| The Diverse World of First-Century Judaisms
- Key Topics/Themes
- The diversity of first-century Judaism
- Common beliefs of first-century Jews
- First-Century Jewish Diversity
- The Sadducees
- Origins of the Sadducees
- The Sadducees and the Romans
- Characteristic beliefs of the Sadducees
- The Pharisees
- Antagonism toward the Pharisees in the Gospels
- Strict Torah observance
- The oral law
- The oral law codified into the Mishnah and Talmud
- Hillel and Shammai
- Relationship between the views of Jesus and the Pharisees
- Gamaliel
- The Academy of Jamnia
- The leadership of Yohanan ben Zakkai after the destruction of Jerusalem
- The development of Judaism at Jamnia
- The Samaritans
- Origins of the Samaritans
- Hostility between Samaritans and Jews
- Relationships between Samaritans and early Christianity
- The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls
- Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- The Essenes
- Qumran
- The origins of the Qumran community
- Beliefs of the Qumran Essenes
- Contents of the Qumran Library
- Books of the Hebrew Bible
- Pseudepigraphical books
- Commentaries on biblical books
- Community documents
- Essenes and the New Testament
- The Zealots
- Origins of the Zealot movement
- The role of the Zealots in the Jewish Revolt of 66 C.E.
- The Messiah: First-Century Expectations
- Jesus' failure to meet Jewish messianic expectations
- Early Christian attempts to counter Jewish skepticism about Jesus' messiahship
- The royal covenant of King David
- Origins of Messiah theology in the reigns of the Davidic kings of Israel
- Historical end of the Davidic dynasty
- Israel's hopes for a new Davidic king
- Scriptural promises of a renewed Davidic monarchy
- The Messiah as political leader
- Messianic Claimants Before and After Jesus
- Judas the Galilean
- Zealots and the Sicarii
- Simon bar Giora
- Simon bar Kochba
- Portrayal of the Messiah in Psalm of Solomon 17
- A Christian view of the Messiah
- The incompleteness of Jesus' earthly mission
- The necessity of Jesus' return as supernatural king
- Summary
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