Spying in the Bible 29 - AD 33 to AD 36

Paul the Turncoat

The first five years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christianity, known at the time as “the Way”, began to spread and grow throughout the region. The Jewish establishment was still trying to stop it, and a young, prominent Pharisee and Roman citizen named Saul took the lead in the persecution. There were spies on both the Jewish and Christian sides of the conflict. Saul was involved in leading the stoning of Steven, who is considered the first Christian Martyr. (Acts 7:55-58; 8:1-3).

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul....

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judaea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

After Saul began his crusade against the Christians in earnest, in c. AD 36 he received authority from the high priest to arrest Christians in Damascas, where there was, no doubt, a spy network in place to help him find them. However, while he was on his way, Jesus Himself, converted Saul to Christianity (Acts 9:1-6).

Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

When Saul arrived in Damascus, he joined the Christians there and began preaching with them. Saul, being a high level defector, would have had valuable intelligence about what the Jews plans for persecuting the Christians were and who the spies were. Saul’s conversion and preaching prompted a conspiracy of the Jews in Damascus to assassinate him, but he heard about it. Maybe he still had loyal friends, or converted Jews that were spying for him. Saul’s counterintelligence was very good though, because the Jews did not appear to know that Saul knew of their plot. They posted spies at the city gates to kill him when he left the city, but knowing about it, he was lowered down through a hole in the city wall, just like Rahab had helped the two spies escape Jericho (Acts 9:19b-25).

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

Saul then traveled to Jerusalem to join the disciples there, but they thought he was a spy trying to infiltrate their ranks by pretending to be a convert to Christianity. However, he proved himself by preaching, even when the people he was preaching to tried to kill him, and so he was finally accepted. Saul would also later change his name to Paul (Acts 9:26-27).

When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Then the church throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Spying in the Bible 28 - AD 33

The Judas Kiss

The next day was Thursday and is now referred to as Maundy Thursday. Again, Jesus’ foreknowledge could have saved him, but he knew it was his time to die, so he did not escape (John 13:21b-30).

Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

After his Last Supper, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, which was on the Mount of Olives, to pray. While they were there, Judas identified Jesus to the officers of the temple guard by a prearranged clandestine sign of kissing him. From this, the term “Judas Kiss” or “the Kiss of Judas” has become a name for someone close who is a betrayer. Spying with the intent to end in the death or assassination of the target is referred to as “wet work”, or a “wet job” alluding to spilled blood. Therefore, this kiss of Judas was a wet one.

Jesus then made note of the leaders use of clandestine tactics and arresting him in private in the night, instead of in the middle of the day, like they should have if he was really leading a rebellion (John 18:1b-3, Mark 14:44-46, Luke 22:52-53).

Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons....

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. The men seized Jesus and arrested him....

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

The next morning, at daybreak, Jesus went before the chief priests and the teachers of the law, in fact, the whole Sanhedrin. When Jesus admitted to being the son of God and king of the Jews, they brought him to Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor. However, Pilate had found no evidence of him breaking any Roman laws. When Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee Pilate decided Jesus was under Herod Antipater’s jurisdiction, so he sent Jesus to see Herod, who was also in Jerusalem for the festival. Herod found no cause for any charges so he sent him back to Pilate. Pilate gave in to the crowd and had Jesus crucified, which was one of the worst Roman methods of execution.

This crucifixion is remembered by Christians today and Good Friday. On the third day, Sunday, Jesus was raised from the dead, which is celebrated by Christians as Easter, which replaced the Jewish festival of Passover. Passover is a celebration of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, while Easter is a celebration of deliverance from the slavery of sin. Christians also moved the Sabbath day to Sunday in honor of Jesus’ resurrection, while the Jews keep their Sabbath on Saturday, being the seventh day of the week, remembering when God rested on the seventh day of creation. Later on the day of Pentecost, the disciples received the Holy Spirit and began their ministries, forming the early Christian church, which was known as the Way. Christians now celebrate Pentecost as the day the disciples received the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, rather than the Jewish custom of celebrating it as the day the Israelites received the Ten Commandments, and the Law.

Spying in the Bible 27 - AD 29 to AD 33

Spy Wednesday

After Jesus returned to Galilee, Herodias finally came up with a way to kill John the Baptist, even to the distress of Herod (Mark 6:21b-28).

On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”

“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

The next year, Jesus, his mother Mary, and his disciples went to back to Jerusalem to the Passover, where he chased the money changers out of the temple, performed miracles, and began preaching. While they were there, the Jews in Jerusalem sent spies to keep an eye on Jesus, but also to try to trick him into saying something they could arrest him for. This is referred to as entrapment. However, Jesus also had divine foreknowledge, and so was very good at counterintelligence (Luke 20:20-26).

Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

In c. AD 33, just three and half years after he had been baptized and began his ministry, Jesus went back to Jerusalem again for another Passover. This time, while he was there, the Jews would devise a way to arrest him and ultimately kill him. When Jesus arrived, the Sunday before the festival he was met with adoration and praise, and that triumphant entry is now celebrated as Palm Sunday. However, three days later, on Wednesday one of Jesus’ disciples became a defector in place and a spy for the Jews. That is why Holy Wednesday is still also referred to as Spy Wednesday in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Wednesday is the day that Judas Iscariot first conspired with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus (Mark 14:1-2, Luke 22:3-6).

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or people may riot.” ...

Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present....

Since Jesus had his triumphant entry into the city only days before, they wanted to arrest him secretly. The best way to do that was to use their spy, Judas, to help them find a time to do it. Also, they could not kill him on the Passover, because it was a holy day and the people would riot if they did.

Spying in the Bible 26 - AD 29

John the Baptist's Wet Job

In c. AD 29, when Jesus was 31 years old he was baptized by his cousin John to begin his ministry. By this time John had a successful ministry being a well-known preacher and had many disciples. In fact, many people considered John to be a prophet at the time. John the Baptist also began testifying about Jesus that he was the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. Shortly after Jesus’ baptism, John the Baptist was arrested by Antipas for preaching against Antipas stealing his own brother’s wife (Mark 6:17-20a).

Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man.

After John was arrested by Herod, Jesus went to Galilee, but it is commonly misunderstood why. Some theorize that Jesus did not want to be arrested, since it was known that he traveled with John, however, by Jesus leaving Judaea and going to Galilee, he was actually going into the jurisdiction of Herod, who had arrested John. To understand why Jesus did this, the differences in the four synoptic gospels must be examined. In the book of Mark, it is simply recorded what happened and there is not necessarily any connection made between the two events (Mark 1:14).

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee.

This succinct and strait to the point style of writing is what Mark is known for. Mark traveled with his cousin Barnabus and with Paul and his Gospel was an attempt to record what Peter had taught, with the Romans as the intended audience. Mark explained Jewish words, customs, and places and translated some words into Latin to get their meaning across better. He also used Roman time rather than Hebrew time and he translated some words into Latin. Mark also emphasized Jesus as a servant, which the Romans would be very familiar with. In the Bible, Peter referred to Mark as "my son" in 1 Peter 5:13. According to Papias, "Mark, who became Peter's interpreter, wrote accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of the things said or done by the Lord." Also, Irenaeus wrote, "Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself also handed down to us in writing the things preached by Peter."

Matthew, on the other hand, implies that Jesus withdrew because he heard that John was put in prison. This also indicates by using the term withdrew that Jesus was going away from Judaea more than going toward Galilee, but still does not explain why (Matthew 4:12).

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.

Matthew was a Jewish tax collector, who was probably very wealthy and well educated. Matthew was written to Jews who knew the old testament (and it’s prophesies) well to convince them that Jesus was the promised Messiah and King of the Jews. Matthew is said to have been written by a Jew about a Jew for Jews. As one of the disciples, he was also there at the time, so this is a firsthand account. It could be that Matthew did not explain more because he and his audience already would have known why Jesus would leave Judaea and go to Galilee.

In the Gospel of John, the reason for Jesus leaving Judaea is made clearer, but it does not explain what it has to do with John the Baptist being arrested. Jesus wanting to leave because the Pharisees heard he was baptizing many people does not seem to fit with leaving because John the Baptist was arrested. However, it is important to remember that John the Baptist was a very popular political figure and that even Herod was afraid to hurt him due to possible public backlash. John the Baptist also very vocally backed Jesus and claimed he was the Messiah, which was a powerful endorsement.

Therefore, the Pharisees would have been too scared to oppose Jesus while John the Baptist was around, but when he was arrested, Jesus no longer had the political backing that came with John’s preaching, so the Pharisees could have opposed him more safely. The Pharisees would have also wanted to oppose him quickly because when they saw that he was baptizing more people than even John the Baptist they would fear that Jesus would soon become even more powerful with the public than John the Baptist was. They feared Jesus would take John’s place since he was arrested. This shows that the Pharisees were doing sophisticated intelligence analysis and political projections. This also shows that Jesus and his disciples were keeping tabs on, or spying on, the Pharisees to have heard about them not being happy with his baptizing (John 4:1-2).

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judaea and went back once more to Galilee.

John and his brother James were fishermen who were business partners with Peter and Andrew, as Luke 5:10 explains. John was one of the three who were selected to be with Jesus at the raising of Jairus' daughter, the transfiguration, and in the Garden of Gethsemane. In addition to the fourth gospel, John also wrote 1, 2, and 3 John, as well as the Revelation. This gospel’s intended audience was the Gentile, Christian community, so more things about the Jews were explained than in Matthew’s gospel. John often explained Jewish customs and places. His focus was on the deity of Jesus and faith, summarized in John 3:16 and John 20:31.

Luke’s account of Jesus going to Galilee did not include any reasons why, but it did include what happened afterword. After Jesus enters Galilee he became very popular, which proved the Pharisee’s intelligence analysis, assessment, and projection of his political rise (Luke 4:14-15).

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

Luke was a Greek doctor, so he was well educated and was the only non-Jewish New Testament writer. Luke emphasizes Jesus as a human and as the savior of all mankind to the Gentiles. Therefore, the politics of the Pharisees was probably not very important to him when documenting the events. Luke’s Gospel was compiled from eyewitnesses and written with detail and chronologically. He also wrote Acts, wanting to document the events historically.

Spying in the Bible 25 - 2 BC to AD 29

The birth, life, ministry, and death of Jesus all involved cases of espionage and spying. Jesus was born when Herod the Great was the local king and tetrarch of the Promised Land and Caesar Augustus (born Octavius) had solidified his power to form the Roman Empire, which replaced the Roman Republic. To get a handle on his new realm, Caesar Augustus had a census taken. To do so, every man was required go to his hometown. A Jewish man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David lived in Galilee, which was in the far north of the former country of Israel. Joseph and his pregnant wife, Mary, then traveled south to Judaea, to the town of Bethlehem, where David’s descendants were ordered to go (Luke 2:1-5).

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judaea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem to be counted in the Roman census, Mary had her child, a boy named Jesus, who was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies and Old Testament. Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming messiah through his birth is celebrated by Christians in modern times in December as Christmas, which is during the same time the Jews celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the festival of lights, while Christmas celebrates the Light of the World coming into the world. When Jesus was born, Magi from the East went to find him and asked Herod in Jerusalem where the new king who was just born was. Herod, being an intelligent, but paranoid ruler, saw this as a threat, so he began gathering intelligence about it (Matthew 2:1-5a).

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judaea,” they replied.

Herod knew from the prophecies and from the fact that the baby was born in Bethlehem during the Roman census, that Jesus, the Messiah, was a descendant of David, and therefore, a royally legitimate heir to the throne in Jerusalem, unlike Herod, who was ethnically an Edomite, or Idumean.

Herod, therefore, sent the Magi as co-opted spies to gather intelligence on Jesus’ exact location. It may seem strange that the Magi got that far and did not know the exact location, but Bethlehem was only five or six miles away from Jerusalem, so it was close to their destination. It would have been logical for them to assume that the new king would be in the capital, and if not, it would still have polite, and maybe required, to tell the current king why they were in his country (Matthew 2:7-8).

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

As soon as the Jewish priests had given Herod intelligence of the place of the Messiah's birth, he called for the Magi in private. Herod was a very good spy master and new that spies should be sent out in secret and report back only to him. As foreigners, they were also ideal spies because they held no loyalties to the Jews. Another reason he called for them in private was because the Jewish priests would have been looking forward to the coming Messiah and not wanted him killed. While talking with the Magi, Herod got as much intelligence from them as he could by asking for details of the exact timing that the star appeared. After getting all of the intelligence out of them that he could, he told them where the priests had told him to find the Messiah and gave a cover story that he wanted to worship the new king as well, when in fact, he wanted to kill him. However, the Magi received intelligence of their own from God through an angel, who told them what Herod’s plans were. They then went back a different way to avoid Herod (Matthew 2:9-12).

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

An angel also gave Mary and Joseph intelligence about Herod’s plans and told them to go to Egypt to hide from him. Egypt would have been a perfect place for them to go because it was still in the Roman Empire, so they could move there freely, but it was not in Herod’s jurisdiction (Matthew 2:13-15).

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Of course Herod had his own spies everywhere aw well and sent them to keep track of the Magi. When his spies reported back to him that the Magi left by a different route, he knew they were on to his plan. He therefore, used the intelligence he had gathered from the Magi earlier about when the star appeared to figure out how old Jesus would have been. He used that information to order children under two years old in Bethlehem be killed. This infanticide is known as the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16).

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Seven years later, in c. AD 6, Judaea, Samaria, and Edom were combined to form the new Roman Judaea, which was put under direct Roman rule, so Herod Archelaus was no longer tetrarch. After that, with Archelaus no longer in control, it would have been safe for Jesus and his family to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem after that, which they did yearly for the Passover Festival. It was on one of these trips in c. AD 11 when the Bible tells of the twelve year old Jesus in the temple before the elders. Three years later, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (Octavian) died and his stepson Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus became emperor of Rome.

Spying in the Bible 24 - 52 BC to 2 BC

Rome vs. Egypt

Cleopatra VII Philopator, now known simply as Cleopatra, was the last Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty and of all ancient Egpyt. She took the throne at age seventeen along with her twelve year old brother, Ptolemy XIII in c. 52 BC. She soon dropped her brother as co-ruler and took it for herself. A few years later he rebelled and took Egypt solely for himself, sending her into exile. Cleopatra then became the lover of the Roman General, Julius Caesar and they formed an alliance. General Pompey and the Alexandrians also formed an alliance, and the two generals went to war. In c. 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed Rubicon and become the Roman dictator after defeating Pompey and the Alexandrians. During the war Ptolemy XIII died, making Cleopatra queen of Egypt again. Two years later, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra had a son Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar (Caesarion), who was the heir to both Rome and Egypt.

In c. 44 BC Brutus assassinated Julius Caesar, who had adopted his great nephew Gaius Octavius Thurinus in his will, which made Octavian the new heir to Rome and his name became Gaius Julius Caesar. However, his accession was disputed by Brutus and his cohort Cassus. The next year, Antipater died and his son Herod was named tetrarch of Judaea, as well as Galilee. In c. 42 BC Octavian with the help of his general Marc Antony, claimed Rome by defeating Brutus and Cassus. Soon after, Herod was named local king of Judaea by Octavian. Marc Antony and Cleopatra then formed an alliance and became lovers.

In c. 33 BC, Antony had a falling out with Octavian who feared the Egyptian alliance and civil war in Rome. Two years later, Antony and the Egyptians had their victory at Actium, but a year after that Egypt was under siege by Rome and Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, leaving Caesarion as the ruler of Egypt. Octavian then had Caesarian killed to claim the throne of Egypt, which Rome would rule for the almost the next seven centuries. Octavian then solidified his power and became the first Emperor of Rome in 27 BC taking the name Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

While Herod the Great was the local king, he began adopting many of the Roman practices, which were against Jewish custom. He instituted regular festivals honoring Ceasar and built an amphitheater for Roman plays to be performed. In his Antiquities of the Jews, Book 15, Chapter 8, Josephus states how Herod began practicing Roman customs and spending massive amounts of money, “out of an ambition that he might give most public demonstration of his grandeur.” The Jewish populous began resenting this and opposing Herod. Herod then instituted a network of spies within his kingdom to discover any plots against him. Eventually a true cloak and dagger assassination conspiracy against him was formed (reference of Josephus here).

“[T]en men that were citizens [of Jerusalem] conspired together against him, and swore to one another to undergo any dangers in the attempt, and took daggers with them under their garments [for the purpose of killing Herod].... When they had taken this resolution, and that by common consent, they went into the theater, hoping that, in the first place, Herod himself could not escape them, as they should fall upon him so unexpectedly; and supposing, however, that if they missed him, they should kill a great many of those that were about him.

However, the plot was discovered by a spy who reported it to Herod and so it was stopped before he was assassinated.

...but there was one of those spies of Herod, that were appointed for such purposes, to fish out and inform him of any conspiracies that should be made against him, who found out the whole affair, and told the king of it, as he was about to go into the theater. So when he reflected on the hatred which he knew the greatest part of the people bore him, and on the disturbances that arose upon every occasion, he thought this plot against him not to be improbable. Accordingly, he retired into his palace, and called those that were accused of this conspiracy before him by their several names; and as, upon the guards falling upon them, they were caught in the very fact...

When the people, who had no great love for Herod, found out that the would-be assassins had been killed by Herod, they found and killed the spy who had reported them. The people would have seen the spy as one who betrayed his own people. Herod, knowing the value of his spies, and not wanting an all-out revolt, made an example out of the people who killed the spy by killing them and their entire families.

Nor was it long before that spy who had discovered them was seized on by some of the people, out of the hatred they bore to him; and was not only slain by them, but pulled to pieces, limb from limb, and given to the dogs. This execution was seen by many of the citizens, yet would not one of them discover the doers of it, till upon Herod's making a strict scrutiny after them, by bitter and severe tortures, certain women that were tortured confessed what they had seen done; the authors of which fact were so terribly punished by the king, that their entire families were destroyed for this their rash attempt.

After the assassination attempt Herod became very paranoid and had the city and his palace fortified. He also increased the number of spies and even spied on the populous himself sometimes.

[B]ut he still strengthened himself after a more secure manner, and resolved to encompass the multitude every way, lest such innovations should end in an open rebellion....

[H]e always was inventing somewhat further for his own security, and encompassing the whole nation with guards, that they might by no means get from under his power, nor fall into tumults, which they did continually upon any small commotion; and that if they did make any commotions, he might know of it, while some of his spies might be upon them from the neighborhood, and might both be able to know what they were attempting, and to prevent it....

[A]nd there were spies set everywhere, both in the city and in the roads, who watched those that met together; nay, it is reported that he did not himself neglect this part of caution, but that he would oftentimes himself take the habit of a private man, and mix among the multitude, in the night time, and make trial what opinion they had of his government.

It was in this atmosphere of a paranoid king Herod the Great that Jesus was born, so it is little wonder that Herod sent the Wise Men to spy on Jesus, when they told him that a new “King of the Jews” had been born.

Spying in the Bible 23 - 404 BC to 52 BC

The Time Between Times

The period of time between the Old and New Testaments was one in history of rampant imperialism, where espionage flourished. A book called Arthashastra, written by Kautilya Vishnugupta was most likely written in the fourth century BC, although it may have been written later. It is an ancient Indian manual on politics and military strategy, including espionage tactics and is considered to be an Indian equivalent of the Chinese book, the Art of War, written earlier. It is also well documented and known that the Greek and Roman empires had extensive spy networks during this time.

In c. 333 BC, the Macedonian general, Alexander the Great, defeated the Persians at Issus, and was then proclaimed Pharaoh a year later when he conquered Egypt. At that time he also took over Judah from Persians. Upon Alexander’s death in c. 323 BC, his empire was divided between his generals, or satraps, who ruled their own regions. They were referred to as the Diadochi, which means successors. One of Alexander’s generals, Ptolemy I ruled Israel and Egypt, as did his descendants until c. 198 BC. At that time, Antiochus and the Seleucids, took over Judaea. The Seleucids were the Greek-Macedconian’s who were from the lands of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. The Second Punic War, also referred to as the Hannibalic War by the Romans, lasted from c. 218 BC to c. 202 BC.

Antiochus’ descendant, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (born Mithridates) then ruled from c. 175 BC to c. 164 BC. Shortly after Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ reign began, a priest named Jason bribed him to become the high priest of the Jews. Jason shortly built a Greek-style city in honor of the king and named it Antioch, after him. This began the Hellenization of the Jews. A few years later, Jason sent a priest named Menelaus to Babylon on business for him, at which time Menelaus purchases high priesthood for an even higher price, sending Jason into exile. Menelaus was a non-Levite, so many Jews did not recognize his authority. His authority was further damaged when he robbed the temple treasure to pay for his bribe. Antiochus then forced Syrian law on Jews and outlawed circumcision. In c. 167 BC he ordered pigs to be sacrificed to Zues at the Jerusalem temple, but Mattathias, a faithful priest, refused to sacrifice to false gods and started a revolt by taking the faithful with him to hide in the hills.

When Mattathias died, he named his son Judas Maccabeus as the military leader of the resistance, beginning the Maccabean Revolt. Judas many times sent spies to the enemy camps and had spies that tell him when and where armies would be, allowing him to fight his guerilla warfare style. Knowledge of the enemy’s movements through espionage allowed the revolt to be successful. A third Jewish party called the Hasideans opposed both the Hellenization of the Jews as well as the revolt at first, but eventually supported to the revolt. The Books of the Maccabees describe the revolt.

Some scholars view this period as a Jewish revolt against the Greeks, but others interpret it as purely a civil war between Hellenized and orthodox forms of Judaism. A large Greek army eventually showed up to put a stop to the revolt/civil war, but left before long Antiochus died of disease in c. 164 BC. His commander Lysias then helped Antiochus’ nine year old son Antiochus V Eupator rule as king. The young king, under the suggestion of Lysias, compromised with all parties by restoring religious freedom. Judas, as leader of the revolt, became both the local ruler and ethnarch as well as the high priest. This victory is celebrated in the Jewish Festival of Light, also known as Hanukkah, and was the beginning of the Hasmonian dynasty in Judah. While he was recognized as a legitimate high priest, some Jews did not recognize him as a legitimate ruler, because he was not a descendant of David. During the Hasmonian dynasty, Israel’s local government was an ecclesiocracy, because the head of state (ethnarch or local king) was also the head of the church (high priest).

The smallest of the Jewish political parties was a group of mostly dissident priests who later became the Essenes. They were apolitical, believed in strict predestination, and abeyance of the law. They were likely were the ones who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls and were against both Syrian and Hasmonian rules. Another political party, which would become the Saducees, was mostly made up of the upper class, both socially and economically. They were comprised of the conservatives in the priesthood, aristocratic monarchists, and were also for more military action. They rejected the resurrection of the dead and believed strictly in free will and personal freedom. The third major political party, which Judas shared his views with, were the extremely anti-Hellenistic, separatist political party who wanted to keep fighting. They later became the Pharisees, who believed in a destiny, but with free will. They also believed in strict abeyance of the law, were more democratic, and had the support of the general public. As part of their struggle against Hellenistic civilization, the Pharisees established what was probably the world’s first national education and literacy program. This program was based around meeting houses and led to Rabbinical Judaism.

After he purified the temple, Judas made a treaty with Rome and continued fighting the Hellenized Jews until he died in battle four years later, at which time his brother Jonathan took over. Jonathan also employed the use of spies to great success (1 Maccabees 12:24-26).

Now Jonathan heard that the commanders of Demetrius had returned, with a larger force than before, to wage war against him. So he marched away from Jerusalem and met them in the region of Hamath, for he gave them no opportunity to invade his own country. He sent spies to their camp, and they returned and reported to him that the enemy was being drawn up in formation to fall upon the Jews by night.

Jonathan was shortly assassinated and his brother Simon, last of the Macabees, took over. Simon was murdered by his son-in-law along with his two oldest sons. His third son John Hyrcanus I then took over in c. 135 BC. During his reign, Hyrcaus had a disagreement with the Pharisees and then began backing the Saducees. Ten years into his reign, Hyrcanus subjugated Edom and forcibly converted the population to Judaism, which is the only known case of forced conversion to Judaism.

Hyrcanus’ son, Aristobulus I, who was also a Saducee, was the first to call himself King in c. 104 BC. He only ruled for one year before dying of disease, but during that time, he renamed the Jewish council the Sanhedrin, which is a Greek word, and gave them full legal judicial authority. His younger brother Alexander Jannaeus, also a Sadducee, then ruled until his death in c. 76 BC. Alexander Jannaeus’ widow Alexandra Salome, who was a Pharisee and the sister of a prominent Pharisee, appointed herslef ethnarch and ruler, while appointing her son John Hyrcanus II (also a Pharisee, like his mother) as high priest. Together, the Pharisee influence grew with the populous as well as within the Sanhedrin during that time. During their reign, was when the Romans fought the slave war with Spartacus between c. 73 BC and c. 71 BC. Salome died in c. 67 BC, and Hyrcanus II took over as king in addition to being high priest.

Hyrcanus’ II younger brother was named Aristobulus II and was a Sadducee, like their father had been. He rebelled against his brother’s rule and took the throne only three months into his brother’s reign as king. A civil war then raged on between their supporters for nearly four years, until c. 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey conquered Syria and intervened in the Hasmonean civil war. During this time, he made all of Israel a Roman client state and backed Hyrcanus II along with his party of the Pharisees. Aristobulus II closed the gates of Jerusalem to the Romans, but Hyrcanus II had spies inside the city that opened the gates to let Pompey’s army in. Hyrcanus II was then reinstated as high priest and local king with his general Antipater named as Rome’s representative. Antipater was one of the descendants of the forcibly converted Edomites. Rome then separated the “Promised Land” into Judaea (south), Samaria and Galilee (far north), with Edom being renamed Idumea.

Spying in the Bible 22 - 483 BC to 404 BC

Esther

The Biblical book of Esther begins in the third year of Xerxes’ reign, in c. 483 BC, when he gave a banquet in honor of himself. At the time, Xerxes ruled the Achaemenid Empire, which was the largest, most powerful empire in the world. During the banquet, while he was drunk, Xerxes asked for his wife, the Queen, to present herself so he could show her off to his guests. She refused him and so he banished her to make a statement to his empire that everyone must obey him and that wives must obey their husbands. Josephus explains that the queen refused him because of a Persian law that she should not be seen by strangers. Shortly after that, Xerxes went off to war with the Greeks, which included the famous Battle of Thermopylae, where three hundred Spartans lead by King Leonides resisted the entire Persian army.

When Xerxes returned home from war, he remembered that he still needed a new wife for queen, so he had the most beautiful virgin women in the empire gathered together and undergo a year of beauty treatments. At the end of that time, the woman he chooses to marry is Esther. Esther was a Jewish orphan who was raised by her cousin Mordecai. Their family had been among the Jews taken to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Jews from Jerusalem. Mordecai had told Esther to keep her heritage a secret while at the palace, which she did. To keep track of his cousin, whom he thought of as his adopted daughter, Mordecai sat at the king’s gate every day to get news of her. One day, while he was sitting at the gate, he found out about two officials who guarded the king’s gate who planned to assassinate Xerxes (Esther 2:21-23a).

During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles.

Sometime later, in c. 474 BC, Xerxes made a decree that everyone should bow to Haman, his highest official, to show him honor and as a reward for his faithful service. However, Mordecai would not do it saying he bowed only to God, so Haman, with the king’s permission wrote an edict to kill all of the Jews to purge them from the land. Esther had still kept her ethnicity a secret, so she was safe from the decree and she had not even heard about it. However, she kept her attendants spying on Mordecai so that she could protect him, so when they reported to her that he was mourning the edict she sent a secret message to him asking what was wrong. (Esther 4:4-5).

When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

This is the first Biblical incidence of spies being deployed to help their target, showing they have more uses than just getting information about an enemy before battle. Mordecai then sent a message back with these attendant-spies explaining the edict and asking Esther to intercede for her people to the king (Esther 4:6-8).

So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Esther agreed to help by persuading the king to rescind the decree. By doing so, she was risking her life because Xerxes had instituted a law that no one could legally come to him without being summoned and the penalty for doing so was death unless he pardoned them by extending his golden scepter. To not anger him, Esther went to the king to invite him and Haman to a banquet with her. They went and she requested that they do it again the next day. Haman was honored, but could not enjoy the honor while Mordecai was alive and not honoring him, so he set up a pole to impale Mordecai on and was going to ask for the king’s permission to do so at the banquet the next day.

That night the king could not sleep, so he ordered that the book with the record of his reign be read to him. When he was read about how Mordecai had uncovered the plot against him and saved him, Xerxes realized he had never given Mordecai a reward. Xerxes did so the next day and honored Mordecai in front of everyone. That evening at the banquet Esther told Xerxes that she was a Jew and asked him to save her and her people from Haman’s edict. The king left in a rage and Haman knelt down on the couch where Esther was to beg for her mercy. When the king came back he thought Haman was molesting the queen since he was on the same couch as her. One of the eunuchs attending the king then told him that Haman had a pole set up to impale Mordecai, whom the king had just honored, so the king ordered that Haman be impaled on it instead and he rescinded the edict to kill the Jews. This deliverance of the Jews through Esther is known as Purim and in modern times is celebrated in February or March, before the Passover.

About ten years later, in c. 464 BC Xerxes was assassinated by Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the court at the time. This was more than a decade after the first assassination attempt by officials that Mordecai had stopped. It is unknown what became of Esther or Mordecai after Xerxes assasination. Artabanus had a plot to dethrone the Achamenids, but Artaxerxes, Xerxes second son ended up on the throne after his older brother and Artabanus had died in the intrigue. There are differing accounts of how and why the oldest son was involved. Some say Artabanus tricked Artaxerxes into thinking his older brother killed their father and so Artexerxes killed his both of them when he found out the truth. Other accounts say Artabanus killed the older brother when he tried to kill the whole family, but that Artaxerxes survived and killed him instead.

In any case, after Artaxerxes took the throne, he decreed that any Jew who wanted to return to Jerusalem could do so. He then delegated to the Jewish prophet Ezra the duty of taking care of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jews. Therefore, a group of five thousand Jews led by Ezra returned to Judah and began rebuilding the city and the walls of Jerusalem. The walls of Jerusalem were completed in c. 445 BC at which time Nehemiah held a convocation. Twenty years later, Artaxerxes died in and his oldest son Xerxes II took over for a month and a half until his younger brother killed him to take the throne. An illegitimate brother, Ochus, then rebelled against the youngest brother, killing him, taking the throne, and adopting the name Darius II to become king and reined until the end of the Peloponnesian War, in c. 404 BC. During his reign the last of the Old Testament prophets lived and the last of the books of the non-Apocryphal Old Testament books were written.

Spying in the Bible 21 - 775 BC to 483 BC

Invaders of the Lost Ark

Another fifty years later, beginning in c. 725 BC, the Kingdom of Israel, along with the Philistine kingdom, was all but destroyed by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V. An Israelite revolt against the Assyrians was crushed after the capture of Samaria by Shalmaneser’s son and successor, Sargon II. The Assyrians sent most of the northern Israelite kingdom into exile, thus creating the “Lost Tribes of Israel”. The Samaritans claim to be descended from survivors of the Assyrian conquest. During this time the Assyrians also invaded Egypt. Later, when Sargon II’s son, Sennacherib, was the Assyrian King, he tried and failed to conquer Judah, but he did punish them by making Hezekiah pay him tribute with gold from the temple around c. 701 BC.

The Late Period of Ancient Egypt began around c. 664 BC when twenty-sixth dynasty expelled the Assyrians out of the country. The rest of the Assyrian Empire was overthrown by the Medes and the New Babylonian Empire until the Egyptians eventually repelled the Babylonians. In c. 587 BC King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem, burned the temple, conquered Judah, and exiled the Jews to Babylon to relocate other peoples to Judah. This ended the first temple period of Jerusalem and began the diaspora of the Jews.

It is unknown what became of the Ark of the Covenant after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Apocryphal book of 1 Esdras (also known as 3 Ezra) states that the Babylonians took it when they pillaged the Temple (1 Esdras 1:54).

And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the ark of God, and the king's treasures, and carried them away into Babylon.

However, in another Apocryphal book, 2 Maccabees, it is mentioned that records they had at the time stated that the prophet Jeremiah took the Ark and hid it when he fled Jerusalem (2 Maccabees 2:4-5).

It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremiah came thither, he found a hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.

Wherever the Ark of the Covenant went, Jeremiah prophesied before the Babylonians invaded that it would disappear and that eventually people would no longer remember it (Jeremiah 3:16).

In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made.

The book Lamentations consists of the prophet Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of the temple. It is highly likely that some portion of local population of Judah remained and that the exile was largely of the upper, nobility class. During this Assyrian conquest Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among the Jewish nobility taken into captivity in Babylon, where they were trained as advisors to the Babylonian court. They were given the names Belteshazzer, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively. Daniel successfully interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and asks for promotions for the four of them in return. Nebuchadnezzer soon threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a furnace for not worshiping his gods and when Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, he persecuted the Jews even more and put Daniel into the lion’s den for not praying to him.

Not long after that, in 538 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and merged it with the Persian and the Medean Empires which he had taken over earlier because his mother’s father was the last king of the Medes and he was married to a woman who was a Mede. This combined Empire was known as the Achaemenid Empire. Probably because of his Zoroastrian religious tendencies, Cyrus issued a proclamation granting people within his empire religious freedom. Because of that proclamation, fifty thousand Jews, led by Zerubabel, returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple. The local, previously transplanted, non-Jewish people wrote to Cyrus to complain that they were rebuilding the temple and taking over the land, but to no avail. Cyrus’ son Cambyses II took over the Empire and later conquered Egypt. This ended the Late Period of Egypt, the Iron Age II, and the entire era of Ancient Egypt.

When Cambyses II died, one of his nobles, Darius I, took over and ruled from c. 522 BC to c. 486 BC. During this period, the Roman Republic was founded and became a western neighbor, while in their eastern neighbor was what is now China, Sun Tzu wrote his famous book, The Art of War, which included many treatises on espionage and spying among other military tactics. During his reign, Darius I had to deal with much unrest and many revolts in the Empire. The Ionian revolt occurred in c. 499 BC and the Battle of Marathon, where the Greeks revolted against his rule in c. 490 BC. Darius I then died when the Egyptians revolted in c. 486 BC and his son Xerxes took over.

When Xerxes’ reign began, the transplant non-Jews in Jerusalem tried again to get rid of the Jews by writing to the king that the people were rebuilding the city and its walls, but again to no avail. Xerxes went on to marry the Jewish woman Esther and be involved in multiple espionage plots. The story of Esther is told in the Biblical book of Esther, the apocryphal book of Additions to Esther, and Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews. Esther is the only book of the Bible that does not explicitly mention God in any way, shape, or form, but it does strongly allude to Him, particularly when Mordecai speaks to Esther of her having a higher purpose and calling in her Queenship. This story is also the first time that the Israelites from Judah are referred to as Jews. Besides being an interesting book about courtly intrigue, it is also just good literature, with many literary devices making it even more interesting to read. For example, it begins and ends with banquets, the descriptions of which are full of parallels and contrasts.