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Imagine someone hands you a history book about

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the United States, right? Okay. You open it up

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and the author is just confidently explaining

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that George Washington was the first president,

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followed immediately by Abraham Lincoln. Oh.

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Yeah. And it gets better. Yeah. Lincoln apparently

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fought off the British during World War II and

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he did it with the help of his vice president,

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Thomas Edison. That is, I mean, that's just impressively

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wrong. Right. you'd probably laugh them out of

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the room the history is just completely comically

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inaccurate right but what if i told you that

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a book with exactly that level of historical

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inaccuracy not only survived the ancient world

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but actually became one of the most revered sacred

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texts in human history it really is wild when

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you frame it that way and what if those historical

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errors weren't mistakes at all what if they were

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like a brilliant encrypted piece of underground

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resistance literature something that essentially

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saved an entire culture from being wiped off

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the map It completely flips how you read ancient

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texts. You know, you stop looking at them as

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just these dusty religious archives and start

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seeing them as desperate real -time survival

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manuals. Welcome to the Deep Dive. Yeah. Today

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we're taking you on a journey into a moment in

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time when the ancient world was radically, irrevocably

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disrupted. And the disruptor was, uh... A young,

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incredibly ambitious Macedonian king. Alexander

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the Great. Exactly. Alexander the Great. And

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in his wake, Greek culture, Greek language, Greek

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political structures, this whole overarching

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phenomenon we call Hellenism, it just flooded

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everything from the Mediterranean all the way

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to the borders of India. It was a total cultural

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tsunami. But this wasn't just a story of a military

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occupation. I mean, those happen constantly throughout

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history. Right. What we are exploring today is

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a profound intellectual and theological crisis.

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You know, how does an ancient, established, fiercely

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independent religion survive when its entire

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worldview is swallowed up by this seductive,

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aggressively expansive global superpower? And

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to answer that, we are bringing in a massive

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stack of research today. We're specifically focusing

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on the second half of the Cambridge History of

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Judaism, Volume 2. The Hellenistic Age. Yep,

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the Hellenistic Age. We're moving meticulously,

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chapter by chapter, from Chapter 10 onwards.

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Our mission here is to examine the absolute literary

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explosion that happened when Judaism collided

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with the Greek world. It's an incredibly rich

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period to study. It really is. But before we

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get to the Greeks, I kind of want to challenge

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the timeline a bit. Okay, where are we going?

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Well, if we want to understand how these people

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survived the Greeks, we actually have to go backwards,

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right? I feel like we can't understand the literature

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of the Hellenistic era without understanding

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the deep psychological trauma that created the

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need for this new literature centuries earlier.

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You are entirely correct. I mean, the foundational

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architecture of the Jewish mind during the Greek

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period was built in the ruins of the year 587

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BCE. So we're drawing on Paul D. Hansen's research

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here regarding the matrix of apocalyptic literature.

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Right. And to understand that matrix, we have

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to recognize the stunning, just catastrophic

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blow of the Babylonian conquest. We're talking

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about the destruction of the first temple in

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Jerusalem and the absolute loss of Jewish nationhood.

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But, I mean, nations lost wars all the time in

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the ancient Near East, right? Cities got burned.

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People got enslaved. Why was this specific defeat

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such a unique psychological shattering for the

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Israelites? Well, it comes down to the specific

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theological architecture of Yahwism at that time.

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Their entire religion was anchored to a central

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theologumenon. A theologumenon. Let's define

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that for a second. Oh, sure. It's a foundational

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theological core concept. And for them, that

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concept was Zion. The mountain in Jerusalem.

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Exactly. The absolute belief was that this specific

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mountain was unconditionally elected by Yahweh.

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It was his literal dwelling place on earth. And

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therefore, it was inviolable. Okay, so it wasn't

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just a symbol. It was the physical anchor of

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their reality. Precisely. So when the Babylonian

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armies breach the walls, when they slaughter

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the inhabitants and burn the temple to the ground

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and carry off the sacred vessels, it is not merely

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a geopolitical disaster. It's a cosmic crisis.

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Right. The worshippers of the Babylonian god

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Marduk have physically violated the inviolable

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home of Yahweh. Wait, if I'm an ancient Israelite

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standing in the ashes of Jerusalem, my logical

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conclusion isn't, you know, we didn't pray hard

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enough. The logical conclusion for an ancient

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person is Marduk just beat Yahweh in a fight.

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Exactly. It throws the entire status of their

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existence as an elected people into total jeopardy.

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I mean, if Marduk can burn down Yahweh's house,

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who is actually in control of the universe...

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Does our God even matter anymore? That's the

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terrifying question. And this trauma created

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an immediate centrifugal tendency. The community

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shattered. The leadership, the priests, the elites,

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they were all... Deported to Babylon. And this

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is the origin of the diaspora, right? The scattering

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of the Jewish people away from their geographic

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center. Yes, exactly. OK, let me try to put a

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modern framework on this so you, our listeners,

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can really feel the weight of it. Imagine a massive

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multinational corporation, something completely

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dominant. OK. And suddenly their absolute central

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headquarters is completely leveled. But it's

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not just the building, right? All the servers,

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all the employee records, the secret formulas,

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the CEO's office, every single shred of physical

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evidence that the company exists is just gone.

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That's a great way to picture it. And the employees

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are scattered across the globe, basically forced

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to work for rival companies. How do you convince

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those employees that the original corporation

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still exists when the physical proof is just

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a pile of ashes? That is a highly effective analogy

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for the crisis of the exile. Because the immediate

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terrifying challenge is preventing the total

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dissolution of the community. Right. Because

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the easiest thing to do would be to just blend

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in. Exactly. The path of least resistance is

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for those scattered exiles to simply assimilate

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into Babylonian culture. And if they do that,

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the religion disappears from history entirely.

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It just becomes another footnote in the ancient

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Near East. But they didn't disappear. No, they

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didn't. So what was the counter movement? Like,

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how did they rebuild the company without the

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headquarters? By attempting to recreate the headquarters

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with an almost obsessive rigidity, even in exile,

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and particularly when they were allowed to return

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to Jerusalem decades later under the Persian

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King Cyrus. Oh, right. Cyrus the Great. Yeah,

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Cyrus. There was a massive, desperate push to

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lock down the religion. You had prophets like

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Haggai and Zechariah who vehemently urged the

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people to rebuild the physical temple structures.

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They needed that physical center back. They believed

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that recreating the physical center, specifically

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under the authority of the Zadokite priesthood,

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held the only key to returning to God's blessing.

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Let me stop you there for a second. Zadokite

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priesthood. For those of us who don't have a

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degree in ancient theology, what does that specific

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lineage mean and why did it matter so much? Oh,

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great question. Zadok was a high priest who served

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during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

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So the golden age of Israel. By tracing their

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lineage and their authority directly back to

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Zadok, the priests returning from exile were

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claiming absolute unbroken legitimacy. They were

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basically saying. We are the only valid mediators

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between God and the people. Ah, so it's all about

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establishing unquestionable authority in a time

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of total chaos. Exactly. And it went beyond just

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rebuilding stone walls of the temple. This era

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saw the creation of what scholars call the priestly

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edition of the Pentateuch. The heavy editing

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and finalization of the first five books of the

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Bible. Right. And alongside that, you have the

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chronicler's history, which actually reformulated

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Israel's past to legitimize these current priestly

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structures. They were establishing a strictly

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law and temple centered community. But doesn't

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that feel, I don't know, a bit brittle? How do

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you mean? Like, I get that institutional trauma

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leads to a strict codification of rules. When

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everything feels out of control. You institute

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strict boundaries. You say, this is who we are,

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this is exactly what we do, and we will never

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deviate. Right. It's a defense mechanism. But

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if you build a fortress entirely out of rigid

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laws and rituals, you're basically just building

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a museum to the past, aren't you? How does a

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museum survive when something totally new and

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aggressive shows up? You've hit on the exact

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crux of the problem. That is exactly what brings

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us to the Hellenistic age. Strict rules, rigid

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boundaries, a focus on an idealized past. Those

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are excellent tools for preserving a culture

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in isolation. But they're not in isolation anymore.

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No, they're not. Those tools are completely insufficient

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when they come into contact with a dynamic, seductive,

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and aggressively expansive new culture. Enter

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the Greeks. Enter Hellenism. Yes. When Alexander's

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successors take over the region in the late 4th

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century BCE, they don't just bring armies and

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taxation, they bring a totalizing worldview.

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Which is so much harder to find. Oh, absolutely.

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They bring the gymnasium, which was the absolute

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center of Greek education and social networking.

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They bring Greek philosophy, new economic markets,

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and a culture that boldly proclaims itself the

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absolute pinnacle of human civilization. And

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Hellenism wasn't just something you could casually

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watch from afar, right? It was something you

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had to participate in if you wanted to get ahead.

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Like if you wanted a government contract or if

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you wanted your business to thrive, you needed

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to speak Greek. You needed to send your sons

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to the gymnasium. And the gymnasium is a perfect

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microcosm of this entire crisis because physical

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education in the Greek world was done naked.

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Oh, right. So for a young Jewish man... Participating

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in the gymnasium meant publicly displaying his

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circumcision, which for him was the physical

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mark of his covenant with God. But in the Greek

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world? In the Greek world, it was considered

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a bizarre, barbaric mutilation. So you have this

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intense daily pressure. Do I hold on to the strict,

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isolating laws of my ancestors and remain poor

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and marginalized? Or do I adapt? Right. Or do

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I adopt the Greek ways, perhaps even surgically

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attempt to reverse my circumcision, which shockingly

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some actually did, and gain wealth and social

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standing? Wow. That is a staggering level of

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psychological pressure for the average person

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on the ground. And the priestly establishment

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back in Jerusalem is basically just telling them,

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read the law, do the sacrifices at the temple,

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and stay separate. Which is increasingly impossible.

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Exactly. That's not going to cut it. A list of

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ancient rules doesn't give you hope. when you

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were being suffocated by a cultural empire. They

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needed something significantly more visceral.

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They needed to know that their current suffering

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had a cosmic purpose, that history was still

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under their god's control, even when it objectively

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looked like the Greeks held all the power. And

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this is where the literature explodes. This brings

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us to what scholars call the Apocrypha and the

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Pseudepigrapha. We're moving into Chapter 12

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of the research now. Yes. And those are pretty

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dense terms, so let's unpack them for a moment.

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Please do. So apocrypha generally refers to texts

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that were hidden away. These are books written

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during this period that were highly influential,

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but didn't make it into the official canonical

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Hebrew Bible that most Protestants use today.

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Though many of them are in Catholic and Orthodox

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Bibles, right? Yes, exactly. Okay, and what about

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pseudepigrapha? If you break down the word, you

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get pseudo, meaning false, and epigrapha, meaning

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inscription or attribution. Falsely attributed

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writings. Right. These are works that are falsely

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attributed to ancient legendary figures. I mean,

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think about it. A writer in the second century

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BCE wouldn't publish a book under their own name.

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No one would care what, you know, Joshua the

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00:11:34,340 --> 00:11:36,279
baker thought about the end of the world. Right.

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Joshua the baker doesn't have much authority.

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Exactly. But if Joshua writes a visionary text

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and claims it was actually written by Enoch or

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Moses or the 12 sons of Jacob centuries ago,

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suddenly it carries immense cosmic authority.

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It's the ultimate appeal to authority. Yeah.

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But looking at the research here by Matthias

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Delcor, what really strikes me is how chaotic

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this literary frontier is. It's not just one

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00:11:59,620 --> 00:12:02,320
unified message. Oh, not at all. It's this wild

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matrix of divergent streams, arguments between

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different sects, foreign ideas bleeding into

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Jewish thought. Let's look at some specific texts

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to see how this resistance actually worked on

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the ground. Sure. Let's start with Zechariah

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chapters 9 through 14. Ah. This is a perfect

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00:12:18,149 --> 00:12:21,110
example of textual evolution because the original

279
00:12:21,110 --> 00:12:24,210
prophet Zechariah lived way back during the return

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from the Babylonian exile, urging the rebuilding

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of the temple. Right. But most scholars agree

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that chapters 9 through 14 were tacked on to

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00:12:31,750 --> 00:12:34,850
the end of his book much, much later by a completely

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different author or authors. Now, wait, how can

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00:12:37,450 --> 00:12:39,590
they possibly know that? If it's all written

286
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on the same scroll, how do modern scholars act

287
00:12:42,669 --> 00:12:44,690
as historical detectives to prove it was written

288
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centuries later? During the Greek era. By meticulously

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analyzing the historical clues hiding in plain

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sight within the text. Let's look at chapter

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11, verse 14. Okay. The author describes an allegory

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where a shepherd breaks his staff. And the text

293
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says this signifies annulling the brotherhood

294
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between Judah and Israel. Okay, so what does

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00:13:03,450 --> 00:13:05,809
that actually mean on the ground? Well, scholars

296
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understand this as a heavily veiled reference

297
00:13:08,750 --> 00:13:12,139
to the Samaritan schism. For a long time, there

298
00:13:12,139 --> 00:13:14,139
was growing tension between the Jews centered

299
00:13:14,139 --> 00:13:16,539
in Jerusalem, Judah, and the Samaritans to the

300
00:13:16,539 --> 00:13:20,500
north Israel. Right. But the formal bitter divorce

301
00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:22,899
between these two groups, where they completely

302
00:13:22,899 --> 00:13:26,379
broke off religious fellowship, that solidified

303
00:13:26,379 --> 00:13:29,460
late in the Persian period or early in the Greek

304
00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:32,340
period. So right out of the gate, if the author

305
00:13:32,340 --> 00:13:34,539
is referring to the broken brotherhood, we know

306
00:13:34,539 --> 00:13:36,580
they are writing after that schism occurred.

307
00:13:36,860 --> 00:13:39,419
Okay, so we are firmly in the Hellenistic timeline.

308
00:13:39,909 --> 00:13:42,269
But there's an even bigger clue in chapter 14,

309
00:13:42,450 --> 00:13:44,970
right? The text describes this horrific blow

310
00:13:44,970 --> 00:13:47,590
falling on Jerusalem where half of the city's

311
00:13:47,590 --> 00:13:49,789
inhabitants are forcibly taken away into exile.

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00:13:50,110 --> 00:13:52,850
Yes. And if we step outside the biblical text

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00:13:52,850 --> 00:13:55,230
and cross -reference this with, say, the letter

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00:13:55,230 --> 00:13:57,409
of Aristias and the ancient Jewish historian

315
00:13:57,409 --> 00:14:00,090
Josephus, they describe a massive historical

316
00:14:00,090 --> 00:14:02,830
trauma that fits this perfect. They recount an

317
00:14:02,830 --> 00:14:05,389
event where Ptolemy, who was one of Alexander

318
00:14:05,389 --> 00:14:07,830
the Great's generals and took over Egypt after

319
00:14:07,830 --> 00:14:10,639
Alexander died. invaded Palestine and deported

320
00:14:10,639 --> 00:14:13,639
an enormous number of Jews. They cite a figure

321
00:14:13,639 --> 00:14:17,139
of 100 ,000 people taken from Judea to Egypt

322
00:14:17,139 --> 00:14:21,259
as prisoners of war and slaves. 100 ,000. I mean,

323
00:14:21,279 --> 00:14:23,419
even if that number is slightly exaggerated by

324
00:14:23,419 --> 00:14:25,980
ancient historians, the psychological impact

325
00:14:25,980 --> 00:14:28,360
of seeing a massive chunk of your population

326
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:31,159
dragged off in chains to Egypt by a Greek king.

327
00:14:31,340 --> 00:14:33,580
It's devastating. That's exactly the kind of

328
00:14:33,580 --> 00:14:35,700
trauma that generates apocalyptic, desperate

329
00:14:35,700 --> 00:14:37,950
literature. Furthermore, the author specifically

330
00:14:37,950 --> 00:14:40,570
mentions Javan, which is the traditional biblical

331
00:14:40,570 --> 00:14:43,649
term for Greece, and frequently takes Egypt to

332
00:14:43,649 --> 00:14:45,730
task in the prophecies. Which perfectly aligns

333
00:14:45,730 --> 00:14:47,929
with the politics of the time. Exactly. This

334
00:14:47,929 --> 00:14:49,929
geographical and political focus makes perfect

335
00:14:49,929 --> 00:14:51,889
sense for a Jewish author living in Palestine

336
00:14:51,889 --> 00:14:56,789
between 312 BCE and 217 BCE. Because during that

337
00:14:56,789 --> 00:14:59,350
specific window, Palestine was a territory heavily

338
00:14:59,350 --> 00:15:01,929
contested but largely controlled by the Ptolemaic

339
00:15:01,929 --> 00:15:04,950
dynasty ruling from Egypt. So when a reader living

340
00:15:04,950 --> 00:15:08,149
in that time unrolls this scroll, they aren't

341
00:15:08,149 --> 00:15:10,409
just reading abstract ancient processes about

342
00:15:10,409 --> 00:15:13,490
the end of the world. They are reading agonizing,

343
00:15:13,490 --> 00:15:17,029
real -time political commentary. Yes. It's basically

344
00:15:17,029 --> 00:15:19,529
a book of consolation saying, I know the Greeks

345
00:15:19,529 --> 00:15:21,629
and Egyptians are tearing our country apart and

346
00:15:21,629 --> 00:15:24,529
enslaving our families, but God sees it and God

347
00:15:24,529 --> 00:15:26,389
is going to fix this. It's underground resistance

348
00:15:26,389 --> 00:15:29,720
literature dressed up as ancient prophecy. That

349
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:31,860
is fascinating. Okay, let's pivot to something

350
00:15:31,860 --> 00:15:35,179
even wilder. Oh. The Book of Enoch. Oh. This

351
00:15:35,179 --> 00:15:38,169
is one of the most famous... of ancient Jewish

352
00:15:38,169 --> 00:15:40,450
literature that isn't in the standard Bible.

353
00:15:40,629 --> 00:15:44,049
It is filled with angels, demons, cosmic journeys

354
00:15:44,049 --> 00:15:47,549
through the stars, the origins of evil. It literally

355
00:15:47,549 --> 00:15:50,110
reads like ancient sci -fi. It really does. It

356
00:15:50,110 --> 00:15:52,889
is an incredibly dense, massive compilation of

357
00:15:52,889 --> 00:15:54,490
different texts that were written and stitched

358
00:15:54,490 --> 00:15:56,870
together over several centuries. But the research

359
00:15:56,870 --> 00:15:58,929
highlights some fascinating specific additions.

360
00:15:59,090 --> 00:16:01,909
Right. For instance, chapters 106 and 107 are

361
00:16:01,909 --> 00:16:04,070
what scholars refer to as the Noahic fragments.

362
00:16:04,649 --> 00:16:06,850
They were likely part of a lost, independent

363
00:16:06,850 --> 00:16:10,409
apocalypse of Noah, and they deal with his miraculous

364
00:16:10,409 --> 00:16:13,090
birth, how he illuminated the whole house like

365
00:16:13,090 --> 00:16:15,750
the sun when he was born. But the real kicker

366
00:16:15,750 --> 00:16:18,470
is the very last chapter, chapter 108. The research

367
00:16:18,470 --> 00:16:20,809
points out this was clearly an editorial edition

368
00:16:20,809 --> 00:16:24,820
tacked on to the end even later. But why? What

369
00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:27,399
purpose does it serve to add one more chapter

370
00:16:27,399 --> 00:16:30,659
to an already massive book about cosmic mysteries?

371
00:16:30,980 --> 00:16:33,120
It's entirely about the tone and the intended

372
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,139
audience. Chapter 108 has a distinctly Essene

373
00:16:36,139 --> 00:16:38,799
flavor to it. Hang on, the Essenes, that's a

374
00:16:38,799 --> 00:16:40,840
term that gets thrown around a lot. Who exactly

375
00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,419
were they in this context? Broadly speaking,

376
00:16:43,620 --> 00:16:46,240
the Essenes were a very strict, highly ascetic

377
00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,379
Jewish sect. Think of them almost like ancient

378
00:16:48,379 --> 00:16:50,980
desert dwelling monks. Okay. They believed the

379
00:16:50,980 --> 00:16:53,019
mainstream religious establishment in Jerusalem

380
00:16:53,019 --> 00:16:55,200
had become completely corrupted by Hellenistic

381
00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:58,039
influence. So they withdrew. They valued purity,

382
00:16:58,179 --> 00:17:00,480
self -denial, and they strictly separated themselves

383
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,200
from what they saw as the sinful, worldly society.

384
00:17:03,700 --> 00:17:05,819
So how does that show up in chapter 108 of Enoch?

385
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,990
Well, this final chapter. fiercely praises asceticism

386
00:17:09,990 --> 00:17:12,690
it's all about denying the pleasures of the flesh

387
00:17:12,690 --> 00:17:16,430
but more importantly it vehemently despises gold

388
00:17:16,430 --> 00:17:19,849
and silver it condemns those who accumulate wealth

389
00:17:19,849 --> 00:17:22,390
why add a chapter hating on money to the end

390
00:17:22,390 --> 00:17:25,990
of a book about angels yeah oh wait i think i

391
00:17:25,990 --> 00:17:28,930
see it it's the economic disparity of hellenization

392
00:17:28,930 --> 00:17:32,029
isn't it precisely Put yourself in the emotional

393
00:17:32,029 --> 00:17:34,910
state of a devout, traditional Jewish person

394
00:17:34,910 --> 00:17:37,230
reading this text. You have been waiting for

395
00:17:37,230 --> 00:17:40,029
God to intervene, waiting for the messianic kingdom

396
00:17:40,029 --> 00:17:42,450
to arrive and overthrow the Greeks. And you've

397
00:17:42,450 --> 00:17:44,390
been waiting for generations. Exactly. You are

398
00:17:44,390 --> 00:17:46,529
exhausted. Meanwhile, you look around your city

399
00:17:46,529 --> 00:17:48,490
and you see the Hellenized Jews, the ones who

400
00:17:48,490 --> 00:17:50,789
compromised, who adopted Greek customs, who do

401
00:17:50,789 --> 00:17:52,549
business in the gymnasium, who abandoned the

402
00:17:52,549 --> 00:17:54,950
old laws. And they are getting incredibly rich.

403
00:17:55,089 --> 00:17:57,170
They are accumulating gold and silver. They are

404
00:17:57,170 --> 00:17:59,069
winning. And if you are the one holding fast

405
00:17:59,069 --> 00:18:02,440
to the law. You are probably poor, marginalized,

406
00:18:02,619 --> 00:18:04,680
and starting to wonder if you made a terrible

407
00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,420
mistake. So chapter 108 is added to comfort the

408
00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:09,759
righteous poor. It's an ancient author basically

409
00:18:09,759 --> 00:18:11,519
putting an arm around the reader and saying,

410
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,539
hang in there. I know the collaborators are getting

411
00:18:14,539 --> 00:18:17,440
rich right now and the wait is agonizing, but

412
00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,619
despise their gold. It's temporary. God will

413
00:18:20,619 --> 00:18:23,180
reward your patience in the cosmic afterlife.

414
00:18:23,769 --> 00:18:26,609
Yes, the author strongly emphasizes the immortality

415
00:18:26,609 --> 00:18:29,829
of the soul and a luminous afterlife specifically

416
00:18:29,829 --> 00:18:32,890
to validate the suffering of the righteous in

417
00:18:32,890 --> 00:18:35,789
the present. It recontextualizes their poverty,

418
00:18:35,910 --> 00:18:38,750
not as a curse, but as a badge of honor. That

419
00:18:38,750 --> 00:18:40,970
makes it so much more human. I mean, we aren't

420
00:18:40,970 --> 00:18:42,609
just talking about abstract theology. We are

421
00:18:42,609 --> 00:18:44,829
talking about how people deal with the bitter

422
00:18:44,829 --> 00:18:47,430
envy of watching corrupt people succeed. It's

423
00:18:47,430 --> 00:18:49,509
incredibly relatable. Now, what about the political

424
00:18:49,509 --> 00:18:51,950
side of things? Yeah. Because religion and politics

425
00:18:51,950 --> 00:18:54,349
were basically indistinguishable back then. Yeah.

426
00:18:54,430 --> 00:18:56,269
And that leads us to the Testaments of the Twelve

427
00:18:56,269 --> 00:18:58,930
Patriarchs. This is a truly fascinating mixed

428
00:18:58,930 --> 00:19:01,970
genre. It presents itself as the final deathbed

429
00:19:01,970 --> 00:19:04,609
speeches of the twelve sons of Jacob, the founders

430
00:19:04,609 --> 00:19:07,559
of the twelve tribes of Israel. It blends Haggadah,

431
00:19:07,660 --> 00:19:09,839
which is the imaginative narrative expansion

432
00:19:09,839 --> 00:19:13,160
of biblical stories, with intense moral exhortation.

433
00:19:13,420 --> 00:19:16,099
It's essentially telling the reader how to live

434
00:19:16,099 --> 00:19:18,640
ethically, but then it frequently shifts into

435
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,339
apocalyptic visions of the future. But the research

436
00:19:21,339 --> 00:19:24,900
notes a very specific, almost obsessive agenda

437
00:19:24,900 --> 00:19:28,420
hiding within these 12 speeches. The text constantly

438
00:19:28,420 --> 00:19:30,980
emphasizes the absolute precedence and supreme

439
00:19:30,980 --> 00:19:34,130
authority of the tribe of Levi. And Levi being

440
00:19:34,130 --> 00:19:37,150
the priestly tribe, the author is deeply, urgently

441
00:19:37,150 --> 00:19:39,690
concerned with validating the ultimate authority

442
00:19:39,690 --> 00:19:42,490
of the priesthood over the nation. Why the hard

443
00:19:42,490 --> 00:19:44,910
sell on the priests? Were they losing power?

444
00:19:45,170 --> 00:19:47,410
Actually, it's the exact opposite problem. During

445
00:19:47,410 --> 00:19:49,609
the Hellenistic period, the high priesthood in

446
00:19:49,609 --> 00:19:52,130
Jerusalem became highly politicized, massively

447
00:19:52,130 --> 00:19:55,740
wealthy and deeply corrupt. Yeah. Hellenistic

448
00:19:55,740 --> 00:19:58,059
kings were essentially auctioning off the office

449
00:19:58,059 --> 00:20:00,440
of high priest to the highest bidder. You had

450
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,400
rival families murdering each other to secure

451
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:04,160
the priesthood because it controlled the temple

452
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:09,460
treasury. Wow. So if you are a devout Jew, the

453
00:20:09,779 --> 00:20:12,039
very institution that is supposed to be your

454
00:20:12,039 --> 00:20:15,380
connection to God is being run by cutthroat politicians

455
00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:19,309
working for foreign kings. Exactly. Now, we should

456
00:20:19,309 --> 00:20:21,549
note our source material is highlighting how

457
00:20:21,549 --> 00:20:23,690
these ancient factions viewed each other. So

458
00:20:23,690 --> 00:20:25,730
we're just reporting their theological and political

459
00:20:25,730 --> 00:20:28,369
arguments here. But yes, for a devout person,

460
00:20:28,569 --> 00:20:31,230
it was scandalous. Right. So the Testaments of

461
00:20:31,230 --> 00:20:33,609
the Twelve Patriarchs is essentially a battleground

462
00:20:33,609 --> 00:20:36,710
text. We have fragments of it from Qumran, where

463
00:20:36,710 --> 00:20:39,369
the Essenes lived, which suggests that different

464
00:20:39,369 --> 00:20:42,109
groups were using and perhaps adapting this text

465
00:20:42,109 --> 00:20:44,730
to support their own views on what a legitimate

466
00:20:44,730 --> 00:20:46,650
priesthood should look like. They're trying to

467
00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:48,750
reclaim the narrative. The author is trying to

468
00:20:48,750 --> 00:20:51,269
remind the people of the ideal divine origin

469
00:20:51,269 --> 00:20:53,930
of the Levites in stark contrast to the corrupt

470
00:20:53,930 --> 00:20:56,289
reality they were seeing in Jerusalem. It's like

471
00:20:56,289 --> 00:20:59,190
writing a book about the pure, noble origins

472
00:20:59,190 --> 00:21:01,829
of democracy while watching a wildly corrupt

473
00:21:01,829 --> 00:21:04,789
election happen in real time. It's a plea to

474
00:21:04,789 --> 00:21:06,750
remember the ideal. That's a great comparison.

475
00:21:06,930 --> 00:21:08,490
Now let's hit one more text from this matrix

476
00:21:08,490 --> 00:21:10,730
because it tackles the most agonizing question

477
00:21:10,730 --> 00:21:13,430
for any colonized people. The letter of Jeremiah.

478
00:21:14,130 --> 00:21:16,630
This text was preserved in Greek, and it attempts

479
00:21:16,630 --> 00:21:19,849
to answer the ultimate problem of theodicy. Theodicy

480
00:21:19,849 --> 00:21:22,410
being the attempt to justify the ways of God

481
00:21:22,410 --> 00:21:25,250
when reality seems profoundly unjust. Right.

482
00:21:25,369 --> 00:21:28,390
The question is simple but devastating. If our

483
00:21:28,390 --> 00:21:30,990
God is the one true creator of the universe,

484
00:21:31,269 --> 00:21:34,349
and these Greeks worship chunks of carved wood

485
00:21:34,349 --> 00:21:37,369
and metal, why are the Greeks running the world?

486
00:21:37,549 --> 00:21:40,329
Why are we losing? It is the intellectual crisis

487
00:21:40,329 --> 00:21:42,920
of the era. And the letter of Jeremiah features

488
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:45,759
a brilliant extended double digression to answer

489
00:21:45,759 --> 00:21:48,019
this exact complaint. It doesn't just say God

490
00:21:48,019 --> 00:21:50,279
works in mysterious ways. It goes deeper than

491
00:21:50,279 --> 00:21:52,980
that. Much deeper. It argues that the idolaters,

492
00:21:53,140 --> 00:21:55,640
the pagan Greeks and Babylonians, are solely

493
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,059
and entirely responsible for their own inevitable

494
00:21:58,059 --> 00:22:00,660
destruction. How does it justify that when the

495
00:22:00,660 --> 00:22:02,440
pagans are the ones with all the armies and all

496
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,880
the wealth? The author makes a profound philosophical

497
00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:07,500
argument. And what's fascinating is that this

498
00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:10,339
argument actually. co -ops and resonates with

499
00:22:10,339 --> 00:22:13,279
some Greek stoic critiques of traditional religion

500
00:22:13,279 --> 00:22:16,019
that were circulating at the exact same time.

501
00:22:16,099 --> 00:22:18,789
Oh, interesting. The Stoics believed in a rational,

502
00:22:19,029 --> 00:22:21,910
natural order to the universe. So the Jewish

503
00:22:21,910 --> 00:22:24,750
author uses Greek philosophy against Greek religion.

504
00:22:24,930 --> 00:22:27,890
In a way, yes. The letter argues that by taking

505
00:22:27,890 --> 00:22:31,329
elements of the created world, wood, stone, silver,

506
00:22:31,630 --> 00:22:34,490
gold, and attempting to fashion them into gods,

507
00:22:34,710 --> 00:22:37,349
the idolaters are fundamentally violating the

508
00:22:37,349 --> 00:22:39,589
natural order of the cosmos. They're worshipping

509
00:22:39,589 --> 00:22:41,569
the creation instead of the creator. Exactly.

510
00:22:41,569 --> 00:22:44,089
By worshipping the created thing, they rebel

511
00:22:44,089 --> 00:22:47,019
against reality itself. Therefore, the argument

512
00:22:47,019 --> 00:22:49,539
goes, by making creatures into gods, they effectively

513
00:22:49,539 --> 00:22:53,240
make all of creation their enemy. Wow. So it's

514
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,799
not that God is losing a war to the Greeks. It's

515
00:22:55,799 --> 00:22:58,279
that the pagans are participating in a system

516
00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:01,099
of absolute unreality. It's a system that will

517
00:23:01,099 --> 00:23:03,819
inevitably collapse in on itself because it is

518
00:23:03,819 --> 00:23:06,000
warring against the very fabric of the universe.

519
00:23:06,700 --> 00:23:09,759
Exactly. Imagine a Jewish reader standing in

520
00:23:09,759 --> 00:23:12,900
a massive, opulent Greek city looking up at a

521
00:23:12,900 --> 00:23:15,599
towering temple with a 40 -foot gold and ivory

522
00:23:15,599 --> 00:23:18,000
statue of Zeus. Yeah, that would be terrifying.

523
00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:21,259
The natural instinct is to feel utterly intimidated,

524
00:23:21,519 --> 00:23:24,059
to feel that your own faith is small and powerless.

525
00:23:24,500 --> 00:23:27,380
But the letter of Jeremiah retrains the reader's

526
00:23:27,380 --> 00:23:30,039
mind. It changes their perspective. It teaches

527
00:23:30,039 --> 00:23:32,339
them to look at that massive statue and instead

528
00:23:32,339 --> 00:23:35,099
of feeling fear, to feel a sense of pity or even

529
00:23:35,099 --> 00:23:37,619
vindication, knowing that despite all its wealth,

530
00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:40,380
it's completely hollow. It's an illusion. It's

531
00:23:40,380 --> 00:23:42,619
intellectual armor. Yeah. So we see all these

532
00:23:42,619 --> 00:23:45,000
underground texts circulating as coping mechanisms,

533
00:23:45,220 --> 00:23:47,279
you know, using ancient names to critique the

534
00:23:47,279 --> 00:23:50,160
present, comforting the poor, defending the priesthood,

535
00:23:50,259 --> 00:23:53,130
tearing down the logic of idolatry. It was a

536
00:23:53,130 --> 00:23:56,150
very busy literary period. But did any of this

537
00:23:56,150 --> 00:23:58,289
encrypted resistance actually break through to

538
00:23:58,289 --> 00:24:01,390
the mainstream? Did any of it survive the centuries

539
00:24:01,390 --> 00:24:04,430
to become part of the central canonical Bible

540
00:24:04,430 --> 00:24:07,430
that millions read today? That leads us perfectly

541
00:24:07,430 --> 00:24:10,390
to the ultimate masterpiece of this entire genre.

542
00:24:10,529 --> 00:24:13,750
A book so successful, so profoundly influential,

543
00:24:14,250 --> 00:24:17,049
that it secured a place in the permanent canon.

544
00:24:17,509 --> 00:24:20,299
The Book of Daniel. Okay, the Book of Daniel.

545
00:24:20,420 --> 00:24:22,859
This is chapter 13 of the research. If you grew

546
00:24:22,859 --> 00:24:25,339
up in Sunday school, you know the greatest hits

547
00:24:25,339 --> 00:24:29,039
of Daniel. Daniel in the lion's den, Shadrach,

548
00:24:29,220 --> 00:24:32,119
Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace.

549
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,539
These are classic stories. Very familiar to many

550
00:24:35,539 --> 00:24:37,779
people. But the research by H .L. Ginsberg makes

551
00:24:37,779 --> 00:24:39,680
it clear that the Book of Daniel is basically

552
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,720
two completely different books written in different

553
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,599
styles smashed together. That is the overwhelming

554
00:24:45,599 --> 00:24:48,029
consensus of modern scholarship. The book is

555
00:24:48,029 --> 00:24:50,589
cleanly divided. Daniel A comprises chapters

556
00:24:50,589 --> 00:24:53,410
one through six. These are the court tales. The

557
00:24:53,410 --> 00:24:55,410
famous Sunday school stories. Right. They are

558
00:24:55,410 --> 00:24:57,549
relatively straightforward, legendary stories

559
00:24:57,549 --> 00:24:59,849
of faithful Jews surviving and even thriving

560
00:24:59,849 --> 00:25:02,089
in the royal courts of foreign kings in Babylon

561
00:25:02,089 --> 00:25:04,589
and Persia. They are stories of maintaining your

562
00:25:04,589 --> 00:25:07,089
purity in a strange land. But then you hit chapter

563
00:25:07,089 --> 00:25:10,049
seven, Daniel B. And the genre just completely

564
00:25:10,049 --> 00:25:12,250
violently shifts. It's a jarring transition.

565
00:25:12,730 --> 00:25:15,750
Suddenly. You aren't reading about lion's dens.

566
00:25:16,049 --> 00:25:18,910
You are reading dense, terrifying, hallucinatory,

567
00:25:18,910 --> 00:25:21,569
apocalyptic visions. You have grotesque beasts

568
00:25:21,569 --> 00:25:23,650
coming out of the sea, little horns speaking

569
00:25:23,650 --> 00:25:26,109
arrogant things, the Ancient of Days sitting

570
00:25:26,109 --> 00:25:28,970
on a throne of fire. It is wildly different.

571
00:25:29,279 --> 00:25:31,880
And for centuries, the traditional unquestioned

572
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,720
view was that a single historical figure named

573
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,200
Daniel wrote this entire book in the 6th century

574
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:41,500
BCE during the Babylonian exile, and that the

575
00:25:41,500 --> 00:25:43,880
second half of the book was simply his miraculous,

576
00:25:44,180 --> 00:25:47,180
highly detailed prophecies of the distant future.

577
00:25:47,420 --> 00:25:50,000
But the historical reality, as uncovered by the

578
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,200
research, is far more thrilling. And to understand

579
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,619
that reality, we have to introduce a very unexpected

580
00:25:55,619 --> 00:25:58,259
character into this deep dive, a guy named Porphyry.

581
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:00,869
Porphyry is a fascinating figure. He was a 3rd

582
00:26:00,869 --> 00:26:04,130
century CE Neoplatonist philosopher. He was a

583
00:26:04,130 --> 00:26:06,109
pagan, and he was actually a fiercely intelligent

584
00:26:06,109 --> 00:26:08,990
critic of both Christianity and Judaism. So wait,

585
00:26:09,029 --> 00:26:10,670
the guy who cracks the code of one of the most

586
00:26:10,670 --> 00:26:13,549
famous books in the Bible is a pagan critic who

587
00:26:13,549 --> 00:26:16,990
hated it. Yes. Porphyry was closely reading the

588
00:26:16,990 --> 00:26:19,869
book of Daniel, specifically Daniel B., The Apocalyptic

589
00:26:19,869 --> 00:26:22,890
Visions, and Porphyry noticed something incredibly

590
00:26:22,890 --> 00:26:25,609
suspicious, something that modern biblical scholarship

591
00:26:25,609 --> 00:26:29,299
eventually confirmed. What did he find? He realized

592
00:26:29,299 --> 00:26:32,079
that Daniel B. could not possibly be ancient

593
00:26:32,079 --> 00:26:35,980
prophecy written in the 6th century BCE. He argued

594
00:26:35,980 --> 00:26:38,640
it was written much, much later by someone living

595
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,140
through a very specific, incredibly violent political

596
00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:43,799
crisis. And that crisis was the reign of the

597
00:26:43,799 --> 00:26:47,480
Seleucid king, Antiochus V at Epiphanes. Precisely.

598
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:53,529
Antiochus V ruled from 175 to 163 BCE. He was

599
00:26:53,529 --> 00:26:55,410
one of the Hellenistic kings controlling the

600
00:26:55,410 --> 00:26:58,069
territory of Syria and Palestine. Right. Now,

601
00:26:58,130 --> 00:27:00,369
previous Greek rulers, like the Ptolemies we

602
00:27:00,369 --> 00:27:02,150
mentioned earlier, were generally content to

603
00:27:02,150 --> 00:27:03,910
just collect their taxes and leave the local

604
00:27:03,910 --> 00:27:05,930
religions alone. They were relatively tolerant.

605
00:27:06,150 --> 00:27:09,190
Right. But Antiochus was different. He actively,

606
00:27:09,250 --> 00:27:11,690
aggressively tried to force Hellenization on

607
00:27:11,690 --> 00:27:14,210
the Jewish people. He went so far as to completely

608
00:27:14,210 --> 00:27:16,509
outlaw the practice of Judaism. So this wasn't

609
00:27:16,509 --> 00:27:18,990
just cultural pressure anymore. This was an existential

610
00:27:18,990 --> 00:27:22,440
purge. It was state -sponsored terror. Antiochus

611
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,099
banned circumcision upon penalty of death. He

612
00:27:25,099 --> 00:27:27,359
banned the observance of the Sabbath. He ordered

613
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,779
the destruction of the Torah scrolls. That is

614
00:27:29,779 --> 00:27:32,759
horrific. And the ultimate trauma. He desecrated

615
00:27:32,759 --> 00:27:35,099
the temple in Jerusalem by setting up an altar

616
00:27:35,099 --> 00:27:38,140
to the Greek god Zeus right on top of the altar

617
00:27:38,140 --> 00:27:41,079
of Yahweh, and he sacrificed pigs on it. So if

618
00:27:41,079 --> 00:27:44,819
you are a Jew living in Judea in the 160s BCE,

619
00:27:45,279 --> 00:27:49,220
your religion is literally a capital crime. Exactly.

620
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,359
Now, how did Porphyry and later modern scholars

621
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,859
figure out that the Book of Daniel was actually

622
00:27:54,859 --> 00:27:57,920
written during this specific bloodbath in the

623
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,740
160s BCE and not 400 years earlier in Babylon?

624
00:28:02,019 --> 00:28:04,319
The clues are found in the author's grasp of

625
00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:06,880
history. It's a brilliant piece of literary forensics.

626
00:28:07,039 --> 00:28:09,359
The author of Daniel claims to be living and

627
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,099
writing during the time of the Babylonian and

628
00:28:11,099 --> 00:28:13,519
early Persian empires. But his knowledge of actual

629
00:28:13,519 --> 00:28:16,559
Persian history is, frankly, terrible. It's remarkably

630
00:28:16,559 --> 00:28:18,779
bad. The research points out that the author

631
00:28:18,779 --> 00:28:20,980
of Daniel implies there were only four Persian

632
00:28:20,980 --> 00:28:23,799
kings in total before Alexander the Great conquered

633
00:28:23,799 --> 00:28:27,079
them. Which is wildly incorrect. The Persian

634
00:28:27,079 --> 00:28:29,619
Empire lasted for over two centuries and had

635
00:28:29,619 --> 00:28:32,819
dozens of kings. The author of Daniel was likely

636
00:28:32,819 --> 00:28:35,519
relying solely on the older biblical book of

637
00:28:35,519 --> 00:28:38,920
Ezra, which only happens to mention four Persian

638
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,490
kings. So the author just... erroneously assume

639
00:28:41,490 --> 00:28:43,470
that was the entirety of the dynasty. Right.

640
00:28:43,569 --> 00:28:46,950
He completely conflates historical figures, mixes

641
00:28:46,950 --> 00:28:50,190
up names, and fundamentally misunderstands the

642
00:28:50,190 --> 00:28:52,789
chronology of the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.

643
00:28:53,529 --> 00:28:56,589
So, if this guy is supposedly living in the Persian

644
00:28:56,589 --> 00:28:58,769
Empire, he doesn't know anything about the empire

645
00:28:58,769 --> 00:29:01,369
he supposedly lives in. No, he doesn't. But,

646
00:29:01,410 --> 00:29:04,029
when the visions in Daniel B. start describing

647
00:29:04,029 --> 00:29:06,049
the events closer to the Hellenistic period,

648
00:29:06,670 --> 00:29:08,690
Things change dramatically. This is the massive

649
00:29:08,690 --> 00:29:10,509
giveaway. When the visions in the second half

650
00:29:10,509 --> 00:29:13,029
of the book describe the complex, multigenerational

651
00:29:13,029 --> 00:29:15,789
wars and the messy dynastic marriages between

652
00:29:15,789 --> 00:29:17,829
the Hellenistic House of Seleucus in the north

653
00:29:17,829 --> 00:29:20,289
Syria and the House of Lagos or the Ptolemies

654
00:29:20,289 --> 00:29:22,789
in the south Egypt. Yeah. The details are no

655
00:29:22,789 --> 00:29:25,509
longer vague or erroneous. They are astonishingly,

656
00:29:25,509 --> 00:29:28,450
meticulously precise. The author describes political

657
00:29:28,450 --> 00:29:31,829
betrayals, specific military campaigns, royal

658
00:29:31,829 --> 00:29:35,069
weddings. and shifting alliances with the exactitude

659
00:29:35,069 --> 00:29:37,450
of an eyewitness. This brings us right back to

660
00:29:37,450 --> 00:29:39,650
our terrible U .S. history book analogy from

661
00:29:39,650 --> 00:29:41,910
the beginning of the show. Exactly. It's exactly

662
00:29:41,910 --> 00:29:43,869
like someone claiming to write a history of the

663
00:29:43,869 --> 00:29:46,470
United States from the year 1800. And they write,

664
00:29:46,549 --> 00:29:48,930
George Washington was president, and then Abraham

665
00:29:48,930 --> 00:29:50,710
Lincoln was president, and then there were no

666
00:29:50,710 --> 00:29:53,630
more presidents until 1980, when a peanut farmer

667
00:29:53,630 --> 00:29:56,369
from Georgia fought a movie star from California,

668
00:29:56,609 --> 00:29:59,049
and then a guy playing saxophone went on late

669
00:29:59,049 --> 00:30:01,789
night TV. you'd look at that document and say,

670
00:30:01,890 --> 00:30:04,970
okay, your knowledge of the 1800s is terrible,

671
00:30:05,029 --> 00:30:07,910
but you clearly lived through the 1980s and 90s.

672
00:30:07,950 --> 00:30:10,789
That is a perfect modern parallel. The author

673
00:30:10,789 --> 00:30:13,170
of Daniel B. is not a prophet gazing centuries

674
00:30:13,170 --> 00:30:15,490
into the future from Babylon. The author is a

675
00:30:15,490 --> 00:30:17,910
desperately frightened, fiercely faithful Jew

676
00:30:17,910 --> 00:30:20,170
living through the terror of Antiochus the Sith

677
00:30:20,170 --> 00:30:22,890
in the 160s BCE. And he is writing resistance

678
00:30:22,890 --> 00:30:25,569
literature to encourage his Sulla Jews to stand

679
00:30:25,569 --> 00:30:28,450
firm, to accept martyrdom if necessary, and to

680
00:30:28,450 --> 00:30:30,710
wait for God to intervene and smash the Hellenistic

681
00:30:30,710 --> 00:30:33,210
empires. But he couldn't just write a pamphlet

682
00:30:33,210 --> 00:30:35,970
saying, down with Antiochus, don't worship Zeus,

683
00:30:36,210 --> 00:30:38,950
because the Syrian guards would find it, read

684
00:30:38,950 --> 00:30:41,349
it, and execute him and anyone who owned a copy.

685
00:30:41,470 --> 00:30:44,910
Exactly. So he encrypted it. He used the veil

686
00:30:44,910 --> 00:30:48,089
of ancient history, monstrous beasts, and the

687
00:30:48,089 --> 00:30:50,390
legendary figure of Daniel to safely critique

688
00:30:50,390 --> 00:30:53,190
the present. And what's truly brilliant is that

689
00:30:53,190 --> 00:30:56,150
this encryption isn't just limited to the crazy

690
00:30:56,150 --> 00:30:59,170
visions in the second half of the book. It bleeds

691
00:30:59,170 --> 00:31:03,150
backward into the famous, supposedly simple Sunday

692
00:31:03,150 --> 00:31:05,670
school stories in the first half, too. It absolutely

693
00:31:05,670 --> 00:31:07,650
does. Let's look at a specific example from the

694
00:31:07,650 --> 00:31:09,670
research. Chapter five of Daniel, the famous

695
00:31:09,670 --> 00:31:11,829
story of Belshazzar's feast. Right. The origin

696
00:31:11,829 --> 00:31:13,609
of the phrase, the writing on the wall. Right.

697
00:31:13,710 --> 00:31:16,230
So in the story, Belshazzar is presented as the

698
00:31:16,230 --> 00:31:18,930
king of Babylon. He throws this massive arrogant

699
00:31:18,930 --> 00:31:21,849
party, gets drunk, and orders that the sacred

700
00:31:21,849 --> 00:31:24,049
golden vessels, the ones that were looted from

701
00:31:24,049 --> 00:31:26,450
the temple in Jerusalem, be brought out. A huge

702
00:31:26,450 --> 00:31:30,089
sacrilege. Right. He and his nobles drink wine

703
00:31:30,089 --> 00:31:32,789
out of the sacred Jewish cups while praising

704
00:31:32,789 --> 00:31:36,029
their pagan gods of gold and bronze. And then

705
00:31:36,029 --> 00:31:38,990
a disembodied glowing hand appears and writes

706
00:31:38,990 --> 00:31:42,470
a cryptic message of doom on the palace wall,

707
00:31:42,710 --> 00:31:45,950
signaling the end of his empire. It's an incredibly

708
00:31:45,950 --> 00:31:49,809
powerful cinematic story. But historically, it's

709
00:31:49,809 --> 00:31:53,289
a mess. Tell us why. Because historical records

710
00:31:53,289 --> 00:31:55,990
from Babylon clearly show that Belshazzar was

711
00:31:55,990 --> 00:31:58,670
never the king of Babylon. Never. He was the

712
00:31:58,670 --> 00:32:01,089
son of Navanitis, the actual last king of the

713
00:32:01,089 --> 00:32:03,849
Chaldean Empire. Belshazzar was essentially a

714
00:32:03,849 --> 00:32:05,990
crown prince who managed some local affairs while

715
00:32:05,990 --> 00:32:08,630
his father was away in Arabia, but he never held

716
00:32:08,630 --> 00:32:11,160
the official title of king. And the empire didn't

717
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,000
fall to the Persians the way the book of Daniel

718
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,039
describes it happening that very night. No, it

719
00:32:15,039 --> 00:32:17,259
didn't. So a skeptical reader looks at that and

720
00:32:17,259 --> 00:32:20,539
says, see, the Bible is wrong. It's useless history.

721
00:32:21,119 --> 00:32:24,119
But they are completely missing the point. Entirely

722
00:32:24,119 --> 00:32:26,680
missing the point. The historical inaccuracy

723
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:30,759
of the 6th century BCE is irrelevant. We have

724
00:32:30,759 --> 00:32:32,680
to look at the theological and political meaning

725
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,099
of the story for its actual intended audience.

726
00:32:35,660 --> 00:32:38,660
Jewish people living in the 160s BCE under Hellenistic

727
00:32:38,660 --> 00:32:40,680
terror. Okay, let's unpack that. What is the

728
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,740
core unforgivable transgression that Belshazzar

729
00:32:43,740 --> 00:32:46,759
commits in the story? He takes the sacred, inviolable

730
00:32:46,759 --> 00:32:49,819
things of Yahweh, the temple vessels, and uses

731
00:32:49,819 --> 00:32:53,240
them to glorify himself and his pagan gods. Exactly.

732
00:32:53,339 --> 00:32:55,900
Now, who was currently doing that exact thing

733
00:32:55,900 --> 00:32:57,640
in the real world of the author and the reader?

734
00:32:58,180 --> 00:33:01,259
Antiochus V, Epiphanes. Antiochus had literally

735
00:33:01,259 --> 00:33:03,960
looted the temple in Jerusalem. He took the sacred

736
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:06,700
vessels. Furthermore, Hellenistic kings frequently

737
00:33:06,700 --> 00:33:09,519
claim divine honors for themselves. The title

738
00:33:09,519 --> 00:33:12,420
Antiochus chose for himself, Epiphanes, literally

739
00:33:12,420 --> 00:33:15,819
translates to God manifest. Oh, wow. So the story

740
00:33:15,819 --> 00:33:17,900
of Belshazzar isn't a history lesson about a

741
00:33:17,900 --> 00:33:20,299
Babylonian prince at all. It is a thinly veiled,

742
00:33:20,339 --> 00:33:23,119
furious, and highly subversive political cartoon

743
00:33:23,119 --> 00:33:25,740
targeting Hellenistic kings who claim to be gods.

744
00:33:25,900 --> 00:33:28,019
That is incredible. The message to the terrified

745
00:33:28,019 --> 00:33:31,130
Jewish reader is crystal clear. You see this

746
00:33:31,130 --> 00:33:33,890
arrogant King Belshazzar who desecrated our holy

747
00:33:33,890 --> 00:33:36,269
things. God struck him down that very night.

748
00:33:36,509 --> 00:33:38,769
Antiochus Epiphanes is doing the exact same thing

749
00:33:38,769 --> 00:33:42,009
right now. Do not fear him. His doom is already

750
00:33:42,009 --> 00:33:44,950
written on the wall. The Ancient of Days is coming.

751
00:33:45,150 --> 00:33:47,750
That is just brilliant. It turns the book of

752
00:33:47,750 --> 00:33:49,890
Daniel from a dusty book of weird predictions

753
00:33:49,890 --> 00:33:53,690
into an underground manifesto. ancient Samizdat,

754
00:33:53,769 --> 00:33:56,069
it was a tool to keep people from breaking under

755
00:33:56,069 --> 00:33:58,309
torture. It gave them the courage to hold on.

756
00:33:58,470 --> 00:34:00,910
But this raises a really fascinating, broader

757
00:34:00,910 --> 00:34:03,490
question about the Jewish experience during this

758
00:34:03,490 --> 00:34:06,549
time. While the Jews in Judea are suffering under

759
00:34:06,549 --> 00:34:09,409
Antiochus V, fighting guerrilla wars in the mountains,

760
00:34:09,590 --> 00:34:11,909
and writing encrypted apocalyptic visions just

761
00:34:11,909 --> 00:34:14,170
to survive, what is happening to all the other

762
00:34:14,170 --> 00:34:16,630
Jews? Ah, yes. The ones who were deported centuries

763
00:34:16,630 --> 00:34:18,809
ago or who emigrated voluntarily for business?

764
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,239
the diaspora. That brings us to a massive fundamental

765
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,920
divergence in the Jewish experience. To understand

766
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,639
it, we must shift our focus, drawing heavily

767
00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:30,900
on chapter 15 by Harry M. Orlinsky, Alexandria,

768
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,079
the Septuagint, and the end of prophecy. We are

769
00:34:34,079 --> 00:34:37,099
leaving the bloody contested mountains of Judea,

770
00:34:37,099 --> 00:34:39,639
and we are traveling to the shining intellectual

771
00:34:39,639 --> 00:34:43,340
metropolis of Alexandria, Egypt. And the contrast

772
00:34:43,340 --> 00:34:45,969
could not possibly be more stark. The Jewish

773
00:34:45,969 --> 00:34:48,750
community in Alexandria is not fighting a guerrilla

774
00:34:48,750 --> 00:34:50,849
war. They are not hiding in caves. They're doing

775
00:34:50,849 --> 00:34:54,710
OK. They are thriving. They are a large, deeply

776
00:34:54,710 --> 00:34:58,230
rooted and highly sophisticated community. They

777
00:34:58,230 --> 00:35:02,070
have adjusted extraordinarily well to the Ptolemaic

778
00:35:02,070 --> 00:35:04,690
Hellenistic environment. But the research emphasizes

779
00:35:04,690 --> 00:35:07,269
that they aren't just assimilating and disappearing.

780
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,099
Like they remain fiercely loyal to their identity.

781
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,619
They send their massive financial tithes back

782
00:35:12,619 --> 00:35:15,139
to the temple in Jerusalem. They go on pilgrimages

783
00:35:15,139 --> 00:35:16,920
across the Mediterranean when they can. Yes.

784
00:35:16,980 --> 00:35:20,420
But culturally, linguistically, they are fully,

785
00:35:20,559 --> 00:35:23,079
irreversibly immersed in a Greek speaking world.

786
00:35:23,179 --> 00:35:25,639
And that linguistic shift creates a profound,

787
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,820
slow moving crisis of its own. By about 200 BCE.

788
00:35:30,489 --> 00:35:33,150
Generation after generation has grown up in Egypt

789
00:35:33,150 --> 00:35:35,389
speaking Greek as their mother tongue. So they

790
00:35:35,389 --> 00:35:37,769
don't speak Hebrew anymore. Their ancestral language,

791
00:35:37,969 --> 00:35:40,829
Hebrew, is largely incomprehensible to the average

792
00:35:40,829 --> 00:35:43,190
Alexandrian Jew. It's a dead language to them.

793
00:35:43,389 --> 00:35:46,429
Which is a massive problem. If your entire religion,

794
00:35:46,610 --> 00:35:49,750
your entire identity as a people is based on

795
00:35:49,750 --> 00:35:52,650
a written law given by God, but you literally

796
00:35:52,650 --> 00:35:55,369
cannot read the language it is written in, how

797
00:35:55,659 --> 00:35:57,519
do you pass it on to your children? You have

798
00:35:57,519 --> 00:35:59,900
a fatal crisis of transmission. They desperately

799
00:35:59,900 --> 00:36:02,579
needed a translation. They needed the Torah in

800
00:36:02,579 --> 00:36:04,760
their everyday vernacular. And this necessity

801
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:07,739
resulted in one of the most consequential, world

802
00:36:07,739 --> 00:36:10,280
-altering literary projects in human history,

803
00:36:10,559 --> 00:36:13,739
the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

804
00:36:13,940 --> 00:36:17,219
Which came to be known as the Septuagint. Precisely.

805
00:36:17,219 --> 00:36:19,139
Now, it's really easy for us today to just think

806
00:36:19,139 --> 00:36:22,320
of the Septuagint as a practical logistical tool.

807
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,719
like updating the language on a software manual

808
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:27,739
so the new employees can read it. Right, just

809
00:36:27,739 --> 00:36:30,099
a simple translation project. But Olinsky's analysis

810
00:36:30,099 --> 00:36:32,300
and the research digs into the deep theological

811
00:36:32,300 --> 00:36:35,099
tectonic plates that were shifting beneath this

812
00:36:35,099 --> 00:36:37,840
translation. The Septuagint wasn't just a change

813
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:40,659
in vocabulary. It was the symptom of a massive

814
00:36:40,659 --> 00:36:42,880
shift in how they interacted with God. This is

815
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,239
where we encounter one of the most radical theological

816
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:48,610
evolutions in ancient history. It is the growing,

817
00:36:48,670 --> 00:36:51,550
solidified belief within the community that prophecy

818
00:36:51,550 --> 00:36:54,210
had ceased. Wait, hang on. Let's linger on this

819
00:36:54,210 --> 00:36:58,369
because this feels huge. For centuries, the absolute

820
00:36:58,369 --> 00:37:01,110
core mechanism of the Israelite religion was

821
00:37:01,110 --> 00:37:03,909
the prophet. Yes, the charismatic prophet. A

822
00:37:03,909 --> 00:37:06,369
charismatic, unpredictable figure, an Isaiah,

823
00:37:06,670 --> 00:37:09,730
a Jeremiah, who would just show up, point a finger

824
00:37:09,730 --> 00:37:12,590
at the corrupt king and say, thus says the Lord.

825
00:37:13,590 --> 00:37:16,030
God spoke directly audibly to individuals in

826
00:37:16,030 --> 00:37:18,050
real time to correct the course of the nation.

827
00:37:18,269 --> 00:37:20,829
But by the Hellenistic period, a new doctrine

828
00:37:20,829 --> 00:37:23,889
had firmly taken hold. The Talmud, specifically

829
00:37:23,889 --> 00:37:26,789
in tractate Yoma 9b, expresses this profound

830
00:37:26,789 --> 00:37:29,789
shift perfectly. After the last of the prophets,

831
00:37:30,010 --> 00:37:32,590
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, the Holy

832
00:37:32,590 --> 00:37:34,489
Spirit departed from Israel. Wait, if I'm an

833
00:37:34,489 --> 00:37:36,150
ancient believer, that sounds terrifying. If

834
00:37:36,150 --> 00:37:38,389
God stops talking directly to the prophets, doesn't

835
00:37:38,389 --> 00:37:40,269
the religion just freeze? Doesn't it become a

836
00:37:40,269 --> 00:37:42,699
dead artifact? That's the fear, yes. I mean,

837
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:44,460
if you can't get new instructions when totally

838
00:37:44,460 --> 00:37:47,539
new problems arise, like Hellenism, how do you

839
00:37:47,539 --> 00:37:49,900
possibly adapt? It sounds like the death of the

840
00:37:49,900 --> 00:37:52,619
faith, not an evolution. It would be the death

841
00:37:52,619 --> 00:37:54,980
of the faith if they hadn't invented a brilliant

842
00:37:54,980 --> 00:37:57,420
new system to replace it. The research refers

843
00:37:57,420 --> 00:38:01,159
to it as the rise of nomocracy. Nomocracy, meaning

844
00:38:01,159 --> 00:38:04,619
rule by law. Rule by law. Think about where authority

845
00:38:04,619 --> 00:38:08,219
resides. If the Holy Spirit has departed... and

846
00:38:08,219 --> 00:38:10,639
no one can legitimately claim to have a direct

847
00:38:10,639 --> 00:38:13,659
new revelation from God, then authority has to

848
00:38:13,659 --> 00:38:17,480
shift. It moves away from the charismatic, uncontrollable

849
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,300
prophet, and it transfers to the bureaucratic

850
00:38:20,300 --> 00:38:22,920
priest and, increasingly and crucially, to the

851
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,420
learned scholar. These are the predecessors of

852
00:38:25,420 --> 00:38:28,079
the Pharisees and later the rabbis. Okay, I think

853
00:38:28,079 --> 00:38:29,780
I see where this is going. If God isn't going

854
00:38:29,780 --> 00:38:31,920
to give us a new word from heaven, we have to

855
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,059
figure out how to squeeze every possible drop

856
00:38:34,059 --> 00:38:36,780
of meaning, every hidden application out of the

857
00:38:36,780 --> 00:38:40,250
old word. Precisely. Direct revelation is replaced

858
00:38:40,250 --> 00:38:43,449
by meticulous interpretation. The Hebrew term

859
00:38:43,449 --> 00:38:46,130
for this interpretive path is halakha. You no

860
00:38:46,130 --> 00:38:49,010
longer need God to speak to a prophet. You just

861
00:38:49,010 --> 00:38:52,650
need a highly trained, brilliant expert to properly

862
00:38:52,650 --> 00:38:55,849
interpret the received text of Moses and apply

863
00:38:55,849 --> 00:38:58,789
it to the new complex situations of Hellenistic

864
00:38:58,789 --> 00:39:01,969
life. So the text itself becomes supreme. It

865
00:39:01,969 --> 00:39:04,469
elevates the book to a level it never held before.

866
00:39:04,809 --> 00:39:07,150
It's not just a historical record of what God

867
00:39:07,150 --> 00:39:10,309
said in the past. It is a living, infinitely

868
00:39:10,309 --> 00:39:13,250
deep well of law that can be applied to literally

869
00:39:13,250 --> 00:39:15,909
anything in the present. Business, marriage,

870
00:39:16,150 --> 00:39:19,010
diet, politics. But only if you have the right

871
00:39:19,010 --> 00:39:21,469
scholars to decode it. Right. And if we connect

872
00:39:21,469 --> 00:39:24,050
this to the broader picture in Alexandria, this

873
00:39:24,050 --> 00:39:26,190
explains why the Septuagint was so much more

874
00:39:26,190 --> 00:39:28,469
than a convenient translation. Exactly. If the

875
00:39:28,469 --> 00:39:31,110
exact text is now the supreme sole authority

876
00:39:31,110 --> 00:39:33,710
for how to live, and you are translating that

877
00:39:33,710 --> 00:39:36,389
text into a new language, then the exact translation

878
00:39:36,389 --> 00:39:39,429
of that text into Greek becomes a matter of cosmic

879
00:39:39,429 --> 00:39:42,329
existential importance. Because the translators

880
00:39:42,329 --> 00:39:44,590
aren't just doing a language exercise for a high

881
00:39:44,590 --> 00:39:46,929
school class. They are establishing the very

882
00:39:46,929 --> 00:39:49,090
boundaries of the faith for millions of Greek

883
00:39:49,090 --> 00:39:51,510
-speaking Jews. So if they choose the wrong Greek

884
00:39:51,510 --> 00:39:55,070
word to translate a Hebrew concept, the theology

885
00:39:55,070 --> 00:39:58,750
changes. The law changes. Exactly. The authority

886
00:39:58,750 --> 00:40:00,989
of the intellectual scholar and the absolute

887
00:40:00,989 --> 00:40:04,849
supremacy of the text become the new twin pillars

888
00:40:04,849 --> 00:40:07,809
of the faith, effectively replacing the physical

889
00:40:07,809 --> 00:40:10,110
temple and the voice of the prophet. Which is

890
00:40:10,110 --> 00:40:13,309
an incredible evolutionary leap because it makes

891
00:40:13,309 --> 00:40:15,369
the religion entirely portable. Entirely portable.

892
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:17,800
You don't need a temple in Jerusalem to sacrifice

893
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,239
an animal, and you don't need to wait for a prophet

894
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,119
to show up in the desert. You just need a scroll

895
00:40:22,119 --> 00:40:24,980
and a scholar, and you can practice Judaism in

896
00:40:24,980 --> 00:40:27,579
Alexandria or Rome or Babylon or anywhere in

897
00:40:27,579 --> 00:40:29,840
the world. It is the exact mechanism that allowed

898
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,019
Judaism to survive the eventual permanent destruction

899
00:40:33,019 --> 00:40:35,639
of the Second Temple centuries later by the Romans.

900
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,000
They had already built a portable, text -based

901
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,789
religion. This intense focus on the absolute

902
00:40:42,789 --> 00:40:46,050
supremacy of the text brings up a very prickly,

903
00:40:46,050 --> 00:40:48,449
uncomfortable issue. What's that? Well, what

904
00:40:48,449 --> 00:40:52,170
happens when your supreme ancient text, the one

905
00:40:52,170 --> 00:40:54,750
you are meticulously studying, contains stories

906
00:40:54,750 --> 00:40:59,150
that are, well, embarrassing? Stories that conflict

907
00:40:59,150 --> 00:41:02,349
with the new, refined, highly philosophical morals

908
00:41:02,349 --> 00:41:05,909
of your Hellenistic scholars. Ah. That brings

909
00:41:05,909 --> 00:41:08,710
us to our final area of exploration today, drawing

910
00:41:08,710 --> 00:41:11,429
on chapter 16 of the research by Roger Ledet,

911
00:41:11,570 --> 00:41:14,909
the Targumim and the rewriting of history. Okay,

912
00:41:14,969 --> 00:41:18,050
so we established that the Jews in Egypt needed

913
00:41:18,050 --> 00:41:20,530
the Septuagint because they spoke Greek. But

914
00:41:20,530 --> 00:41:22,789
back in Palestine, Hebrew was declining too,

915
00:41:22,909 --> 00:41:24,570
right? The everyday language of the street, the

916
00:41:24,570 --> 00:41:27,150
market, the home. was becoming Aramaic. Right.

917
00:41:27,269 --> 00:41:29,570
So during the local synagogue services, when

918
00:41:29,570 --> 00:41:32,090
the Torah was read aloud in the ancient Hebrew,

919
00:41:32,309 --> 00:41:34,630
the average person in the pews couldn't understand

920
00:41:34,630 --> 00:41:36,949
it. So they needed a translator. Exactly. They

921
00:41:36,949 --> 00:41:39,489
needed a meturgeman standing right there to translate

922
00:41:39,489 --> 00:41:42,789
the reading into Aramaic on the spot. These Aramaic

923
00:41:42,789 --> 00:41:44,630
translations, which eventually were written down

924
00:41:44,630 --> 00:41:47,250
and standardized, are called the Targumim. But

925
00:41:47,250 --> 00:41:49,510
these were not literal word -for -word translations

926
00:41:49,510 --> 00:41:51,449
like you'd get from, say, Google Translate, were

927
00:41:51,449 --> 00:41:54,289
they? Not at all. The source material explicitly

928
00:41:54,289 --> 00:41:57,289
refers to them as actualizations. Actualizations.

929
00:41:57,369 --> 00:42:00,170
Yes. The translators were actively retouching,

930
00:42:00,170 --> 00:42:02,690
interpreting, smoothing over, and in some cases

931
00:42:02,690 --> 00:42:04,690
outright censoring the historical narratives

932
00:42:04,690 --> 00:42:07,469
to reflect the current religious ideas and moral

933
00:42:07,469 --> 00:42:10,409
sensitivities of their specific era. The research

934
00:42:10,409 --> 00:42:13,389
gives a wild, glaring example of this censorship

935
00:42:13,389 --> 00:42:16,570
in action. Let's look at the story of King David

936
00:42:16,570 --> 00:42:20,000
and Bathsheba. It is arguably the most famously

937
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,699
scandalous story in the older historical books,

938
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,380
specifically the book of 2 Samuel. Right. King

939
00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:27,900
David, the greatest king of Israel, sees a woman

940
00:42:27,900 --> 00:42:31,000
named Bathsheba bathing on a roof. He uses his

941
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,840
power to commit adultery with her. She becomes

942
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,380
pregnant. And to cover it up, David essentially

943
00:42:35,380 --> 00:42:38,340
arranges for her loyal husband, Uriah, to be

944
00:42:38,340 --> 00:42:40,659
abandoned and killed on the front lines of a

945
00:42:40,659 --> 00:42:43,619
battle. It's a gritty, dark, very human story

946
00:42:43,619 --> 00:42:47,239
about the corruption of absolute power. Fast

947
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:49,139
forward centuries to the Hellenistic period.

948
00:42:49,380 --> 00:42:51,579
Things have changed. King David has been elevated

949
00:42:51,579 --> 00:42:53,960
in the minds of the scholars and the people.

950
00:42:54,119 --> 00:42:57,039
He is no longer just a historical king. He is

951
00:42:57,039 --> 00:43:00,199
the idealized monarch, the sweet singer of Israel,

952
00:43:00,380 --> 00:43:03,159
the flawless ancestor of the future Messiah who

953
00:43:03,159 --> 00:43:05,059
will save them. Furthermore, remember what the

954
00:43:05,059 --> 00:43:07,019
Jewish people are currently dealing with in the

955
00:43:07,019 --> 00:43:09,860
Hellenistic era. They are being oppressed by

956
00:43:09,860 --> 00:43:13,420
Greek and Syrian kings who are infamous for their

957
00:43:13,420 --> 00:43:16,440
debauchery, their harems, and their murderous

958
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,550
abuse of power. Exactly. So you can't have your

959
00:43:19,550 --> 00:43:23,190
ultimate divine Jewish hero acting exactly like

960
00:43:23,190 --> 00:43:25,889
a corrupt Greek tyrant. It's basically a PR nightmare.

961
00:43:26,110 --> 00:43:28,809
Precisely. The ancient story of David and Bathsheba

962
00:43:28,809 --> 00:43:31,789
was now considered far too compromising, too

963
00:43:31,789 --> 00:43:35,150
inglorious and morally abhorrent for this new

964
00:43:35,150 --> 00:43:37,610
polished image of David. So what do the later

965
00:43:37,610 --> 00:43:39,650
writers and translators do? Do they just skip

966
00:43:39,650 --> 00:43:42,360
it? They actively edit it out of existence. The

967
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,059
author of the Book of Chronicles, which is a

968
00:43:44,059 --> 00:43:46,659
much later post -exilic retelling of Israel's

969
00:43:46,659 --> 00:43:49,119
history, passes over the entire sordid affair

970
00:43:49,119 --> 00:43:51,820
in totally embarrassed silence. Really? Just

971
00:43:51,820 --> 00:43:54,760
completely? In 1 Chronicles 20, verse 1, right

972
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:57,179
at the exact chronological moment where the Bathsheba

973
00:43:57,179 --> 00:43:58,960
incident is supposed to happen while the army

974
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:03,260
is off fighting, the text simply inserts a cryptic,

975
00:44:03,260 --> 00:44:07,389
very brief formula. David remained at Jerusalem.

976
00:44:08,199 --> 00:44:10,099
David remained in Jerusalem. That's it. That's

977
00:44:10,099 --> 00:44:11,920
all they say. They just move on to the next battle.

978
00:44:12,039 --> 00:44:14,199
It's a formula that only makes sense if the reader

979
00:44:14,199 --> 00:44:17,400
already knows the original scandalous story from

980
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:19,940
the older scroll of Samuel and understands that

981
00:44:19,940 --> 00:44:22,739
the author of Chronicles is desperately, deliberately

982
00:44:22,739 --> 00:44:25,239
trying to avoid mentioning it. I marvel at this.

983
00:44:25,300 --> 00:44:27,760
It's early public relations. It's ancient brand

984
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,199
management. It really is. It shows that the religion

985
00:44:30,199 --> 00:44:32,719
wasn't some static, unchanging monolith that

986
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:35,019
just fell out of the sky. It was a living organism.

987
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:37,519
It was highly conscious of its own image, its

988
00:44:37,519 --> 00:44:40,099
own theology, and it was actively editing its

989
00:44:40,099 --> 00:44:42,639
own past to suit the moral and theological needs

990
00:44:42,639 --> 00:44:45,679
of the present. They were smoothing out the rough,

991
00:44:45,820 --> 00:44:48,639
gritty edges of their ancient ancestors to make

992
00:44:48,639 --> 00:44:51,360
them fit the mold of Hellenistic piety. It demonstrates

993
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:54,280
the immense, almost frightening power that the

994
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,739
interpreters, the scholars, now held over the

995
00:44:56,739 --> 00:44:59,659
tradition. With the prophets gone, the scholars

996
00:44:59,659 --> 00:45:02,559
were the gatekeepers of the past, actively shaping

997
00:45:02,559 --> 00:45:05,619
it to protect the future. This has been an incredibly

998
00:45:05,619 --> 00:45:08,679
dense, genuinely fascinating journey through

999
00:45:08,679 --> 00:45:11,019
a period of history that gets glossed over far

1000
00:45:11,019 --> 00:45:13,239
too often. We covered a lot of ground today.

1001
00:45:13,460 --> 00:45:15,679
We really did. We've seen how the deep trauma

1002
00:45:15,679 --> 00:45:18,280
of losing the temple to Babylon forced the creation

1003
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,320
of rigid laws, and how those laws cracked under

1004
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,960
the pressure of Hellenism, spawning these wild,

1005
00:45:24,039 --> 00:45:27,489
encrypted, apocalyptic visions. We decoded the

1006
00:45:27,489 --> 00:45:29,809
brilliant political resistance hiding in plain

1007
00:45:29,809 --> 00:45:32,150
sight in the Book of Daniel, realizing it was

1008
00:45:32,150 --> 00:45:35,309
a direct attack on Antiochus Epiphanes. We witnessed

1009
00:45:35,309 --> 00:45:37,829
the incredible pivot in Alexandria, where the

1010
00:45:37,829 --> 00:45:41,090
terrifying silence of God birthed the Septuagint

1011
00:45:41,090 --> 00:45:43,530
and the rise of the scholar. And finally, we

1012
00:45:43,530 --> 00:45:45,429
saw how translations like the Targum and the

1013
00:45:45,429 --> 00:45:48,530
Chronicles literally rewrote and censored history

1014
00:45:48,530 --> 00:45:50,889
to protect the moral authority of the faith.

1015
00:45:51,190 --> 00:45:53,690
It is a profound testament to the incredible

1016
00:45:53,690 --> 00:45:56,510
resilience, creativity, and adaptability of the

1017
00:45:56,510 --> 00:45:59,110
human mind, and specifically of the Jewish tradition

1018
00:45:59,110 --> 00:46:02,630
under unimaginable pressure. And as always, we

1019
00:46:02,630 --> 00:46:04,809
want to leave you with a final provocative thought.

1020
00:46:05,300 --> 00:46:07,480
Something to mull over on your own that builds

1021
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,719
on what we've discussed today. We spent a lot

1022
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:11,679
of time discussing the end of prophecy, that

1023
00:46:11,679 --> 00:46:14,340
traumatic, terrifying realization that God was

1024
00:46:14,340 --> 00:46:16,360
no longer speaking directly through charismatic

1025
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:18,739
figures and how it felt like the death of the

1026
00:46:18,739 --> 00:46:22,300
faith. But we saw how that exact silence forced

1027
00:46:22,300 --> 00:46:24,760
the creation of scholars, massive translation

1028
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:28,559
projects like the Septuagint, and intense, obsessive,

1029
00:46:28,559 --> 00:46:31,760
rigorous textual analysis just to keep the culture

1030
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,539
alive. This raises an important question for

1031
00:46:34,539 --> 00:46:37,480
you to ponder. Is it possible that the loss of

1032
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:39,800
direct divine communication was actually the

1033
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,599
evolutionary mechanism that saved Judaism? That

1034
00:46:42,599 --> 00:46:45,579
is a deep thought. Think about it. What happens

1035
00:46:45,579 --> 00:46:48,019
to a culture when it stops waiting for a new

1036
00:46:48,019 --> 00:46:50,559
magical revelation to drop from the heavens to

1037
00:46:50,559 --> 00:46:53,780
solve its problems, and instead learns to endlessly,

1038
00:46:54,039 --> 00:46:56,699
meticulously mine the depths of its own past,

1039
00:46:56,980 --> 00:47:00,199
rigorously debating interpretation, law, philosophy,

1040
00:47:00,340 --> 00:47:02,869
and meaning? Doesn't that sound exactly like

1041
00:47:02,869 --> 00:47:04,889
the foundation of the modern intellectual world?

1042
00:47:05,070 --> 00:47:07,550
The terrifying silence of the prophet gave birth

1043
00:47:07,550 --> 00:47:10,030
to the brilliance of the scholar. And suddenly,

1044
00:47:10,090 --> 00:47:12,349
that terrible history book with Abraham Lincoln

1045
00:47:12,349 --> 00:47:14,909
fighting in World War II, it makes all the sense

1046
00:47:14,909 --> 00:47:16,829
in the world. Thank you for joining us on this

1047
00:47:16,829 --> 00:47:17,250
deep dive.