Judaism in Jesus’ Day

In addition to worship in the temple, Jews met in synagogues for prayer and for reading the Scriptures. Jesus and Paul taught in synagogues. Jesus was executed by crucifixion, a Roman method of punishment. Paul was sent to Rome for a hearing before the emperor. And most of all, the Jews were not a free independent nation.

Their land was occupied by the Romans and ruled by client kings who weren’t descendants of David. It wasn’t even a single nation; the land had been divided into provinces. Foreign soldiers were…