2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.

Old Testament
Week 29: Israelite history between the
Old and New Testaments
1) [SLIDE 2] Introduction.
1

a) In the final lesson of this course well be reviewing the historical events and religious
and cultural developments that took place among the Jews between the periods of the
Old and New Testaments.
b) There are about 450 years between the time of the final prophets and leaders of the Old
TestamentEzra, Nehemiah, and Malachiand the events of the New Testament.
c) [SLIDE 3] Israel lies right at the hub of a major trade and transportation route between
Egypt, Asia Minor, and Arabia. The need for major powers to hold this territory for
political and economic reasons led to Judah being occupied by five different regional
empires during this time, and, at one point, fighting a war for independence.
d) The history of this period is complex, with many interesting personalities. In this lesson,
well have time to just cover the basics.
e) When the lesson is finished, we should have some time for questions, comments, and
discussion about the Old Testament or other gospel topics you want to discuss.
2) Historical recap.
a) [SLIDE 4] When the Israelites took the land of Canaan, they divided the land up among
the twelve tribes.
b) The tribes were finally united under King David and his son, Solomon, into a single
nation of Israel.
c) [SLIDE 5] After the death of Solomon (c. 931 B.C.), the northern ten tribes seceded from
the south and formed the independent nation of Israel (also known as Ephraim). The
kingdom of the southern tribes was called Judah. These two nations existed side-by-side
for over 200 years.
d) [SLIDE 6] The rise of the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century B.C. signaled the end of
Israel and Judah as independent nations: Both became vassal states, and when Israel
rebelled, the Assyrians conquered her and deported her people in 721 B.C. Judah
remained loyal to Assyria for another 100 years.
e) [SLIDE 7] The Assyrian Empire fell to the Babylonians in 612 B.C. Judah enjoyed a brief
period of independence that ended when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II
conquered her in 605. Judah rebelled soon after, and the Babylonians besieged
Jerusalem in 597 and installed King Zedekiah as a puppet ruler. Another Jewish
rebellion ended with the Babylonians destroying Jerusalem and the Temple and
deporting most of the remaining Jews to Babylon in 587.
f) The Jews remained in exile in Babylon until the Babylonian Empire fell to the Persians
in 539.

1
An excellent overview of this time period is available in S. Kent Brown and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Between the
Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew (Deseret Book, 2002). Not as thorough but still useful is Enrichment K: Between the
Testaments, in the LDS Institute of Religions Old Testament Student Manual: 1 KingsMalachi (Religion 302), 35865
(https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-student-manual-kings-malachi/enrichment-k).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 2
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
3) [SLIDE 8] Post-exilic Jewish history.
a) Jewish history after Babylon to the time of the New Testament falls into six periods:
i) Persian (539333 B.C.).
ii) Macedonian Greek (333323 B.C.).
iii) Egyptian Greek (323198 B.C.).
iv) Syrian Greek (198164 B.C.).
v) Maccabean/Hasmonean (16463 B.C.).
vi) Roman (63 B.C. and onward).
b) Except for the 100 years of Maccabean/Hasmonean rule, the Jews were subjects of
external powers that had great influence on their culture and language.
i) The result of this influence was that the Jewish society we encounter in the New
Testament was, in many ways, very different from what we saw in the Old
Testament.
c) [SLIDE 9] As we work our way through the history were going to examine the rise and
development of five important cultural changes in Jewish society:
i) Scribes and the synagogue.
ii) Greek culture and language.
iii) The Septuagint and the Apocrypha.
iv) Pharisees and Sadducees.
v) Essenes and Zealots.
4) [SLIDE 10] Lets begin with the Persian period (539333 B.C.).
a) As weve discussed during the last few lessons, after the Babylonian exile some Jews
returned to Jerusalem.
b) The prophets Haggai and Zechariah urged the people to hasten the Temple
reconstruction, and the project was finished in 515 B.C.
c) [SLIDE 11] When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in 445 B.C., Jerusalems city walls were
still in ruins. He spearheaded the rebuilding project, which was finished in 52 days
(Nehemiah 6:15).
i) The rebuilt walls brought security to the residents of the city and the surrounding
area, and allowed more Jewish expatriates to return to their homeland.
d) Nehemiahs construction was accompanied by Ezras spiritual reforms. The Law (Torah)
was reemphasized and the Temple priesthood put in order.
e) [SLIDE 12] One important development of this time was the local synagogue. Temple
worship was still the focus of Jewish spiritual life, but Jews began to meet regularly in
local groups to read and expound the scriptures.
2


2
The English word synagogue comes from the Greek synagoge, place of assembly or meeting, literally a bringing
together. The Hebrew word for it is keneseth, assembly.
The Book of Mormon mentions synagogues 25 times. For an examination of how this word is used and what it meant to
Book of Mormon peoples, see William J. Adams Jr., Synagogues in the Book of Mormon, Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies 9/1 (2000), 413, 76 (http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1395&index=2).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 3
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
i) [SLIDE 13] By the time of the New Testament, we see Jesus attending synagogue
and getting up to read and explain the scriptures (Luke 4:1430).
f) [SLIDE 14] Another significant development is the rise of the scribes.
i) These were people who were separate from the priests and Levites, but who were
trained in the Law and were experts in interpreting the scriptures. It was their
responsibility to teach the people the Law of God.
ii) In Jesus time the scribes status had grown so much that they were considered the
only authoritative interpreters of the scriptures.
3

g) The size and stability of the Persian Empire brought relative peace and prosperity to the
people of Judah for nearly 200 years. The Persian monarchs respected the local customs
and worship practices of their peoples, and so the Jews were fairly autonomous during
this time.
5) [SLIDE 15] All this changed with the beginning of the Macedonian Greek period (333323
B.C.).
a) [SLIDE 16] The Macedonian Empire came together from the fragments of Greek city-
states that had successfully fought off two attempted invasions by Persia in the fifth
century B.C.
4

b) [16.1] Macedonian King Philip II (reigned 359336 B.C.) conquered the entire Greek
Peninsula. Philip was a champion of Greek culture and desired to spread it throughout
the known world. He also wanted to punish the Persians. He was about to embark on an
invasion of Asia Minor when he was assassinated.
c) [16.2] Philips son, Alexander III (Alexander the Great, reigned 336323 B.C.) realized
his fathers ambitions. In only thirteen years, and starting when he was only twenty
years old, he single-handedly conquered the entire Persian Empire.
i) [SLIDE 17] He started with Asia Minor, and then continued south along the
Mediterranean coast. The peoples of Samaria and Jerusalem surrendered in advance
of Alexanders army and were not attacked.
(1) After taking Egypt, he then went west into the heart of Persia and overthrew the
Persian Empire.
(2) He went as far as the border of India. His army revolted at this point and forced
him to end his campaign. Alexander returned to Babylon, where he died of a fever
at age 32.
5

d) [SLIDE 18] Even though his empire lasted only twelve years, Alexander left a legacy
that has had enormous impact on world history up to this very day.

3
See, for example, Matthew 17:10; Mark 12:2834; Mark 12:35.
4
In the first Persian invasion of Greece (492490 B.C.) the Persians re-subjugated Thrace and conquered Macedon,
Naxos, and the other Cycladic Islands; mainland Greece, however, remained free. In Persias second invasion (480479 B.C.)
Persian King Xerxes I attempted to conquer all of Greece; he was soundly defeated on both land and sea, and the Greeks began
a counter-offensive that lasted until 449 B.C.
5
There has been much speculation as to the cause of Alexanders death, including claims that he was poisoned. The
evidence, however, seems to point to typhoid fever. See David W. Oldach, et al, A Mysterious Death, The New England
Journal of Medicine 338 (11 June 1998), 176469 (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199806113382411).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 4
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
i) His campaign spread Greek language, culture, learning, and politics into the regions
of the former Persian Empire. He established centers of learning, including the
Egyptian city of Alexandria (named for him) and its vast library.
6) [SLIDE 19] The next period of Jewish history was dominated by the Egyptian Greeks (323
204 B.C.).
a) [SLIDE 20] After Alexanders death, his generalsknown as the Diadochi (Greek:
Successors; pronounced dee-AH-duh-key)fought among themselves for control of
pieces of his empire.
i) [20.1] The two factions who became important to Jewish history were the Ptolemaic
Kingdom
6
of Egypt and the Seleucid Empire
7
of Syria.
b) For over 100 years, Judah fell under the domination of the Ptolemies, the Greek dynasty
of Egypt.
i) The Ptolemies supported Jewish culture, and allowed Jews to freely practice their
religion.
ii) In the decades after the Ptolemies ascent to power, Jews moved into Egypt in large
numbers, [20.2] particularly to the capital city of Alexandria, where they became a
major segment of the population.
8

iii) [SLIDE 21] Within a couple of generations Jews living abroad lost their ability to
read and speak Hebrew, and so a project was undertaken to translate the Hebrew
Scriptures into Greek. The result was the Septuagint, named for the seventy scribes
who completed the task, according to tradition.
9

(1) The Septuagint is the next point on our list of significant events that took place
between the Testaments. The New Testament writers spoke and read Greek, and
the Septuagint was the scripture they read and from which they quoted.
10

iv) [SLIDE 22] It was also beginning in this time, down to the first century A.D., when
the books of the Apocrypha were written.
(1) Unlike the books in the Septuagint, these scriptural texts were originally written
in Greek, not Hebrew.

6
Named for Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 323283 B.C.), the Macedonian Greek general under Alexander who became ruler of
Egypt.
7
Named for Seleucus I Nicator (reigned 305281 B.C.), the Macedonian Greek general under Alexander who became ruler
of Syria.
8
Estimates are that the Jewish population in Alexandria reached nearly one million by the first century A.D.
9
Septuagint is from Latin Interpretatio septuaginta virorum, translation of the seventy interpreters. The title refers to
a legendary account in the pseudepigraphal Letter of Aristeas of how seventy-two Jewish scholars were asked by the King
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 285246 B.C.) to translate the Torah from Hebrew into Greek for inclusion in the Library of
Alexandria. According to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 B.C.c. A.D. 50), seventy-two Jewish translators
completed the translation while kept in separate chambers, producing identical versions of the text in seventy-two days. This
legend is certainly an exaggeration: The Septuagint was actually produced over a long period time between the 3rd and 1st
centuries B.C.
10
This fact explains the many differences between our Old Testament, which is translated from the Hebrew Masoretic Text
produced in the 7th to 9th centuries A.D., and the passages in the Old Testament that are quoted in the New Testament, which
came from the Septuagint. For example, compare Isaiah 40:3 ( The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the
way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God) with the same passage quoted in Luke 3:4 (The voice of
one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.). The Septuagint translators dropped
the phrase in the desert, and preferred the plural paths to the singular Hebrew highway. This example doesnt have any
doctrinal impact, but there are some differences between the Hebrew and Greek that affect how the New Testament writers
understood the scriptures.
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 5
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
(2) Like the scriptures were familiar with, the Apocrypha contain historical, wisdom,
and prophetic books. Some of them contain stories not found in the traditional
Old Testament, while others expand on Old Testament books (like Daniel and
Esther).
11

(3) [SLIDE 23] There are also other books written during this period that were not
included in the Apocrypha, but still had important status among Jews and
Christians. One of the best known is the Book of Enoch (also known as 1 Enoch),
which has lengthy and detailed visions of heaven and the end of world supposedly
seen by the Biblical prophet Enoch.
12

(a) The Book of Enoch was considered authoritative by the New Testament
writers, some of whom quoted from it or made allusions to it.
7) [SLIDE 24] Next came the Syrian Greek period (198164 B.C.).
a) [SLIDE 25] In 198 B.C. the Greek-speaking Seleucid Empire of Syria wrested control of
Palestine from the Ptolemies.
b) While the Ptolemies had been very tolerant and supportive of Jewish culture, things
quickly changed under the Seleucids.
i) [20.1] Under King Antiochus IV Epiphanies (reigned 176164 B.C.), sacrifices at the
Jerusalem Temple were suspended and Jewish people were forced to eat pork under
penalty of death.
13
The Temple was converted into a worship site for the Greek god
Zeus, and pigs were offered on an altar set up in the Temple courtyard.
ii) Antiochus also tried to Hellenize Jewish culture: Greek styles of dress, the theater,
and gymnasiums were brought to Jerusalem. Many wealthy, elite Jews adopted these
Greek customs. Antiochus installed a Hellenized Jew as the Temple high priest, one
who supported his reforms.
iii) While there were many Jews who supported Hellenization, and others who were
noncommittal, most Jews were outraged at this. Many of them left Jerusalem for the
surrounding villages, where they could practice their faith without Syrian
interference.
iv) The final straw came when Antiochus announced that it would be a crime to follow
the Jewish religion. Sabbath observance, reading or teaching the scriptures,
circumcision, and observance of a kosher diet were all made illegal, on penalty of
death. Thousands of Jews were killed when they disobeyed the new edict.

11
When the Prophet Joseph Smith inquired of the Lord about the Apocrypha, he was told: There are many things
contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly; There are many things contained therein that are not true,
which are interpolations by the hands of men. Therefore, whoso readeth it, let him understand. (D&C 91:12, 4.)
12
See lesson 5, pages 13 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcot05n).
13
We previously discussed Antiochus IV in the context of chapters 712 of Daniel; see lesson 26, pages 910, 1314
(http://bit.ly/ldsarcot26n).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 6
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
c) In early 166 B.C., observant Jews rose up to throw off their Syrian masters.
14

i) [SLIDE 26] In the small Jewish village of Modein, a priest named Mattathias was
offered money by Greek officers to perform a public pagan sacrifice. He refused.
When another villager came forward to offer the sacrifice in his place, Mattathias
burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran
and killed him on the altar. At the same time he killed the kings officer who was
forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. Thus he burned with zeal for
the law.
Then Mattathias cried out in the town with a loud voice, saying: Let everyone who
is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me! Then he and
his sons fled to the hills and left all that they had in the town. (NRSV 1 Maccabees
2:2428.)
ii) [SLIDE 27] Mattathias and his five sons lead a Jewish resistance group that fought a
guerrilla war against the Syrian Greeks.
(1) Mattathias died before the war ended. Before his death, he appointed his son
Judas, called Maccabeus ([Gods] hammer), as commander of the army
(1 Maccabees 2:65).
iii) In December 164 B.C., the Maccabean forces entered Jerusalem. They cleansed the
Temple and restored the priesthood and sacrifices.
(1) The Jewish festival of the Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah) celebrates this
event. According to tradition, the Jews only had enough olive oil to light the
menorah in the Temple for one day, but their supply miraculously lasted eight
days.
d) [SLIDE 28] Its likely that the Pharisees and Sadducees got their start during the Syrian
period, just before the Maccabean revolt.
i) [SLIDE 29] The Pharisees were a sect or school of Jews who interpreted the Law
very strictly and led lives of intense devotion. All of their daily acts were measured
against the teachings in the books of Moses.
(1) They were very strict about Sabbath observance. They also believed in angels, life
after death (Acts 23:8), and that Gods foreknowledge limited mans free will.
(2) They also held that Moses received two laws on Mount Sinai: One that he wrote
down, and one that was transmitted orally. The Pharisees believed that the oral
traditions were the key to correctly understanding the scriptures.
15

ii) We dont know as much about the Sadducees, but they seem to have been a smaller,
wealthier, and more elite sect. In Jesus time, many of the priests who served in the
Temple were Sadducees (Acts 5:17).

14
The story of the overthrow of the Greeks and the restoration of the Temple is told in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2
Maccabees. These two Greek books cover the same time period from different perspectives. You can read the NRSV translation
of them here:
1 Maccabees: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Maccabees+1&version=NRSV
2 Maccabees: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Maccabees+1&version=NRSV
15
It was this tradition of the elders that Jesus and his disciples objected to (Matthew 15:2; Mark 7:3).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 7
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
(1) The Sadducees held to the written law and rejected the oral traditions. They also
rejected the ideas of an afterlife, resurrection, and final judgment (Matthew
22:23; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 23:8), and they believed in free will.
iii) These two groups show that varying interpretations of the Law were held among the
Jews, and that these interpretations led to factions (not unlike the later rise of
Protestant Christian churches).
iv) By the time of Jesus, these two groupsand the Pharisees, in particularheld a great
deal of influence among the people.
16

8) [SLIDE 30] The Maccabean fight for independence was followed by the Hasmonean period
(16463 B.C.).
a) [SLIDE 31] For the next 100 years, the Jews existed as a nation known as the
Hasmonean Kingdom of Israel. This was the first (and last) time they were and
independent people since the Babylonian exile.
b) The Maccabean family ruled the nation, and expanded her borders in a series of military
victories.
17

c) But things were not perfect under the Hasmoneans: Each leader ruled simultaneously as
both king and high priest. And even though they had freed their lands from the Syrians,
the Hasmonean rulers kept political ties to Syria and kept much of the Hellenized
culture.
i) [SLIDE 32] Because of this, there arose a new class of people among the Jews: the
Essenes.
(1) The Essenes left the cities and villages, and lived in separate communities
dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty, and abstinence from worldly
pleasures. They did not marry, and practiced daily ritual cleansing by immersion
in water. They rejected the legitimacy of the Temple priesthood, considering it to
be apostate.
18

(2) [SLIDE 33] One Essene community became famous in the 1940s when
collections of their writings began to be discovered in caves near the Dead Sea.
19

(a) The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 900 documents, including
scriptural texts and commentary, as well as documents that describe the rules
of the community.
20

(i) [SLIDE 34] Some scrolls are large and nearly complete; for example, the
Temple Scroll (11QTemple) is nearly 29 feet long, and the Isaiah Scroll
(1QIsa
a
), containing the entire text of Isaiah, is 24 feet long.

16
In the Gospels of the New Testament, the Pharisees and the scribes frequently are cast as the foil for Jesus and his
teachings: Jesus accused them of hypocrisy and worshipping the Law instead of the God who gave it. He also condemned the
doctrines of the Sadducees (Matthew 16:6, 1112).
17
It was during this time that the Jewish state expanded to include the area around the Sea of Galilee, setting the stage for
Jesus birth to Mary, a woman of Nazareth.
18
Many scholars believe that John the Baptist was an Essene.
19
This community referred to themselves as Secacah (thicket, mentioned in Joshua 15:61), but modern scholars refer to
them as Khirbet Qumran (ruin of the moon) or the Qumran Community.
20
Most of the documents were written on leather parchment, with a few written on papyrus and one on metal (the Copper
Scroll).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 8
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
(ii) [SLIDE 35] Others are mere fragments, some no larger than a postage
stamp.
(b) The scrolls describe the leader of the community, who was known only as the
Teacher of Righteousness. He claimed to have the correct interpretation of
the Law, and to be the one through whom God would reveal to the community
the hidden things wherein all Israel had erred.
21

(c) The Dead Sea Scrolls date to between 150 B.C. and A.D. 70, and are the oldest
known Old Testament manuscripts. Its impossible to overestimate their
importance to our understanding the textual development of the Old
Testament and the religious and social life of Jews in the time leading up to
the New Testament.
9) [SLIDE 36] Finally we come to the Roman period (63 B.C. and onward).
a) [SLIDE 37] The Romans had been rising as a regional power since the middle of the
third century B.C., and were masters of the Mediterranean Sea by the middle of the
second.
22
The Roman Republic became an empire when Julius Caesar (lived 10044
B.C.) became Romes sole ruler in 48 B.C., and his successor, Octavian (63 B.C.A.D. 14),
was crowned as the Emperor Augustus in 27 B.C.
b) The Maccabees had formed an alliance with Rome in 164, when their war with Seleucids
for independence was still going on. In a civil war in 63 B.C. between two competing
Hasmonean rulers, both called on Rome for aid, and the Romans took advantage of the
opportunity to invade Palestine and make Judah a client state.
i) Authority rested with the Roman governor in Jerusalem, who reported to the Roman
proconsul of Syria at Antioch.
ii) [37.1] Judahs day-to-day administration was carried out by an appointed king.
Herod I (Herod the Great) was appointed to this position in 37 B.C. and reigned
until his death in 4 B.C. His mother was a Hasmonean, so he had some connection to
the old Maccabean dynasty.
(1) Despite his reputation as a ruthless dictator,
23
Herod was actually a capable
administrator and relatively fair to the people he ruled.
(2) [SLIDE 38] One of his most significant achievements was the renovation and
expansion of the Temple, a project he started in the winter of 2019 B.C. The
Temple Jesus knew was larger and more ornate than any previous building that
had stood on that location.
c) Although the Romans brought stability and prosperity to Palestine,
24
and allowed the
Jews to practice their religion, they were not well-liked. Roman taxes and laws, and the
constant presence of Roman troops, made it clear to the Jews who was really in charge.

21
The Damascus Document 5:1 (http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/zadokite.html).
22
The Romans during this time referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum (Our Sea).
23
In the New Testament, Herod the Great is best known for receiving the wise men and having all the children in
Bethlehem put to death (Matthew 2). His son, Herod Antipas, is the Herod who was tetrarch of Galilee during Jesus ministry
(Luke 3:1) and who had John the Baptist beheaded (Mark 6).
24
This was noted for comedic effect in the 1979 film Monty Pythons The Life of Brian, when Reg, Jewish rebel leader of
the Peoples Front of Judea, complains to his compatriots, All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education,
wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?!
(http://youtu.be/9foi342LXQE).
Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class Old Testament: Between Old and New Testaments Week 29, Page 9
2014, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.
There was more than a little resentment among the Jews of the foreign occupiers of
their holy land.
i) [SLIDE 39] This lead to the rise of another group, known as the Zealots.
25
The
Zealots were an underground resistance movement that sought to incite rebellion
against the Romans and restore the independent Jewish state. They also targeted
Roman officials for assassination.
(1) The Zealots aims backfired when they backed a Jewish rebellion that resulted in
the Romans sacking Jerusalem and burning the Temple to the ground in A.D. 70.
d) [SLIDE 33] Jesus was born into this world: An occupied Jewish state whose people
were trying to live the Law given to Moses and who expected a Messiah to come, as the
scriptures promised, who would free them from oppression and usher in an era of peace
and prosperity.
i) Jesus came as the Messiah, but not the one that most people were looking for.
Rather than saving them from foreign oppression, he saved them from sin and death.
ii) This sets the stage for next years study of the New Testament.

25
Among Jesus twelve apostles was one Simon called Zelotes (Luke 6:15), who appears to have been affiliated with this
group.