The Bible: A Biography, Karen Armstrong, c. 2007 -- Chapter 4

We're in the first century CE. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were active; writing; see previous chapter. Pharisees were rising once again; made the Christians nervous.

Siege of Jerusalem, 70 CE. From wiki:

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War.

The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been controlled by Judean rebel factions since 66 CE, following the Jerusalem riots of 66, when the Judean Free Government was formed in Jerusalem.

The siege ended on 30 August 70 CE with the burning and destruction of its Second Temple, and the Romans entered and sacked the Lower City. The destruction of both the first and second temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome. The conquest of the city was complete on 8 September 70 CE.

From wiki: Pharisee -- a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity.

From wiki:

Yohanan ben Zakkai[a] (Hebrew: יוחנן בן זכאי‬‎, 1st century CE), sometimes abbreviated as Ribaz (ריב״ז‬) for Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was one of the Tannaim, an important Jewish sage in the era of the Second Temple, and a primary contributor to the core text of Rabbinical Judaism, the Mishnah. His name is often preceded by the honorific title, "Rabban." He is widely regarded as one of the most important Jewish figures of his time. His tomb is located in Tiberias, within the Maimonides burial compound. He was the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi in the Mishnah.

With the loss of Jerusalem, the Jewish scholars congregated in Yavneh on the coast.

Armstrong says we don't know much about the Yavneh period.

The rabbis had planned to construct their lives around a "virtual" temple if necessary. They never thought it would come to pass.

So, now it was Christians threatened by Pharisees and both threatened by Rome.

The Pharisees seemed to be winning; they would re-interpret their Bible, but not talk about a "New Testament."

When they studied the Torah, they found, like the Christians, that Shekhinah, was in their midst.

At Yavneh the Pharisees spearheaded a new spirituality in which Torah study replaced the temple.

This new interpretation, the Jews called midrash, their new exegesis.

Midrash comes from the verb drash to investigate, to seek.

Page 84/85:

• horoz: essential to rabbinic midrash (Pharisees)
• shalom: which had been found by the Jews in the temple
• coincidenia oppositorum: Christians experience in their pesher exegesis

Page 92: the Hebrew Bible being finalized

The Hebrew bible became known as the TaNaKh, or Tanakh.

• Torah
• Neviim (prophets)
• Kethuvim (the Writings)

The Hebrew Bible:

• Torah
• Neviim
• Kethuvim: writings from the Second Temple period, 

• historical works:

• Chronicles
• Esther
• Ezra
• Nehemiah

• from the Wisdom genre:

• Proverbs
• Ecclesiastes
• the Song of Songs
• Job
• but not Ben Sirah

Mishnah, p.93

The decline of the Jews and the rise of Christianity under the Romans.

The two Talmuds. From wiki:

Talmud is the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara. There are two versions of the Talmud: the Babylonian Talmud (which dates from the 5th century AD but includes earlier material) and the earlier Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud.

See page 96 - 97.

Yerushalmi: the Jerusalem Talmud; not completed; a work in progress.

Palestinian Jewry declined; Babylon and the Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli) became the center of Jewry. The Bavli became the key text of rabbinic Judaism. It was a commentary (a gemara) on the mishna.

Last two pages of the book, Armstrong talks about the spirituality being developed by the Jews.

She ends with this: Even though they were now regarded as enemies of Judaism, Christians were developing a similar spirituality.

It appears that now we move to the second stage. Up until now the biography of the Bible was pretty much the same for the Jews and the Jewish Christians.

But it now seems with that last line from Armstrong that there is some foreshadowing.

It sounds like that while the Jews were putting together their Hebrew Bible, the Pharisees were putting together their Talmud (ceremonies and laws) and the Christians were putting together their New Testament.