Notes on The Historical Figure of Jesus
These are my notes from The Historical Figure of Jesus, by E. P. Sanders, an attempted biography of Jesus. I haven't evaluated the veracity of most of the claims he makes. Historical background The Kingdom of Judah, which David and Solomon had ruled, was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, then the Persians, then the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires. The Maccabean revolt in 167 BCE succeeded in establishing the Hasmonean dynasty of Jewish leaders in Palestine for just over a century. After a Hasmonean civil war, Pompey conquered Palestine in 63 BCE. After further unrest, Herod became the Rome-backed king of Palestine, as Jewish leader of a client state. After Herod's death around 4BCE (also the time of Jesus' birth), his kingdom was split between three of his sons: in particular, Archelaus got Judea and Antipas got Galilee. Popular unrest was common. Archelaus became unpopular, was deposed by Augustus, and replaced by a series of Roman governors. At the time