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Intertestamental Time
The prophet Daniel saw a vision portraying four
successive kingdoms, likened to four beasts, that would rule the ancient
Near East (Dan. 7:2-12; cf. 2:31-43). The first beast, the lion, had
already arrived with the Babylonians. Next to come were the Medo-Persians
(the bear). The Persians completed their domination of Anatolia in 546
B.C. when Cyrus defeated the famous Lydian king Croesus. Sardis now became
the capital of a Persian satrapy. Alexander the Great was the Macedonian
leopard who next appeared on the scene. He is also described as a one-horned
goat in Daniel 8:5–8. Alexander’s first defeat of the Persians occurred at
Granicus River in northeastern Turkey in 334 C.C. A year later at Issus
Alexander routed the Persian king Darius III, thus securing Greek control
of Anatolia.
Following Alexander's death (323 B.C.) his kingdom broke into four parts,
each ruled by one of his generals (Dan 8:8; 11:3–4). Daniel 11 tells the
prophetic history of this subsequent period, focusing on the two eastern
dynasties-the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. The Ptolemaic kingdom, based in
Egypt, had little subsequent bearing on Anatolian history except for its
final ruler Cleopatra. In 41 b.c. she had a historic meeting with Mark
Antony at Tarsus. Eleven years later, after the pair were defeated by
Octavian (Augustus), Cleopatra committed suicide.
After Seleucus I defeated Antigonus at Ipsus in 301 B.C., he and his heirs
began their domination of much of Anatolia for nearly 150 years. In 300
Seleucus founded Antioch, which became the capital of his western kingdom.
Alexander’s legacy in the region cannot be overemphasized. Hellenistic
religion and culture were introduced throughout Anatolia. Greek became the
common language of the eastern Mediterranean and the language in which the
New Testament was written. the Seleucids built hundreds of cities across
Anatolia, and in many of these established a Jewish population. Josephus
records how in 210 B.C. Antiochus III resettled 2000 Jewish families in
Phyrgia and Lydia. So by the 2nd century B.C. Jews were dispersed
throughout Anatolia (hence the term Diaspora or Dispersion; cf. 1 Peter
1:1). 1 Maccabees 15:23 records a decree issued by the Romans that
countries including Myndos, Caria, Pamphylia, Lycia, Halicarnassus,
Phaselis, and Side should guarantee the safety and rights for all Jews
under their rule. During this period St. Paul’s family came to live in
Tarsus.
Daniel's final kingdom was represented by Rome. In 190 B.C. the Romans
defeated Antiochus III at Magnesia on the Meander (Dan 11:18); the iron
beast with its ten horns had arrived. In 133 B.C. Attalus II bequeathed
his kingdom of Pergamum to the Romans, and four years later Asia was
established as the first Roman province in Anatolia. This political beast
out of the sea (cf. Rev. 13:1–3) likewise had a religious component (cf
Rev. 13:11–17). Although Alexander had been the first to receive worship
as a living “god,” it was the Romans who institutionalized the practice
through the imperial cult. In 29 B.C. Augustus authorized the construction
of the first Anatolian temples for the imperial cult at Pergamum and
Nicomedia. Smyrna became the temple keeper (Greek neokoros) for the second
imperial cult temple in Asia (a.d. 26).
Imperial cult temples were also established in the province of Galatia at
Ancyra (A.D. 19/20), Pessinus (20s), and Pisidian Antioch (30s). Ephesus
became “twice neokoros” (cf. Acts 19:35) when Domitian built a Flavian
temple of the Sebastoi (“Revered Ones”) in the city in A.D. 89/90. The
temple at Ankara is still standing and adjoins the famous Haci Bayram
mosque. Its walls are inscribed in Latin and Greek with one of the most
important inscriptions preserved from antiquity, the Res Gestae. These are
the deeds of Augustus done during his reign as the first emperor of Rome.
Roman rule in Anatolia extended as far east as the Euphrates River. There
a series of forts was built at key fords along the river. Hence in the
Book of Revelation the enemy armies are always gathered on the east bank
of the Euphrates (Rev. 9:14; 16:12).
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