What do we know about Jesus of Nazareth as absolute? Jesus was a real Jewish boy born to a Jewish mother during the Roman occupation of Palestine. He grew up in Nazareth in the Galilee area. sometime in the early first century between 6 BCE-30 CE. John the Baptist baptized Jesus before he began to teach about a kingdom. After his death on the cross, his followers or disciples proclaimed that he had risen from the dead. There is a general respect for this good man Jesus from all religious and non-religious people. The Jesus of history is the most studied historical individual, since more has been written about him than any other person. Most people whether they believe in Jesus as a religious figure or not, hold these simple verifiable generic facts.
Palestine
The insurrection in the south (Dan 11:14-11:14)
“In those times,
Many shall rise
Against the king of the south.
The lawless
Among your own people
Shall lift themselves up
In order to fulfil the vision.
But they shall fail.”
There was an Egyptian insurrection against the child king Ptolemy V (204-181 BCE), since he was only 5 years old when he took over as king. The various regents controlled his activities. Somehow, some of the Judeans of Palestine got involved with this, as they took sides on the battle between the kings of the north and the south, Egypt and Syria. However, they failed.
The little horn takes over the sanctuary (Dan 8:11-8:12)
“The little horn
Acted arrogantly,
Even against
The Prince
Of the host.
It took
Regular burnt offering
Away from him.
It overthrew
The place
Of his sanctuary.
Because of wickedness,
The host
Was given over
to it,
Together
With the regular burnt offering.
It cast truth
To the ground,
It kept prospering
In what it did.”
Thus, this King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the little horn, conquered Palestine and violated the sanctuary of God, the Prince of the hosts around 167 BCE. He acted arrogantly against God, by taking away the regular burnt offerings from the sanctuary. This little horn was successful in taking over the host or people of the Temple as well as doing away with the regular offerings to God. He cast truth to the ground, while he continued to prosper and do whatever he wanted to do.
Rabshakeh returned to his king (Isa 37:8-37:9)
“Rabshakeh returned to his king.
He found the king of Assyria
Fighting against Libnah.
He had heard
That the king had left Lachish.
Now the king of Assyria heard
Concerning King Tirhakah of Ethiopia.
‘He has set out to fight against you.’”
Once again, this is almost word for word from 2 Kings, chapter 19. Rabshakeh wanted to return to his king to let him know what was happening in Jerusalem. However, the king of Assyria had left Lachish to fight against the town of Libnah since Lachish and Libnah were about 10 miles apart in the Judah territory, about 25 miles west of Jerusalem. The Assyrian king also got word that the Ethiopian King Tirhakah was setting out to fight against him. This King Tirhakah is sometimes known as Taharqa. As a young 20 year old general, he fought with King Sennacherib in Palestine. He then served as king of Egypt and Ethiopia from 690-664 BCE. So he would not have been king when this occurred about 10-15 years earlier. Nevertheless, there was a constant war between these two great Mideast powers, Egypt and Assyria.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 