Abstract

© Dr M D Magee, Contents Updated: Friday, 20 April 2007

Abstract

The Hasmonaeans

Daniel shows that traditional Jews consoled themselves with the idea that God would intervene. They had no immediate thought of violence. Then, at Modein, west of Jerusalem, a priest, Mattathias, of the family of the Hasmonaeans, refused to worship in the Greek way. When another Jew stepped forward to make the offering for him, the old priest killed him, and a Syrian Greek soldier who came to his defence, and then he trashed the altar and made his escape with his five sons into the hills. They became the leaders of a revolutionary gang that defended the traditional religion with the sword, setting up the everlasting tradition of the Jihad (Yehud) or Holy War. The rebels were called the Hammers of the Jews or Maccabees.

In the wilderness the Hasids were fairly safe, but their piety stopped them from fighting back, if necessary on the sabbath day, a serious disadvantage should any enemy discover it. The Maccabees were less pious, realizing that they must raise their weapons whether it was the sabbath or not, if they wanted to defeat their enemies. The Hasids had to agree and took their side (1 Maccabees 2:42). Now we had a typical civil war. The Hasmonaeans raided towns and villages, destroying Greek altars, circumcising the boys, and killing any Jew that conformed with the king’s regulations, while the king’s men did the same but killing the Jews who conformed with Persian tradition. As usual the innocent suffered at the hands of the fanatics on both sides.

Old Mattathias died and Judas Maccabaeus became leader. Antiochus IV was busy in the far east. Lysias, Antiochus’s regent in Syria and guardian of the crown prince, Antiochus Philopater, a minor, had to deal with the rebellion because the king was in Persia. First, Apollonius, the governor of Judaea, brought an army against the rebels, but was defeated and killed. Then Seron, governor of Coelesyria, was routed near Bethhoron (166 BC). Then Lysias sent a strong force under the command of three generals, but Judas guessed their strategy and defeated them (166 BC). Finally, Lysias himself was about to invade Judah from Bethsur in the Negeb, but then news came that Antiochus had fallen ill and died in Elymais (164 BC). He quickly settled with the rebels allowing the Jews to worship according to their customs, withdrew undefeated leaving the Maccabees in control, and returned to Antioch. In 1 Maccabees this becomes a victory for Judas with a loss of 5000 men to Lysias. It was indeed a victory but not a military one. By good fortune, the rebels had quickly achieved their objectives, freedom of worship and tradition, and were free to rededicate the temple. The Jewish feast of Hannukah is meant to celebrate the various rededications of the temple that have occurred, starting with this one. On 25 Kislev 165 BC, the same day that, three years before, “the Abomination of Desolation” had been inaugurated, the first sacrifice was offered on the new altar, and afterwards in commemoration the feast of the dedication was celebrated. So, the war ought to have been over. It was not. The Maccabees moved the goalposts and the rebellion continued, now with the political aim of independence, but, in fact, driven by the personal ambitions of the Hasmonaean family.

The Maccabees set out now as vigilantes to right injustices to Jews in the Greek colonies around Judaea. Judas Maccabee, the rebel leader, raided towns like Bosra and Maspha, killing every male he found who could not prove himself Jewish! He also sent out messages, just as the modern Zionist state of Israel did, for all Jews to hurry to Judah, and he forced those in nearby gentile cities to do so. Any Hellenized Jews were also killed as if they had never been Jews. Pleas went out to Lysias to return and, after dithering, in 163 BC, he did so with a large army including an elephant corps from India. He resumed where he had left off, at Bethsur. Again attacking from the level ground in the Negeb, he besieged Judas. Judas tried to raise the seige but was defeated, and his brother Eleazar perished. Bethsur collapsed. The Syrians advanced next to Jerusalem and besieged the temple which was unlikely to have been able to resist, but a rival, Philip, made a coup attempt, and once again Lysias had to return to Antioch before he was able to finish off the rebels, but he dismantled sections of the walls of Jerusalem and left a garrison in the city. Even so, the status quo ante was restored, except that Menelaus remained as High Priest and ethnarch, a post to be filled by Alcimus. Effectively, the Hasmonaeans were left as rulers of Judah.

Meanwhile, Demetrius, a son of Seleucus IV Philopater who had been brought up in Rome from childbirth as a hostage had grown to manhood. No doubt with Roman connivance, he escaped from Rome to try to retrieve his birthright in Syria. The whole country took his side. The new king overthrew and killed Lysias and his ward together with all the other children of Antiochus Epiphanes, his brother. It was 162 BC. The opponents of the Hasmonaeans appealed to Demetrius I but he was not motivated by cultural imperialism. However, a man called Alkimus, (Jachim) made a claim for the High Priesthood, and Demetrius sent a force to install him. The line of High Priests, the Zadokites, set up by the Persians rested with one Onias IV who had earlier fled to Egypt and set up a Jewish temple at Leontopolis under the sponsorship of Ptolemy VII Philometer. This temple lasted from about 170 BC until 73 AD, proving that Jerusalem was not the only temple for Jews. The Hasidim were ready to back him, being content to leave religious matters to God rather than the Hasmonaeans, but he turned out to be partisan, shed more Jewish blood, and the Hasids dropped their support. Nor were the Maccabees ready to stop their rebellion while Alkimus was High Priest.

In any event, Alkimus was forced to flee and a Greek army came to Jerusalem to restore him (160 BC). On the death of Alkimus (159 BC), the Greeks left the High Priesthood vacant for seven years so as to avoid having to defend him by military force. The Greek general, Nicanor, had a policy of pacification, and, amazingly, made friends with Judas, persuading him to marry and settle down then the Greeks Syrians would not bother the Jews any more. But Demetrius had decided he wanted the rebel leader caught. Judas defeated the Greeks twice, at Kapharsalama and at Bethhoron and killed Nicanor. Judas now allied with the Romans, but Demetrius sent a punitive force under Bacchides, and Judas met his match and was killed (1 Maccabees 9:18). The Syrians militarized and pacified Judah, with the remaining Maccabees brothers again hiding in the wilderness. By now, the Hasidim had seen through them, realizing they were not at all pious but were set on worldly ambition, or the Hasids had themselves divided into two groups, the traditionalists, who rejected the Hasmonaeans, and the pragmatists who still supported them. The aims of the revolution, as the Hasidim realized, had been won, but the war continued now in the interests of the Hasmonaeans.

In the succeeding years the Maccabees were no longer fighting for religious rights but for their own power and privilege, and the task they had set themselves was made easier by the disintegration of the House of Seleucid and the geopolitical machinations of the rising power in the west, Rome. Unfortunately, the proud exploits of the Maccabees did not get into the Jewish scriptures because they show all too clearly that the Chosen People and their Holy Priesthood were as corrupt and immoral as their contemporaries. There is nothing remotely comparable in this real history to the supposed sacred history that believers believe! What it goes to prove very clearly is that sacred history is a fairy tale.

The Maccabees established Judah as a small country, and then looked to expanding it by taking over its neighbours. Galilee, for example, was not a part of Yehud, its name allegedly meaning a district, interpreted as meaning “provincial”, although it actually refers to something round or rolling. It was more fully known as Galilee of the Gentiles, illlustrating that it was not Jewish. Alexander had settled some of his veteran soldiers in Samaria, usually literally taken to mean the city, but a Greek polis was not just a city but was itself a district centered on a city, and the Macedonians will have needed land to farm. So, they will have been settled in Samaria, the region, not just Samaria the city, and the region might easily have extended into Galilee, only twenty miles further north. After all, Galilee was fruitful land to reward veteran soldiers. Anyway, Galilee came to be identified by the Jews specifically with Gentiles, even though they were surrounded on all sides by them. John Hyrcanus forced the people of Galilee to choose Judaism, but it retained its association with the Gentiles, and the Jews of Jerusalem were snobbish towards the Jews of Galilee.

In the next quarter century, the Maccabees joined in the power play along with the factions in the Seleucid court. The skills involved might have been God-sent but they look like typically cynical power-broking. First was Demetrius agreeing to the return of the Hasmonaeans to Judah. The motive is unclear unless he had decided to try Nicanor’s softly-softly approach. Then a new rival called Alexander Balas supported by the Ptolemies challenged, which meant yet another favourable settlement with the Hasmonaeans, allowing them control over Jerusalem except for its garrison. An ambitious man, Jonathan Maccabee, stepped carefully between the rivals, Demetrius and Alexander Balas, coming out on the side of the winner, Alexander Balas, from whom he had already accepted the High Priesthood. Jonathan officiated as High Priest from 152 BC, accentuating the split from the Hasidim, for whom the High Priest had to be a Zadokite. By 150 BC, Demetrius ahd been murdered and Balas had married into the Ptolemy family. Jonathan Maccabee was an honoured guest at the wedding. Finally, Balas made Jonathan the official governor of Judah an therefore recognized ruler of the Jews.

Another rival appeared, Demetrius, the son of the previous Demetrius. Jonathan stayed loyal to Balas and defeated the invaders at Ashdod, burning the temple of Dagon around the survivors of the battle when they took refuge in it. Balas gave Jonathan every honour, but Demetrius lived and now was supported directly by Ptolemy Philometer. In a grand battle near Antioch, Balas was defeated and murdered by his own men while fleeing east. Philometer was also mortally wounded and soon died. Jonathan put himself in the good books of Demetrius II by bribing him with a vast sum of 300 talents in lieu of future tribute, effectively buying the freedom of Judah, and Demetrius even threw in part of Samaria. A revolt in Antioch saw Jonathan helping out the king by butchering 100,000 people (1 Maccabees 11:46). He returned weighted down with plunder according to 1 Maccabees 11:47.

What glory could the Jews claim for their own struggle for independence under Judas and his brethren when they were so ready to sell themselves to the oppressors of another…

E Bevan

Yet another rival appeared, and the Jews took his side. He was an infant son of Jonathan’s old chum Alexander Balas, but they had just assisted Demetrius by killing myriads of his opponents in Antioch. The loyalty for which they had been famous had evaporated with the arrival of the Maccabees. Demetrius had not shown enough gratitude by removing his Jerusalem garrison and so he was abandoned for the child. Jonathan grabbed Gaza from Demetrius then campaigned in Galilee and the north, all the time leaving Jewish garrisons in charge of the important centers they had captured. Moreover, Jonathan had contact with Rome, whose interests were to undermine the Greek kings, and the Lacedaemonians (Spartans). The chief general of the baby king was Tryphon, and, though an ally, he realized that Jonathan was adept at playing both ends against the middle. So he arrested him during a conference in Ptolemais. Simon Maccabee, as good a soldier as Jonathan, took over and threw out the gentile populations of Joppa and Gezer, so Tryphon killed Jonathan, and in 142 BC killed off the child king to put himself in power, though he was not a Seleucid. In retaliation, Simon starved the Jerusalem garrison into submission, built fortresses, made himself master of Acra (141 BC), and then had himself appointed High Priest in perpetuum, finally severing any support from the Hasidim, although he did leave a theoretical loophole for a messianic claimant with the condition “until a trustworthy prophet should arise”, a formula that proved its illegality by making it seem a temporary expedient. Nominally the High Priest was an ethnarch of the Seleucidic suzerainty, so Simon was far from secure in his post while Greek princes vied for power. About this time the biblical book of Psalms was written.

The Seleucids were almost but not quite finished. Antiochus VI Sidetes entered the struggle for the Seleucid throne against Tryphon. He demanded that Simon surrender important towns and citadels including Jerusalem, and compensate the throne for their seizures of territory and bad will. At this time, the last of the Maccabee brothers, Simon, was murdered by his son in law, who sought Judah for himself, but Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus, stepped in. Immediately he was faced with a siege by Sidetes, and was forced to capitulate when the people of Jerusalem were dying of starvation. The suzerainty of the Syrians was restored. It was 134 BC.

Sidetes was kind to the Jews. Yes, he made them pay for Joppa and Gezer, and 500 talents reparations, but having dismantled the defences of Jerusalem and disarmed the Jews, he let them have self-rule. Meanwhile in the east the Parthians had taken advantage of the divisions and infighting in Seleucia to take over the eastern empire including Babylon. When, in 130 BC, Sidetes led an army against them to retrieve his losses, John the High Priest, no less, led a division of Jews. Sidetes died in the war, and Demetrius, who had been held by the Parthians as a hostage, laid claim to the throne of Syria, but he had no power base. Faced by no adequate central power, Hyrcanus expanded the Jewish state, subjugating the country of Samaria with its capital at Shechem, destroying the Samaritan temple at Gerizim. He also laid seige to the Greek city of Samaria, and despite attempts by the Syrian Greeks to raise the seige, it fell after about a year and was obliterated by the conquering Jews who even flooded the site. In Edom, he compelled the inhabitants to accept circumcision to become Jews against their will. Even so, they were never accepted as Jews by the Judahites, being called “half Jews”. Hyrcanus also took over parts of Moab, and continued the Jewish policy of seeking the favour of the Romans. From now on for 65 years the Jews were autonomous of Syria. In 108 BC, the Jews annexed Scythopolis, another Greek foundation. Hyrcanus reigned thirty until 105 BC, praised by all as a pious prince splendid High Priest, though his successors made him look better than he was.

In 104 BC, John Hyrcanus was succeeded by Judah Aristobulus, who reigned for only one year, but added the coast of Philistia (Gaza), and Peraea to his dominions, and subdued Galilee and Ituraea, forcing circumcision upon the inhabitants. Note that, if Christ was a Galilaean, he is unlikely to have been a son of David, because his ancestors were not Jews! In Mark, Christ denied he was a son of David, something that Christians habitually overlook in favour of the myths they prefer as beliefs. Aristobulus called himself the King of the Jews, although he used his name Judah and title High Priest at home. Like Herod, he was paranoid. He starved his mother to death, and killed his brothers. His successor was his brother, Jonathan (Yannai) Alexander (Alexander Jannaeus 103-79 BC), whom he had imprisoned ready to murder.

What had happened to the Hasids in the meantime. No one knows. They must have withdrawn from the party of the Maccabees and from public life, perhaps not wishing to oppose the Hasmonaeans openly in their struggles against gentile enemies, but keeping their heads down and their powder dry ready to resume the struggle for traditional religion. Under Hyrcanus, with Judah secure, perhaps they began to emerge again, expressing their disapproval of the Hasmonaeans who aimed for a national monarchy, contrary to the essence of the theocracy, and whom the Hasids considered had no hereditary right to hold the position of High Priest. The prerequisite of the theocracy was foreign domination. Set up by the foreigner, the Persian, it could only be preserved as a theocracy with a secular ruler in overall supervision. Its clerical character could not be preserved with political, executive and administrative matters, as well as external security to look after to the exclusion of religion. Yet the successes of the Maccabees generated immense popular enthusiasm which the zealots for the law were unable to dent. They simply had to keep out of the flow and not be swept along by it.

Under successive rulers, Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, the successors of the Hasidim gained popularity. Undoubtedly their tradition of zeal for the law and personal righteousness continued, and their preferred literary form seemed to have been the apocalyptic allegory like Daniel. In it, history is presented symbolically with the Jews represented as pure white lambs and their oppresors as laions, eagles, wild boars, etc. The expression “the lion lying down with the lamb” was never meant as literally true. It was always a metaphor. The Jewish lambs were watched over by seventy angels, but the negligence of the angels had allowed the lambs to suffer unnecessarily. God would burn them up in the perpetually flaming lake at the escaton for their neglect of their duty. After the dedication of the temple, the lambs slipped into spirtual blindness and impurity, and this it is that characterises the work as Hasidic:

Lambs were born by those white sheep and began to open their eyes and see…

Plainly, these were the Hasids who cried to the sheep and were ignored (Enoch 89:73-74). Ravens set about the lambs and took one of them—Onias. The struggle continued with only the apocalypse to resolve it. Then God would judge the lambs and their enemies, and would punish the latter and the seventy unworthy guardian angels. A horned sheep that had opened the eyes of the others might mean Judas Maccabee, so this dates from when the Hasidim admired him. But ambition and success moved the Maccabess from piety to aggrandisement. The parties that emerged were:

• The Sadduccees, the original priests who, with the Hasmonaeans, took to private ambition and greed, and adopted Hellenism despite the civil war that was meant to hold it back. Sadducee is from Zadok, supposedly the first righteous priest of the temple, whom the Sadducees claimed was their ancestor, the line being inherited. So this myth, now embodied in the myth of Solomon, embodies the truth that these had been the original priests of the temple. As there was never a Solomon, the line of the Zadokites could not have started with Solomon. It started with the setting up of the Persian temple state of Yehud, but, after the split from Persia, the legend of Solomon was invented by Ptolemaic Greeks when they were influential in Palestine, and had a major hand in writing the Jewish scriptures.
• The Pharisees who disregarded this worldliness and separated themselves from the high priesthood but remained pragmatic supporters of tradition. Pharisee is taken to mean “separated”, but originally it meant “Persian”, and stood for those who defended the tradition the Persian colonists had originally set up against the changes to it made by the priests, the Sadduccees.
• the Essenes, who split from the Pharisees, considering themselves saviours, protectors, keepers of the law, the truly righteous, and the true Zadokites, perhaps suggesting that they were dissenting priests, or reflecting the fact that the whole nation of the original Yehud, all of the original colonists, were priests, Yehud being a nation of priests because they were serving the other nations, called “The Nations”, of Abarnahara.

The Essenes were zealous for the law, but did not go to the lengths of the Pharisees in defining to the narrowest limits what the law prescribed in a vast additional compendium of oral law and commentary on it (halakah) by any authority all of which was preserved as precedent. The Essenes accused them bitterly of building walls around the law, defeating its divine purpose. Before long the Pharisees could write:

It is a worse offence to teach things contrary to the ordinances of the scribes than to teach things contrary to the written law.

The reason was that, as long as the wall built around the law by the scribes, the Pharisaic authorities, was intact, the law could not be broken. To the Essenes, this was impiety because the law was God’s, and the divinity of that should suffice for the just man. The masses ranged themselves increasingly with the Pharisees (the party of the scribes) as against the Sadducees (the Hasmonaean party), while the Essenes maintained a counter-culture of Persian tradition in the form of communes. Since the Pharisees first appear in history in the time of John Hyrcanus (135-105 BC), according to Josephus (antiquities 13:10:5-7), the Hasids must have split some time before then.

The Enoch literature goes on to make it plain that the Hasidim had fallen out with the nobility. Woes were pronounced on the rich for being unrighteous, and indeed oppressive to righteous people, for treating with sinners, for seducing Jews from the law, and for not protecting the ordinary Jew from those who exploited and even murdered them. The accusations were against those who considered death the great leveller, meaning the Hellenized Sadducees, whom we know from the New Testament did not believe in an after life like the Greeks. Everyone was equal in death, whether righteous or sinner. The author of these passages in Enoch believed in post-mortem rewards. The righteous would join the stars in heaven—the host of heaven, in the Persian phrase. So, these were the Hasids or the parties that the Hasids had evolved into in remaining loyal to the Persian tradition—the Pharisees and the Essenes.

Alexander Jannaeus continued the expansion of Judah into Jordan, forcibly converting the Greek inhabitants of Greek cities to Judaism, until it reached its greatest extent. Under this continuous warfare, the managaement of the land was neglected, so that the greatest extent of Hasmonaean power corresponded to impoverishment in the country. Alexander Jannaeus ruled a wasteland with bandits maurauding wherever they could take plunder. The people hated the tyrant Jannaeus. On one occasion, Alexander Jannaeus had returned to Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles. Standing in his priestly vestments before the altar to sacrifice, he poured the water of libation on the ground instead of onto the altar. The assembly of outraged worshippers pelted him with citrons from the green branches they carried. He set his imperial guard of Greek soldiers against the ordinary Jews in revenge for this insult, killing 6000 of them in the temple courts. By this cruelty, he excited the populace to the highest pitch, and, when he lost his army in the disaster of Gadara fighting the Nabataean Arabs, a rebellion broke out which lasted six years. The Pharisees summoned the Syrian king Demetrius III Eukairos to attack their own Jewish king. Jannaeus was worsted and fled into the desert. The trouble was that many Jews did not like the intervention of a gentile prince, the Pharisees lost public support, and sympathy turned to Jannaeus—he was a Maccabee—forcing Demetrius to withdraw. Jannaeus took a bloody vengeance on the Pharisees by crucifying 800 of them, also killing their wives and children before them as they hung on the crosses. Some escaped by going into exile.

Under Queen Salome, his widow, matters were as if they had been specially arranged for the satisfaction of the Pharisees. The High Priesthood passed to Salome’s son, Hyrcanus II. She was queen but with absolute authority in external affairs (Antiquities, 13:16, 6). At home she let the Pharisees have their way, and it is only from about this time that the Pharisees organized the first elementary tuition in Judah, so that ordinary people could read Pharisaic commentaries on the law. The origin of the Sanhedrin was the municipal council of Jerusalem, but its authority extended over the entire Jewish community. Other towns also had their synedria, (Mark 13:9). John Hyrcanus appears to have been the first to introduce some scribes into its composition. Salome may have increased their number, but even so this high court was far from being changed into a college of scribes like that at Jamnia. Pharisees were not all powerful in terms of seats or offices held. Holders of public offices had to administer and to judge in the spirit of Pharisaic principles.

Salome Alexandra, Jannai’s widow, seemed to favour the Pharisees, some say because Jannai had felt guilty at his treatement of them and made a death bed decision to be conciliatory. But perhaps she personally favoured them contrary to the opinions of her husband. Anyway, she is a saint in rabbinic tradition. What is curious, though, is that the change of heart should have been so strong as to extend to allowing the Pharisees to take revenge on Jannai’s allies, the Sadducees. Led by Aristobulus, the younger son of Jannaeus, they lost patience, and begged the queen to exile the Pharisees into the provinces. Hyrcanus, the elder son was Salome’s High Priest. Aristobulus had the support of his father’s generals, and advanced upon Jerusalem with an army raised by the forts outside Jerusalem, the military’s power base. When Salome died in 67 BC, he easily took over with little effective opposition from the Pharisees who had no military power. Hyrcanus resigned, but now appeared the figure of Antipater, whose father had been governor of the forcibly converted Edom. He was an Idumaean, a mere “Half Jew” but was to pull the strings of the party that Hyrcanus was reluctantly made to stand for. Antipater could call upon the Nabataean Arabs to assist him, and another struggle between the factions in Judah began. Hyrcanus fled to Petra, and then the Arab king, Aretas III Philhellen (Harith) invaded Judah.

But while all this squabbling was going on, the Romans had been steadily annexing Asia, and suddenly a man called Pompey told the Arabs to withdraw, which they promptly did! Antipater had the same sense as the Arab king, to make sure he stayed on the right side of the new world power. Hyrcanus surrendered Jerusalem to the Pompey’s Romans but the supporters of Aristobulus in the temple refused to surrender. Aristobulus was taken hostage by Pompey, when the great Roman general arrived in person and ended Jewish independence, but though Antipater had seen that the Romans had access to Jerusalem, the supporters of Aristobulus foolishly kept up their defence of the temple. After a three months seige, the Romans chose the sabbath to attack, and cut down the priests still officiating in the temple. Since Judas Maccabaeus had supposedly weened Jews indulging in warfare off their attachment to such dangerous sabbath day superstitions, it looks like the old myth of people with an excessive dedication to God grafted into Roman times. If true it must have reminded all Jews of Judas’s good sense.

Pompey’s soldiers took the temple in June 63 BC. Pompey, like Antiochus Epiphanes, entered the temple and even its Holy Place, but this time the Jews were not outraged, yet later when Pontius Pilate allegedly went into the temple, they were outraged again, though he is not known to have entered the Holy Place, but only raised Roman standards in the temple courts. While the two brothers were pleading their rival claims before Pompey, the Pharisees petitioned for the abolition of the kingship, and succeeded. Pompey abolished the kingship, made the timid Hyrcanus the High Priest with the Roman title of Ethnarch, but Judaea, the Roman name for Judah, reduced in area was made tributary to the Romans as a division of the Roman province of Syria. Jerusalem was occupied by a Roman garrison. Antipater remained the Prime Minister of Hyrcanus, and they ruled in tandem for the next 23 years to 40 BC, though they were subject to supervision by Roman proconsuls.

Herod

Under the Romans, the struggle between the Pharisees and the Sadducees continued. The Sadducees lost their rule over the Jewish state. The main influence was that of the occupying power on the popular mind. People do not like being ruled by foreigners, and the Roman occupation moved Jewish peasants once more into dissent and rebellion, and what should have been its focus other than the Jeish traditional loyalty to Persia. It is a pity that today US presidential advisers know no history of the region, even though many are Jews. Hyrcanus was restricted in 57 BC to being High Priest, and Marcus Crassus seized the temple treasure in 54 BC. The reason was as reparations for three successive uprisings in 57, 56 and 55 by Aristobulus and his son standing for a restoration of the Maccabees. Jewish sedition against the Romans did not end, and in 51 BC, Crassus, later involved in the plot against Caesar—Shakespeare’s “Yonder Cassius” with the mean and hungry look—sold 30,000 Jewish bandits as slaves. It is likely that Jews were serving as a Parthian fifth column in the east of the Roman empire, or at least that Romans suspected them of it. After the battle of Carrhae, another rising took place and was suppressed.

In these years, Rome itself was split and in 49 BC, the Roman civil war broke out. Caesar challenged and ended the Republic, and had Pompey assassinated in Egypt in 48 BC. Caesar instigated Aristobulus against Antipater whose cause was Pompey’s. Aristobulus was poisoned, and his son Alexander was killed at Antioch, leaving Antipater in the clear. After the battle of Pharsalus, Antipater buttered up Caesar, helped him out of difficulties at Alexandria in his Egyptian campaign, getting Caesar’s gratitude and sympathy and special favours for the millions of Jews who mysteriously already lived in the Roman Republic. The important conquests of the Hasmonaeans were restored and the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had razed, rebuilt.

When the authorities of the Jews saw how the power of Antipater and his sons was growing, their disposition towards him became hostile.

Josephus, Antiquities, 14:9:3

When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Antipater was ready to turn his allegiance to Cassius but was poisoned by a rival. Antony looked to have Caesar’s mantle and took over the eastern Roman empire, including Palestine and Egypt. But Caesar’s official heir was his nephew, Octavian who defeated Antony in the civil war and became the first Roman emperor, with the title Augustus.

The Psalms of Solomon were written at this time, and describe some of the history, such as the approach of Pompey. The authors were Jewish traditionalists and loyalists, the successors of the Hasids, probably Essenes because they plainly hated the Roman conquerors and the Jewish noble caste. They were appalled by the humiliation of the Jews, but, like modern fundamentalists, God could not be wrong, so everything was balamed on to sin, particularly the abuses of the Zadokite priesthood at the hands of the Maccabees:

The holy things of God they took for spoil, and there was no inheritor to deliver out of their hand. They went up top the altar of the Lord full of every uncleanness, yea, even in their separation they polluted the sacrifices, esting them like profane meats. They left not a sin undone in which they did not offend more than the Gentiles.

They put their faith on a son of David as an “inheritor”. If David has any historical basis, he is Darius II of Persia who founded Judaism. The son of David was now seen in the same way as the Persian saoshyant, the Saviour. He would “thrust sinners out of the inheritance” and gather “a holy people whom he would lead in righteousness” and “none that knoweth wickedness shall dwell with them”.

Antipater had two sons, Phasael and Herod, the latter just less than thirty years old, and they caught and murdered their father’s murderer. Herod had been put in charge of Galilee, and had shown his energy by vigorously putting down the bandit Hezekiah. The authorities summoned him before the Sanhedrin to reprimand him, but the youth was defiant, and had the useful backing of a letter from Sextus Caesar telling the Sanhedrin to acquit him. Soon, Sextus made Herod strategus of Coelesyria, and he appeared before Jerusalem with an army, withdrawing only when the Sanhedrin talked sweetly to him.

The authorities accused Herod and his brother, Phasael, to Mark Antony, the oligarch of the east, but Antony supported the brothers. Antony made Herod tetrarch of Judaea, with Hyrcanus retaining the sacerdotal role. Plainly the Romans favoured these two, so the authorities supported an Hasmonaean claimant, Antigonus, son of Aristobulus II, who was hiding in Parthia, the natural rivals of Rome in these parts (40 BC). The Parthians were the successors to the Persians, and the Jerusalem authorities naturally favoured them. In 40 BC, the Parthians invaded and could not be held. They rapidly overran Syria, bringing Antigonus with them. Phasael committed suicide in prison and Herod fled, leaving Jerusalem again in Hasmonaean hands. Poor peaceful Hyrcanus was deliberate;y mutilated so that he could never be High Priest, for they had to be perfectly formed, like the sacrificial beasts, and he was taken away to Babylon. Herod took refuge in Rome, where he made representations to the senate who declared him the rightful King of the Jews. With the legions of Sosius behind him, he returned to win back his country and take Jerusalem (37 BC) to become king. Antigonus surrendered and was beheaded at Antioch. Herod remained king for the next 33 years.

Cleopatra wanted Palestine under Egyptian domination. She persuaded Antony to take from Herod some valuable provinces. Herod had backed Antony against Octavius, but used his charm to win over Octavius when he defeated Antony, boldly saying he was loyal to Rome not to the particular agent of the empire at any time. Octavius was impressed and rid him of Cleopatra.

Herod began by executing his most determined opponents, forty five Sadducaean nobles of the Sanhedrin. He subjected the office of the High Priest to his own power, and abolished life tenure of it, rendering the Hasmonaean Sadducees powerless. They were driven out of the political sphere. His greatest danger was the surviving members of the Hasmonaean family, and after about a decade in power, Herod had wiped out all the Hasmonaeans. He bagan with his young brother-in-law, Aristobulus (35 BC), then his old patron priest Hyrcanus II (30 BC), who had returned from Babylon thinking the coast was clear. But he made a point of marrying Mariamne, an Hasmonaean princess, legitimizing his sons, though he murdered her, a woman he geuinely loved (29 BC). Like Othello he was persuaded of his wife’s infidelity, and murdered her, but he bitterly regretted it, and was said to have kept her body preserved in honey. Lastly, he killed his stepmother, Alexandra (28 BC), the daughter of Hyrcanus and the widow of Alexander of the Aristobuli.

The temple under Herod was served by his own nominations, one from Babylon and one from Alexandria, each a major center of Jewish population. The traditionalists could have approved of these people if they had been descended from Zadokites, and they would certainly have been relieved that Herod himself showed no interest in being High Priest. It is on these grounds that the Essenes and Pharisees could have seen some merit in him. Tradionalists wanted a Davidic king and a Zadokite High Priest but considered the priest the more important, and, if the priest was not a Zadokite, the Essenes preferred to abandon temple worship all but nominally in paying the temple tax once a lifetime. The basis of this abandonment must have been the traditon that Jews were a nation of priests, and so when the priesthood became utterly corrupt righteous Jews had the right to keep the faith in their hearts, as Jeremiah advocated.

Herod honoured the Pharisees who had urged the Sanhedrin to open the gates of Jerusalem to admit him. During his reign, the Pharisees were most successful—Sameas and Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai, being the pairs of distinguished Pharisees who debated the issues. In the Sanhedrin, they almost equalled the priests and elders. He also for a while favoured the Essenes, possibly while he was building the temple, as they were a priestly body. In general, he appreciated the use of religion, and wanted to confine national life within religious bounds to his own advantage, mainly being careful to avoid offending the religious parties (Antiquities, 14:16:3). The people did not like him, though, hoping still for an Hasmonaean, Herod being an Idumaean, albeit Jewish by practice. Herod was also only the client of the Romans. The mass of the people regarded Romans differently from the Persians, and the Romans knew it, and disliked the Jews for favouring their enemies.

Herod has a good claim to his title “The Great”. He was able to restore order in a chaotic situation with an emotionally unstable population. He promoted peace and rid the country of bandits with the backing of the legions, and his own fortresses and spy network. He had to tax the people to pay for it all, but in compensation created full employment, and promoted the material interests of Jews widely with energy and discretion. He built grand cities like Antipatris, Sebaste (Samaria) and the artificial harbour of Caesarea on the coast, constructed roads, theatres, and temples, and subsidised far beyond his frontier all works of public utility. True, he was ruthless and paranoid, though with some justification as these pages indicate, so, if anyone turned up with a claim to his throne, he acted ruthlessly. Myth though it is, the story in Matthew of the murder of the Bethlehem innocents for fear that one was a pretender to his throne was true to character. If Jesus was a pretender to the throne of Judaea, then it was not as a son of David but as a son of Judas Maccabee—he was claiming to be an Hasmonaean. In fact, any claim he had was as a man of destiny, like Herod himself. As noted above, he denied he was a son of David, if this was some sort of code for Hasmonaean.

As ever, the ones who hated Herod the most were the traditionalists. Herod was a Hellenist, and traditional Jews were still strongly against it. But these traditonal Jews were not the majority. Herod’s regime was stable. It became unstable again under his son, and then the Roman prefects and procurators. The anti-Greek and anti-Roman literature of the time was written by the Essenes, and the Essenes were at the root of Christianity and the gospels. They were not favourable to Herod or the Romans, but once in the wider empire they had to ameliorate the Roman people. It became Christianity.

Herod remained suspicious of potential rivals and realizeded that he had given his sons by Mariamne a better claim than he had. Antipater induced him to condemn them at Berytus, and he had them strangled (Samaria, 7-6 BC). When the accusation was exposed as false, Herod realized he had killed his own sons without cause and fell ill with the shock. While he lay dying at Jericho, he ordered the execution of Antipater. To temper the joy there would be among the Jews at his death, he had their elders shut in the hippodrome at Jericho with instructions they should be slaughtered as soon as he died. When Herod died, just a few years short of 70, in 4 BC, it was not done, but insurrections broke out, and spread everywhere. Varus suppressed them with great cruelty. His will was confirmed by Augustus. The principal heir was Archelaus, to whom Idumaea, Judaea, and Samaritis were allotted. Augustus refused him the title of king, making him ethnarch of Judaea. Archelaus was so ruthless, incompetent, tyrannical and unpopular in his administration that, after only ten years in 6 AD, a Jewish and Samaritan embassy approached the emperor to depose him. Augustus did, banishing Archelaus to Vienne, and installing a Roman prefect. His son Philip received the northern portion of the territory on the east of the Jordan along with the district of Paneas (Caesarea Philippi)—his thirty-seven years’ reign was happy. Another son, Herod Antipas, obtained Galilee and Peraea—like his father, he beautified his domains with architectural works (Sepphoris, Tiberias, Livias, Machaerus), and ingratiated himself with the emperors, particularly Tiberius.

The Similitudes of Enoch seem to have been written in the days of Herod, and the work has a strong bearing on Christianity. It is apocalyptic, discussing the Judgement and then the rewards of the Righteous and punishments of the Wicked. Such works were meant as a psychological comfort for the righteous, but failed to affect the consciousness of the wicked who always ignored them.

Enoch travels to heaven to see the Head of Days (the name showing that this was the God of Time) and Lord of Spirits who has beneath His wings one who looked like the son of man but looked angelic. This man (because a “son of man” means a man) was the Chosen One of the Lord of Spirits who was to reveal “hidden treasures” as the Most Righteous. He is also called “The Elected One” and “The Anointed” (or Messiah). He would be the Light of the Gentiles. He hated and despised the unrighteous world, and so had been chosen to preserve the Righteous Ones. He would make judgement on the angels as well as men by weighing their deeds in the balance, showing that belief was certainly not in faith alone! We have too a pre-gospel affirmation that the righteous cannot lie whatever they might say, for “no one will be able to utter a lying word before him”. Though obviously meant to condemn lying, its ambiguity allows those whose saintliness is assured, they think, the illusion that it is impossible for them to lie whatever they say. Christ assured Christians of it, and they have lied confidently ever since. The earth would be purified of all evil, and kings and rulers would be punished for oppressing the people. The earth would be transformed and made holy for the righteous elect ones to live in, but no sinners would be admitted. Note here that “earth” in Hebrew is “eretz” which is “land”, and so originally the land of Judah will have been in the author’s mind, not necessarily the whole earth.

The congregation of the holy and elect will be sown and all the elect will stand before him… and the Lord of Spirits will abide over them, and with that Son of Man will they eat and lie down and rise up for ever and ever.

Enoch Similitude 62

Everything here precedes the Christian gospels by at least a century, yet it has all the essentials of Christianity. Despite it, Christians persist that theirs is a unique one-off revelation quite in opposition to the evidence. Christ was thought to be this man, but failed to bring about the expected transformation, dying instead on the cross. The myth had to be modified to incorporate this suffering, and then to identify God with the Son of Man. Obviously, the change improved the story for believers.

Diaspora

There was now an immense scattered body of Jews all over the Roman world…

Edwyn Bevan, Jerusalem under the High Priests

The Jews were now everywhere, a people to whom their numbers alone would have given importance. The Roman empire was Jewish to a greater degree than the United States today.

Edwyn Bevan, Christianity (1932)

Where were all these Jews coming from, literally millions of them? They could not have all come from the tiny country of Judaea in the Palestine hills. Box finds it all a bit incredible and finds himself having to explain it. His answer:

The large increase in the numbers of the Jewish diaspora can be accounted for only when the missionary proaganda is taken into account. The impression produced by this is vividly reflected in the Hellenistic writers who represent the whole world as rushing towards Jewish observances. No doubt there is a certain amount of exaggeration…

G H Box

Exaggeration is the word. That so many people should have suddenly had a deep desire to convert to Judaism, having their manhood snipped for the privilege, and opting for bizarre food habits and rituals has to be utterly exaggerated, especially as it goes against everything else that we know. People tended to despise Jews, and it is therefore hard to believe that neverthless they wanted to be one, and our knowledge of the time of Paul and the apostles tells us that westerners were very chary about converting to Judaism, though many were content to be fellow travellers called “Godfearers”. Missionary activity is not the answer, and nor is slavery, another attempt Box tries. Jews were enslaved then bought out of slavery by other Jews. Again, it is impossible that there could ever have been so many Jewish slaves unless Jews were something other than the people who lived in Judah. No doubt both of Box’s attempts played a small part, but the sheer numbers that appeared so quickly with the fall of Persia requires a different explanation. The diaspora began, in spite of Josephus (Antiquities 11:5:2), in Persia. It was a Persian invention, as was Judaism.

Herod was protective of the Jews in the so-called diaspora, realizing what wealth they brought into Judaea through their pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Passover. His reason for building the temple on a vast scale was to encourage this pilgrimage business, and he knew there was scope for it. The same is true of his artificial harbour of Caesarea. Judaea had no natural harbour, so it was difficult for the Jews of the empire to get to Jerusalem. The new state-of-the-art port solved the problem. The workmen he engaged for the temple Holy Place, which could not be even built by profane hands, were all priests. But where did this army of priests who were also builders and stonemasons—the word translated carpenter (tekton) in the gospels—come from? They were Essenes. The Essenes were in favour with Herod in 20 BC when he bagan the temple, and he was in favour with them, but it seems that once the Holy Place had been built, Herod became less interested in them. Herod and the Essenes fell out, and the Essenes returned to their wilderness retreats that they had had no use for in the previous years in favour. The biblical story of the flight to Egypt—Qumran or some similar Essene sanctuary—might be a memory of it.

The bible says it took 46 years to finish the temple, so it was never completed in the time of Herod, and was only finihed in 27 AD, if the dates are right. It is not clear whether the preparatory work of demolition and assembling the materials was included in the given dates, but it is known that Herod assembled vast amounts of material before work began, so that the services would not be interrupted unnecessarily. Moreover, what constitutes the completion of it? Major structural building could have ended but shopfitting gone on a lot longer. Indeed, does it ever end? Not to judge by our cathedrals, and they are not nearly as decorated as they once were. The style of it was Greek not oriental, with typical Greek columns as Josephus (Antiquities 15:11:5), who had obviously seen it vouchsafes.

In the Graeco-Roman period Jerusalem at the time of the great festival was a veritable Babel (Acts 2:9-11). Proselytes mingled with the Jews themselves (Acts 2:11). King Agrippa I wrote to the emperor Caligula:

Jerusalem is the metropolis not only of Judaea but of very many lands, on account of the colonies which on various occasions (’epi xairon) it has sent out into the adjoining countries of Egypt, Phœnicia, Syria, and Coelesyria, and into the more remote Pamphylia, Cilicia, the greater part of Asia Minor as far as to Bithynia and the remotest parts of Pontus, likewise into Europe—Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, AEtolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, most parts (and these the fairest) of the Peloponnesus. Nor are the Jewish settlements confined to the mainland only. They are found also in the more important islands, Euboea, Cyprus, Crete. I do not insist on the countries beyond the Euphrates, for with few exceptions all of them, Babylon and the fertile regions around it, have Jewish inhabitants”.

Philo, Legat ad Gaium 36

In the imperial age of Rome, there were also many Jews even in the west of Europe, and many thousands lived in Rome. Where there were many of them, they formed separate communities. Josephus shows that the Roman authorities recognised their rights and liberties, especially as regards the Sabbath rest and the observance of festivals. Alexandria was most important. According to Philo, a million Jews lived there under an ethnarch, then a gerusia was substituted by Augustus. The importance of this diaspora in the diffusion of Christianity, and the way the mission of the apostles depended on the synagogues and proseuchai, is recorded in Acts. The emperors more than once banished them from Rome (Acts 18:2). The good will of the native population they never secured. They were most hated in Egypt and Syria, where they were strongest.

The place taken by the Jews in the world of that time is described by Mommsen in his History of Rome:

How numerous even in Rome the Jewish population was already before Caesar’s time, and how closely at the same time the Jews even then kept together as fellow-countrymen, is shown by the remark of an author of this period, that it was dangerous for a governor to offend the Jews in his province, because he might then certainly reckon on being hissed after his return, by the populace of the capital. Even at this time the predominant business of the Jews was trade… At this period too we encounter the peculiar antipathy of the Occidentals touards this so thoroughly Oriental race and their foreign opinions and customs. This Judaism, although not the most pleasing feature in the nowhere pleasing picture of the mixture of nations which then prevailed, was, nevertheless, an historical element developing itself in the natural course of things which Caesar just like his predecessor Alexander fostered as far as possible… They did not, of course, contemplate placing the Jewish nationality on an equal footing with the Hellenic or Italo-Hellenic. But the Jew who has not, like the Occidental, received the Pandora’s gift of political organisation, and stands substantially in a relation of indifference to the state, who, moreover, is as reluctant to give up the essence of his national idiosyncrasy as he is ready to clothe it with any nationality at pleasure and to adapt himself up to a certain degree to foreign habits—the Jew was, for this very reason, as it were, made for a state which was to be built on the ruins of a hundred living polities, and to be endowed with a somewhat abstract and, from the outset, weakened nationality. In the ancient world also Judaism was an effective leaven of cosmopolitanism and of national decomposition.

The position of the Jews in the Roman Empire was naturally not improved by the great risings under Nero, Trajan (in Cyrene, Cyprus, Mesopotamia), and Hadrian. The East strictly so called, became more and more their proper home. The Christianization of the empire helped still further in a special way to detach them from the Western world. For a brief time only were they again favoured by Julian the Apostate. They sided with the Persians against the Byzantines. In the year 614 AD, they were even put in possession of Jerusalem by Chosroes, but were not long able to hold their own against Heraclius.

The Romans

After the eviction of Archelaus, Judaea continued under prefects then procurators, with the exception of a brief interval (41-44 AD), during which Herod Agrippa I united under his sway all the dominions of his grandfather. Agrippa was the grandson of Mariamne through Aristobulus. Caligula, whose friendship he had secured in Rome, bestowed upon him, in 37 BC, the dominions of Philip with the title of king, and afterwards the tetrarchy of Antipas, whom he deposed and banished to Lugdunum (39 AD). Claudius added the possessions of Archelaus. But the kingdom was again taken away from his son Agrippa II (44 AD) who later became lord of Chalcis. His sister Berenice was the mistress of Titus. Another sister, Drusilla, was the wife of the procurator Felix. The descendants of Mariamne through Alexander held for some time an Armenian principality.

With the end of the vassal kingship, the Sadducees again became important as local lords and administrators. Hatred of the Romans continued, led by the Essenes, who believed in complete cultural separation of Jews from gentiles. At the highest levels, they kept themselves apart but had supporters among the lower classes who donated a portion of their income to the order rather like the Mormons. The aim of the new party was exactly that of the Essenes, to be zealous for the law, and so they were called Zealots. The Pharisees, although they too disliked the Roman occupiers, were more pragmatic and accomodating, aiming to be righteous themselves, breaking nothing of the law, and leaving the solution of problems with God. Only Christians liked the Romans, modern Christians believe, but it is safe to say that only the publicans and the priesthood really did like them, because they had something to gain from the occupation. The Essene led Zealots were intent on actively bringing about a free kingdom helped by God (Josephus, Antiquities 18:1:1). It never rings any bells in the heads of Christians that their Jesus had the same objective, and was hanged for it.

As the transition to the new order of things was going on, the census of Quirinius took place (6-7 AD), causing much agitation, which was allayed. On the withdrawal of Quirinius, Coponius remained behind as prefect of Judaea (6-9 AD). He was followed, under Augustus, by Marcus Ambivius (9-12 AD) and Annius Rufus (12-15 AD), and, under Tiberius, by Valerius Gratus (15-26 AD) and Pontius Pilatus (26-36 AD), and, under Caligula, by Marcellus (36-37 AD) and Marullus (37-41 AD). The tours of duty were normally short but became long under Tiberius. An argument in these pages is that Gratus too served a normal short tour of duty (15-18 AD), and only Pontius Pilate served a long one. The prefects were subordinate to the imperial legati of Syria. They resided in Caesarea, and visited Jerusalem on special occasions only. They had command of the military, and their chief business was the maintenance of the peace and the care of the revenue. They were not concerned with religion unless it took on a political dimension. The temple citadel Antonia was constantly garrisoned with a cohort. The administration of local justice was the business of the Sanhedrin, but it had no death sentence.

Caligula wanted to desecrate the temple with his image, but the execution of the order was postponed by the governor of Syria, P Petronius, until the emperor was persuaded by Agrippa I to withdraw it. Caligula soon afterwards died, and Claudius handed the the entire kingdom of his grandfather to Agrippa I. The Jews then breifly enjoyed prosperity under a good king. After the death of Agrippa I, the governorship was handed again to Roman officials, the procurators. The Jews disliked them all irrespective of what they were like as rulers. They were Cuspius Fadus (44-46 AD), Tiberius Alexander (the Romanised nephew of Philo, 46-48 AD), Cumanus (48-52 AD, under whom sedition grew dangerously), and Felix (52-60 AD). Felix, slated by Tacitus, aggravated the dissension. The nobility became thoroughly secular and used immoral means to attain their ends. The Zealots became the dominant party, with the sicarii as its militant wing. Porcius Festus (60-62 AD), succeeding Felix, tried hard, but the last two procurators, Albinus (62-64 AD) and Gessius Florus (64-66 AD), seemed intent on provoking the war. No property was secure, the assassins alone prospered, and the procurators shared with them in the profits.

During his visit to Jerusalem, in May 66, Florus grabbed the temple treasure, made over part of the city to be plundered, and crucifyed some citizens. A succession of fresh insults and cruelties followed, till violence broke out against the Romans who were badly mauled in stree fights. The procurator withdrew, leaving the cohort in Antonia. Agrippa II came from Alexandria to try to mediate but the Jews refused to submit to Gessius Florus. Just then, the Zealots captured the fortress of Masada on the Dead Sea. Sacrifice on behalf of the emperor was stopped. It was a declaration of UDI. The cohort in Antonia was allowed to withdraw but all were killed when they emerged according to the terms of surrender. The High Priest, Ananias, considered a collaborator was now murdered.

Nero sent Vespasian, his best general to sort out the problem. In the spring of 67 AD, he began his task in Galilee, where the historian Josephus had command of the insurgents. In a while, the Romans commanded Galilee except for a few strong holds. Josephus was besieged in Jotapata, and taken prisoner. The Zealot leader, John of Giscala, fled Galilee to Jerusalem. Ananus with the heads of the aristocracy and many other respectable citizens were killed. The radicals under John of Giscala came into power.

Meanwhile, Vespasian had subdued most of the country, but just as he was preparing to attack Jerusalem, a report arrived that Nero had died, and the offensive was discontinued. For almost two years (June 68 to April 70), with a short break, war was suspended. When Vespasian at the end of this period became emperor, he entrusted to Titus the task of reducing Jerusalem. There, Simon bar Giora had come into the city, a geurilla captain, and he and John of Gischala were at loggerheads. John occupied the temple, Simon the upper city. For a short time another faction was led by Eleazar who had separated from John and established himself in the inner temple. But just as Titus was beginning the siege (Easter, 70) John got rid of him.

Only when Titus attacked did the defenders stop feuding and unite against the common enemy. They resisted vigorously. He beseiged the city, building an outer wall completely round it. On the night of August 10-11, the temple was set alight, and the defenders were slaughtered, but John cut his way out across the bridge over the Tyropceon valley and escaped into the upper city. The Romans then attacked the upper city, and met little resistance. The Roman soldiers spread fire and slaughter unchecked (September 7, 70 AD).

The rest who survived were sold as slaves. The city was levelled to the ground, and the tenth legion was left in charge. Titus took with him to Rome for his triumphal procession Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala, along with seven hundred other prisoners, also the sacred booty taken from the temple, the candlestick, the golden table, and a copy of the Torah. The war did not end, however, until the fall of Masada (April 73).

The Rabbis

National fanaticism was not yet extinguished, but it burnt itself completely out in the vigorous insurrection led by Simeon bar Kosiba (Bar Cochebas, 132-135 AD). Akiba, the famous rabbi took part in it, recognizing Simeon as the messiah, which ought to make Christians wonder whether they have the proper Christ.

The rabbis formed a college at Jamnia as a continuation of the Sanhedrin. Soon it moved to Galilee, and settled at Tiberias. The president bore the secular title of the old High Priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch) which was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last descendants of whom the court itself came to an end. The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi—Gamaliel ben Simeon (Josephus, Vita 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts 5:34;22:3) ben Simeon ben Hillel. The name Gamaliel was that which occurred most frequently among the patriarchs. Under him, the Palestinian Jews continued to form a state within a state until the fifth century. From the non-Palestinian Jews he received money.

Aquila set aside the Septuagint as it had become the Christian bible, and the synagogue separated from the church. Christianity was no longer a Jewish sect. Whereas before no texts had been prescribed, the canon was now fixed, and the distinction between canon and apocrypha sharply drawn. Beginning in the century after the destruction of Jerusalem, tradition was codified. Towards the end of the second century the Pharisaic doctrine of Hillel as it had been further matured by Akiba was codified and elevated to the position of statute law by the patriarch Rabban Judah the Holy (Mishna). The Mishna succeeded almost in completely doing away with all conflicting tendencies. At first, the heterodox tradition of that time was also committed to writing (R Ishmael ben Elisha) and so handed down—in various forms (the Baraithas, old precepts not in the Mishna, in the Tosephtha). Nor did the opposition disappear but seems to have lived on in Babylonia to reappear as Karaism in the middle of the eighth century, founded supposedly by Anan ben David but continuing the philosophy of Essenism.

The Mishna became itself the object of rabbinical comment and supplement, the Tannaim, whose work was registered in the Mathnetha, were followed by the Amoraim, whose work in turn took permanent shape in the Gemara (“doctrine”). The Palestinian Gemara was written down in perhaps the fourth or fifth century. The process which ended in the Talmud was not yet completed. The Babylonian Amoraim took it forward until the Babylonian Gemara was also written down, as Islam took over. Palestine ceased to be the centre of Judaism in the fifth century. The dynasty of the Patriarchs became extinct, and the Jews in the Roman Empire had to face the establishment of an anti-Jewish religion, Christianity. A Jewish church continued in Babylon granted self government by the Parthians and Sassanids, and continued into the time of the Abassids.

At the beginning of the third century AD, Abba Areka (Rab) and some rabbis had migrated from Palestine to found a school of law in Babylonia. The schools at Pumbeditha, Sora, and Nahardea prospered, competing with those in Palestine, but surviving when the patriarchate died out. The Massora also settled on how the consonantal Hebrew of the bible should be pronounced using punctuation marks.

References

1. Julius Wellhausen, article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
2. Edwyn Bevan, Jerusalem under the High Priests
3. G H Box, Judaism in the Greek Period

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