History of the Political and Religious Status of the New Testament
During the 400 years leading up to the New Testament time period and the life of Jesus Christ, the Jewish people had gone through a trying and transitional time in the history of their people. They had been conquered by the Babylonians and the Greeks and had been exiled from their homeland in Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the conquering territories. Those 400 years was also an age when there was no prophets raised up in Israel and, therefore, the Jews did not hear from the voice of God.
Prior to 167 B.C. Jerusalem was ruled by the Greek Hellenistic ruler Antiochus IV. Antiochus was a Sluiced ruler who took over Judah, persecuted the Israelites and demanded that Jerusalem adopt the Hellenistic culture he brought with him. He was so adamant to rid the world of the Jewish religious customs that he actually sacrificed a pig on an altar to Zeus in the Temple. Josephus claims he also burned copies of the Law in an effort to wipe out Judaism.
In 167 B.C. a small group of peasant rebels called the Maccabees rose up and miraculously defeated the Seleucids and took back the city of Jerusalem in a short time. After the Maccabees secured the Temple, they handed it back over to the direct descendants of Zadok, the high priest during the time of David and Solomon.
In the coming years, there was a tremendous amount of change in the Jewish culture and caste system. Hellenism had arrived and the people of various groups were struggling and fighting over how much Israel would adopt Hellenistic culture or stay true to their original commitment to be a people set apart for God.
This confusion and cultural chaos led to the formation and clarification of several people groups. The primary goal of each of these groups was to represent a different response to the coming of Hellenism and how the Jews would either maintain their cultural heritage or accept this "new" wave of norms brought on by the Greeks and the Romans.
It is important to understand these people groups in order to grasp the teachings and responses of Jesus to the people of his time.