How Persia First Took Over Jewish Land

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

    The faravahar is the best-known symbol from ancient Persia of the winged sun disk with a seated male figure in the center. It is thought to represent Ahura Mazda, the god of Zoroastrianism, (the belief in light and righteousness, shown by fire) but has also been interpreted to signify other concepts.  Persia influenced  ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.  

Today Persias/Iran  is immersed in the Ayatollas extremism of Islam, men who refuted the Shah's eagerness to join the 20th and 21st centuries with electricity and department stores.  The shah was great in time of peace, being a friend of Israel, but weaker from cancer to fight the Ayatollah.  

Persia, historic region of southwestern Asia associated with the area that is now modern Iran. The term Persia was used for centuries and originated from a region of southern Iran formerly known as Persis, alternatively as Pārs or Parsa, modern Fārs, people who speak Farsi.   The use of the name was gradually extended by the ancient Greeks and other peoples to apply to the whole Iranian plateau. The people of that region have traditionally called their country Iran, “Land of the Aryans.” That name was officially adopted in  1935 by  Reza Shah Pahlavi, the  Iranian army officer who rose through army ranks to become shah of Iran (1925–41) and began the regeneration of his country.

Ancient Iran, historically known as Persia, was the dominant nation of western Asia for over a millennium (about 550 BC– 650 CE), with 3 native dynasties controlling an empire of unprecedented size and complexity.                       

    Persia covered most of the Middle East;  Egypt, Arabia, Mediterranean Sea and in pink-Medea and Parthia, Israel is in Pink, a connecting piece of land to Egypt and land. Jews lived in 127 of its provinces, mostly in Susa (Shushan, the capital). Shushan was the capital of Elam and subsequently capital of Persia.  Excavations of late reveals the royal palace mentioned  in the book of Esther. (Est 2:18:3-9)                               

Esther's uncle Mordecai wouldn't bow to Haman, irking him immensely.  Haman, the vice under the king, hated Jews and started an attack on them all, plotting to kill all.  He was like a first Hitler.  Esther told her husband and he had Haman and his 7 sons all hung.  

This Achaemenid Empire was  founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. It reached its greatest extent under Xerxes I (486-465 BCE), son of Darius Ist, who conquered most of northern and central ancient Greece. At its greatest territorial extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkans and Eastern Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. The empire was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1 million square miles).  Darius reigned from 522-486 BCE.  At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple since it was the Persians who had destroyed it in the first place.   

Iran "Persia" and land to the west of it as well as to the east.  Mediterranean Sea is on the left edge. Iran or Persia, is in the center of it all, though Jerusalem was said to be the center.  

A thirteenth -century crusader map places Jerusalem at the center of the earth. Heinrich Bunting's world map in his Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Helmstadt, 1581, of which the Library has a copy, depicts the earth as a three-leaf clover, each leaf being a continent: Europe, Asia, and Africa. The three are drawn together by a ring encircling a single city; that city is Jerusalem. Three times daily the Jew turns in his devotions towards the Holy City. The Passover seder ritual and the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) liturgy conclude with the pledge and prayer, "Next year in Jerusalem."   

                               

    King David was able to be king over this land first, reigning from 1010 to 970 BCE.  

Cyrus played an important part in our Jewish history and is known as Cyrus II.  He overran the Babylonian Empire.  It was Nebuchadnezzar(605-562 BCE) that  in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE who had attacked Judah and carried away most of the population to Babylon to use as slaves. Nebuchadnezzar  was in the Assyrian-Egyptian alliance at Carchenish in 605 BCE.  The result was that he was the winner, and so had conquered all the lands from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian frontier which included the state of Judah.    

Queen Esther and Ahasueros, her husband. Darius I inherited the throne of Cyrus, reigning from 522-486 BCE, so could be her grandson.    Cyrus pursued and enlightened policy towards his subject peoples and in 538 BCE, granted permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland of Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  It's considered that Cyrus happened to be Queen Esther's son and that Esther was actually Xerxes I's wife, better known to Jews as King Ahasuerus.  Thus, we have the story of our holiday of Purim.(Book of Esther and Ezra 4:6). Elam was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq.

  Cyrus the Great, possibly was Jewish with Queen Esther as his mother.                                     

              Alexander the Great, (356-323 BCE)  king of Macedonia,  an ardent admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the Achaemenid Empire by 330 BC. He had visited Jerusalem during Jaddua, the high priest's term, and praised him highly. according to Josephus, but this is questioned, though he did visit later.  Alexander is written about in talmudic, midrashic and medieval Jewish legends.  What we do know is that Jews loved him and named their children and businesses after him.  He made a good impression.    Upon Alexander's death, most of the former territory of the empire fell to the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Seleucid Empire. 

Many movies have been made about him.  Alexander is a 2004 epic historical drama film based on the life of the ancient Macedonian general and king Alexander the Great. It was directed by Oliver Stone and starred Colin Farrell. The film's original screenplay derived in part from the book Alexander the Great, published in 1973 by the University of Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox. After release, while it performed well in Europe, the American critical reaction was negative. It grossed $167 million worldwide against a $155 million budget, thus making it a commercial failure.                                      

Seleucid Empire, the Hellenistic dynasty was founded by Nicator, one of Alexander's generals.  Antiochus III settled Babylonian Jews in Phrygia and Lydia.  He conquered Palestine in about 200 BCE and granted privileges to the Temple.  When Seleucus IV was in power, they owned a lot of money and this led to the Hasmonean revolt with Antiochus IV, called Epiphanes, a Syrian king.  Simon, one of the 5 sons of Mattathias of Modiin,  the Hasmonean, freed the Jews of his power in 138 BCE and even better in 134 BCE.  Antiochus died in 129 and the Jews revolted.  Simon's rule ended in 128.  The Hasmoneans were a priestly dynasty of Kings.  It was the 1st son, Judah, the Maccabee, who was the hero in our Purim history, called "the hammerer."                                          

This was during the Sassanid Dynasty and held authority over ancient centers of intensive Jewish populations in Mesopotamia.

 The Iranian elites of the central plateau reclaimed power by the 2nd century BCE under the Parthian Empire.  Parthia was an empire of the 3rd century BCE to 226 CE.  It ruled over the vast populations of Jews  in Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Media.  They restored Antigonus Mattathias, who was the last Hasmonean king and ruled from 40 to 37 BCE on the throne of Judah.  The Jews in Rome looked on the Parthians as their future savior as they were enjoyed a greater autonomy under the exilarch. Now was the time of the famous rabbinic schools in Mesopotamia flourishing.    When General Pompey captured Jerusalem in 40.  He killed people in line for the throne, took it and the High Priest position.  The Romans drove the Parthians out of Syria in 39 and Herod attacked Antigonus.  who fled to Jerusalem and after a 5 month siege, was put to death before the destruction of Jerusalem.  

It appears that the Essenes who lived in caves during this period were frustrated politically by Antigonus Mattathias and the problems he was facing, causing them to change their social life and live in groups in caves.  They were trying to understand the confusion and changes in power.  We know that the Romans occupied Jerusalem and by 70 CE had burned down the 2nd Temple with the city itself. People were killed, captured for slavery and some had managed to escape.       

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/place/Persia

https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/persia/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_(2004_film)

https://www.worldhistory.org/Faravahar/

Putting One Over the Assyrian-Greeks and Romans: Survival From Roman Deaths and How It Changed the World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

I had a little dreidel  I make it out of clay, and when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play... A dreidel is a 4-sided spinning top, and each side has the 1st letter of the Hebrew words that form the sentence:  A Great Miracle Happened "Here."  To play, everybody puts an ante into the pot before each spin.  One person spins the dreidel and looks at the letter that is face-up.  Letters used are:  gimmel (take all the pot;  hey (take half the pot;  nun (take none;  shin (put 2 in).                                               

  The perfect place to study Torah, but were sure to have dreidels with them for a cover-up.  

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel...sang Jewish student of the Torah as they sat in fields studying...They were sure to have their dreidels with them and some coins as they were playing a gambling game.  They gambled only when Greek and then Roman soldiers came upon them, hiding the fact that they were studying Torah.  Such a subject was not allowed during this Roman occupation of Judah, and the penalty for it would have been death upon the upteen thousand crosses that lined the country.                                        

This occurred in 165 BCE at the time of Judah Maccabee when the immense Assyrian-Greek Empire was in power and had occupied Judah.  This empire was attempting to replace Judaism with the worship of idols. After Judah Maccabee and his small army drove the Assyrian-Greek army out of the Temple, which was the holiest site in Jerusalem, they performed a rededication ceremony to reclaim their sacred space.                             

 Judah was the eldest son of Mattathias the Hasmonean and succeeded his father as leader of the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes in 167/6 BCE.  He inflicted successive defeats on Syrian armies by his exploitation of ambush, rapid movement and night-attack.  he has become the prototype of heroism among the Jews and was regarded by others as one of the military celebrities of antiquity.  This historic even led to the Jewish holiday of Hannukah.  

                                                       

                  Antiochus IV Epiphanes Coin

Seleucid coin depicting Antiochus IV Epiphanes, silver, circa 175-164 BC.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a Hellenistic king of the Seleucid Empire and was the first Seleucid king to use divine epithets on coins. This coin is stamped with King Antiochus God Manifest, Bearer of Victory.

The obverse or front side is stamped with an image of Antiochus IV with a royal diadem. The reverse side shows Apollo sitting on the omphalos or the navel of the world at Delphi. He holds an anchor, the symbol of the Seleucid empire, as well as a bow and arrow.

 Antiochus III conquered Eretz Yisrael in about 200 BCE and granted privileges to the Temple.  In the time of Seleucus IV (Hellenistic royal dynasty founded by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's (king of Macadonia-Greece's  generals). , relations between Jews and Seleucids deteriorated and the Seleucids resorted to all possible financial extortions to meet its depressed monetary situation.  The religious and cultural policy of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes)   led to the Hasmonean revolt with the result of the Jews freeing themselves from the Seleucids.  Antiochus VII Sidetes invaded the country in the time of Simon the Hasmonean in 138 BCE and again with greater success in 134 BCE.  On Antiochus' death in 129 BCE, the Jews revolted, and the Seleucid rule in Eretz Yisrael ended in 128 BCE.                                   

Not much later, in about 63 BCE, the Romans invaded Judah.  replacing the Seleucids   As the great power in the region, they granted the Hasmonean king, Hyrcanus II, limited authority under the Roman governor of Damascus. The Jews were hostile to the new regime, and the following years witnessed frequent insurrections. A last attempt to restore the former glory of the Hasmonean dynasty was made by Mattathias Antigonus, whose defeat and death brought Hasmonean rule to an end (40 BCE), and the Land became a province of the Roman Empire.      

Because of the Roman method of punishment of the people by putting them on crosses for any little misbehavior, like practicing their religion, the Jews had to continue to hide their religion, and that meant continuing to hide their studies of the Torah.  Caves were found in the land where they could feel more secure.  Their lives and religious experiences were rocked by this constant infiltration

of enemies trying to put an end to their religion, and Essenes developed, men who questioned their religion who lived together like monks of today. 

                                                 

 Barbara Thiering, Phd, born November 15, 1930--died November 16, 2015. Australia.  She's an authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes who wrote them.  

The Essenes covered their tracks in what they were writing.  Barbara Thiering, PhD rocked the world in her discovery of a secret code used to fool the Romans in their writings. She was an Australian historian, theologian, and Biblical exegete specializing in the origins of the early Christian Church. In books and journal articles, she challenged Christian orthodoxy, espousing the view that new findings present alternative answers to its supernatural beliefs. Her analysis has been rejected by both New Testament scholars and scholars in Judaism.  

Born in Sydney, Australia, as Barbara Houlsby, she married the Reverend Dr. Barry Thiering in the late 1940s. Barry moved on to serve 27 years as Chaplain of Cranbrook School and head of the 150 person staff there for ten years; briefly also at St. Paul’s School (Bald Hills) and on the faculty of St. Francis Theological Seminary (QLD), before migrating to the U.S. 

She graduated in 1952 from the University of Sydney with First Class Honours in Modern Languages, was a high school teacher of languages for several years, and then, while caring for her three young children, continued study and research privately. She obtained an external B.D. degree from the University of London, a M.Th. degree from Melbourne College of Divinity, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sydney in 1973.

                                                         

She wrote of how the Essenes covered up who they were writing about so as not to get attention from the Roman soldiers.  ""Professor Barbara Thiering's reinterpretation of the New Testament, in which the married, divorced, and remarried Jesus, father of four, becomes the "Wicked Priest" of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and this has made no impact on learned opinion. Scroll scholars and New Testament experts alike have found the basis of the new theory, Thiering's use of the so-called "pesher technique", without substance."

                                                             

She writes on page 21:  The word "pesher" is used in the Old Testament to mean "interpretation of dreams".  A specially gifted person , a Joseph or a Daniel, could discover the hidden meaning of a dream, that was not apparent to others.  The meaning had been put into the dream by G0d;  the interpreter only had to see it, drawing on his special knowledge.   In simpler terms, the pesher is like a solution to a puzzle, .  A rough analogy might be the solution to a cryptic crossword.  

                                                           

In other words, there was a hidden message under the words they found on scrolls found in the Dead Sea caves in Qumran.  You have to know the meaning under these words used; who and what they were really referring to. it made perfect sense, knowing the times and dangers involved.

                                                      

Unfortunately, when found, no one had been aware of such devious writing by the Essenes.  They were just shocked at what they were reading about, the way of life and the thoughts of the Essenes, a religious sect of Jews at the close of the 2nd Temple period.  They were much like the Pharisees in their outlook  of the Torah but had their own newly hatched beliefs and customs. 

As mentioned by Thiering, whereas traditional midrash expands on the Biblical text with fictional narratives, the pesharim, although not intended to be a history, allude to historical events. Although cryptic and bias to the perspective of the Qumranites, much can be learned about the development of the sect as well as the political and religious climate within the Second Temple period. 

The Bible Code has been discovered about the Torah.  Mankind has been trying to find a special code in the Bible since ancient days, but with the advent of the computer, one has been found by a mathematician in Israel who put the Torah into the computer and used a coded system, similar to old ones, like a skip of every 5 words or so, and out came a meaning and facts under the written meaning.  It seems as if G-d through Moses has covered much up right under its subjects with prophesy and such.  

                                                      

From the Qumran Essenes, came many remnants of their past which has been studied and studied.  Whether the Dead Sea Scrolls were speaking of Jesus or another has led to seeing the group in a new light.   

The early Christians had to hide their beliefs from the Romans which had altered from Judaism.  Early Christianity was taken over by the Roman emperors.  This led to more decisions about Jews and its discrimination laws which led to anti-Semitism. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKjbc66qp3Y on Dead Sea Scrolls 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roQ7QT-CMuU on Essenes 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antiochus-IV-Epiphanes

The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia 

http://www.peshertechnique.infinitesoulutions.com/

Jesus and the riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls 

Days of Hillel and the Essenes

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

It was at the close of the 2nd Temple period, which happened in 70 CE when the Romans, who had been occupying Jerusalem, decided to end it all and burned down this holy city and its 2nd Temple of Solomon.  This was a period of insoluble insecurity.  People were being selected by the Romans to hang on crosses by the thousands for any little show of distrust of the Roman rule.  

It is said that Jesus was an Essene.  The Christian tradition says he was the son of Joseph, a carpenter in Bethlehem,  and Mary,  Out of this comes Christianity, a new religion entirely, taken over by the Romans who instituted it in place of their old beliefs of polytheism.  The Roman Emperor's mother, Helena, had much to do with this during her trip to Jerusalem.  

Essenes were a religious sect that developed out of Judaism of that period of Sadducees and Pharisees.  Their religious outlook was that they were aligned with the Pharisees, but had their own specific beliefs and customs.  In fact, there were many splinter groups developing during this period.  

They believed in the immortality of the soul and in reward and punishment but not in physical resurrection.  They opposed slavery and private property, and lived an abstemious communal life, meaning that it was an exclusive all male group.  

Before meals they immersed themselves in water.  Celibacy was common but some married in order to perpetuate mankind.  In fact, some group went to far as to believe that every 7th year they could cohabit with their wife in order to produce children, then they would return to their flock.  

Their chief occupation was farming.  they opposed animal sacrifice and brought only offerings of flour and oil to the Temple.  

Novices underwent a 3-year initiation and were only admitted as full members after swearing not to reveal the sect's secrets.  the group was not altogether remote from political life, even taking part in the wars against the Romans.  

In the time of Philo, an Alexandrian philosopher born in 20 BCE and died after 40 CE, they numbered 4,000 and lived in several towns and villages.  Pliny the Elder, a Roman author who died on August 25, 79,   mentions their settlement near Ein Gedi.  Now a reserve, Ein Gedi is  about a one hour drive from Jerusalem by car.  . Nothing is heard of them after the destruction of the 2nd Temple.  Information on the Essenes comes mainly from Philo and Josephus, who endeavored to represent them as a philosophical sect on the Hellenistic pattern.  

The Jewish historian, General Josephus,  records that Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Roman Judaea, but they were fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the other two major sects at the time. The Essenes lived in various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to voluntary poverty, daily immersion, and asceticism (their priestly class practiced celibacy). Most scholars claim they seceded from the Zadokite priests.

Zadok was a descendant of Aaron and was a priest, a Cohen.  Solomon  appointed Zadok's son a high priest in the Temple and from that time the high  priesthood remained   in the Zadokite family until the period of the Hasmonean rising.  Incidentally, Jewish people consider Josephus sort of a quisling, because he was a Jewish general who was caught by the Romans and gave into them, accepting their offer of being the historian for them.  

                                                        

Researchers have used animal DNA from fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the one shown here, to identify which pieces come from the same manuscripts and where those documents originated.

SHAI HALEVI, COURTESY OF THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY

The discovery of the DEAD SEA SCROLLS in Qumran, the precise implications of which are still being debated, may cast a new light on the nature and beliefs of the Essenes or some sect closely associated with them, and possibly on their relations with early Christianity which seems to have owed a great deal to them.  In Judea or the West Bank, about 20 miles from Jerusalem and one mile from the northwest tip of the Dead Sea, the archeological site at the ancient village of Khirbet Qumran provides a fascinating peek into the life of the Essenes, the ancient group of escetics who are believed to have lived here.  Another resource says: The Essenes were a Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.                                

This was also a period where Jews were divided into 3 camps;  Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.  Indeed, it was a period of division in their belief system.  

Sadducees were a sect of the 2nd Temple Period which may have come from the high priest, Zadok, a Cohen, whose descendants served in the same office until 162 BCE.  They had absolute control in the Temple. They were a temple cult without a basis of abstract faith, differing from the Pharisees in the nature of their religious outlook and way of life.  According to their viewpoint, individuals and groups must inspire to well-being in this world without expecting recompense in the world to come.  They held no belief in a future world or resurrection or the immortality of the soul and also, rejected the existence of angels and spirits.  They followed the Written Law and not the Oral Law,  and behaved severely in cases involving the capital penalty.                                                

Surprisingly,  we see that Hillel the Elder was on the scene, born in the 1st century BCE, so he may have just preceded or was born at the time of the Essenes.  He was a true Jewish scholar of Jerusalem,, though he was born in Babylonia.  He had made aliyah to Judah and had earned a slender living by working in manual labor while studying with Shmaya or Shemaiah and Avtalyon, THE leading teachers of their day. 

   Shemaiah was the head of the Sanhedrin (group of 71 scholars like a Supreme court and as legislature) at the end of the Hasmoneon Period in the 2nd half of the 1st century BCE.  He and Avtalyon constituted the 4th of the ZUGOT  or debating partners in their schools.  Legend describes both Shemaiah and Avtalyon as proselytes, converts to Judaism,  descended from Sennacherib.  No halakhot are directly recorded as given by them, although several are quoted in their name by others.  Sennacherib just happened to be the King of Assyria from 705-768 BCE, son of Sargon II.  He had 2 campaigns against Judah, captured 46 cities but not Jerusalem,  but in his 2nd, his camp was hit by a plague.  

 Shemaiah/ Shmaya was a tanna, a teacher,  a rabbinic sage in the early pre-Mishnaic era who lived at the same time as Abtalion. They are known as one of the zuggot ("couples"): Shemaiah and Abtalion; Shemaiah holding the title of nasi, whilst Abtalion holding the office of Av Beit Din.  According to the Mishnah, both Shemaiah and Abtalion studied Torah under Simeon ben Shetach of the 1st century BCE, the reputed president of the Sanhedrin.  He was a brother of Queen Salome Alexandra and largely responsible for making Pharisaic influence dominant in public and private life during her reign of 76-67 BCE., when he turned the Sanhedrin into a Pharisaic body.  Together with Judah ben Tabbai, he constituted the 3rd of the Zugot.  His period of leadership is pictured in legend in one of peace and prosperity.  

 It was during this 2nd Temple Period, that the great expansion under the Hasmonean rulers was made possible by the widespread proselytization of the areas around Judea, especially Galilee and Idumea, and in the 1st century the royal family of Adiabene who embraced Judaism.  There were many proselytes to Judaism in the Roman Empire.  such as the translaters Aquila and Flavius Clemens.  The rabbis fostered missionary activity during the 1st century CE.  As conversion to Judaism entailed the rite of circumcision for males, it was forbidden by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138) and subsequently by the other Christian emperors.  

Some time after the death of Shemaiah and Abṭalion, Hillel succeeded in settling a question concerning the sacrificial ritual in a manner which showed at once his superiority over the Bene Bathyra, who were at that time the heads of the college.

Hiliel already was the head of the great school, at first associated with Menahem, a scholar mentioned in no other connection, afterward with Shammai, Hillel's peer in the study of the Law .

 In due course, Hillel was appointed the president of the Sanhedrin and together with his friend and ideological opponent, SHAMMAI, constituted the last of the pair or ZUGOT, as they were called, of scholars.  Evidently they were paired up as debating partners that would debate against each other.   

Shammai was a rabbi and contemporary of Hillel.  he lived during the troubled times of Herod's reign and foresaw the dangers of Roman hegemony (leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.) and therefore enacted many rules intended to keep the Jews from mixing with the heathen.  Shammai took a rigorous point of view in moral and religious matters, at the same time being of a friendly nature, teaching to "receive every one graciously."  Although the school of Shammai is famous for its disputes with the school of Hillel, Shammai himself differed on only 3 points with Hillel.  He is possibly identical with the Pharisee Sameas, who rallied the Sanhedrin against Herod's attempt at intimidation in 47 BCE.  

Unlike Shammai, Hillel was noted for his humility and tendency to leniency.  although the 2 men differed in their decisions only on a few halakkot, their schools, such as Hillel's HOUSE OF HILLEL,  and HOUSE OF SHAMMAI, diverged in many instances, but legal practice ultimately went in almost all cases according to the decision of the House of Hillel.  

Few decisions are cited in Hillel's name but they include the institution of the PROSBUL. He laid down the 7 rules of Bible interpretation.  This is referred to as HERMENEUTICS.  

Many stories illustrate his virtues and he is credited with the authorship in its negative form of the so-called GOLDEN RULE:  Do not do unto others that which you would not have them do unto you, which was told to someone who asked to be told the whole meaning of the Torah while standing on one foot.

 In today's present time, DNA tests show that many of us are connected to Hillel.  Hillel had a genealogy that went directly to King David through David's son, Shephatiah.  We know that Hillel was born in Babylonia in about 70 BCE and died in Jerusalem in about 10 CE.  Another tradition is that Hillel's grandson Gamaliel the Elder was the great-grandfather of Johanan ha-Sandalar of the 2nd century, Egypt.  This man was in turn the ancestor(33 generations removed) of RASHI (1040-1105) the biblical commentator whose name we see in our prayer books of today.  So if you are connected by DNA to RASHI, you are also to King David.  Ben Meir, a Palestinian rabbi of the 9th and 10th century had a family who traced its descent to Hillel as documented in the UJ (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia) article on Ben Meir. 

PS-update: “If one wishes to understand the historical Jesus and early Christianity one must understand first century Judaism. During this historic era the Roman occupiers of the land were particularly oppressive and there was much opposition to them particularly in the Galilee,” says Rabbi Moshe Reiss, PhD. 

Jesus is believed to have been born around 4 CE and is thought to have died around 30 to 36 CE. He was a Jew, born probably in Nazareth in Galilee and he probably had brothers and sisters.  Hillel was born in about 70 BCE and died in 10 CE.  He was about a generation older than Jesus.   

As to when and where the 1st printing press was created to be able to print our bibles, "Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected and ready to use commercially: The Gutenberg press.."  Mainz was a center containing many Jews.  

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Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes

 Finding Our Fathers, of Jewish genealogy by Dan Rottenberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Judaism

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7698-hillel

https://humanjourney.us/ideas-that-shaped-our-modern-world-section/historical-jesus/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4feBBhC9ARIsABp_nbUZTOzrXloQOOv-ELtdz38K9eL8vPt5dGGQPM7_gdM9PfBecqyVUxAaAiXREALw_wcB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKfIKicM8Co on Dead Sea Scrolls