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INTRODUCTION

     Judaism has made considerable development during the time of the
exile until 70 A.D.  This has been in several distinct and noticeable
stages.  The story of Judaism is surely the story of prophecy and an
outline of the backdrop of world events of this time period may be given
from the very writings of the prophet Daniel, explaining
Nebuchadnezzar's dream :

    You have had a vision, O king; this is what you saw: a statue, a
    great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to
    see.  The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms
    were of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron,
    its feet part iron, part earthenware.  While you were gazing, a
    stone broke away, untouched by any hand, and struck the statue,
    struck its feet of iron and earthenware and shattered them.  And
    then, iron and earthenware, bronze, silver, gold all broke into
    small pieces as fine as chaff on the threshing-floor in summer.  The
    wind blew them away, leaving not a trace behind.  And the stone that
    had struck the statue grew into a great mountain, filling the whole
    earth.  This was the dream; now we will explain to the king what it
    means.  You, O king. . . . are the golden head.  And after you
    another kingdom will rise, not so great as you, and then a third, of
    bronze, which will rule the whole world.  There will be a forth
    kingdom, hard as iron, as iron that shatters and crushes all.  Like
    iron that breaks everything to pieces, it will crush and break all
    the earlier kingdoms.  The feet you saw, part earthenware, part
    iron, are a kingdom which will be split in two, but which will
    retain something of the strength of iron, just as you saw the iron
    and the clay of the earthenware mixed together.  The feet were part
    iron, part earthenware: the kingdom will be partly strong and partly
    weak.  And just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware
    mixed together, so the two will be mixed in the seed of man; but
    they will not hold together any more than iron will blend with
    earthenware.  In the time of these things the God of heaven will set
    up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. . . . God has shown the
    king what is to take place.  The dream is true, the interpretation
    exact.

      The final kingdom Daniel refers to (the stone which struck the
statue) is the eternal kingdom of God established by Jesus Christ.
Before this, however, world kingdom after world kingdom would arise, and
against this background, the history of the Jews took place.  This is the
world the Jews lived in, and the effect of these world empires was
inescapable.

THE EXILE

      Ellison believes "Judaism should be regarded as beginning with the
Babylonian Exile ", but a natural beginning is with the call of Abraham,
although certainly Judaism as a world religion today did not come into
full existence until after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. and
only reached full development by 500 A.D.

      Simply stated, "The first man to lay the cornerstone of Judaism
was Abraham, who said: Idols must not be worshipped.  Moses added to
this religion the Ten Commandments and the belief that the Jews were
Jehovah's Chosen People. "  From this point the Jewish story may be
summarised, "the emergence of a Bronze-Age people into prominence as a
small but wealthy kingdom which soon split into two sections, and was
successively swallowed up by Assyria and by the second Babylonian
empire " - the head of gold referred to by Daniel.

      There were three occasions where the Israelites were carried away
to Babylon; the first was in 597 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar "carried away
all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour,
even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none
remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. "  The second
deportation occurred in 586 B.C., "And the residue of the people that
were left in the city. . . . did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
carry away captive.  But the captain of the guard left of the poorest of
the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. "  The third deportation
was in 581 B.C. where seven hundred and forty-five more exiles were led
away.   This event is described by the Jewish historian Josephus, when
in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar the king "took those Jews
that were there captives, and led them away to Babylon. "

      Norwood sees a parallel between the wandering in the wilderness
and the Exile,

    In both cases the people of Israel were conscious of their corporate
    identity as the chosen people of God, the great Yahweh of Abraham,
    Isaac and Jacob.  In both cases they were taught, guided, probed,
    bitterly assailed, and faithfully inspired by a succession of
    prophets, without whom this small nation would surely have
    dissipated long ago in the maelstrom of tremendous powers sweeping
    by and over it through centuries.  Thus the experience of the Exile
    in the eighth and sixth centuries B.C. shook Israel to depths
    equaled only by the Exodus of old.  In the process Yahweh revealed
    himself as a God of power, of justice, and of mercy.  Step by step
    his people were brought to understand the universal sovereignty of
    the Lord over all men; the insignificance - nay, nonexistence - of
    other gods; and finally, at the culmination of Old Testament faith,
    the supreme concept of the Suffering Servant, the obedient mediator
    of Yahweh, through whom redemption of a lost people and a lost world
    might be received.

      During the time of the Exile, significant developments in Jewish
religious life occurred.  Wurmbrand and Roth make the point that "The
exiles in Babylonia found themselves in a land very different from the
native southern Palestine", now living in an "immense, irrigated and
incredibly fertile plain" rather than "the rolling hills and valleys of
Judaea and the rocky river-beds and parched expanses of the south".
Apart from the actual deportation itself, "it does not appear that any
particular hardship was imposed upon the exiles, who seem to have been
free to engage in trade and in the professions and even to organise
themselves in communities. "  However, although Jewish communal life
did not suffer, the religious system was forced to undergo considerable
restructuring.  Norwood states:

    Without doubt the Exile marked the most serious blow to the Jewish
    religious heritage of any event since Pharaoh sought to prevent the
    Exodus.  On the other hand, that same religious heritage was the
    principal factor in the perseverance of the people looking for a
    day of deliverance.  Exilic literature in the Bible contains some of
    the most exalted revelations of the nature of God, his sovereignty
    over the world, and his will for men.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel carried
    the faith into exile.  And Second Isaiah brought to full expression
    the magnificent hope of redemption through the concept of the
    Suffering Servant.  Even the hope of release from exile pales before
    this supreme declaration of spiritual mission.

      It is important to understand what this "blow" was and the far-
reaching ramifications it caused.  Ezekiel stated, "Thus saith the Lord
God, whereas I have removed them [the exiles] far off among the nations,
and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet have I become
unto them a sanctuary only to a small extent in the countries where they
are come. "  This is explained by Oesterley and Robinson,

    The meaning of this last sentence is that the important externals of
    the worship of Yahweh, as it had been in the past, were now wanting,
    and therefore the form of worship was insignificant as compared with
    what they had been accustomed to in the Temple. . . . Jeremiah, and
    other spiritually-minded prophets, had already contemplated the
    possibility of a non-sacrificial worship; this was now to become a
    reality.  But it was only the compelling force of circumstances that
    could have induced the people to remain content with a form of
    worship alien to tradition and practice. . . . The sacrificial
    system had touched the people in endless ways in everyday life, as
    well as in their worship proper.  And now this had all ceased.

      Norwood elaborates,

    No power on earth could ever overwhelm the defenders of the Temple.
    Thus. . . . Jeremiah had to fight this distortion. . . . "Do not
    trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the
    temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord'" (Jer. 7:4).  Jeremiah
    had the unpopular task of convincing the people that God would not
    defend the Temple against Nebuchadnezzar. . . . Thus one of the
    prime religious problems occasioned by the fact of the exile was
    that of the divine sovereignty as related to the divine justice.  If
    God is truly all-powerful, why did he let this unjust exile take
    place?  If God is truly just, why was he unable to stop
    Nebuchadnezzar?  This was the disturbing contradiction with which
    Habakkuk struggled.

      For the captives to continue the Jewish heritage, the problem of
the Temple had to be solved.  Norwood continues,

    Temple worship was unthinkable outside Jerusalem.  But Jerusalem was
    no more.  Where now could one find the true worship of the Lord?
    The answer according to the prophets, lay in the human heart. . . .
    The faith, that is to say, was individualised, personalised.  The
    relation formerly enjoyed by the people in corporate worship, in
    which the whole nation stood before God, now found expression in a
    more personal bond between God and every man.

      The prophets transformed the faith of Israel from the old Temple-
centered form of worship to an individual-centered faith of universal
validity.  This was the prime force which kept the Jewish community
together in such days of adversity.   Under the influence of prophetic
tradition, the exiles developed a non-sacrificial type of worship and
almost wholly discarded the practice of temple rites  - houses of
prayer, called synagogues, were established.  The teacher of the
synagogue, the Rabbi, grew in importance to the Jewish people while
simultaneously the Priest lost importance.  By the time the Exile was
over, the synagogue had become firmly established as the location of
worship.

      In 538, the Babylonian Empire fell before the new power, the
highly cultured, resplendent civilisation of the Persians  - the chest
and arms of silver.

THE RELEASE FROM EXILE

      With the conquest of Babylon by the Persians the exile was ended.
"Cyrus. . . . adopted a policy of reconciliation and pacification
towards the numerous nationalities under his sway. . . . one of the
first acts of the victorious king, after the conquest of Babylon, was to
issue a decree permitting the Judaean exiles to go back to their country
and rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem that had been destroyed. "  This
was in complete harmony with the writings of the prophets who stated
both that such a decree was forthcoming  and that Cyrus would issue
it.

      Bouquet notes, however, that "relatively few of the Babylonian
Jews availed themselves of this permission, so that not only were the
northern 'ten tribes' dispersed after 722, but a considerable number of
those who were the descendants of the exiled Judaeans of
Nebuchadnezzar's day were also absorbed into the Babylonian population,
or at least remained behind in Mesopotamia. "  The reason was simply,
"many of the exiles had become firmly established in their new land and
now found it difficult to uproot themselves " - although the exiles
"who remained behind in Babylon proved their attachment to the ideal of
national restoration by liberal contributions of gold, silver, and
beasts of burden, and there was a continual flow of money, visitors, and
individual immigrants during the subsequent centuries. "

      The process of resettlement and organisation was a slow, gradual
and arduous one.  The laying of the foundation for the rebuilding of the
Temple, and the re-instituting of the sacrificial service on an altar
were the first tasks undertaken by the returned exiles.  These served to
arose the suspicions of the local Persian administration, while
intrigues on the parts of the leaders of the Samaritan community
increased the uneasiness of the situation.   Finally after twenty years
the dedication of the Second Temple was able to be celebrated.

      In the middle of the 5th century B.C., Ezra, the priest and
scribe, arrived in Jerusalem, invested by King Artaxerxes I with full
powers to organise the Judaean settlement in accordance with the law of
God.   Ellison labels Ezra "the true 'Father of Judaism', for he
returned from Babylonia to introduce and enforce not a new law but a new
way of keeping the old one. "  Ezra's renewal of interest in the Jewish
Torah is documented in the book of Ezra, as well as Psalm 119.  Again,
Judaism was drastically modified.  Oesterley and Robinson comment,

    One important consequence of this elaboration of the Law was a great
    increase of priestly activity, though of a kind very different from
    that of earlier days.  The Temple, with its sacrificial system and
    cultural rites, was for the present non-existent; but the priesthood
    now found scope for its energies in framing multifarious precepts
    for the regulation of the everyday life of the people in accordance
    with an elaborated legal code; new cases were constantly arising as
    to the bearing of the Law on particular acts [for example,
    permissible work on the Sabbath, due to necessity]. . . . however
    much, in process of time, it tended into directions detrimental to
    true religion, it must in fairness be recognised that in its origin
    the motive was entirely good.  The priesthood was actuated by the
    desire to make their flock realise at every step that as the people
    of God they must by act as well as by word prove to themselves, as
    well as to the world of their surroundings, that they were different
    from others, different in religion, different in morals, different
    in manner of life.

POST-EXILIC JUDAISM

      As has been stated, following the return of the exiles to
Jerusalem, the interest of the Jewish religious leaders was centered on
firstly, the written Law - Oesterley and Robinson suggest that the Oral
Law had already begun to take shape by this time , and secondly, the
Temple.  A third foundation upon which the religious superstructure of
post-exilic Judaism was built was the Messianic hope of Israel.   Some
believe that no Messianic belief had occurred before this time, such as
Becker who states, "A preexilic messianic movement is an untenable
hypothesis. "  Smith explains, "Such an assessment is based on a
critical view of the Old Testament which disallows any Messianic concept
prior to the exile. "  Regardless, the Messianic concept became a
highly developed theme of post-exilic Judaism - that God's anointed
would come and restore Israel to her rightful place of honour and glory
became a dream in the hearts of the Jewish people.

THE FEAST OF PURIM

      Although the Persian administration was characterised by
tolerance, the problems of a religious and ethnic minority were bound to
eventuate.  The Book of Esther details the attempt of an anti-Semitic
minister, Haman, to exterminate the Jews with the sanction of a
capricious king, Ahasuerus.  Due to the prudence of the Jew Mordecai,
and the courage and charm of Esther, the plot was foiled.  The
miraculous deliverance of the Persian Jews has been observed since by
the annual Jewish feast of Purim.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

      The rise of Alexander the Great - the belly and thighs of bronze -
and the overthrow of the Persian empire at the battle of Issus in 333
B.C. completely altered the face of the Middle East.  After his victory
at Issus, Alexander turned to conquer Egypt, taking Israel on the way.
The Jews peacefully accepted the change of rule, and the Jews were
permitted to live in accordance with their ancestral laws and were
exempted from paying tribute every sabbatical year, when tilling the
soil was forbidden.  However, the conditions under which the Jews were
to live were entirely different from those previously.  Israel now
became the scene of a pervasive Greek culture, which made deep inroads
on the Jewish way of life,  as described by Wurmbrand and Roth:

    The Hellenistic outlook affected first and foremost the highest
    levels of society - the priestly aristocracy and the well-to-do tax-
    farmers and merchants.  Knowledge of the Greek language spread among
    the Jews, who learned to participate in Greek gymnastic games, to
    frequent the Greek theatre, and to appreciate Greek literature and
    philosophy.  Respect for religious observance grew lax and
    scepticism tended to destroy tradition.

      During this period of time, the Septuagint, the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, was made.  Oesterley and Robinson make the
comment, "there is no question of Hellenic influences having affected
the religion of the Jews.  This point needs emphasis. "  In fact, some
believe that the influence of the Greek spirit was so strong among the
Jews that had the process of Hellenisation been able to continue, before
long Judaism would have assumed a form in which it would have been
unrecognisable, and much more syncretistic than Philo.

HANUKKAH

      The Apocryphal works of I and II Maccabees document the revolt
which arose when Antiochus Epiphanes instituted a program to fully
hellenise the Jewish religion.  He decreed that the God of the Jews
would henceforth be regarded as a local manifestation of the Greek deity
Zeus.  The temple rites and synagogue services were to be accordingly
altered, upon punishment of death for disobedience.  The ultimate insult
was the sacrifice of a pig by Antiochus on the Temple altar.

      Open revolt was begun by an aged priest, Mattathias, and three of
his sons, Simon, Judah and Jonathan.  Syrian politics distracted
Antiochus from giving serious attention to this uprising and the Temple
was liberated and rededicated in December, 164 B.C., the event now
commemorated by the Jews as Hanukkah.   This independence, however,
would be short-lived.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

      The fourth kingdom, hard as iron, manifested itself as the Roman
Empire which entered and occupied Jerusalem in 63 B.C.  No independent
Jewish state was again to occupy the land of Israel for over 2,000 years
- until 1948 A.D.  By this time two major parties had emerged in the
Jewish community - the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Sadducees
occupied the higher religious and civil offices, but the Pharisees, with
their oral Talmud and rigourous standards of faith and conduct, had an
enormous influence on the general population.  They looked to the
anointed of God, the Messiah of the Davidic dynasty, who would come and
release them from the Roman rule,  the Romans dominating the people and
the land, causing unrest and rebellion among the people.  The Jewish
people became finally so bothersome to the Romans that the Roman general
Titus destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., scattering the
inhabitants.

CONCLUSION

      Though the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. came as a shock to
the Pharisees and their admirers, they had been prepared for it by its
frequent desecration in varying ways from the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes onwards, and their synagogue-centered religion was able to
adapt itself to the new conditions with great rapidity, the more so as
the other religious groups had been destroyed or reduced to impotence.

      Just as it did during the time from the Exile to 70 A.D., the
Jewish religion has survived and adapted, through the Diaspora to the
regathering of Israel, and will undoubtedly continue to survive and
adapt to the circumstances in which it finds itself.


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Becker, Joachim. Messianic Expectation in the Old Testament. Translated
     by David Green. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.

Bentzen, Aage. King and Messiah. 2d ed. Edited by G.W. Anderson. London:
     Lutterworth Press, 1970.

Bouquet, Alan Coates. Comparative Religion. 5th ed. Middlesex: Penguin
     Books, Ltd., 1956.

________. The Christian Faith and Non-Christian Religions. Connecticut:
     Greenwood Press, 1976.

Bruce, F. F., ed. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Vol. 2, Judaism, by
     H. L. Ellison. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980.

Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through The Centuries. Rev ed. Michigan:
     Academie Books, 1982.

Dunne, John. The Way of all the Earth. London: Sheldon Press, 1972.

Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus The Messiah.
     Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993.

Epstein, Rabbi Isaac. Judaism. 2d rev ed. London: The Epworth Press,
     1945.

Gaer, Joseph. How the Great Religions Began. Rev. ed. New York: Signet
     Key Books, 1961.

Loewe, H., ed. Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 2, The Contact of
     Pharisaism with Other Cultures. New York: Ktav Publishing House,
     Inc., 1969.

Matarasso, Antoine. Israel. Townsville: Rhema Bible College, 1984.

McDowell, Josh, and Don Stewart. Handbook of Today's Religions.
     California: Here's Life Publishers, Inc., 1983.

Neusner, Jacob. The Mishnah: A New Translation. New Haven: Yale
     University Press, 1988.

Norwood, Frederick A. Strangers and Exiles. Nashville: Abingdon Press,
     1969.

Oesterley, W. O. E., and Theodore H. Robinson. Hebrew Religion. 2d rev
     ed. London: S.P.C.K., 1966.

Oesterley, W. O. E., ed. Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 1, The Age of
     Transition. New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969.

Ringgren, Helmer. The Messiah in the Old Testament. London: SCM Press
     Ltd., 1956.

________. Israelite Religion. Translated by David Green. 2d ed. London:
     S.P.C.K., 1969.

Rosen, Moishe. Y'shua: The Jewish Way to Say Jesus. Chicago: Moody
     Press, 1982.

Rosenthal, Erwin I. J., ed. Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 3, Law and
     Religion. New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969.

Scholem, Gershom. The Messianic Idea in Judaism. London: George Allen
     and Unwin, Ltd., 1971.

Smith, James. The Promised Messiah. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,
     1993.

Wiesel, Elie. Souls on Fire. Translated by Marion Wiesel. London:
     Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1972.

Wurmbrand, Max and Cecil Roth. The Jewish People: 4000 Years of
     Survival. London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1974.


REFERENCES

         Daniel 2:31-45.
         The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980 ed., s.v. "Judaism".
         Ibid.
         Joseph Gaer, How the Great Religions Began Rev. ed. (New York:
Signet Key Books, 1961), 156.
         Alan Bouquet, Comparative Religion 5th ed. (Middlesex: Penguin
Books, Ltd., 1956), 223.
         II Kings 24:14-16.
         II Kings 25:1-22.
         Jeremiah 52:30.
         W. O. E. Oesterley and Theodore H. Robinson Hebrew Religion 2d
rev ed. (London: S.P.C.K., 1966), 277.
         Frederick A. Norwood Strangers and Exiles Volume 1.
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1969), 36.
         Max Wurmbrand and Cecil Roth The Jewish People: 4000 Years of
Survival (London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1974), 43.
         Norwood, op. cit., 43.
         Ezekiel 11:16.
         Oesterley and Robinson, op. cit., 285.
         Norwood, op. cit., 43.
         Idem, 45-46.
         Idem, 45.
         Bouquet, op. cit., 223.
         Josh McDowell and Don Stewart Handbook of Today's Religions
(California: Here's Life Publishers, Inc., 1983), 366.
         Wurmbrand and Roth, op. cit., 45.
         Idem, 46.
         Daniel 9:25.
         Isaiah 44:28-45:13.
         Bouquet, op. cit., 225.
         Wurmbrand and Roth, op. cit., 46.
         Idem, 47.
         Ibid.
         Idem, 49.
         The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980 ed., s.v. "Judaism".
         Oesterley and Robinson, op. cit., 288.
         Idem, 320.
         Ibid.
         Joachim Becker, Messianic Expectation in the Old Testament,
translated by David Green (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), 35.
         James Smith, The Promised Messiah (Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1993), 2.
         Rosen, op. cit., 2.
         Oesterley and Robinson, op. cit., 51.
         Wurmbrand and Roth, op. cit., 52-53.
         Idem, 53.
         Oesterley and Robinson, op. cit., 341.
         Idem, 343.
         Rosen, op. cit., 6.
         Ibid.
         Idem, 7-8.
         McDowell and Stewart, op. cit., 366.
         The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980 ed., s.v. "Judaism".

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