The Life of Christ - Backgrounds

Now last week we talked about why study the life of Christ and we also talked about why there are four gospels. Tonight we're going to talk about backgrounds. We're going to get into a little bit of the history and politics and religion and geography and all of that kind of thing behind the gospels so that we can better understand the life of Christ. It's important to understand these things kind of as the backdrop, the background for the life of Christ. Last week when we finished we didn't finish our outline, we rarely ever do. So nothing new. But we did not get into the historical or geographical backgrounds. Some of you were asking before were we going to finish that and that's where we're going to pick up tonight. We're going to pick up with the geography, the geographical backgrounds of the life of Christ. Someone also asked last week after class if we didn't get a chance to talk about it during class, why is there so little about the life of Christ as a child or through his teen years, young adult years, why is there this great gap between say age two and age 12 and then age 12 and age 30. We're going to talk about that later. A little bit later. But let me just say briefly tonight, back I'm going to talk about it a little bit Sunday night. Luke 252 describes the growing up years of Jesus. But let me just say that the gospels are focused primarily upon the last week of Christ, his ministry and his death and burial and resurrection. The overwhelming majority of the gospel material, for instance from Luke chapter 9 on through is the last journey of Christ to Jerusalem and then his death, burial, resurrection. The focus of the gospels is on explaining what led up to Jesus' death and burial resurrection, not to give us every blow by blow account of his childhood and teen years and so forth. That's just not a part of the gospel writer's story and their purpose in giving us the gospel. And then the little bit of his childhood, then they jump right to his ministry. In fact, the gospel of Mark starts with his ministry in chapter 1 at age 30. So tonight let's back up and take a little bit of look at the geography, the geographical background of the life of Christ. What we're going to do with this, with the geography, the history, the political atmosphere, the religious groups in the nation, I just want to point out some of the outstanding events and geographical things about the gospels that help us to understand the times in which Jesus lived in ministry. We really can't understand those well unless we grasp some of these concepts. So let's begin with the geography. We're going to start with the size of the land, the size and shape of the land of Israel. If you will notice this map, you will see basically the size of the land. Where's my pointer here? The land of Israel is basically from up here. It includes Galilee, Samaria, Judea. And a little bit of this area over here is involved in Jesus' ministry. But the land of Israel itself is basically on this side and New Testament times, basically on this side of the Jordan River. So this is it. This is it. It's smaller in land mass than the state of Massachusetts. I mean, this land that is the focal point of the world, that the whole world either, most of the world gets upset about and there are others who love Israel, the focal point of human history and of the world even today is an area smaller than our state of Massachusetts. It's 6,500 square miles. From north to south, it is 136 miles long. Now just think about this. The whole land of Israel from the northern part of Galilee to the southern part of Judea, 136 miles long. It's like driving from here to Winston-Salem. Okay, that's how, that's north to south, the whole land of Israel. It is 69 miles wide. It's about like driving from what? Here to Ronoke or a little bit this side of Ronoke maybe? Christian's bird? Is that how far it is? Christian's bird? Okay. So if you, if you drive from here to Christian's bird, you're driving the whole width of the land of Israel. It's a very small country and we tend to think of it as a bigger place because of everything that goes on over there and all that the Bible has to say about it, but it's actually a very, very small place. I want to talk about four natural divisions of the land. There are, the land is divided into four very natural divisions that run north and south and they're almost parallel with each other. You could almost cut the land into four slices north to south and you find amazing geographical differences. For that small of an area, you find tremendously fertile farmland, you find very arid desert, you find some beautiful mountains, you find coastal plains. It's just an amazing variety of geography in such a small land. But there are four natural divisions, the first of which is the coastal plain and we're going to look at a map for this too to kind of help you see the coastal plain. I know you're not going to be able to read this very well from very far back, but the coastal plain runs along the Mediterranean Sea. This is Mediterranean Sea. Coastal plain, this green area runs all the way from what is present day Lebanon up here was in Bival times Phoenicia. Down to the plain of Esdraylon, this is the Carmel Mountain range that jets out into the Mediterranean and below that is the plain of Sharon right here and then the plain of Felistia. This whole area is very fertile farmland, just beautiful plains, great farms even today. It is beautiful farmland. The second, that's one slice from north to south of the land. You move a little bit further inward and you come to the mountain region. The mountain region is another slice of the land, it cuts right down the middle of the land of Israel. You can see right here this kind of brownish, tanish area right down the backbone of the country. Right here what's called the Shefe la is kind of rolling hills. It would be similar to the sand hills in North Carolina or something like that. Not nearly as tall as our mountains in West Virginia, but then very quickly you get into the mountain region and you have mountains that are every bit as tall as ours and some taller in this area of the land. Mountainous region north to south except for this little area that jets out into the Mediterranean. Now the third slice of the land is the Jordan Valley. The Jordan Valley is an amazing geographical feature. It is actually the same tectonic plate, the same geographical feature that runs all the way down into Africa called the Rift Valley. It is probably the most volatile along with the Pacific Rim area for potential volcanoes or earthquakes in the world. But it runs north to south right through here. The Jordan River runs the length of this part and we'll see the waters in just a few moments. But progressively from north to south there is an increasing lowering of elevation all the way down through the Jordan Valley until you come to a point where you get to the Dead Sea which is the lowest point on planet Earth, almost 1,300 feet below sea level. So it's an interesting area, the Jordan Valley. The springs of the Jordan Rivers we'll see later are up north near a mountain north of the Sea of Galilee. And then in 65 miles between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea the Jordan River runs with a valley on either side of it two to eight miles wide but it widens out as you get down toward the Dead Sea to almost 14 miles of very fertile valley land. Okay, the fourth slice of the land is what's called the Eastern Table Land. The Eastern Table Land. That is a high plateau east of the Jordan River. You can see it right here. Again, runs north to south. On the east side of the Jordan River you've got this very fertile plain land but then you have high mountains that then go into arid plains on the other side of them. That's the high table land east of the land of Israel. This is where you would find, for instance, the Old Testimaries of Edom and Moab and Amon. Today we think of the Golan Heights, the Age of Syria, taken by the Israelis in the, I believe, the 67 war. But that's a little bit about the land and to show you how it breaks down. It's amazing variety of geographical features in a very small area. Any questions about the natural divisions of the land before we look at the waters of the land? Any question about how it's laid out that way? Okay, let's look at the waters of the land. There are three primary waters that you need to be familiar with. If you're studying the Gospels, the first is the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee. Let's take a look first at a map that will show all three bodies of water. Yeah, that's it. The Sea of Galilee right here in the north, then the Jordan River runs all the way down to the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. It's these three bodies of water that we're going to look at. But let's look first of all at the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is only 14 miles long and 9 miles wide. It really is a very small sea. For that reason, it's often called a lake. It's no bigger than many of the lakes in the United States, many of the large lakes, 14 miles from north to south, 9 miles across at the widest point. You'll notice some very familiar names, Capernaum, on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus made the focus of his ministry, Betheseda, Corazen, Magdala, Mary Magdalene, Mary from Magdala. Tiberius was a very important city, Gargassai, or the area where the swine pigs jumped over into the sea off the cliff. We'll see a picture of that in just a moment. But that's the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called the Sea of Kinneroth or Sea of Tiberius or the lake of Kinneroth, sometimes it is called. I think we have a few pictures of the Sea of Galilee, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. This is the north end of the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and Betheseda. If you have those kind of areas in your mind, this is what the north end of the Sea of Galilee looks like. Let's go ahead and scroll through some of the other pictures. Sea of Galilee is seen from Tiberius. This is looking from west across to east. This would be the go-on heights across the edge of Syria. Sea of Galilee, view from the lake, from out on the lake, from out on the sea, looking back toward the shore. Here's again looking from Tiberius, I don't know why I stuck two of those in there. Looking south toward the Sea of Galilee, this is Paul's right here for just a minute. This is an amazing area looking from this mountain, from this hillside. It is on this hillside that Jesus preached the sermon on the Mount, overlooking this view of the Sea of Galilee. Probably one of the highlights of my ministry back in 1984 when I was doing a study tour in a study trip in Israel after a semester-long seminary class on geography of the Holy Land, then we studied in Israel for a month. 16 from Dallas, seminary, and 16 from Grace, and 6 from Calvary, seminary in Pennsylvania. We stopped on this hillside and I had the opportunity to preach to that group of students at the point, at least as best you can tell, where Jesus preached the sermon on the Mount. It was just an amazing experience with this background, this setting, to be able to enjoy that time of worship and fellowship together. We've got a few more pictures sunrise on the Sea of Galilee, what a beautiful setting that is. This is a view again from the north of the Sea of Galilee. This is looking across to the cliffs of Gatorine, where the pigs ran into the sea after the demon possessed man of Gatoria, of Gidara, was healed by the Lord Jesus, southern into the Sea of Galilee. Is that all the pictures? Okay, that's it. Sea of Galilee, the next body of water is the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea. 46 miles long, 1296 feet below sea level, and 1,300 feet deep, it is exceedingly rich in mineral content. It has six times more salt concentration than the ocean does. That's what's called the Dead Sea. No fish can live in it. Fish die when they hit the Dead Sea coming out of the Jordan River. The Jordan River comes down from the north, flows into the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea, and it's a very long narrow sea, but extremely hot. Again, it's the lowest point on planet Earth. You have to go under the ocean to get any lower. Here's some of the arid desert land leading down to the Sea or the Dead Sea. You can see the Dead Sea in the background. Again much the same type of picture. Salt deposits right here in the Dead Sea. Near the northern end of the Dead Sea. From Mount Nibo, let's hold it there for just a second. Mount Nibo is on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. It's where Moses went up to overlook the land where God gave him a view of the land before the children of Israel went into the land before Moses died. From the top of Mount Nibo, this is the northern end of the Dead Sea. This would be the Jordan River Valley. Another view of the north end of the sea. That's the Dead Sea. The third body of water is the Jordan River. The Jordan River is 134 miles long. It is a winding river that winds between those two seas. This is going to confuse you. We've thrown it on its side. It runs north to south, but we've got it laying on its side now. Here's the Sea of Galilee in the north and the Jordan River winding 165 miles between these two 135 and all when it starts up north between these two seas. Increasingly, lowers, you can see the elevation here. Sea level is the light green. It increasingly gets lower and lower until the salt sea or the Dead Sea is a 1300 feet below sea level. The width of the Jordan River is anywhere from 80 to 180 feet. It's about 5 to 12 feet deep. It is not really a threatening river. It's not quite like the hymns say the mighty Jordan rolling. It's not quite that impressive, but it is a very important body of water. Let's take a look at a few of the pictures that we have of that. This is north of the Sea of Galilee near Mount Hermann, which is a good way north. We're not in Israel where the Jordan River starts with springs. This is where it empties into the Sea of Galilee. Here's a close-up of the Jordan River. You can see it's not all that wide. Northern section of the river, not much wider than Camp Creek at that point. That's what we have of the Jordan River. Those are the important bodies of water in Israel. Any questions about the geography of the land, the lay out of the land and the bodies of water? Any questions? Comment you want to make. Yes, Walt? The Jordan River is between 80 and 180 feet wide. It depends. When it gets down into a more of a plane, it widens out a little bit. 80 to 180 feet wide, 5 to 12 feet deep. Remember that the Israelites, when they were going into the land in the book of Joshua, they were crossing it at flood stage. If we can go back to that map, throw your curve. If we can go back to that map that shows the Jordan River, they were crossing down here. This is the lowest and widest part of the valley. At flood stage, the river would be quite wide there at that location. That's the reason why, if you're thinking of a 5 foot deep body of water, 80 foot wide, I could walk across that. Not at flood stage and not at the lower end where the plane is wide, it would have been much wider and much deeper. The miracle of the crossing of the Jordan River really is a miracle. Water was parted. It was quite an amazing thing to see. I'm sure. Any other questions? All right. Let's talk a little bit about the historical background of the life of Christ. Again, what I want to do is just touch on some of the important things that happened in these different time periods, historically, that set the table for New Testament times. Some things that develop or certain things that happen that really help us be prepared for what's going to happen in New Testament. We'll begin with the Persian period. When the Persians were in control of this part of the world, 538-330 BC. You understand when you're in BC, you go forward in years, but the years decrease. That's the way you go forward in time, but it's not like going from 2001 to 2005. When you're going from BC, you're going backwards. The 538-330 BC is the Persian period. There's a couple of significant events during this period. When the Persians took over, the Jews returned to their land from captivity. That is a very significant event. They had been in captivity to Babylon for 70 years. When the Persians took over, they allowed people to go back and repopulate their home in countries. That was a Persian policy that was not just for the Jews. It was for other nations as well. But God brought the Persians into power at the time He chose to fulfill the 70 years of captivity and then to put in power a king whose political philosophy would be that of allowing conquered peoples to resettle their own lands. The Jews went back 40 to 50,000 of them went back to their own land under Zerubbable. That was the time of Esra and Nehemiah. The walls were built. The temple was rebuilt and Jewish national life resumed in the land. Obviously, that's a very important piece of the puzzle to get ready for New Testament times as you've got Jews back in the land, a national presence back in the land. They've rebuilt their temple. They've rebuilt the city of Jerusalem. There's one other significant thing that happens in this time period. That is that the Samaritans separate from the Jews and build a rival temple. When Israel was taken into captivity, the northern kingdom of Israel, 722 BC, that was done by the Assyrians. The Assyrians brought in people from all the parts of the empire and resettled them in the land that used to be the northern kingdom of Israel. They intermarried with the remaining Jews and became kind of a, for lack of a better term, kind of a half breed race of people. For that reason, the Jews hated the Samaritans. That's important to understand when you come to the New Testament. That's the background of that. The reason the Jews hated the Samaritans is they considered them an inferior race. They considered them a half breed kind of people. They hated the Samaritans. When the Jews came back from captivity and repopulated the land, the Samaritans hated the Jews as well. The hatred went both directions. They separated completely and formed their own rival temple on Mount Gerasim. Now, here's a verse that comes into play there. Look at it on the screen, John, chapter 4 and verse 20. Remember when Jesus met the woman at the well? This was in Samaria. This was, you know, he went through Samaria to find out. Notice what she says to him. She says, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. And I should have inserted at this point in the slides another map to show you where that is. That's a back-car, which is right at the base of Mount Gerasim and Mount Ebal. Two great mountains, in fact, they were very important in Joshua. When the people of Israel went into the land, they went to Mount Gerasim and Ebal. Half of them were on one side, half of them on the other mountain. They repeated the curses and blessings from Deuteronomy. And Moses led them in worship. They were Joshua led them in worship there. But she says to Jesus, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, pointing back behind her, back of the well to Mount Gerasim. But you'd use claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. She was talking about the rival temple that the Samaritans had established on Mount Gerasim as a rival worship to the temple in Jerusalem. So that happened during this Persian period. Okay, let's go back to the Greek period. The Greek period followed the Persian period, 330 to 323. That's basically the time that Alexander the Great conquered the world. Two important things about this period as far as the New Testament is concerned. One is that Alexander spread the Greek language and culture throughout the whole civilized world. And so everything he conquered, which would later become under the control of the Roman empire, would speak the same language. It's called Koyne Greek. Put it on the screen for you so that you understand the term. If you ever hear that term, Koyne Greek. Word Koyne simply means it was the common language of the day. It was not classical Greek. It was not the Greek of the philosophers Plato and Aristotle and Socrates. It was the common ordinary language of the day. That's what Alexander the Great popularized throughout the empire. You know, Paul says something in Galatians 4.4 about in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of olman, born under the law. In the fullness of time, when everything came about just as God wanted it to, and part of the pieces of the puzzle, one of the pieces of the puzzle that made it the right time for Jesus to come was the fact that there was a common language that was spoken by everybody. That sets up the possibility of the New Testament being written in a language that Paul can take anywhere in the Roman Empire and people can read it, people can understand it, people can grasp what's being written, as these books are circulated. So Alexander was a tool in the hands of God to popularize the Greek language and spread the Greek language all over the civilized world at this time. Second major thing about this time period is that Alexander had a very friendly policy to the Jews. In fact, when he attacked Egypt, he bypassed Jerusalem. He would not attack Jerusalem. He had a very friendly policy to the Jews. And for that reason did not do them any harm. In fact, he built a city in Egypt called Alexandria and invited the Jews to come live there and many of them did. And that would be very important because it would be Jewish scholars in Alexandria that would translate the Old Testament into Greek so that the Old Testament could be spread throughout the Roman Empire as well. So the Greek period set the table in a couple of ways for New Testament times. When the Egyptian period comes, 323-204 BC, one significant event during this time and that is the Old Testament is translated into Greek as I just mentioned. It is called the Septuagint. And we'll put that on the screen too so that you can see how that's spelled. Septuagint. That's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Now the way, that is the Old Testament that the Apostles had. There are some quotes actually from the Septuagint in the New Testament. Okay, the next period is the Syrian period, 204-165 BC. This is a period that's marked by very violent oppression of the Jewish people by Syria. You see when Alexander died, his kingdom was divided into four different sub-kingdoms. And the two main ones as far as Israel's concern was the Egyptian kingdom and the Syrian kingdom. Syria on the north, Egypt on the south, and they played a tug of war with Israel for a couple of centuries. And Syria would march through Israel to attack Egypt and Egypt would march through Israel to attack Syria and back and forth and went. Many of those battles are described by the way centuries before they happened in Daniel chapter 11. Infricate prophecies of some of those battles centuries before they took place. Interesting passage of Scripture. But this is a time marked by oppression and violence. And it produced a strong nationalist movement in the nation of Israel. But this period culminated with a man who was ruling in Syria by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes and we're putting his name on the screen so you can see it. Antiochus Epiphanes means God is manifest. That's how much he thought of himself. Antiochus the one who is God manifest. He was a particularly violent ruler of Syria who did great harm to Israel in his rule. For about eight years he did all kinds of bad stuff to Israel. But it all culminated in 165 BC when he was frustrated after losing a battle in Egypt. He comes back through Jerusalem and he goes into the temple and defiles the temple by erecting a statue of Zeus, the Greek God Zeus and sacrificing a pig on the altar. Now you could not do anything worse to offend the Jewish nation than that, to violate their temple that way. And what that did is it caused a tremendous national uprising which leads to the next period of history that is very important for the New Testament and that is the Maccabee and period. From 165 to 63 people said we have had enough and they revolted against the Syrians. It was led by an elderly village priest by the name of Matatias and his five sons, one of whom was named Judas Maccabeeus. His oldest son was named Judas Maccabeeus. They led a revolt against the Syrians and after a 24 year war they gained their independence. And Israel was once again its own nation ruling itself which hadn't happened since back before the captivity. This had been almost 500 years but they gained their independence and ruled themselves until the Roman Empire. This is also the time period where you have the rise of all the religious parties that will play a factor in the New Testament, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Essines and others. They will all come about during this time period, they will start during the Maccabee and time period. Then finally we come to the Roman period which begins in 63 BC and goes right up to New Testament times, right up to the time of the life of Christ and on beyond that of course. Two key events, one of them happened in 63 and that is when Pompeii conquered Jerusalem. The Roman general Pompeii in 63 BC because of the continued infighting, finally Rome decided okay we are going to take over this place and they did. But when Pompeii took the city of Jerusalem he also desecrated the Jewish temple by going into the holy of Holies. Obviously the place in the temple where only the high priest is supposed to go and only once a year. The most holy place in the nation of Israel Pompeii walks right in and that is the reason by the Jews hated the Romans. It is something they would never forget and they would never forgive. The desecration of their temple by Pompeii when he conquered Jerusalem. The major thing that would happen is the placing of Herod the Great on the throne. This took place somewhere between 40 and 37 BC depending on who you read, depending on how much he is in power. But somewhere by 37 BC Herod the Great is on the throne and he will rule all the way up until just after the birth of Christ. Christ was born right at the end of the rule of Herod the Great. So that is a very key part of this Roman period. Alright that is a little bit of background historically leading up to the New Testament gives you some idea of some of the key events that factor into the New Testament times. Questions? Are you thinking of Masada, the place where a lot of Jews committed suicide. That would happen actually later in the war with Rome at 70 AD. Between 70 and 73 AD when Rome again finally got sick and tired of this little squabbling and the province of Judea that was always a thorn in their side, Rome finally decided we are going to squash them once and for all and so they sent Titus a Roman general to take over and destroy the city of Jerusalem and it was at that time that 900 Jews found their way to a fortress city on the south end of the Dead Sea called Masada. If you have ever seen the film that was made of that it is quite a gripping story. It took the Romans three years to build siege ramps to get up to the top of that and then they got up to the top and found out that all the Jews had committed suicide. The book is probably a lot better but it is a fascinating story. That would happen a little bit later and there is so much to be said about that fortress. That was actually one of David's fortresses when he speaks of his hiding in the Negev in the wilderness of Judea that was one of the places where David hid. It was also a place where Herod had a fortress there and I wish I had my Israel slides. I have a thousand slides that I took in my studies of Israel but they are slides. They are useless. The technology is archaic and I had a student at ABC that volunteered to put them all in digital form for me and it was such a high cost. I just did not want to have them do that but at some point Lord willing I hope to get that done so I can use them again. I have all kinds of pictures of Masada. It is a wonderful place. Next time I will bring them and hold them up and show them to you that way. Any other questions about the historical background? Why did he not die when he went to Holy of Holies? Well that is true with Israel's worship system. If anyone violated the proper authority of a priest they were subject to being struck dead by God. That did not always happen. It did happen in the very beginning when they did have to buy you two of Moses sons violated some of the commandments and formed a strange incense and God struck them dead. There were other times where people violated that and did not die. It did not always happen. God made it clear that that was the wrong thing to do and there were times when people's lives were taken. God would have more to do. God striking someone dead would have more to do with a Jewish priest who would violate the command of God. Yes, Dana? In New Testament times there is not the same presence of God, glory of God filling the temple as there would have been in the Old Testament. Even though God wanted them to build the temple when Zerubbable came back to the land, Herod's temple is a little different matter. What was going on there is not necessarily with the same presence of the glory of God as what there would have been in the Old Testament. Although it is still functioned, even in Jesus' eyes as the legitimate worship center of Israel, it did not have the same blessing of God upon it. It was built, Herod was actually going to build it over a period of 46 years, rebuilt the temple and it was on the scale of what Solomon's temple would have been. Let's talk a little bit about the political background to the life of Christ. Again, we are going to look at a map that shows the provinces of the land, the different Roman provinces. These are the different sections, divisions of the land. Some map we looked at earlier, but it shows the five different divisions of the land. First of all, Judea, the Roman province of Judea. This would be similar to a state in our country. Again, remember you are thinking of a very small area, less than the size of Massachusetts. It would almost be like a county in some states. Judea is the largest of the Roman provinces. It obviously includes the city of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, there is Japa, there is Jericho. So this is the most influential, the most religious, if you will, the religious center of the nation of Israel is in the province of Judea. Then you have Samaria. Samaria is the central region, this blue area right here. It lies between Judea and Galilee. Even in New Testament times, Samaria was considered kind of a no-man's land by the Jews. They didn't like to go there because there is still this antagonism, this hatred between Samaritans and Jews. So most Jews who were going from Galilee to Judea or vice versa would do this. From Jerusalem they would go down Jericho. Cross the Jordan River, go up through Paria, the capitalists, and then cross back into Galilee just south of the Sea of Galilee. Because they didn't want to go through Samaria. That's what makes it so intriguing that John IV says Jesus leaving Jerusalem and going back up to his hometown of Galilee must needs go through Samaria. He didn't need to go through Samaria. He didn't have to. Most Jews didn't, but he had a divine appointment there. It was God's timetable. It was God's plan for him to go through Samaria and meet the woman at the well in this area. Okay. Then you've got Galilee. Is that the next one on the... Galilee, which is in the North. It's people mostly by Jews, but it is less religious than Judea. But Galilee is where the majority of Christ's ministry will be spent. And then you have Paria. Paria is right over here. The word Paria means beyond. That's what the word means. And so what we're talking about here is the region beyond the Jordan River. From the perspective of Jerusalem, the capital, this is the region beyond Paria. In fact, it's called that in the New Testament on some occasions, the region beyond. Jesus will spend some time late in his ministry several months in Paria because he's been in Jerusalem at one of the feasts and it's just simply too hot. The opposition on the part of the Pharisees is so intense, they're trying to kill him every chance they get. And so it's not time for Jesus to die yet. So he withdraws to Paria and spends several months just training the disciples. And we'll see that later in the life of Christ. It's a very important part of Christ's ministry. And then the capitalists. This is an interesting area. This area right up here, the capitalists. The capitalists means ten cities. And there were ten free Roman cities in this region that gives the area its name was settled by a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. Jesus would spend some time in the capitalists when he would cross over the Sea of Galilee. The Demoniac of Gideira was healed in the area of the capitalists. Jesus spent some ministry time there. Okay, let's quickly talk about the rulers of the land and then we'll stop. The rulers of the land and we're going to show you a slide of Herod's family. Again, this may be a little difficult if you're too far back to see. It was difficult for me to see. But this is the line of Herod. What's important to understand here is, and we're going to talk about Herod the Great First. You'll often see the word Herod in your New Testament. You see it throughout the Gospels. You see Herod again popping up in the Book of Acts. And unless you don't understand this, what we're going to talk about on the screen right now, it's easy to think it's all the same person. But it's not. Herod was a dynasty name, equivalent of Pharaoh. Okay, like the word Pharaoh is the Egypt Herod is to this. It just simply means a ruler. It's a family of rulers. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who the dates here are 40 to 4 BC. This is the Herod that was ruling when Jesus was born. This is the Herod that the wise men come to and say, we've heard about the King of the Jews being born. This is the Herod that puts the death, the babies, under two years old in Bethlehem. Okay, but Herod had five sons and three of them ruled Archelleus. And by the way, this is on your outline. This is the tetrax. Herod died in around 4 BC. His kingdom, by the way, he ruled all five of those Roman provinces as one kingdom. But when Herod died, it was divided into four areas. And there were four rulers called tetrax. Tetrax is the word for rule of four. And so there were four different rulers. The kingdom was divided into four. One of those was Archelleus. Archelleus took over from his dad. He is the Herod that is mentioned in Matthew 2.22. When Joseph had taken Jesus and married down to Egypt, and they heard that Archelleus was ruling instead of his father Herod, and they decided in the angel warned them not to go back to Bethlehem. You don't want to be anywhere near that guy, so they went back up to Nazareth. The reason was, as bad as Herod the Great was, and he was notorious for his cruelty, killed two of his own sons and one of his wives, because he thought they were a threat to his throne. As bad as he was, Archelleus was worse. He was so bad that the Romans deposed him after ten years. Even the Romans couldn't take any more of him. When Archelleus was deposed, he was ruling over Judea and Samaria, and his kingdom was directly annexed to Rome, and Rome started sending procurators or governors rather than kings. Pilate was the fifth governor after Archelleus died. That's how you get the governors or the procurators that ruled over the land at that time. Quickly there were three other of these tetra Archs. One was Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas right here had a long rule of about 43 years. He ruled in Galilee and Peria. Remember the North and then the region beyond? Those two areas were here. This is the Herod that Jesus called that Fox. This is the Herod that put John the Baptist to death. This is the Herod that questioned Jesus at his trials. That's not the same Herod that was ruling when Jesus was born. It's a different one. It's his son. Then you got Herod Philip. The second mentioned in Luke 3 ruling over these areas. There's one other guy, one of the four tetra Archs, not a son of Herod. I don't even know how you got in the picture. Lysanius. He's one of the four tetra Archs. He rules over a very small province north of Galilee. But that's how the Kingdom of Herod was divided up. Any questions? Our time is up. Any questions about the political rulers of the land? By the way, you've got other Herods that came along the later. Herod a grip of the first. This is one that in Acts 12 put James the death and arrested Peter. That's a different Herod. Then you've got his son, Herod a grip of the second. That's the Herod that Paul gives his testimony to later. You know, called a grip later in the book of Acts. All these are Herods. They come from the same family. Any questions before we close? This is not quite as exciting and interesting. I know to most of you as just the actual Bible study. But it is important to kind of help us understand some of what we're going to study as we survey the Gospels. And especially next week, which we'd gotten to tonight, when we talk about the religious background. And we'll describe how the Pharisees and Sadducees and anybody else you could see came into existence at that time. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time to study the background of your word. To understand better what was going on at the time of Christ so that we can understand better your word and understand the background historically, culturally, of what it was like when Jesus was on this earth. We pray that the things we've talked about tonight will help us to better understand and open up to our hearts and our minds your word. Thank you for this time. Pray that you would bless us now as we travel home in Jesus' name. Amen.