It was a very dark world. Extremely dark.

The descendants of Abraham had rebelled against God, and they had gone into captivity as a result. And then He had restored them to Jerusalem, but once again, they had neglected Him and pursued the pleasures of the world and the religions of their neighbours. So, God stopped talking to them. For four hundred long years, he remained silent.

Then, along came the Romans in 63 BC. Their ruthlessness was only matched by their desire to avoid conflict in the cultures that they conquered. So they had an uneasy peace - going along to get along - but everything the Jews did was subject to the whims of the Empire. They were far from free.