Sadducees -- priestly party, didn't believe in spirits or afterlife
Essenes -- wrote Dead Sea Scrolls, lived in wilderness
Herodians -- supported Roman and Herodian rule
Zealots -- opposed Roman rule
Proselytes -- converts to Judism by circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice
Synagogue -- meeting place for Jewish worship
Temple (courts of priests, Israel, women, Gentiles)
Sanhedren -- ruling body of the Jews
Belief in one God -- fundamental Jewish belief
Phylacteries-- leather boxes with scriptures worn on forehead and hand
Tassels -- four white with blue thread worn on bottom of robe to remind
wearer of the law
Augustus (31 BC - AD 14)
Octavian given name -- Jesus born
Tiberius (AD 14-37) -- Jesus crucified
Sejanus, perfect of praetorian guard, appointed Pilate
Gaius Caligula (AD 37-41) -- friend of Agrippa
Claudius (AD 41-54)
expelled Jews from Rome because of fights over "Chrestus"
Nero (AD 54-68)
fire in Rome -- persecuted Christians -- last of line
Civil War: Galba, Otho, Vitellius (AD 68-69)
Vespasian (AD 69-79) -- Jerusalem destroyed
Titus (AD 79-81) -- opened Colosseum
Domitian (AD 81-96) -- persecuted Christians
Tax Collection (farmed out to Jewish tax collectors for a share of the tax)
Languages
Aramaic (native)
Hebrew (OT scriptures)
Greek (trade)
Latin (official political)
Coins and Money
Talent 6000x
Mina (Pound) 100x
Shekel/Stater 4x
Denarius/Drachma 1x (one day's wage for common laborer)
Assarius 1/16x
Chalkos 1/32x
Kodrantes 1/64x (Quadrans)
Lepton (Mite) 1/128x
Dating of Jesus' birth: between 7 and 4 B.C.
Herod the Great died in the spring of 4 B.C.
Jesus was taken to the temple when 40 days old
Greek word for 'wise men' (Magi) means 'astrologers'
in the summer and autumn of 7 B.C. Jupiter and Saturn were in a
magna conjunction in the Zodiac sign Pieces (Fishes)
according to Babylonian astrology, Jupiter was the star of the world
ruler, Saturn was the star of Palestine, and the Fishes was the sign of
the last days
the meaning to astrologers would have been that the world ruler of the
last days would appear in Palestine
Herod had the baby boys two years old and under killed, according to the
time that the Magi had told him the star first appeared
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Last Modified 1/21/99
http://bible.ovu.edu/terry/gospels/ntbackgr.htm
