 Welcome everyone. I just see a message in the chat that the volume is low. Is everyone able to hear me okay? It's okay ma'am. Okay, sure. Thank you. Okay, Igwe, if you can just check the volume on your whatever you're using. It's a laptop or a phone. Let's see if there's something you can adjust there. Okay, let's open with a word of prayer. Is there anyone who would like to pray for us before we begin? Anyone in person? Let's pray. Thank you. Loving Father, in the name of Jesus we bless you, we glorify your name, we give you thanks and worship this morning. We appreciate you for the gift of life and the wisdom and knowledge that you have given unto us, King of Glory. Lord, we want to surrender this time unto you, the teachings and all we are going to learn. We surrender unto your hands who welcome the leadership of the Holy Spirit to help us and open our eyes and mind to know and to hear more from you. We bless you, glorify your name. In Jesus' name we are prayed. Amen. Thank you. Okay, so on Monday was when we had our first class and we just looked a little bit at what we're going to be covering during this course and we also looked at some of the background to the beginning of the New Testament. So we looked at the political background and we looked at the religious background, especially between Malachi and Matthew. So there's a 400 year period and in that 400 year period there were different groups of people that conquered the region in which the Israelites lived. So they came and took over that region and as they were taking over that region they also influenced the religious practices of the people. So maybe we can just quickly cover that and then we will go into today's content. So just for those of us who might have missed it. So we have the Persian reign from 400 to 334 BC, the Alexandrian period and this one is important because the Greek influence came in here and we have Greek becoming the language of the people and Hebrew kind of being forgotten by the Jews. And then we have the Egyptian period which was where Ptolemy who was also of Greek origin was reigning over the Palestine region where the Israelites were followed by the Seleucid Empire which was still someone from a Greek background who was reigning and then for a brief period of time about 100 years the Israelites gained control over their land. This is the Maccabean period so the Maccabees were reigning over the Israelites but they lose power to the Romans in 63 BC and so the Romans rule over Israel from 63 BC until when Jesus is born the Romans are still in power. So when we see this AD 5 it doesn't mean that the Roman reign ended here but we're just saying till Jesus came the Romans were still in power and then they continued to reign even while Jesus was ministering while Jesus was in Israel. So today we will look at the people groups that the New Testament consists of so some of the major people groups that were present and we will look at some places of worship and then sacred writings. All of these things will just contribute to our understanding of the New Testament as we look at the gospels especially all of these things will contribute to that. So we have the Hebrews first. This group of people is introduced to us in Genesis 14 and 13 beginning with Abraham. So we will also read a few scriptures. Okay, so just as we have these passages included here we can open them and quickly read through them as well. So someone can read Genesis 14 and 13 for us. Genesis 14 and 13? Yes, Genesis 14 and 13. Okay, sorry. Then one who had escaped came to Abraham the Hebrew for he dwelt by the terrible threes of Mambra, the Amorite brother of Escal and brother of Anir and they were allies with Abraham. Thank you. So here we see the term Hebrew Abraham the Hebrew. So this is where the people were not known by they were not known as Israelites. They were not known as Jews yet. So we're just called a group of people, the Hebrew people starting with Abraham and we see that also when Joseph is taken into Egypt that he is identified as the Hebrew. So when Potiphar's wife accuses him of acting inappropriately with her, she refers to him as the Hebrew slave. So that is the identity of the people, the descendants of Abraham. So they all call the Hebrews. And then when they continue to multiply under the Egyptian rule, right? So we see in Exodus when there is the command that the Hebrew children, the Hebrew sons especially be put to death. Maybe we can just open Exodus 115 and read that. Exodus 115. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives whose names were Shipra and Pua. When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool. If it's a boy, kill him. But if it's a girl, let her live. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. Thank you. So and then if we go on into verse 19. The midwives answered Pharaoh, Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are rigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. Okay, so until here, we do see even in this passage that they are referred to as the Israelites. But to outside groups of people, they just viewed them as the Hebrew people. It's only after they enter the promised land that they gain this identity as the Israelites. And where do they get that name from? It's from Jacob being given the name Israel, right? So when God changes his name to Israel, he then all of them identify as descendants of Jacob. And so they are called the Israelites. So that becomes a popular term for their identification after they enter the promised land. Until then they're mostly known as the Hebrew people. And then where do we get this term Jews? So we see under David that we had, there was a kingdom that was united under David's rule. This is in first Kings. Sorry, I haven't given you all the references here. But in first Kings, we are introduced to the king, the role of a king within Israel. And we have Saul, who is the first king and then David takes over. And when David takes over, he's ruling over the whole region that the Israelites had come and taken over from Canaan. And he reigns over that whole region during his reign. After his reign, his son Solomon takes over and Solomon continues to reign over the whole region. But what does Solomon do? He starts to marry women of other, the foreign women that were around. And he starts to also worship their gods. He starts to build shrines for their gods. And so introduces pagan worship into the land. And because of that God's judgment is that he will take away 10 of the tribes from the rule of David's line. 10 tribes will be taken away and only two tribes will remain under David's line or David's lineage. That they will rule over only two tribes. And those two tribes are Judah and Benjamin. So this is where Israel and Judah start to have that distinction. There's a different group of people, which are the 10 tribes who come under Israel. And the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, come under the region of Judah. So while Solomon is reigning, he's still reigning over the whole kingdom. But that judgment that God passes is during this reign. And he says, until Solomon reigns, I'll still keep the kingdom united because of my faithfulness to David. But after Solomon's reign, when his son takes over, who is Rehoboam, I will take the kingdom away from Rehoboam. So let me see if I've given you all the reference here. I haven't. Okay, we'll just try and read that because it's always better to read from the scriptures. Then here. Okay, so we'll open first Kings. And if someone can read from verses 26, first Kings 11 to 40, 26 to 40. So we have a few verses to read. I saw Jeroboam, son of Nebat, rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's official, an Ephraimite from Zeridah, and his mother was a widow named Zeroboam. Here in the account of how he rebelled against the king, Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap of the wall of the city of David, his father. Now, Jeroboam was a man of standing. And when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph. About that time, Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem. And Ahija, the prophet of Shiloh, met him on the way wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country. And Ahija, the cold of the new cloak, he was wearing and tore it into 12 pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, take 10 pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. See, I'm going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you 10 tribes. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worship Astoret, the goddess of the Sidonians, Kimosh, the God of the Moabites, and Mollek, the God of Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statues and lost as David Solomon's father did. But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand. I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, for the sake of my chosen who observed my commands and statues. I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you 10 tribes. I'll give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamb before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my name. However, as for you, I will take you and you will rule over all that your heart desires. You will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statues and commands as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever. Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam led to Egypt to Shishak the king and stayed there until Solomon stayed. Okay, so here we just read what I had mentioned before where God's judgment comes upon Solomon and he says that he's going to take away these 10 tribes from under Solomon or David's lineage and give it away to Jeroboam. So once Solomon dies, his son, Rehoboam, comes into power and Jeroboam then comes to him along with a few other people of Israel and they come to him and ask him whether he will reduce the burden that was upon his people, right, upon their people. So let's just read that part as well. First Kings 12 verse 2. Verse 2 to 5. When Jeroboam's son of Neba thought this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from in Solomon. He returned from Egypt, so they sent for Jeroboam and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him, your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us and we will serve you. Rehoboam answered, go away for three days and then come back to me so the people went away. Thank you. And then can you continue from verse 12 to verse 17. Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam as the king had said, come back to me in three days. The king answered the people harshly, rejecting the advice given him by the elders. He followed the advice of the king of the enemy man and said, my father made your yoke heavy, I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with the whites, I will scourge you with scorpions, so the king did not listen to the people. But this turn of the west was from the Lord. Rufin in the word of the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Naba through Ahiza, the Shillonite. When all Israel saw the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king, what share do we have in David? What part in Jesse's son to your friends Israel, look after your own house. David so the Israelites went home. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. Thank you. So we see that David's descendants continue to rule over Judah. And over time the people who live in Judah become called the Jews. Okay, so that's how we see that term changed. So from Hebrew to Israelites to Jews. Okay, so when this division happens, Israel becomes a different nation and Judah becomes a different nation. And in Israel we have the capital, which is Samaria, and that nation exists until the Assyrians come in and capture the land. So the Assyrians came in in 722 BC and they capture the land and take the Israelites into exile. We'll read a little bit more about this as we're looking at who the Samaritans are. For now we'll just end with that. So the nation of Israel kind of ends there with the Assyrians coming in in 722 BC and capturing the people and taking them into exile. So Judah continues for a little longer with the capital in Jerusalem until the Babylonians come in. So they come in a little later in 605 BC taking the people captive and taking them into exile. These people who remain in Judah start to be called the Jews. It's only after the return. So we talked about the Persian conquest, right? So the Persians capture this whole region, the Palestine region after the Babylonians. And then King Cyrus sends people back to Jerusalem to re-establish, to rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It is at this time that the terms Jew, Israelites, Hebrews all start to become the same thing. So it's only the Judeans who start to be called Israelites after that because the people of Israel have already been gone into exile. And when they come back, they start to be called the Samaritans. So they are a different group of people. But the Judeans who are the descendants of the tribe of Judah continue to be called Israelites or Jews or Hebrews. Okay. Is that clear? Yes. Okay. Any questions so far? Good. Okay. Let's just look at this passage in 2 Kings 176 and then 24 to 35. In the ninth year of Austria, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halach in Gozan on the Haber River and in the towns of the Medes. And Pastor? Yeah. Verses 24 to 35. The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Hutuha, Avahama and Sephara and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord. So he sent lions around them and they killed some of the people. It was reported to the king of Assyria, the people you departed and settled in the towns of Samaria don't know what the God of that country requires. He has sent lions among them which are killing them off because the people do not know what he requires. Then the king of Assyria gave this order, have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria, go back to live there and teach the people what the God of the land requires. So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord. Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. The people from Babylon made Sukkot, Benot, Dostrom, Hutuha, Lurgal and Dostrom Hamath made Assyria. Is it okay for us to? Till 35. The abetis made Abbas and Tattav and the Sepharavetis birthed their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adramayadi and Anamalek, the gods of Sepharavia. They worship the Lord but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to appreciate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worship the Lord but they also serve their own God in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they have been brought. To this day, the priests, they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob whom he named Israel. When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them to not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. Okay, so we see how that group of people changes completely, right? What we read in this passage, the Israelites, those 10 tribes are exiled and what the Assyrians do is they send all different people from different nations to go and start living in that region. And those people then don't know how to worship Yahweh, so there's a priest who is sent in to teach them how to worship Yahweh and along with that worship, they also start to worship their gods from their nations. And so this group of Samaritans is considered as people from a mixed religion and people from a mixed blood because some of them also married Israelites and had children with them. And so they don't consider them as true descendants of Israel. The Jews don't consider the Samaritans as true descendants of Israel or worshipers of the true God. That is their view of the Samaritans. So when the Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans come in offering to help them rebuild the temple. And the Jews refuse to let them be part of that because they view them as foreigners. They don't view them as true Israelites. And this relationship between the Samaritans and Jews just starts to continue to become one that fosters hatred because each of them views the other as people who are not following the true God, who are not worshipping the true God. And we see that continue into the New Testament as well. Now to also, okay, I think we will cover this a little later, so I won't go into that for now, but the temple and the place of worship we'll look at a little later. So the next group of people we're going to look at is the scribes. They are also called the teachers of the law or lawyers or rabbis in the New Testament. Can someone open Ezra 7, 6 and 10, if you can read that for us. Ezra 7 verse 6. This Ezra came up from Babylon and he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord, his God upon him. And 10, for Ezra had prepared his heart, seek the law of the Lord to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. Okay, thank you. So this is where we see the scribes developing as a group of people. Ezra is one of the first scribes that we see talked about in the Bible. So when the Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, they didn't have their temple to worship in. And so teaching the law grew in importance. That was the way for them to maintain their identity as Jews. The only way was to pass on what had been taught in the law of Moses by their prophets. So all of that is what began to be emphasized because there was no temple worship that they were practicing in exile. And this is when the scribes start to become more important because they are the ones who preserve that law and who pass it on to the people. So one of the ways they did that was they made copies of the Jewish scriptures and this was something that was highly revered. Their work was highly revered because it required a lot of skill. It required a lot of attention to detail because they had to make sure they were not making any errors as they were making copies of the scripture. There was no printing press. There was no easy way to make copies of the scripture. They were actually writing it down. Someone would recite and the scribes would sit down and write what was being recited. So it required a lot of skill, knowledge of the law and they were people who were trained in the law to continue to make these copies so that people would learn the scriptures. The other thing they did was to teach the people especially to teach children the scriptures and then once synagogues were established. So synagogues were established when they went back to Jerusalem and they rebuilt the temple and people settled in other parts of the Palestine region. Synagogues were established as local places of teaching the law and so scribes would be in these synagogues teaching the people the Torah. And then what happens over time is that the scribes also added to the law. So if someone can read Matthew 15, 1 to 9 and 23, 2 to 4. We see in the New Testament Jesus addressing the scribes and the teachers of the law. Usually not in positive ways and we'll see why. Can I read sister? Sure, go ahead. Thank you. Matthew 15, 1 to 9. Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. He answered and said to them, Do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded saying, Honor your father and your mother. And he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say whoever says to his father or mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God. Then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hippocrates. Well, did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me. And in vain they worship me teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. Thank you. 1, 2, 3, 2, 4. Yes, please. Saying the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works. For they say and do not do, for they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Thank you. So we see that they had started to interpret the law because the scribes were interpreting the law and teaching the law to people. So while they were interpreting the law, they were also adding additional rules, making additional or they were making it, applying it to people in a way that was contrary to God's intent for the people or God's heart for the people. And so there were additional laws being added, additional rules being added for the people. By the time Jesus had come and Jesus had started to minister, so what had begun as something that was a really good thing that they had started to ensure that people were educated in the teachings of the scriptures, over time became a place of power and abuse over the people of Israel. Okay, so next we look at the Sanhedrin. Okay, so where do we see the Sanhedrin in the New Testament? In the judgment of Jesus. Yes, so the Sanhedrin plays, that's where I think we see the Sanhedrin's role really come in, is when Jesus is brought trial before the leaders, the Jewish leaders. And they decide that he should be put to death and then they take him to the Roman authorities. So who were the Sanhedrin? They were people who actually were given power by the Romans and they were basically the elders, the Jewish elders, scribes, priests and other people were respected among the Jewish people. Okay, so they were people with a lot of power. It consisted of 70 members apart from the High Priest. So with the High Priest it was 71 and the High Priest was the one who was the main leader of the Sanhedrin. So these elders were first established during the time of Ezra and the synagogues each had a committee. So over time that committee became something that was also being practiced in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin was a group of people that ruled in Jerusalem. And the Sanhedrin had power to arrest people, to make judgments in case of religious matters especially. They could punish people and they could even pronounce that the person should be put to death. But they couldn't carry out that punishment. Okay, so it was only the Romans who could put people to death. But the Sanhedrin could decide if someone should be given a death sentence. The main reason they could give for someone being put to death was if someone had defiled the temple. So that was the only reason where they themselves could carry out this capital punishment for someone. So we see in John 1831 when they go to the Roman authorities. We'll just open that John 1831. Okay, so they've taken Jesus before Pilate and Pilate says take them, take Jesus away and judge him by your own law. And so they reply to Pilate, only the Romans are permitted to execute someone. So while they could give that sentence, they couldn't actually put Jesus to death, which is why they take him to the Roman authorities to carry out their sentence. What is interesting and sad at the same time is that in Jesus' trial, the Sanhedrin, the main goal of that group was to make sure that the Jews were upholding the laws, the Jewish laws. Okay, so they were in charge of, they were kind of a committee or a justice system for the Jews. Okay, so they were the judges for the Jews in terms of religious and some civil matters. But in Jesus' trial, they themselves break a lot of their own laws. One is they conduct the trial at night, which is not allowed. Second is that it's a secret meeting. They haven't actually, because they do it, they arrest Jesus in secret. They haven't actually invited the whole Sanhedrin to be there for Jesus' trial. So they break their own laws in that. They also, there is contradictory testimony from the witnesses for Jesus' trial, which right away they should have dismissed the case and punished false witnesses. But they don't do any of that. So in Jesus' case, we see the corruption within the Sanhedrin, where the rule, they're supposed to uphold the Jewish law, but they use it in whatever way it pleases them to accomplish their own purposes. So we see that a lot of corruption had come into the leaders, the Jewish leaders who were in the Sanhedrin. Okay, so next we look at the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees are not mentioned a lot in the New Testament. Can you all remember where the Sadducees are mentioned or anything in the New Testament that we know about the Sadducees? The Sadducees are sad to see. Yeah. So yeah, that's from a song I think we learned when we were younger. So what is it that the New Testament talks about the Sadducees? Okay, so they're one of the groups of people who oppose Jesus in his ministry. Yes, that's definitely true. And we'll also look at why they are in opposition to Jesus' ministry. So we also know that one of the big things was that they didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. And Jesus says, you don't believe it because you don't know the scriptures, right? He says to the Sadducees. So these were two groups of people, Sadducees and Pharisees, who developed the Pharisees especially came into existence when the Jews returned to Jerusalem under the Persian rule. Okay, so the Pharisees comprised of many scribes. So as the synagogues were being built and the scribes were coming to a place of importance as religious leaders, this group of Pharisees also started to grow and they were mostly comprised of the scribes. We don't know exactly when the Sadducees were formed, this group of people was formed. But sometime in opposition to this Pharisee group of people, the Sadducees came in. So the main differences between these groups of the Sadducees were pro-political. So during the Maccabean rule, the Maccabees restored temple worship, which was an amazing thing for the Jews, but they also took over politically. And this was not something that was supported by the scribes. The scribes were very interested in maintaining the religious purity of the Jews, but they were not interested in political power and they were not interested in politicians having power over the religious practices of the Jews. They wanted that to be separate from politics. The Sadducees, however, were very interested in political power. So they were Jews who enjoyed political power. So like the Maccabees who had come into a place of power and wanted to reign over the Jews, the Sadducees sided with them. So they had a lot of favor from those in power, the politicians in power, whereas the Pharisees were seen as people in opposition to politicians. The Sadducees also comprised mainly of priests, especially the high priests and other leaders in society. They were usually wealthy. They usually had a lot of power and influence, mainly among the higher classes. The Pharisees, on the other hand, mainly comprised of scribes, but also they were priests. So there were also Pharisees in the Sanhedrin and Sadducees in the Sanhedrin. Both of them were in the Sanhedrin, but the Pharisees were usually poorer people. They were from lower classes of society and they didn't have a lot of power because they were not very interested in the politics side of it. But both groups of people had power because the Sadducees had the support of the politicians, but the Pharisees had the support of the people. So the Sadducees were actually afraid of the Pharisees because the Pharisees could influence the common people and they could get the people to support whatever they wanted. In terms of beliefs, the Sadducees believed only in the written scriptures. They didn't believe in any oral traditions that were passed down, whereas the Pharisees believed in oral tradition as well. So when Jesus is saying, you've added so much to the law, it's because the Pharisees believed in that oral tradition. So if someone was teaching the scriptures, they would also add their interpretation of the scriptures and that would be given a lot of importance by the Pharisees. On the other hand, the Sadducees would only take what was written in the law as binding for people. So they felt that you can interpret it the way you want to interpret it. Only if it's written in the law, you need to follow it. How you interpret it is up to you. The Pharisees on the other hand felt that how the scribes interpret it is what the people must follow. They have to follow the way the scribes are interpreting it. And then a few other beliefs is the Sadducees believed in human freedom. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead or in the eternal life that the soul has. And they didn't believe in angels. Pharisees on the other hand believed in all these things. So we see a lot of just between these two groups of people, they had power, but they also had a lot of disputes between them. Okay. I think this is the last two groups of people that we look at are the publicans and the zealots. I think they're also out of time. Aren't we? It's in the end of class. Okay. So we will come back on Monday and we look at these last two groups of people and then go into the rest of the introduction before we actually look at the book of Matthew. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sister. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.