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be his servants -- every one who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My
covenant -- even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house
of prayer" (Isa.56:6-7).

"For whoever calls upon the name of the YEHOVAH shall be saved" (Rom.10:13). "And it
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of YEHOVAH shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the YEHOVAH has said,
among the remnant whom YEHOVAH calls" (Joel 2:32).

The Ancient Nation of the Jews -- 536 B.C. - A.D. 70

With the return from Babylonia of the remnant of the uprising. After years of struggle Simon Maccabeus es-
Judahite kingdom, there commenced the six centuries' tablished Jewish independence for a brief period. Fur-
period of Jewish nationhood. After the decree of Cyrus, ther Syrian aggression brought relief by John Hyrcanus,
in 536 B.C., the Jews began the work of rebuilding the who again threw off the Syrian yoke and also subdued
Temple. They were almost immediately hindered by the the Edomites -- traditional enemies of all Israelites --
Samaritans, who demanded a share of the task, in view and compelled them to profess the Jewish religion and
of the fact that they, too, now worshipped the God of to become incorporated in the Jewish nation (130
Israel -- a demand which was scornfully rejected by the B.C.). During the reign of Hyrcanus the cleavage be-
Jews (Ezra 4, 3). However, Samaritan intrigues brought tween Pharisees and the radical Sadducees developed
the work to a standstill, until some years later King and became acute.
Darius renewed the permission. Though the Temple was
rebuilt, the wall and city of Jerusalem remained unre- Uneasy times followed until 65 B.C. when civil war
stored until the plea of Nehemiah produced a further again broke out over the high-priesthood. Both sides ap-
permit for this express purpose, from Artaxerxes. The pealed to Rome. Pompey, then ruling in Syria, entered
identity of this monarch has not been agreed upon. It Jerusalem without bloodshed and the land became part
has long been thought that the Bible reference in Nehe- of the Roman Empire. Even under the Romans, civil
miah 2 to Artaxerxes Longimanus, whose "twentieth wars were frequent.
year" (the date of the decree) fell in 445 B.C. Cogent
reasons have been advanced, however, to suggest that he Then followed the period of the Herods. In 47 B.C. An-
was not the monarch referred to and that the Artaxerxes tipater was made procurator of Judaea by the Romans; a
(great shah) of Nehemiah may more likely have been rival king was set up by the Parthians, who had plun-
Darius Hystaspes, who reigned 521-485 B.C. dered the Holy City, but he was soon overthrown and
Antipater's son, Herod the Great, became ruler in 37
From that time forward, the tiny Jewish nation was in- B.C. During his reign the city and Temple were rebuilt
volved in endless vicissitudes. Following the fall of (20 B.C.) and our Lord was born. Herod's son Archelaus
Persia, it became a bone of contention between the succeeded, but was banished in A.D. 7; his brother,
great powers of Syria and Egypt, the tide of war surging Herod Antipas, to whom Jesus referred as "that fox,"
backwards and forwards for well over a century. After succeeded him in turn. For a few brief years the new
the death of Alexander the Great, Seleucus having ap- faith of Jesus Christ and his followers agitated the
propriated the Syrian portion of the empire, Ptolemy I scene. The Jewish resentment of Roman domination
eventually withdrew his armies from Palestine and took mounted and resulted in the terrible siege and destruc-
with him 30,000 Jews to garrison his Egyptian frontier. tion of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70, when almost the
Syrian supremacy was finally established in 198 B.C. by whole of what remained of the Jewish nation was ex-
Antiochus the Great. In 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes pelled and dispersed, chiefly as slaves. Though the Jew-
seized the opportunity to intervene in a small Jewish ish nation had ceased to exist, there was a final flicker
civil war concerning the high-priesthood. He perpe- of revolt in A.D. 135, when a false messiah, Bar Co-
trated abominable outrages, the foremost of which was chba, collected a following and raised a rebellion. This
the sacrificing of a sow on the Temple altar. The Jewish
religion was forbidden. This, and the general severity of was crushed and the last vestiges of Jewry driven from
the Syrian oppression culminated in the Maccabean Palestine.

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