Kingdom-of-god-teens

The Babylonian conquest of Judea and the destruction of the Solomonic temple in 586 bc. produced dramatic social and religious changes in Jewish life. The cessation of the temple cult struck a serious blow at the heart of the Israelite religion, since the Jerusalem temple alone was the legitimate and divinely appointed place for discharging much of the ritual requirement of the Mosaic law, chiefly the sacrificial cult. Even the three annual pilgrimage festivals, Succoth (“Tabernacles”), Pesach (“Passover”), and Shavuoth (“Weeks”) could no longer be observed by pious Jews who had remained in Judea after 586 bc. When after 538 bc. many exiles chose to return to Judea, many others elected to remain in their new homeland. For the latter, the temple cult, even when reinstituted in 516 bc, could no longer play a significant role in their religious lives.