Religion in the time of Jesus (Judaism)

• By the first Century, faith in the God and Religion of Israel was 1400 years old
• The Jewish people worshiped in the temple and studied the law of Moses
• They honored and practiced the ceremonies and traditions of their ancestors, especially those relating to the education and rearing of children
• The temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life
• Herod the Great, who ruled Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth, began building the grand Jerusalem temple in 19BC
• Construction on this temple continued throughout and beyond Jesus’s life in Judea, until around AD 64
• Today, the western wailing wall is what remains of this temple
• One of the primary functions of the temple in Jerusalem was to provide a place for animal sacrifices overseen by the priests
• The temple also served as a center for judicial and community life
• Worship, prayers, the collection of tithes, and festivals were conducted at the temple
• There was one central Jewish temple, but there were synagogue or meeting houses throughout the Roman Empire
• Synagogues functioned as teaching, worship, and community centers
• The temple was the high and holy place where the full attention of the priests and the people was to fulfill the ceremonial laws of God
• The synagogue would have been the place where marriages were performed, parties were held, and intellectual dialogue took place
• Jesus would have honored the temple and its ceremonies
• He also would have gone to the synagogue to reach out to the common people who were desperately looking for the voice of God and Messiah
• Biblical Evidence: Jesus’s Religious Practices

  • Luke 4:16-18: Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the scriptures, he was given the book of Isaiah the Prophet. He opened it and read, "the lord’s Spirit has come to me…"