A New Chapter: During the next 450 years, the Greek empire flourished and
receded, and the Roman empire rose, subjugating the Jewish people as they did
the whole Mediterranean world. The Jewish people showed inspiring courage and
faithfulness to God during these times of political and religious persecution.
(Stories of their courage and faith are told in several documents that are
considered historically reliable by Protestants but not accepted as part of the
Bible, although Catholics and Anglicans include it as a kind of third
testament. These documents are known as the Apocrypha.)
Into this milieu was born Jesus, later to be
called the Christ or Messiah (meaning Liberator or Savior). After thirty years
of obscurity, Jesus came into the public eye, presenting Himself as an
itinerant Jewish rabbi, with a difference. The religious world of his day was
polarized—much as ours is—with the rigid religious conservatives on one side
(the Pharisees) and the more lenient religious liberals on the other
(Sadducees).
Jesus refused to be slotted anywhere on their
continuum. He said that a time of change had come, a new chapter was beginning,
a whole new era in the spiritual life of the human race was being launched.
With the memory of the great golden age of King David far behind them (far, but
not forgotten), and with the oppressive grandeur of the Roman kings around
them, Jesus announced a new kingdom, the kingdom of God.
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