Chapter Six: THE SOCIAL WORLD century BC—long after the putative date of the

exodus (thirteenth century). The consensus in

OF THE BIBLE modern scholarship is that almost none of the
biblical books goes back before the time of the
The books of the Bible did not come down from kings, and the tendency in recent times has been to
heaven, but were compiled and written by real see the eighth century, the time of King Hezekiah
people in particular social and historical and the great prophets Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and
circumstances. The last chapter examined what we Hosea, as the real beginning for Hebrew literature.
can know of the history behind the Bible, but now The literature of the Hebrew Bible reflects a settled,
we consider the variety of social contexts in ancient urban society; and its unique single God is the result
Israel, early Judaism, and the beginnings of the of a thinning out of the Canaanite gods rather than a
Christian church that provided the background for pre-existing belief system which those gods
the creation of what would eventually become threatened. Israelite religion was not a religion of
Scripture. the desert, but of the settled land, and it was formed
PRE-EXILIC ISRAEL and transmitted by prophets and scribes, not by tent-
dwelling wanderers.
How far back can we go in the story of Israel if we
are looking for a real social context within which SCRIBES
the books of the Hebrew Bible began to be written? In the time of the Hebrew monarchies, which is
Many people assume that the Bible had its origin when the Hebrew Bible began to take shape, the
among nomadic desert tribes who had not yet structure of society makes it possible to suggest
settled in the Promised Land, and consequently that various groups who could have been the source of
it is marked by concerns proper to a kind of the books. The Judaean court in Jerusalem, and
Bedouin culture. The austere, single God
presumably also the court of the northern kingdom
worshipped by the Israelites is seen as typical of the in Samaria, employed a civil service, containing
life of such wandering groups, who did not yet have diplomats and others who could communicate with
the kind of settled and cultivated existence in which their counterparts in the other Hebrew kingdom and
the plurality of gods we hear about in the Hebrew with officials in the civil service of other small
Bible belonged. Israel’s religion was a simple countries (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Syria) and of the
religion of the desert, and only after the settlement major powers, Assyria and Egypt. These people,
in the land did it become corrupted through contact who must have commanded other languages than
with Canaanite religion. This is something like the Hebrew (at least Aramaic and Akkadian), will have
picture the Hebrew Bible itself paints, but as we been ‘scribes’. In the ancient world this does not
saw in the previous chapter its historical foundation mean, as we might put it, ‘copy-typists’, but
is very shaky indeed. There are literally no texts in Secretaries in the sense that term has in our own
the Hebrew Bible that plausibly go back into a pre- civil service: people whose learning and familiarity
settlement period. To take one example: the Ten with court protocol and foreign policy made them
Commandments, though attributed to a revelation to effective royal servants.
Moses on Mount Sinai, presuppose a settled
agrarian community with houses, slaves, and For such scribes to have existed there must have
domesticated animals. The oldest texts in the Bible been a system of education, even though we never
are generally reckoned by scholars to be a few read of it explicitly in the Hebrew Bible. All of the
poems. One of them, the Song of Deborah in Judges ancient Hebrew literature that has come down to us
5, refers to a conflict in the north of the land not must, obviously, have come from literate people,
long before the rise of the monarchy in the tenth and if any of it is pre-exilic, as most scholars
continue to believe, then the scribes of the courts in the dirge or funeral lament (Amos 5:2), the priestly
Jerusalem and Samaria are the likeliest sources for instruction (4:45) and the wisdom saying (3:3–6).
it. It is almost certainly to them that we owe the
wisdom literature, since we know for a fact that PROPHETS
Mesopotamian and Egyptian wisdom comes from The origins of prophecy in Israel are fairly obscure,
trained scribes who worked in the civil service: but this was an institution that existed in many of
Egyptian wisdom books are usually attributed to a the cultures of the ancient Near East. In
royal official, and even if this is a literary fiction it Mesopotamian texts we read of prophets who spoke
must have been plausible. What we do not know is to kings and gave encouragement or warning when
how far outside court circles literacy extended. It they were consulted (or sometimes spontaneously)
may be that people acquired the skills of reading in times of political crisis, and their oracles were
and writing at a more elementary level in the home, often recorded in writing. Interestingly one non-
or by apprenticeship to a local scribe, and it is Israelite prophet, Balaam (Num. 22–24) appears
possible that there were literate people in ancient also in some wall-inscriptions from Deir Allah in
Israel who were not professional scribes. In this Jordan, and so was perhaps a well-known figure of
connection it is often pointed out that learning to legend throughout the region. The prophets of Israel
read and write Hebrew, with an alphabet of just appear to have been very much the same kind of
twenty-two characters, is no great achievement as people. Some of them were solitary, as Elijah seems
compared with becoming literate in Akkadian with to have been, while others lived in community, as
its hundreds of characters, or in Egyptian did the group with which Elisha was associated (see
hieroglyphs. There is an obscure passage in Isaiah 2 Kings 2:19–22). The prophets of the Hebrew
28:9–13 which seems to refer to children reciting Bible however have two particular characteristics
the alphabet, and we possess one early text from that make them unusual in the ancient world. First,
Palestine, the ‘Gezer calendar’, which looks as if it the ‘classical’ prophets of Israel (i.e. those who
comes from a non-professional writer: it is a have a book named after them) seem in most cases
mnemonic about the seasons of the year, analogous not to have been professional prophets. They
to our ‘Thirty days hath September’. So maybe not ‘prophesy’, for there is nothing else one can call
all who could write were scribes (Hebrew their speeches, but they are not ‘prophets’ in the
sopherim) in the technical sense. This might explain usual sense. The book of Amos makes the contrast
how we come to have prophetic books from this explicit in a little scene involving Amos and the
early period: either the prophets themselves, or priest of Bethel, Amaziah, who assumes that he has
some of their disciples, may have been able to write jurisdiction over Amos, as presumably therefore
down their oracles. Jeremiah, we learn from priests did over the prophets who worked at the
Jeremiah 36, had a secretary called Baruch who shrines they served (Amos 7:14–15). But Amos, as
took down his words when he wanted to preserve presented here, vehemently denies that he is a
them and give them to the king; perhaps other prophet—and therefore denies that Amaziah can
prophets had secretaries too. We have to be on our give him orders. He certainly ‘prophesies’, but he is
guard against thinking of the prophets as uncouth not a prophet. Rather, he is someone with an
figures striding in from the desert, just as we have to ordinary secular occupation, whom God has
revise our picture of early Israel as a nomadic specially commissioned to deliver an unwelcome
group: the prophets were people who could make message to the people of Israel. There has been
skilful use of all the literary resources of ancient speculation about the occupations of the other
Hebrew, and must have been educated people. classical prophets. Isaiah, many think, was a
Amos produced parodies of such diverse forms as courtier, possibly a court scribe; Ezekiel we know
to have been a priest, and Jeremiah came from a
priestly family; Hosea too may have had priestly is not a secure basis for historical claims. But
connections. With the other classical prophets we prophets, both the conventional kind and the
are in the dark; but in the pre-exilic period they do unusual figures such as Amos and Isaiah, were
seem to have come from a nonprophetic certainly part of the social fabric under the kings.
background.
PRIESTS
Secondly, the main message of the pre-exilic
prophets is one of impending disaster for the whole Amaziah’s words to Amos imply that priests
nation. Prophets in Mesopotamia often told the king normally had jurisdiction over prophets, and there is
that he should not fight a particular battle because little doubt that the priesthood did enjoy
he would lose it if he did. But they never predict the considerable power and prestige in pre-exilic
downfall of the nation as a whole, and they do not society. In general in this period priests were not
say that this is because of national sin. This is one essential for worship. Whatever may have been the
of the new notes in the prophecies of Amos. There practice in the temple at Jerusalem, at local
is discussion about the extent to which the prophets sanctuaries (bamoth, ‘high places’) the head of a
saw restoration beyond judgement. As they stand all family was the normal person to offer sacrifice on
the major prophetic books include oracles of behalf of his family. Priests seem in this period
blessing, but nearly always they work on the mainly to have had a teaching role, instructing
presupposition that disaster will strike first—that is, people in the right religious practices rather than
very few oracles say that disaster will simply be officiating themselves. Among the priests the group
averted. At best we find a message of conditional known as Levites seem to have had a pre-eminent
blessing: ‘If you are willing and obedient you shall place, judging by the strange story of Micah in
eat the good of the land’ (Isaiah 1:19), but nearly Judges 17–18. The man called Micah, supposed to
always linked with the possibility of doom: ‘but if have lived in the days before the monarchy, sets up
you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the a shrine, as he is perfectly entitled to do, and is glad
sword’ (1:20). And the oracles of blessing may in when the chance comes to install a wandering
many cases be post-exilic insertions into the ‘Levite’ as its priest. Clearly he did not need to have
prophets’ original words, placed there, once there a priest, and if he wanted one, that priest need not
had been a measure of restoration after the disaster have been a Levite, but he thinks that ‘the LORD
of the Exile, to make the pre-exilic prophets foretell will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest’
what had in fact happened. In these ways therefore (Judges 17:13). Just who the Levites were is
the classical prophets represent a phenomenon not unknown. There is a tribe called Levi in the various
exactly paralleled in the rest of the ancient Near tribal lists in the Hebrew Bible, but it does not
East. This makes it unlikely that their books are necessarily follow that all Levites were in fact
simply post-exilic forgeries: they have distinctive members of that tribe: one gets the impression that
characteristics that a later period would not have the editors of the Hebrew Bible themselves did not
invented. Just how numerous they were, and how know how the tribe and the priests were related.
much impact they had on Israelite and Judaean What is clear is that priests enjoyed high prestige in
society, we do not know. Certainly we read of the Israel. Whether they wrote anything is unclear, but
kings of Judah consulting Isaiah (Isaiah 37) and someone must have codified the laws we find in the
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38) in times of crisis. There are earliest collection (Exodus 21–23, the ‘book of the
stories from an earlier period in which Samuel, also covenant’), and since priests were clearly involved
a priest as well as a prophet, is consulted by Saul (1 in legal administration, they may have been its
Samuel 9), but this, like the stories of Elijah and authors and guardians. When we read that some
Elisha, may have much of the folktale about it, and difficult cases need to be resolved ‘before God’
(Exodus 22:9), that perhaps means that they were
taken to the local sanctuary and heard by the Priests, prophets, and ‘wise men’ or scribes: we
priest(s) there. know that such groups existed in pre-exilic Israel
from the slogan or proverb quoted by Jeremiah in
‘DEUTERONOMISTS’ 18:18, ‘the law shall not perish from the priest, nor
We have assumed that much of the narrative counsel from the wise, nor the word from the
material in the ‘historical’ books has a pre-exilic prophet’. What other groups were there? Of course
origin, and it may be asked which social group in there were agricultural workers, potters, artisans of
Israel will have been responsible for it. Again all kinds, shopkeepers, traders (who included
scribes seem likely candidates, but we do not know women, to judge from Proverbs 31), shepherds, and
whether the narratives they produced had a quasi- blacksmiths. The fact that the Hebrew Bible is such
official status or were a piece of private enterprise. a religious document must not make us think that
The ‘final edition’ of the historical books, as noted the life of ancient Israel was that of a religious
earlier, is in a style reminiscent of the book of community: far from it. It was in almost all respects
Deuteronomy, and the compilers are therefore often a normal ancient society. Religion played a much
referred to as ‘deuteronomists’. People with the more central role than it does in modern Europe, but
same concerns evidently also edited the books of it was never the whole story. But these non-writing
the prophets. But who were the deuteronomists? occupations leave little trace in the literature. They
Presumably they too were scribes, but much more are, as Sirach was to say, the people who ‘keep
than that we cannot say. It is unclear how they were stable the fabric of the world’ (38:24); but we can
related (if they were) to the scribes who produced never get to know them as we can those who leave
wisdom books such as Proverbs, with its rather written records. Hence our account is bound to be
more ‘secular’ flavour. We are really in the dark. skewed, but at least we should realize that it is.
This reminds us that we also do not know who the
POST-EXILIC YEHUD AND THE DIASPORA
hypothetical author ‘J’ was: presumably also some
kind of scribe. He or she was certainly familiar with Life for many people in Judah continued through
myths widespread across the ancient world, judging the period of the Babylonian Exile without a break:
by the material in Genesis, yet was highly creative the exile of the king and his government made little
in moulding these to form a coherent and difference to the average farmer. For those who
consecutive narrative, which no-one so far as we were exiled, of course, the difference was huge. In
know had ever attempted before. Compiling the the 530s a certain number of the exiles returned to
Deuteronomistic History is a task on a similarly Judah, now known as the province of Yehud by the
grand scale, evidently accomplished during the Persian administration, and began to pick up the
years of the exile, either in Babylonia or, more pieces of their former lives. No doubt during the
probably, at Mizpah north of Jerusalem, where the time when the leaders were in exile the
remains of the pre-exilic administration had its base administration, which had moved to Mizpah,
during those years. Perhaps the kind of archivists continued to have scribes (the country still needed a
who had in earlier times recorded simply the salient civil service), prophets, and priests, though we do
events of each king’s reign became much more not know whether any kind of sacrificial worship
creative during this period and began to construct continued, either in the ruins of the temple or in the
continuous narrative out of some earlier written nearby shrine at Bethel: perhaps it did.
texts and a lot of oral tradition; but we have
tantalizingly few hints as to who they really were. ELDERS

OTHER GROUPS For the exiled community in Babylon our only

evidence comes from Ezekiel, who tells us that the
‘elders’ of the community used to meet at his house, exile. It is to this period that we owe the elaboration
but does not give us much information beyond that. of the priestly strand in the Pentateuch (P), and the
There may have been worship at the riverside, as final compilers of the Pentateuch show priestly
that is where Ezekiel received his first vision—Acts, concerns. The books of Chronicles retell the history
from a much later period, shows that worship at of Israel from a wholly priestly perspective, turning
rivers was a custom that Paul and his companions David from a warrior into a priest, as Julius
expected to find (Acts 16:13). The elders do seem to Wellhausen tartly observed:
have emerged in this period as a central feature of
See what Chronicles has made out of David! The
the community’s polity, and later we find references
founder of the kingdom has become the founder of the
to the ‘heads of fathers’ houses’ (Ezra 8:1).
temple and the public worship, the king and hero at the
GOVERNOR AND HIGH PRIEST head of his companions in arms has become the singer
and master of ceremonies at the head of a swarm of
Once the community in Yehud established itself in priests and Levites; his clearly cut figure has become a
the land again, there were some changes in its feeble holy picture, seen through a cloud of incense.
organization. There was now no king, only a (Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of
Israel, 1878:282)
governor (pechah) appointed by the Persians,
though apparently one with royal ancestry The sacrificial system, which in pre-exilic times had
(Zerubbabel). Under him were the heads of houses, been relatively haphazard and informal, was now
but alongside him was the high priest (Jeshua), who tightened up and organized, and since sacrifice
seems to have had a major role in government might be offered only at the Jerusalem temple, the
rather than being restricted to ‘religious’ duties. priests had it firmly under their control. The Levites,
Some have spoken of a diarchy, rule by two equal who in pre-exilic times had been people eminently
officials, rather like the rule by two consuls in the qualified for priesthood, turned into a kind of junior
Roman republic. Very soon Zerubbabel disappears clergy, assisting the priests but not offering sacrifice
from the biblical record, and we do not know what themselves, and among the priests various class
became of him. But subsequent governors may have distinctions arose, according to the ancestry each
acquired more powers: the pechah is certainly the priest could claim. The development can be plotted
main figure to be reckoned with in Malachi (1:8). In in the book of Ezekiel and in Chronicles as well as
the next century Nehemiah is an outstanding in the priestly parts of the Pentateuch. The
governor, who seems to have authority, granted by priesthood seems to have taken over the scribal
the Persians, that exceeds that of the temple roles that were exercised in pre-exilic times by
priesthood. Yet in time the high priest would take secular scribes: hence the priestly stamp on so much
over civil governance as well as religious post-exilic literature.
leadership, as Yehud changed into a hierocracy.
There were kings again for a short period in the PROPHETS AFTER THE EXILE
second century, in the aftermath of the Maccabean
Prophecy, however, continued. The post-exilic
revolt against Hellenistic rule, but on the whole the
prophets from whom we have named books seem to
post-exilic community accustomed itself to having a
fall now into the category that Amos had despised
priest at its head. The high-priestly robes as
or at least dissociated himself from, that of temple-
described in Exodus 39 may well be modelled on
prophets, more like the standard ancient Near
those of the pre-exilic king, symbolizing the transfer
Eastern model than the pre-exilic classical prophets
of power from royal to priestly figures. In any case
had been. Haggai and Zechariah, in the first
the post-exilic period is one in which priestly ideas
generation after the return, concern themselves
developed strongly, and the priesthood became
about the importance of rebuilding the temple: one
much more important than it had been before the
can imagine what Amos would have said about that! practice and theory were not necessarily the same,
Somewhat later Malachi criticizes those who bring as they so seldom are.
blemished offerings, and after him Joel laments the
fact that a plague of locusts have left the country so THE HELLENISTIC AGE
barren that there are no animals or grain to offer in When we enter the Hellenistic age that followed the
sacrifice. Prophecy has thus become an adjunct to death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) wefind that
the priestly leadership, and no longer challenges it. various changes have come upon the Jewish
Yehud was not a purely temple state, as sometimes community in Israel. By now the high priest was
alleged; but the temple and its priesthood were far unequivocally the ruler, and Yehud was organized
more central and important than they had been in as a hierocracy, though other people than the priests
earlier times. The temple must have had people took an active role in leadership, as would be
composing psalms, but we do not know if they were expected. There is a lot to be learned from Sirach,
priests or laymen; certainly much of the Psalter composed in the second century BC, about the role
must come from this period, even if some psalms of the ‘wise man’ (38:24–39). Such people seem to
are pre-exilic, and it is some time in the post-exilic have been employed as ambassadors and
age that the Psalter was edited and arranged. administrators, much as they had been under the
JEWS IN BABYLONIA monarchy, and they ran schools: Sirach 51:23–30 is
our first explicit reference to a school, though such
Back in Babylonia there were many Jews who had institutions must have existed long before this.
decided not to return to their ancestral land, but to During the Hellenistic period, however, a big
stay in the new country. From a cuneiform tablet we change came to Yehud because of the activities of
know of a family in the fifth century who acted as the king Antiochus Epiphanes, from his power base
bankers, the Murashu family. Indeed, from the sixth in Syria. During his persecution of the Jews there
century onwards there was always a Jewish developed two distinct resistance groups among the
community in Mesopotamia, which integrated more Jews. One consisted of freedom fighters, the
or less with the surrounding society, and some of Maccabee family and its supporters; and once they
whose members prospered. The Babylonian Jewish had defeated Antiochus and rededicated the temple,
community was to become central to Judaism in which he had profaned, they began to rule as kings,
times long after the Bible, as the community that forming what is known as the Hasmonean dynasty.
produced the great monument of Jewish law and Thus Israel for a time was once again governed by
practice, the Babylonian Talmud. There was also a kings, though the high priest remained centrally
significant Jewish community in Egypt, centred on important. The other group was a religious sect who
the small military base on Elephantine island near believed that Israel should trust in God and not in
where the Aswan dam now stands, and from them military might, and who refused to fight on the
we have a collection of papyri in Aramaic, which sabbath, and this group is usually referred to as the
shows that they had similar structures to the hasidim or ‘faithful ones’—not to be confused with
community in Yehud, though their religious the Hasidic Jews of more modern times. It is
practice may not have been orthodox by Judaean probably from this group that the book of Daniel
standards, probably involving the worship of a comes, with its disparaging reference to the
consort for Yahweh. But they were in regular Maccabees as a ‘little help’ (Daniel 11:34) and its
communication with the authorities of the Jerusalem encouragement of a passive, quietistic attitude
temple, who appear to have raised no queries about towards the power of Antiochus. We begin to see
this—or indeed about their very existence, even here the existence of different groups among the
though according to Deuteronomy there was meant Jews distinguished not by social role (wise men,
to be only one Jewish temple. It looks as though priests, prophets) but by attitude and lifestyle. There
continued of course to be priests, administrators, jobs who served in the temple for so many days a
and indeed prophets—the author of Daniel, year. The second was a group known as the
traditionally referred to as an ‘apocalyptist’, was the ‘scribes’, the heirs of the ‘wise men’ and ‘scribes’
kind of prophet that existed in this period. But of earlier times: laymen who were learned in the
Judaism was beginning to develop sectarian torah and responsible for copying it and checking
distinctions too, and these were to be increasingly fresh copies. They are mentioned a good deal in the
important in the first century BC and the first New Testament, but exactly who they were remains
century AD, and hence in the time when the New rather obscure, and we do not know how far they
Testament was being produced by one particular overlapped in function with local ‘writers’, the kind
Jewish sect, the Christians. of people who for a fee would copy a letter for you.
The third was the Pharisees. There is dispute about
THE PERIOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT the origins of the Pharisees, but most scholars think
In the first century AD the Jews of Palestine were they were the descendants of the hasidim of the
under Roman control, though how direct this was Maccabean period. Pharisees were not all priests,
varied in different parts of the country (as discussed though priests might be Pharisees; what was
in the previous chapter). Certainly in Jerusalem the determinative was their lifestyle. They were Jews
high priest ruled at the pleasure of the Roman who strove to live all the time in the same state of
governor, as we see from the Gospels. Jews could purity as priests serving in the temple: to take their
not, for example, have any kind of foreign policy of observance of the torah with the same measure of
their own, or determine how Roman law was seriousness as a priest had to do when on duty. The
administered. But the Romans, rather like the nearest (fairly) modern parallel might be the early
Persians before them, on the whole allowed local Methodists, members of the Church of England,
custom and practice to be followed in matters that both ordained and lay, who sought to live a
did not a ffect their own prerogative. The Gospels ‘methodical’ life, with a rule of prayer and spiritual
are probably right to say that Jewish courts had no practice and very high moral standards. Such were
power to impose the death penalty, but they were also the Pharisees. One might move in and out of
certainly able to rule on matters of religious practice the Pharisaic movement; Paul evidently belonged to
and to administer lesser penalties, such as corporal it before his conversion to Christianity. Josephus
punishment and fines. tells us there were only six thousand Pharisees in
his day, and they were thus a fairly exclusive but
PRIESTS, SCRIBES, AND PHARISEES widely respected group. Some of Jesus’
interpretations of the law in a more rigorous
In interpreting Jewish law there were several groups
direction, in the Sermon on the Mount, bear some
of specialists, whom the majority of the people
resemblance to Pharisaic thinking, for all that the
regarded as authentic and worthy of respect. The
Gospels portray the Pharisees as his opponents.
first consisted of the priests, who ran the temple in
Jerusalem but also gave rulings and advice on SADDUCEES AND QUMRAN COVENANTERS
matters of practice: who owed taxes to the temple,
or what could or could not be done legitimately on Two other groups should be mentioned. One is the
the sabbath. Together with their assistants, the Sadducees, whom we meet occasionally in the New
Levites, priests are said by the Jewish historian Testament. Most of them were apparently priests,
Josephus to have numbered 20,000 in this period, a but not all priests belonged, and it seems as though
far larger group than one might have expected. But social standing was a factor: most Sadducees were
we have to remember that they were not full-time aristocrats, descendants of past high priests. The
employees of the temple, but people with normal other group was the sectarian community that
produced many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose
power base was in the Judaean desert at Qumran, tells the history of Israel in code, and with great
but which had supporters in Jerusalem too. The accuracy until 167 BC, after which it does not tally
Dead Sea community certainly included a group of with what actually happened, so we can see that it is
male celibates, an unusual phenomenon in Judaism, at that point that it becomes genuinely ‘prophetic’
which generally stressed procreation and family rather than ascribing its pseudo prophecies to
life. But there were almost certainly other members Daniel, who is supposed to have lived in the sixth
who were married. The Dead Sea Scrolls fall in century.) Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) is probably from
general outside the scope of this volume, except that the third century BC, as may be also the Song of
some of them are our earliest copies of biblical Songs. Sirach comes from the second century, and
books—several scrolls of Isaiah, for example. Like is the first to refer to the Scriptures as a collection,
the Pharisees, the Qumran community was mentioning ‘the law and the prophets’ as well as
concerned with maintaining a higher standard of other writings (Sirach Prologue). The only works to
purity than was usual among Jews at large, and come clearly from as late as 100 BC and onwards
certainly the celibate members lived a life not into the New Testament period are the works of the
unlike that of later Christian monks, with the Qumran community, which they but not other Jews
activities of each day highly regulated, and frequent probably regarded as authoritative: such works as
ablutions to restore ritual purity. John the Baptist, as the Community Rule, the War Scroll, and the
described in the Gospels, seems a little like a Temple Scroll, the latter of which updates and
Qumran sectarian, with his austere life lived mostly improves on the consistency of the Pentateuchal
in the desert, though there is nothing that clearly ritual legislation. As we have seen, the community
connects him with the community. The Qumran sect also copied scrolls of earlier biblical books, which
is probably the same as the group described by confirms that most of what is now in the Hebrew
Josephus as the Essenes. The community at Qumran Bible was ‘canonical’ by then. Other groups,
were the only ‘party’ in Judaism that systematically particularly the Pharisees, began to develop
excluded everyone else, regarding themselves as the complex chains of reasoning about the provisions of
sole members of the covenant with Israel. the torah, and in the next few generations, after the
Otherwise, except for the priesthood, which was destruction of the temple in AD 70, these passed
hereditary, people could move from one group to into the rabbinic movement and eventually were
another, and many Jews belonged to none of the written down to form the Mishnah (somewhere in
groups— just as in earlier times only a few people the second century AD) and later still the Talmud, a
were prophets, priests, or wise men. What was new commentary on the Mishnah.
in this period, however, was the seriousness with
which even ‘ordinary’ Jews took their religious EARLY CHRISTIANITY
obligations— pagan writers often pointed it out, Not much is known about the social structures of
whether with respect or derision— and therefore the first Christians beyond what can be deduced
held most of the groups just described in esteem. from the New Testament letters, and the early
JEWISH PARTIES AND THE HEBREW BIBLE writers known as the ‘Apostolic Fathers’, who
wrote in the early second century AD. The very first
Do we owe any part of our Bible to these groups? Christians were of course Jews, but if Acts is to be
Almost all the Hebrew Bible was certainly finished believed a mission to Gentiles developed within the
before the Maccabean age, that is, by the end of the lifetime of the apostles, and was of course promoted
second century BC, and most parts are considerably vigorously by Paul, whose letters date mostly from
earlier than this: Daniel, the latest book, was as early as the 50s AD. It was not long before the
probably written in the 160s BC. (We can tell this Christian movement had spread into Syria,
because one of the apocalyptic visions in the book particularly Damascus and Antioch, and then into
what is now Turkey and to various Greek cities into anarchy, as he tries to keep together a church
such as Corinth. How it then spread further west we that, however new, was already tending to fragment
do not know, but Paul can write to the Christian into parties. In fact, nothing in the New Testament
community in Rome as a large and thriving one suggests that the church was ever particularly
which he had not himself evangelized, so there must unified: division and disagreement marked it from
have been more missionaries than we hear of in the beginning. Must Christians be Jews or could
Acts. Gentiles join? Were prophecy and speaking with
tongues more important, or administration and good
CHURCH ORDER governance? What role could women legitimately
To judge from Paul’s letters there does seem to play? What difference did Christian belief make to
have been a somewhat similar structure in a number the relations of masters and slaves? All these
of the ‘churches’, with leaders called by various questions were answered differently by different
titles (episkopos, which would later become people, and there were few control structures strong
‘bishop’), elder (presbyteros), and diakonos enough to constrain anyone to accept one answer
(‘deacon’): it is impossible to say how these offices rather than another.
were related to each other, though by the time of SOCIAL ORIGINS OF CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE
Ignatius of Antioch, half a century and more after
Paul, the episkopos was the leader of the Where in this welter of activity and discord did the
community, the diakonoi were his assistants, and writing of what was to become Christian Scripture
the elders were a kind of church council. find its place? We possess none of the original
Tojudgefrom1 Corinthians 1:16, the first person or manuscripts (any more than we do for the Hebrew
family to have been converted and baptized had a Bible). But in the case of Paul, and by implication
special status, too. We also hear of ‘widows’ as an the other letter writers, the process is reasonably
apparently formal category into which one could be clear. People who wrote letters in the Graeco-
registered, and this is a reminder that part of the Roman world usually employed a professional
appeal of the early Christian movement was its scribe, and Paul was no exception: once we are
extensive welfare scheme, in which those with low given the scribe’s name (Tertius, see Romans
social status or income could be looked after by the 16:22). Paul also seems to have signed the letters in
community. Acts tells us that there was a dispute in his own hand (1 Corinthians 16:21, Colossians 4:18;
Jerusalem between ‘Hebraists’ and ‘Hellenists’ 2 Thessalonians 3:17). The scribe could have been
(hard to identify exactly) over how generous was someone who worked for a fee, as scribes generally
the provision for their respective widows, which did, but he may have been a literate member of the
would imply that the system arrived very early in church, which is probably the case with Tertius in
the history of the church. Paul’s list of functions Rome since he adds his own greetings. As we saw
within the church, in 1 Corinthians 12, shows how in an earlier chapter, the letters of Paul were
variegated church life was for these early certainly real letters, not ‘scripture’, yet like all
Christians: the church included ‘first apostles, letters in a culture where writing-materials and
second prophets, third teachers, then workers of scribes were in short supply they had a formality
miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, that modern letters tend to lack, and would have
speakers in various kinds of tongues’ (12:28). It is been stored carefully and re-read time and again.
probably anachronistic to ask which of these were The context for the origin of the Gospels is much
‘formal’ ministries and which designate simply the more obscure. The general tendency in modern
talents particular people displayed. Ministry was scholarship has been to see the ‘evangelists’ as
fluid and ad hoc. What we do see is a great deal of people who compiled, ordered, and interpreted
concern on Paul’s part that variety should not turn stories and sayings of Jesus that had previously
circulated orally, perhaps as part of the early religion. Jews practised the circumcision of male
church’s preaching and teaching (see the comments infants, a custom found among many other peoples,
on form criticism in chapter 7). But we know that especially in Africa, but regarded by them as having
all except Mark had access to earlier Gospels, and a deep religious significance, and linking them with
Luke tells us explicitly that this was so. What was the great forefather Abraham, who had circumcised
the social context within which the activity of both himself and his household (Genesis 17). When
compiling a Gospel—editing oral tradition and the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes, in the
reworking earlier Gospels—took place? If each second century BCE, prohibited circumcision, this
Gospel is essentially local, we should have to was rightly regarded as an attack on Judaism as
imagine the church in question as having at least such. Whether new Gentile converts to Christianity
one learned scribe who could undertake this difficult needed to be circumcised—that is, to become
task—difficult even in today’s circumstances, but Jews—before they could be fully fledged
very difficult indeed when the only writing material Christians, was a matter of severe dispute in the
was papyrus and any existing document will have earliest church. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is very
taken the form of a scroll, which needed to be largely about this issue, and it is clear from Acts
constantly rewound as the scribe selected and that it was a subject of intense debate in early
copied out this or that short section and changed it Christianity (Acts 15). When Paul rejects the idea
to suit his own judgement and, perhaps, his church’s that Gentiles need to take on the ‘works of the law’
theological stance. It is hard to imagine the earliest to become disciples of Christ, the issue of
churches as including such scribes, yet they must circumcision is certainly one that is uppermost in
have done so, or we should not have the Gospels we his mind. He himself tells us (Galatians 2:3) that his
have. If we prefer to think of each Gospel as Gentile assistant, Titus, was not required to be
designed for all Christians, and intended to circumcised, though Acts on the contrary says that
supersede all earlier Gospels, then we have to Timothy, by contrast, was (Acts 16:3).
imagine a church that had the prestige to impose its
own Gospel on other churches, or several scribes FOOD LAWS
each of whom could issue an ‘authoritative’ version With circumcision went the complex system of food
of the story of Jesus. The divided and variegated and purity regulations that still characterizes
picture of the early churches makes this a difficult observant Jews today. The foundation of these lies
scenario to imagine, yet, again, the four Gospels did in the Pentateuch, especially in Leviticus 11 and
in fact become authoritative in this way, and soon Deuteronomy 14, but tradition greatly elaborated
enough that by the early second century AD they them, as can be seen from the later Jewish
were being quoted by Christian writers as ‘official’ collections, the Mishnah and the two Talmuds
documents. There is a mystery here that scholarship (Babylonian and Palestinian), which come from
has not so far completely disentangled. Who were post-biblical times. (The modern orthodox Jewish
Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John? We really do not system of food laws, known as kashrut, derives
know. directly from these codes, and attention to which
foods are kosher continues to play a major role in
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS
observant Jewish households.) The food laws were
INITIATION RITES also attacked by Antiochus, who is said to have
compelled Jews to eat pork, and they seem to lie
Jews were marked out in the ancient world by behind the story in Daniel 1, where the exiled
certain distinctive customs, and the early Christian Judaeans at the Babylonian court refuse to eat the
communities soon developed some of their own foreign king’s food and insist on a vegetarian diet—
while slowly abandoning those of the parent though it is not clear that this is literally required by
any known food laws. It perhaps represents a wish making it merely a shared meal at which people eat
to be on the safe side. This principle characterizes their own food rather than a corporate religious act
much Jewish legislation about social customs: to (1 Corinthians 1:17– 22). The institution of the
‘put a hedge around the law’, as the Mishnah puts it, Eucharist is said in the Gospels, as well as by Paul,
that is, to establish customs stricter than the letter of to go back to Jesus himself at the Last Supper, and
the law which, if observed, will ensure that no there is little reason to dispute this, though some
breach of the law itself can ever occur. The Sermon have seen the Last Supper story as an ‘aetiological’
on the Mount (Matthew 5–8) represents a rather legend justifying later Christian practice. Paul’s
similar Christian attempt, by intensifying the ethical evidence, however, comes from little more than
demands of the religion beyond literal observance. twenty years after the event. The sharing of bread
and wine was part of regular Jewish meals, as well
CHRISTIAN IDENTITY-MARKERS as of the great Passover dinner, and scholars have
Christians soon established customs that could serve not found it easy to decide whether the Last Supper
as their own identity-markers in their contemporary was formally a Passover meal (seder) or not, though
world, marking them off from both Jews and it clearly took place in the week of Passover and
pagans. One central custom was the initiation rite of soon acquired overtones of Jesus as the Passover
baptism. We know this was often practised in lamb. In blessing wine and bread early Christians
addition to circumcision for male converts to were not deviating from Jewish practice, but in
Judaism, and certainly for women, who could not be associating them with the death of Christ they were
circumcised (there is no evidence that female striking out in a new direction, and the Eucharist
genital mutilation was ever practised by Jews). soon came to be seen as something quite different
Regular bathing is required in the Pentateuch for from any preexisting Jewish rite. It was celebrated
purification after bodily discharges, and it was a on the first day of the week (Sunday) rather than on
characteristic feature of life at Qumran. John the the Jewish sabbath (Saturday), associating it with
Baptist of course practised it, and the Gospels Jesus’ resurrection on that day: this was certainly
suggest that Jesus’ disciples also adopted it as a sign established by the early second century, but Paul
of discipleship to Jesus. In the Pauline churches it already speaks of the first day of the week as a day
became standard, and Paul can take it for granted for Christians to collect money for the community
that converts to the new faith have not only been in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:2), and the vision in
baptized but have also absorbed a theory about Revelation is communicated to John on ‘the Lord’s
baptism as a symbolic dying with Christ and being day’ (Revelation 1:10).
reborn through him: RITUAL STATUS OF THE BIBLE
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
In both religions the Bible itself, in whatever form
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were
exactly it existed, functioned in ritual practice. We
buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the know from the New Testament that Jewish
Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans synagogues had regular readings from the Hebrew
6:3–4) Bible, not only from the Torah or Pentateuch but
also from the Prophets (Luke 4:17), though it is not
THE EUCHARIST known how early the present division of the
Pentateuch into weekly portions was established: it
The other major Christian practice is the Eucharist
may be that in New Testament times some looser
or Lord’s Supper, which Paul in 1 Corinthians
system was in operation. Christians probably took
assumes the Corinthian church is observing—
over the reading of Scripture in their own
though to his mind they are observing it falsely by
assemblies, together, in due course, with readings
from the Gospels and the letters of the apostles.
Paul already directs that his own letters are to be
read publicly, and indeed that is the only feasible
form of ‘publication’ they could have had. By the
time of Justin Martyr (ca. 100–165 AD) the first
part of the Eucharist regularly contained readings
from ‘the memoirs of the apostles and the books of
the prophets’.