Jewish culture at the time of Christ had in many ways reached its zenith. Jews constituted approximately 10 percent of the population of the entire Roman Empire (approximately 6,000,000 throughout the Diaspora), and had special legal status under Roman law. Because of its moral and intellectual appeal, pre-Christian Judaism was admired by many Gentiles. The Jewish community in Alexandria epitomized the cosmopolitan Judaism of the Diaspora, acknowledging and utilizing the many valuable elements of Greek culture, while seeking to be faithful to Jewish traditions. Many “god-fearing” Gentiles associated with synagogues throughout the Mediterranean world, even though they often balked at circumcision and other requirements that were necessary to become full Jewish converts.
According to Josephus and other sources, at the beginning of the first century even Palestinian Judaism was diverse. The Sadducees were a small, powerful, priestly caste who interpreted the Mosaic Law literally, accepted only the Pentateuch as authoritative, rejected the authority of the “oral law,” emphasized human free will, denied individual survival after death, and the existence of angels and demons. The Pharisees were a larger group who had more influence with the common people. They maintained they were the keepers of an “oral law” extending back to Moses that was needed to interpret the Law accurately. They also believed in hierarchies of angels and demons, human immortality, and bodily resurrection. The Essenes were an ascetic group that held property in common and followed even stricter rules of ritual purity than the Pharisees. The Zealots were fierce nationalists who opposed cooperation with Rome and the use of the Greek language. The “people of the land” were the poor who considered themselves Jewish, but had neither the leisure nor the prosperity to be heavily involved with ritual purity or revolutionary intrigue.
he first century brought great changes to Judaism. The leaders of the Jewish nation rejected Jesus Christ (See the ATQ article, Are All Jews Perpetually and Universally Responsible for Christ’s Death?) cast their lot with nationalists who believed they could confirm Judaism’s special place in God’s plan by force of arms, and thereby brought about the destruction of the temple and two disastrous wars with Rome. The organized Judaism that survived the conflict identified itself closely with the Pharisees. 1
Prof. Jules Isaac, a French Jewish scholar, noted that the Jewish people as a whole were never condemned by Jesus:
“Christ is said to have pronounced a sentence of alienation and condemnation upon the Jewish people. But why, in contradiction of his own gospel of love and forgiveness, should he have condemned his own people, the only people to whom he chose to speak—his own people, among whom he found not only bitter enemies, but fervent disciples and adoring followers? We have every reason to believe that the real object of his condemnation was a certain Pharisaism to be found in all times and in all peoples, in every religion and in every church.” 2
As Prof. Isaac pointed out, a “certain Pharisaism” can be “found in all times and in all people, in every religion and in every church.” In a sense the spiritual descendants of the Jewish mob that demanded Christ’s death (“His blood be on us and on our children”) are not only Jews, but anyone of any cultural and religious background who hates Jesus for exposing their delusions of “righteousness.”
Changes that occurred in Judaism following its rejection of Jesus, however, made it especially prone to these characteristics. Yet there have been exceptions. The Karaites, for example, are a small Jewish sect that operates outside of mainstream Judaism. As indicated by the following quotation, the Karaites’ main issue of contention is with a Talmudic system that has displaced the historic Jewish Scriptures. According to this group,
“The form of Judaism commonly practiced today is not authentic Judaism but ‘Talmudism.’ The Talmudists corrupt the true message of the Hebrew Scriptures by adding the teachings of the Rabbis found in the ‘Talmud,’ which they claim were revealed by God. This despite the fact that there is not a single reference to the Talmud in the entire Hebrew Scriptures. The authentic Hebrew religion is that which is taught by the Creator Himself in the Hebrew Scriptures without addition or subtraction, as it is written: ‘Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish anything from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God’ (Deuteronomy 4:2).”
Karaites regard the current era of human history as the period of the “Great Exile.” The Hebrew Scriptures describe this era and foretell that in it the Nation of Israel will forsake the true way of the Creator for man-made religion. The prophets teach us that this era will end with Israel returning to the Creator under the leadership of the anointed king of the House of David and the entire human race embracing the religion of the Hebrew Scriptures. (From the article, “What is Karaism?” from an official Karaite Web site, “The Karaite Korner.”)
In one of many accounts in the Gospels of Jesus’ confrontations with a “certain Pharisaism,” He declared that the new wine of His kingdom could not be put in the old wineskins of the legalistic Pharisaic code (Luke 5:37-38 ). Messiah’s new order was not merely a refinement and expansion of the rules of ritual purity. Neither was the kingdom that Jesus announced the abandonment of the faith of the patriarchs and Moses, but its fulfillment.
According to the New Testament, the Promised One who came to His own people, (Matthew 10:5-6; John 1:11 ) was rejected and killed. By rejecting Jesus, Israel also rejected Moses and the prophets (Luke 16:31; John 5:45-47).
On the evening before His death, Jesus said:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:15-20 NIV)
According to the New Testament Gospels when Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn. The old covenant was replaced by the people of Messiah (Romans 2:28; 4:10-11; 9:6-8; Galatians 3:29; 4:28; Hebrews 11:18). Temple ritual in Jerusalem was replaced by worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:20-26 ).
