, 12 sons came; from them would later descend the 12 tribes of Israel. The time of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and his sons known as the Patriarchal Age. It roughly covers the period from 1800
to 1600 B.C.
Of the sons of Jacob, it was Joseph who saved the family from famine by settling them in
Egypt. Joseph then was - by a turn of fate or, as the Bible puts it, by the providential hand of God
– a powerful governor of Egypt (Gen 41, 37 – 45). It was possible for Joseph to be a governor in
that foreign land since Egypt was at that time ruled by the Hyksos (c.1750 – 1552 B.C.), a people
of Semitic race, the same race as the Hebrews. When the Hyksos were overthrown by the
Egyptians and new dynasty, this time Egyptian (the 18th dynasty of Ancient Egypt) took over, the
favored-guest status of the Hebrews was gradually reduced to that semi-slaves. The people found
themselves trapped in Egypt (Ex 1, 8-14). Pharaoh Rameses II (1290-1224 B.C) took advantage
of them and exploited them. The Hebrews were recruited as free labor for the building of the city
of Pi-Rameses (cf. Ex 1, 11). At the height of this oppression, “the Israelites, groaning in their
slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God. God
heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. God saw
the Israelites and took note” (Ex 2, 23-25). He sent Moses who led the Hebrews out of Egypt
and through the desert of Sinai to the threshold of
the Promised Land. This happened between 1260
and 1220 B.C.
Moses led the people through the Exodus
Experience. This was their miraculous and
unexpected departure from Egypt. A very singular
occurrence, it was the event that forged them into
a nation. Before, they were a bunch of slaves, a
potpourri of families. Through the crossing of the
Red Sea, they underwent a common experience
that became a bond that formed them into a
people. The Exodus was their particular
experience of Yahweh as liberator. To remember
this event they established the Passover Feast, a memorial that they celebrate every year (Ex
12). This memorial celebration not only reminded the people of that event in the past but also
made that event present to them. The response of the people to that saving event in which they
participate every Passover Feast is their obedience to the Law given at Sinai (cf. Dt 5, 1-5). The
Israelites are truly grateful for this Law because it shows them the way to properly respond to
that saving action and to remain within the ambience of God’s other saving actions. The new
relationship forged between God and His newly formed people is sealed in the Blood of the
Covenant. Now the chosen people are also the covenanted people (cf. Ex. 24, 3-8). So all these
events – Exodus, Passover, Law, Covenant – all key elements of the religion of Israel, are
interrelated to each other and all connected with the great figure of Moses!

From Joshua to the Fall of Jerusalem

The leadership of the Israelites passed from Moses to Joshua, his right-hand man. Joshua
led the people to cross the Jordan River to the Promised Land. Through conquest, negotiations
and/or migrations, the Israelites gradually took over the land of Canaan. Joshua was the leader of
the people from around 1220 to 1200 B.C. at about the same time that Israel was subjugating the
land from the east by crossing the Jordan River, the Philistines, a prominent group among the so-
called Sea Peoples who migrated along the Mediterranean costs of the Near East in the 13 th and
12th centuries B.C., landed by the coast on the western part of Canaan and began establishing an
enclave in the southwestern coast of the land At this time then, three groups of people were
vying for the land of Canaan: the Canaanites, the original inhabitants, the Israelites, who
arrived from the east; and the Philistines, who came from the sea.
Before Joshua died, he subdivided the land The 12 Tribes of Israel with the
among the 12 tribes of Israel (Jos 13-21). Before he surrounding peoples
faded from the scene, Joshua gathered the people
together with all the other peoples that attached
themselves to Israel in a renewal of the covenant at
Shechem (Jos 24)).

At his death, not one leader emerged among

the people to govern them as one nation. Instead,
each tribe took care of its own affairs. In the event
of a crisis, such as confrontation with a common
enemy, several tribes joined force, but after the need
had been met they settled back each to its own
affairs. The structure of the nation then was more of
a federation of tribes than a state. They were held
together only by their common traditions and belief
in Yahweh as their saving God. This period, which
ranged from 1200 to 1025 B.C., is called the Period
of Judges because the judges came out as leaders of
the people when they had to throw off the yoke of
their enemies who from time to time subjugated them. The judges then were more of military
leaders rather than our present-day understanding of judiciary officials.
The Israelites could manage to deal with the
different groups of Canaanites for control over the land, Ark of the Covenant
but when they came face to face with the Philistines they
were at loss. The Philistines possessed a superior
technology – they were already at the Iron Age whereas
the Israelites were still at the Bronze Age. Around 1030
B.C. Israel suffered her greatest humiliation at the hands
of her mortal enemy. At the Battle of Aphek the Philistines
captured the very Ark of Yahweh (1 Sam 4).

To get out of their sorry state, the people cried to

have a king who would unite them and fight their battles
(cf. 1 Sam 8, 19-20). Through Samuel, the last judge, God
gave them a king. Saul reigned over them from about 1030 to 1010 B.C. Saul’s reign was a
failure. He displeased Yahweh. After initial victories, he was defeated by the combined forces of
the Philistines. In the decisive Battle of Gilboa, Saul and his sons met their death (1 Sam 31).
David took over the crown. He was successful. He acted according to the heart of Yahweh. He
led his people from victory to victory, not only against the Philistines but also against the
neighboring kingdom, so that during his long reign of 40 years (1010-970 B.C.), he was able to
carve out a mini empire that included all of the land of Palestine plus lands way beyond the
Jordan to the east and near Mt. Hermon up north. It was also David’s feat to have conquered
Jerusalem from the Jebusites, hence it became known as the City of David (2 Sam 5, 6-9) He
made it his capital. By a stroke of brilliance he settled the Ark of Yahweh in it (2 Sam 6), thus
making the city Jerusalem the center of the political, administrative and religious life of the
people of Israel. David as so pleasing to Yahweh that the promise was made to him: “Your
dynasty and your sovereignty will ever stand firm before me and your throne be forever secure”
(2Sam 7, 16).
David was able to pass on to his son, Solomon, a small empire whose borders were
secure. Solomon therefore, was freed from the preoccupations of war. He directed his energy,
resources and genius into making buildings, engaging in commerce and the pursuit of wisdom
(cf. 1 Kgs 3-10). It was to Solomon’s credit that the Temple of Jerusalem was built (1 Kgs 6).
Solomon also had the leisure to promote literary activities. During his reign (970-931 B.C), the
first literary activities connected with the Bible took place: some psalms were preserved and
composed, proverbs were collected, a part of the history of the people was put into writing (e.g.,
2 Sam 9 – 1 Kgs. 2), and the Yahwistic account of the origins of the world and of Israel
developed.
Paradoxically, Solomon’s achievements were the reasons for his downfall. His
commercial and political contacts brought him to marry many wives, most of them probably for
political reasons. His harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines introduced the worship of foreign
gods in Israel. This alienated him from the favor the form of taxation and forced labor. This
estranged him from his people. So at his death, a great discontent prevailed among the people.
The lack of tact and sensitivity of his son and heir Rehoboam brought the kingdom into schism
in 931 B.C. (cf. 1 Kgs 12). The Kingdom as split into two – the northern Kingdom of Israel with
ten tribes under the kingship of the rebel Jeroboam and the southern Kingdom of Judah with two
tribes (Judah and Simeon) remaining under Rehoboam. The political schism dragged along a
religious schism. Sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel were set up so that the people of Jeroboam did
not need to go anymore to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh. This sad state of affairs was never
healed. Never again did the 12 tribes of Israel reunite into one kingdom.
Together with the rise if the monarchy at the time of Samuel was the rise of prophecy. In
fact, some tag Samuel as the first prophet of the prophetical movement that was later to gain such
force as to challenge the influence of the kings. At first, prophecy appeared in Israel in
prophetical guilds popularly known as sons of the prophets or brotherhood of prophets. They
were groups of people going about the land, giving out oracles while in ecstatic trances. But
gradually, the movement produced individual prophets who stood their ground to remind the
kings, civil and religious officials of the land and the people in general of their covenant with
their God. The biblical prophets were the spokespersons of Yahweh to the people; they echoed
the mind of God to His people. They were so staunch in their vocation and mission that we find
them many times standing up against even kings, condemning them for their policies that were
against the covenant. The prophets counterbalanced the power of the kings who behaved as
though they were absolute monarchs, forgetting the fact that in Israel the real King is Yahweh;
they were just representing the kingship of Yahweh to the people. As the prophets spoke, taught
and pounded in those who were against the covenant, their disciples kept track of their words,
remembered them and little by little wrote them down. As time went on, their words were
collected and put into writing. This was the gradual building up of the prophetical books.
We already find prophets who advised and/or admonished the first kings of Israel. They
were Samuel, Nathan, Gad and Ahijah. In the 10 th century B.C., the powerful figure of the
prophet Elijah entered the scene. His exploits are found in the Elijah Cycle of 1 Kgs. 17-21 and 2
Kgs 1-2. His mantle of authority fell on Elisha, who continued his ministry and influence (cf.
The Elisha Cycle of 2 Kgs 2, 19-18, 15). After them the prophets whose works and words are
recorded in the Bible are: Amos and Hosea who ministered in the northern kingdom, and Isaiah,
Micah, Zephania, Habakkuk, Nahum and Jeremiah in the southern kingdom. All of them are
Pre-exilic Prophets because they ministered before the Babylonian Exile.
During the time of the two kingdoms, the traditions of Israel developed and were
nurtured by different groups. We already mentioned in passing the Yahwistic Tradition that
developed in the court of Solomon. The so-called Elohistic Tradition evolved in the northern
kingdom under the influence of the prophets, so did the Deuteronomistic Tradition. The
Priestly Tradition on the other hand developed in the south among the priestly circles of
Jerusalem. These different traditions preserved the memory of the people in both written and oral
forms. Actually they dealt with the same subject matter - Israel and her relationship with God –
but it was viewed differently by these various traditions because of their different biases and
purposes that they served. We have by this time identified four traditions: the Yahwistic, with the
bias of the royalty; the Elohistic and Deuteronomistic, both with bias of the prophets; and the
Priestly, with the bias of the priests.
In 722 B.C., the Assyrian Empire engulfed Samaria. The City of Samaria, and with it the
whole Kingdom of Israel, fell under Sargon II, king of Assyria. The inhabitants of Israel were
exiled all over the vast Assyrian Empire which encompassed all the known East of that time (2
Kgs 17, 5-23). During this exile, the ten tribes of Israel were lost; they were assimilated by the
nations where they were exiled. In their territory in Palestine, other conquered nations were
installed. These other nations brought with them their own religions. The result of this
amalgamation of beliefs was religious syncretism. This was the Yahwistic religion, a diluted one,
being practiced in the territory of the north after the Fall of Samaria. The Samaritans originated
from this situation (cf. 2 Kgs 17, 24 – 41).
Life continued in the southern Kingdom Assyrian Empire (7th century B.C.)
of Judah. At times the people were faithful to
Yahweh; at other times were carried along by
foreign religious influences and practices. This
ambiguous state of fidelity to the covenant was
constantly being attacked by the prophets. The
last and greatest attempt to reform the religious
and political life of the people was done by King
Josiah. It was occasioned by the discovery of the
book of Deuteronomy (probably only chs. 12-26)
while they were repairing the Temple of
Jerusalem. This document and its spirit became the basis of the reform so it is known as the
Deuteronomic Reform (cf. 2 Kgs 22-23). The reform was extensive. It aimed to bring unity to
the people under the slogan: One God, One People, One Temple. Other places of worship were
torn down. Yahweh could only be worshipped in Jerusalem.

This religious reform was a sign of defiance against the political tutelage of Assyria
because in those days religion and politics were so closely intertwined that to touch the religious
order was to touch the political set-up. Unfortunately, the reform was short-lived. It ended with
the premature and tragic death of King Josiah at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 B.C. The Kingdom
of Judah slid back to its evil practices. According to the interpretations of the prophets, this
brought about the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 B.C. The people of the
southern kingdom were then exiled to Babylon (2 Kgs. 25).

Period of Exile in Babylon

This bitter
experience of the exile
forced the people to spell
out their identity clearly.
The danger that what
happened to their brothers
of the northern kingdom
might also happen to them –
that they be dispersed and
assimilated by the other
peoples – was indeed real.
With the exile, Israel lost
the external structures and
institutions that held them
together – the land, the city
of Jerusalem, the Temple, the monarchy and the priesthood. Only prophecy accompanied them.

So they hanged on to what

they had: traditions. They gathered, Pentateuch
compiled and preserved these
traditions by putting them into writing.
It was during this process that the four
great traditions of the people, the
Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist and
Priestly, were brought together. What
came out was the Pentateuch – the
first five books of the Bible, which
from that time on became the
foundational writing of Israel as a
people. It was during the exile that the
people began to gather around The
Book to get inspiration and to be related to each other and to their God. A new mode of the
religion of Israel was emerging: from a religion around the Temple practices to one around The
Book and the service of the Word. The exile also made the Israelites question their relationship
with Yahweh. Was Yahweh unfaithful? Was he untrue to His covenant to save His people? Was
He weak to allow His people to be defeated? Or were they the ones, as a people, who were
unfaithful? With the help of the prophets, they examined their history. They found that it was
their infidelities all through their past that brought down upon them their present sorrowful state.
So they wrote down their history in such a manner as to bring this fact out to remind them and
their countrymen that their salvation even from this exile, was possible only if they reversed their
unfaithful relationship with Yahweh. This history, also known as Deuteronomic History
because it was influenced by the prophets of the Deuteronomistic Tradition, is found in the
Books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.
During the exile, the prophets accompanied the painful uprooting of the people. Ezekiel
helped the priestly cause during the exile and fanned alive the hope of the restoration of the
Temple and its worship after the tribulations of the exile. The prophet behind the writings of
Deutero-Isaiah (Is 40-55) expressed the joyful expectation of the return from the exile. He
pictured it to be a return as marvelous (or even more so) as the Exodus at the time of Moses. The
Book of Lamentations on other hand, connected with the prophet Jeremiah, gave voice to the
sorrows, humiliations and pains of Israel at the ruins of Jerusalem during the period of the exile.
All these prophets voiced out the frustrations, pains and undying hopes of the people during this
very trying period in their history.

Persian Period
The hopes that the prophets of the exile awakened in the people came true in 538 B.C.
when King Cyrus of Persia, the conqueror of Babylon just the previous year, proclaimed an edict
that allowed all the exiles of the former Babylonian Empire freedom to return to their homes (cf.
Ezr 1). What a joy it must have sparked among the Jewish exiles! So they trekked back home to
Palestine; not every one, though. A good number got so settled in Babylon that they opted to stay
behind. From them came the large Jewish presence in Mesopotamia who, in later centuries,
would prove so influential among the Diaspora Jews.
The initial joy of the return to Palestine was dampened by the great tasks that awaited the
returnees: the rebuilding and repopulating of the City of Jerusalem, the restoration of the
Temple and the walls of Jerusalem, the ticklish issue of the people of the land who remained
behind or came down from the northern part of the country at the time of the exile. Immediately,
the returnees set to work building their own homes, tilling the soil and rebuilding the City of
Jerusalem. But it took the prodding of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai for them to start
working on rebuilding the Temple (cf. Hg 1, 1-11). After some five years of labor (520-515
B.C.)., the Temple of Jerusalem rose up, but it was nothing compared to the grandiose of
Jerusalem could be erected. Nehemiah had to come back from the Persian court to have this done
so that the city may be secure from sudden attacks (Neh 1, 11-1, 32). In his capacity as governor,
Nehemiah prevented the Jews from being assimilated by the other surrounding peoples by
prohibiting intermarriages (cf. Neh 13). He also promoted social justices among the Jews (cf.
Neh 5).
While Nehemiah was busy organizing the political life of the people, Ezra, a scribe from
Babylon, reformed the religious life of the nation by bringing and explaining the Torah or the
Law of Moses to them (cf. Neh 8). The Torah or the Pentateuch took its final form in Babylon.
Ezra’s effort was to make it The Book of the people. Through his efforts, Israel became a
predominantly religious community heavily influenced by the book of the Torah. Thus, Judaism
was born. Because of this, many consider Ezra as the Father of Judaism.
Prophets guided the
people after the exile to help
them become a true people of
Yahweh. Besides Haggai
and the Proto-Zechariah
(Zech 1-8) who urged the
people to rebuild the Temple,
the Trito-Isaiah (Is 56-66), Obadiah, Joel, Malachi and the Deutero-Zechariah (Zech 9-14)
ministered to the people on their return from exil till about 330 B.C.

During the 229-year period (539-310

B.C.) when the Jews were politically under the
Persians, many books of the Old Testament
reached their definitive forms. The Pentateuch in
its final form was brought by Ezra from Babylon
around 400 B.C. The books of the Pre-exilic and
Exilic prophets came to their final redaction (i.e.,
editing; arrangement in proper form for
publication) towards the end of the Persian
period. To the historical books composed during
the exile (known as the Deuteronomic History)
was added another set, this time viewing the history of the people from the eyes of the Levites
and the priestly circles. They are the Books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. This
set, known as the Chronicle’s History, covers the longest account of Sacred History – from the
creation to the restoration of the people from the exile. It interprets Israel’s history based on:
 the Law as taken from the Pentateuch
 the institutions of the cult and the priestly hierarchy in Jerusalem
 the Messianic hopes of the people.

The Persian period also saw many

collections of the wisdom heritage of the
Israelites finally fixed into books: the Books of
Proverbs. Job, Psalms and the Song of Songs.
The literary genre of midrash became popular at
this time. Midrash is a way of interpreting
tradition and Scripture by means of stories told
to edify and instruct the people. The midrashic
literary works produced in this period were the
Books of Tobit, Jonah and Ruth.
The Persian period is the most drab in the
history of Israel – at least as far as our historical knowledge stands – because it was not marked
by any significant event. Perhaps it was a very peaceful and settled era for them. Nonetheless, it
was at this time that the literary works began years and centuries before finally took their final
shape. Moreover, the religious community of the Jews was most prolific in recording their faith.
Indeed, this period is the most productive and active in Israel’s history when we speak of the
books of the Bible that were written.

Period of Hellenism
Alexander’s Empire
The tranquility of
the Persian period was
broken with the fall of the
Persian Empire under the
onslaught of the Greeks led by the able Alexander the Great. The decisive battle was fought at
Issus in 333 B.C. The Persian defeat at Issus opened the door of the vast Persian Empire to
Alexander. But he went far beyond, and ended his victorious campaigns at the edge of the Indus
River of India. Within a span of 10 years (333-323 B.C), Alexander was master of the world
from Greece to the gates of India. Unfortunately, his genius in the military campaigns was not
translated to effective political control. He had not the opportunity to rule his vast empire. Death
stepped in at Alexander’s young age of 33 in Babylon on his way back from his conquests. As he
had no heirs, his generals divided his conquered lands among themselves.
Alexander did not only conquer military; he also set out to conquer the cultures of the
East. He saw himself as the agent to civilize the world by introducing the Greek culture to all,
which he believed to be far superior to all others. Thus, he started the process of Hellenization
that is, making the world Greek. To do this, Alexander brought along with him not only soldiers
and fighters but also teachers, philosophers, poets and artists. No wonder then that even after the
Greek military might had waned, the world still remained Greek in language and culture.
When Alexander died, Palestine fell under the sphere of influence of the Lagides of
Egypt. This was the family that stemmed from the Greek general Ptolemy 1 Soter who took over
Egypt and the surrounding territories at the death of Alexander. The life of the people in
Palestine did not change much under the Lagides. The new rulers followed the tolerant attitudes
of the Persians towards the people under them. In fact, according to the Letter of Aristeas, it
was Ptolemy II Philadelpus (285-246 B.C.) who ordered the Greek translation of the Law for the
sake of the many Jews in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, who no longer could read Hebrew.
Whether the account of the Letter of Aristeas is true or not, we know that the Septuagint
(commonly abbreviated LXX) translation came betwee 300 and 200 B.C. It was also sometime
during this period that the books of Esther and Ecclesiastes were written.
In 200 B.C., Palestine was taken over by the Seleucids of Syria. The Seleucids came
from the dynasty that Seleucus I Nicator (305-281 B.C.) put up. He was then the Greek general
of Alexander the Great who carved his own empire based on Syria stretching to the East at the
unexpected death of his master. Sometime around this period of transition, the Book of Ben
Sirach in the form that we have it (in Greek) was written.
Things went out uneventfully for the Jews until Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended the
throne around 175 B.C. He had the vision of uniting his vast empire composed of different
peoples under the banner of the Greek culture. So he imposed the Greek language, customs and
religion to all. The result was the Great Persecution of the Jews (167-164 B.C). The Jews
resisted this effort because for many of them this would result to infidelity to the Covenant,
especially when it came to accepting the Greek gods. Many died on behalf of their Jewish faith
rather than succumb to the program of their rulers.
The Great Persecution gave rise to the Jewish Revolt. It was started unpremeditatedly by
the priest Mattathias (1 Mac 2, 15-28) but was really given teeth by his son Judas Maccabeus
(166-160 B.C.). The revolt became so strong and so successful that by 164 B.C., the Jewish
rebels were able to capture Jerusalem and to re-dedicate the Temple for the use of proper Jewish
sacrifices to Yahweh, since the Greeks and their Hellenized Jewish allies even set up in the
Temple of Yahweh an altar to Zeus. This purification of the Temple is celebrated by the Jews
even up to now in their yearly feast of the Hanukkah.
During this Jewish persecution, the Book of the prophet Daniel was written, it belongs to
the literary genre of the apocalyptic. A product of the apocalyptic movement popular between
200 B.C. ad A.D. 200, this genre envisioned a new world which would come out from the ashes
of the present decaying order of things. God would bring about a new creation, a new world
order. The present order was seen as so corrupt that it had to be done away with to give place to
the new. In this view, the hardships of the present moment were nothing else but the throes of a
dying evil world. So people were told not to be dismayed but simply to hand on for soon the
world of justice and peace would come.

The apocalyptic
genre was part of an
underground literature of
persecuted people. So
they used a lot of
symbols to avoid
detection. Colors,
numbers, animals, time
frames were employed to
refer to deeper meanings.
Because of this
characteristic, the
apocalyptic writings can
be, and have always
been, easily
misunderstood by people who are not aware of their symbolic codes. Another characteristic of
the apocalyptic is that, just as the rest of Scriptures, it spoke of events of those time, not of some
distant future.
In fact, if it mentioned what was to come to all, it alluded to the very near future of the
time of its writing, because according to the apocalyptic belief, the future establishment of a new
world order is just around the corner. The coming down of the New Kingdom is seen as very
near indeed. If we keep this in mind, we will avoid strange interpretations of this type of
literature, interpretations which apply it directly to our times, as if the writers were seeing our
times and writing about them.
Besides the Book of Daniel, this Hellenistic period also produced the two Books of the
Maccabees. In fact, many of the things that we know from the Scriptures about this period are
taken from these two books. They describe to us not only the persecution of the Jews by the
Greeks but also the struggle of the Jews under the Maccabees to free themselves from the
oppressive measures of the Seleucids and how their struggle gradually led them to the creation of
a semblance of a free Jewish nation, the first one since the time of the Babylonian Exile.
The Book of Judith was written around 100 B.C. It is a midrash depicting in the struggle
of Judith against Holofernes, the struggle of the Jewish underdogs against the all-powerful
Greeks. In this conflict, the heroine remained faithful to the Jewish practices, and was victorious.
So it teaches that the Jews can triumph even if they remain faithful to the Laws of the Covenant;
nay, more, precisely because of their fidelity to Yahweh.

Roman Period
In 142 B.C., Simon, another brother of Judas Maccabeus who became the leader of the
Jews at the death of Jonathan, started to mint coins signifying the Jewish nation. It was a formal
sign of the Jewish independence from the Greeks. But this independence did not last long. The
squabbles among the Hasmoneans – the dynasty of the Maccabees – over the kingship and the
high priesthood, the two most powerful positions in the land, invited the Romans to intervene.
Rome by then was the powerful empire, and it imposed upon itself the task of keeping the world
order. So in 63 B.C., the great Roman general Pompey entered Jerusalem, supposedly to settle
the problem of leadership between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, the two brothers warring
over the leadership of the Jewish nation. In reality however, when the Romans had set foot on
the land, they did not leave anymore. On the course of time, Herod, the son of Antipater who
was the chief minister of Hyrcanus, gained the confidence of the Romans. He came to Jerusalem
in 39 B.C. with Roman backing. Two years later he was the effective leader of the small Jewish
nation. Herod, whom history knows as Herod the Great, was a great builder. He built Caesarea
Maritima which later become the Roman Administrative center in Palestine. In 20 B.C., he also
started the ambitious project of enlarging the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to ingratiate
himself to the Jews by this project. Despite this, the Jews never accepted his rule since he was
half Jew and half Idumaen. Besides, he was not of the line of the Hasmoneans, and so was seen
as an illegitimate leader in the eyes of many. To make matters worse, he was a Roman puppet. In
any case, this rebuilding project of the Temple continued way up to the time of Jesus’ ministry
(cf. Jn 2, 20), making the Temple of Jerusalem one of the architectural wonders of those times.
Around 50 B.C., the Book of Wisdom was written. Probably the last book of the Old
Testament, it closes the Old Testament Canon. From this time till the writing of the first New
Testament book in the early 50s AD, we have the so-called Inter-testamentary period.
Christian revelation in Jesus Christ and through the early Apostolic Church took place in this
period, although this revelation was written down later on.