THE JEWISH REVOLT against the Romans. Bible Workshop: Readers comments. Rome versus Jerusalem. The great Jewish revolt and its causes.

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1 The Testimony, December Bible Workshop: Readers comments Regarding John 5:4, the troubling of the water by an angel (Oct. 2004, p. 382), the Greek for angel, aggelos, is translated messenger in Matthew 11:10; Luke 7:24,27; 9:52; 2 Corinthians 12:7 and James 2:25. May I suggest that if in John 5:4 aggelos is translated messenger or one sent, the verse would simply be saying that an appropriate person stepped into the water and then the first lame person to step in after him would supposedly be healed. It would seem out of keeping with God s mind and way of doing things for Him to promote a mad scramble of crippled people to be healed on a first come, first served basis. Another passage where messenger would be a meaningful alternative to angel is Acts 12:15. The disciples were praying, most likely for Peter s release. When it happened they could not believe it and thought the knocking visitor was someone from Peter with a message, rather than Peter himself. Ken White Rome versus Jerusalem The great Jewish revolt and its causes 1. A century of turmoil Peter L. Osborne New series The Jewish revolt of A.D against the Romans has always been of great interest to Bible students. It was foretold by the Master as being the inevitable result of Jewish rejection of his claims; it looms as the background to the Acts and some of the epistles; and it ended with the destruction of the temple and a Jewish exile which has lasted to our times. In this new study Brother Peter Osborne will go into the causes of this revolt that had such a major effect upon the Jewish people, but in his first article he outlines the growing turmoil of the years that led up to the revolt. THE JEWISH REVOLT against the Romans was not a spontaneous event. A.D. 70 was the brutal finale to something that was decades in the making. The causes of the revolt, which this series of articles will explore, were developing at least as early as the time of Christ. To be sure, the subjugation of the nation by the Romans was Divine retribution for their rejection of Christ, so, in the ultimate sense, God caused the revolt. But Divine judgement has a certain irony and justice. God s retribution came not by direct supernatural intervention; He orchestrated political, social and economic circumstances, and the nation responded. Their response was consistent with the attitudes and beliefs that led them to reject Messiah, namely, self-interest, avarice and a wilful rejection of Scripture teaching about the Kingdom of God. These attitudes and beliefs led them to rebel against the Romans and to believe that the revolt could succeed, that God would help them, and a kingdom would be established in their time. The Romans reaction was predictable and its outcome inevitable. The Jewish state was crushed, not to be re-established for two thousand years. This introductory article will briefly outline the circumstances leading to the revolt. The coming of Roman rule Judea became a Roman province in A.D. 6 after a long period of Roman influence commencing in the sixties B.C. The struggle of the Maccabees against Seleucid rule (168/7 B.C.) had led to rulership over Israel by the Jewish Hasmonean family of high priests.

2 456 The Testimony, December 2004 Sources and method Our main source for the events leading up to the revolt is Josephus (Loeb edition). Tacitus, Cassius Dio and Suetonius, other ancient historians who deal with the period, only briefly mention it. Josephus s Jewish Antiquities covers the history of the Jews until the outbreak of the insurrection; The Jewish War extends from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (c. 170 B.C.) until A.D. 70, and The Life deals with Josephus s role as a commander in Galilee during the Revolt. Christadelphian writers and speakers sometimes question Josephus s accuracy and objectivity. Josephus was biased, but so were all ancient (and so are all modern) historians who were not guided by the Spirit. It is a matter of identifying probable motives for bias and adjusting for them. Josephus s bias stems from his direct involvement with the events and personalities associated with the revolt. He was one of the moderate leaders of the revolt, and, after he surrendered to Vespasian and Titus Roman commanders who were later to be made emperors in turn they favoured him. His identification with the moderates means he is hostile to the more radical revolutionaries who wrested control from them and whom he blames for the revolt. His links with Vespasian and Titus mean he is sympathetic to the Romans; a stated reason for his history is to deter others from rebelling against them. A more subtle bias stems from his link with the Pharisees. I have attempted to compensate for his bias by using the work of Crane Brinton as a starting point. In his Anatomy of Revolution Brinton proposed that modern revolutions have many causes in common and they follow a similar sequence of events. The historian Cecil Roth showed that the Jewish revolt of A.D followed the sequence proposed by Brinton. It is interesting that the Jewish Revolt has similarities with the French Revolution. Brinton posited certain causes in common with many modern revolutions; I have used these as starting points for determining the causes of the Jewish Revolt. In 67 B.C. the family lost power after the brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus fell out over the succession. The Romans and Antipater, king of Idumea, intrigued with the warring brothers. In 37 B.C. Antipater s son, Herod the Great (Mt. 2:1; Lk. 1:5), as a client of Rome, manoeuvred himself into position as ruler of Judea and later murdered the surviving Hasmoneans. Though unpopular, Herod maintained stability in Judea until his death in 4 B.C. In his final years he was paranoid about possible usurpers. When he heard of the birth of Christ as the King of the Jews (Mt. 2:2), probably in the final year of his reign, he determined to kill all the infants of Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt, returning during the reign of Archelaus, Herod s son and successor. In A.D. 6, after Archelaus had proved unable to assert his authority over the Jews, he was removed by the Romans, who annexed Judea, Samaria and Idumea to form the new province of Judea. Galilee remained under the control of another of Herod s sons, Antipas (Mt. 14:1ff.; Mk. 6:14ff.; Lk. 3:1,19; 9:7ff.; 13:31; 23:7ff.), who was permitted to reign as a client prince. Judea remained a Roman province until the revolt of A.D , except for a few years when Agrippa, the Herod of Acts 12, a grandson of Herod the Great, was allowed to reign over it as a client king. As a province, Judea was managed by Roman governors of quite lowly political status. They were members of the equestrian class in Rome. Though wealthy, they were not Roman senators and were therefore of lower political rank than the governors of many other provinces. Some important provinces, for example Egypt, which was an important source of Rome s food supply, were governed by equites, who answered directly to the emperor. However, the Judean governors appear to have been answerable to the governor of Syria; Felix (Acts 23:24 25:14) was a lowly freedman or ex-slave of Quadratus, governor of Syria. The governors held military power and overriding civil powers. However, in practise, they probably devolved the management of day-today affairs to the high priests, supported by the

3 The Testimony, December Sanhedrin. This was normal practice with the Romans, whose chief concerns were merely to maintain order and to ensure that taxes were collected. Uneasy relationship The relationship between the Jews and the Romans was uneasy from the start. There was a wide cultural and religious gulf between the two nations. The first stirrings of trouble occurred after a census to take place in A.D. 6 was announced. This was an assessment for the purposes of taxation. One Judas of Galilee incited his countrymen to revolt, upbraiding them as cowards for consenting to pay tribute to the Romans and tolerating mortal masters, after having God for their lord. 1 Josephus credits Judas and his comrade, Saddok the Pharisee, with starting a new sect. Their beliefs were similar to the Pharisees in all respects except that they had a passion for liberty that is almost unconquerable since they are convinced that God alone is their leader and master. 2 Though his protest movement was soon dispersed (Acts 5:37), Josephus asserts that Judas laid the seeds of the revolt of A.D. 66. This uneasy relationship was aggravated by the provocative behaviour of governors and one of the emperors. The Law prohibited the making of any human likeness. Yet Pilate, governor at the time of Christ s ministry, provoked outrage by placing a garrison in Jerusalem whose standard was a bust of the emperor. On another occasion he proposed building an aqueduct using money from the Corbonas or sacred treasury. (The Corban of Mark 7:11 was money devoted to the sacred treasury.) He brutally suppressed the ensuing riot. Then, in A.D. 40, the Emperor Caligula attempted to have a statue of himself erected in the temple. It was probably providential that Caligula was assassinated and so prevented from carrying his wishes into effect. If the statue had been erected it would surely have brought on a revolt. It was too early for this to occur; the ecclesia was at an early stage of development and a measure of peace and stability was crucial. The apparent hostility of the Roman garrison also contributed to the unrest. The troops hostility is not surprising given that many of them came from Caesarea (a largely Greek city) and Sebaste (Samaria). 3 When Cumanus was governor (A.D ), a riot broke out in the temple after a member of the garrison stationed in the fortress Antonia exposed himself in a lewd manner to the crowd gathered for the Passover. Cumanus sent in troops and thousands were killed in the crush as the Jews tried to flee. The troops were responsible for another disturbance after some brigands attacked a messenger of Caesar. Cumanus sent troops to sack the Caligula villages in the area and a near riot broke out when a soldier obtained a copy of the Law during the operation and tore it in full sight of the villagers while he uttered blasphemies and railed violently. 4 The army was used in another fatal clash after a dispute between Jews and Samaritans erupted into open conflict. Cumanus sent in Samaritan troops. Again, many Jews were killed. Descent into anarchy From the A.D. 40s, Judea appears to have begun a steady descent into anarchy. Josephus suggests that brigands (Gk. lestai) were endemic in Judea for decades before the revolt. From the time of the governor Cumanus, according to Josephus, the whole of Judæa was infested with bands of brigands. 5 This had evidently been the situation for over a decade. When Felix was made governor in A.D. 52, he captured Eleazar the brigand chief, who for twenty years [that is, since c. A.D. 32] had ravaged the country. 6 At that time he executed an incalculable number of brigands and their supporters. Josephus also refers to these brigands as seditious revolutionaries. 7 The more than forty who bound themselves with an oath to kill Paul (Acts 23:12ff.) may have been of this group. Josephus notes that also during the régime of Felix there occurred the appearance of false 1. Wars, Antiquities, Antiquities, Antiquities, Antiquities, Wars, Antiquities, ; cf. BJ

4 458 messiahs, imposters and deceivers [who] called upon the mob to follow them into the desert. For they said that they would show them unmistakable marvels and signs This period also saw the rise of the Sicarii. They specialised in assassination with short daggers. Josephus graphically describes their modus operandi: The festivals were their special seasons, when they would mingle with the crowd, carrying short daggers concealed under their clothing, with which they stabbed their enemies. Then, when they fell, the murderers joined in the cries of indignation and, through this plausible behaviour, were never discovered. 9 Jonathan the high priest was one of the first to fall to these terrorists. According to Josephus, they generated a climate of fear and distrust. They are referred to in Acts 21:38 as murderers (Gk. sikarios). By now, the aims of the Lestai and the Sicarii were unambiguously political. Josephus states: The imposters and brigands, banding together, incited numbers to revolt, exhorting them to assert their independence, and threatening to kill any who submitted to Roman domination. 10 They also targeted their wealthy countrymen, for they looted the houses of the wealthy, murdered their owners, and set the villages on fire. 11 By A.D. 53, conflict also broke out between rival factions of the Jews themselves. Josephus states that there developed mutual enmity and class warfare between the high priests, on one hand, and the priests and the leaders of the populace of Jerusalem, on the other. 12 Each gathered gangs of revolutionaries, and fighting broke out between rival groups. The high priests sent their slaves to the threshing floors to collect the tithes due to the priests, with the result that the poorer priests starved to death. 13 Civil disorder escalated further during the régimes of the governors Festus to Florus (A.D ). Josephus blames much of this on the corruption of the governors. Roman governors were not above augmenting their fortunes by means of extortion and, at times, blatant theft. But Josephus is probably exaggerating their corruption to mitigate the blame due to the Jewish leaders for failing to maintain order. Then in A.D. 64, just two years prior to the outbreak of revolt, construction on Herod s Temple was finished. Over eighteen thousand workers, deprived of pay, found themselves largely The Testimony, December 2004 unoccupied on the streets of cities that were already simmering with revolt. The revolt breaks out The first flickers of revolt started in Caesarea in A.D. 66. Caesarea was a Greek city with a large and wealthy Jewish minority. There had been long-running tension between the groups over civil rights, which at times had flared into physical conflict. The tension escalated when the Greeks obtained from the Emperor Nero the rights to govern the city. In May 66 fighting broke out in the city over a property dispute between a Jewish synagogue and a Greek who owned an adjoining plot of land. The Jews fled the city carrying their copy of the Law and appealed to the Roman governor, Florus, at Samaria for support. Amazingly, Florus put the Jews into custody on a charge of stealing the copy of the Law from Caesarea. By Josephus s account, he then proceeded to fan the flames of war by demanding seventeen talents for the purposes of imperial service from the temple treasury. Outraged, the Jews of Jerusalem rioted. Florus responded by marching an army into Jerusalem. When the Jewish leaders refused to hand over the leaders of the riot to Florus, he ordered his troops to sack the upper city. According to Josephus, this became a massacre, with terrified Jews stampeding through the narrow streets and alleys. A number of eminent citizens were brought before Florus s tribunal to be scourged and crucified. Some 3,600 men, women and children were killed. According to Josephus, the chief priests and leaders of the city managed to calm the people with a view to stabilising the situation. However, Florus sent in reinforcements from Caesarea and fresh fighting broke out. When at last he lost control of the situation, he evacuated Jerusalem, leaving only a single cohort as a garrison. Appeals from Herod Agrippa (the one before whom Paul appeared, as recorded in Acts 25 and 26) and an emissary from the governor of Syria only delayed the escalation of the revolt. Agrippa was expelled from Jerusalem, and, soon 8. Antiquities, Wars, Wars, Wars, Antiquities, Antiquities,

5 The Testimony, December after, Sicarii under the leadership of Menahem seized the fortress of Masada and slaughtered the Roman garrison. The defining and deliberate act of revolt came when Eleazar, the temple captain, persuaded the temple officials to cease offering sacrifices for the Roman emperor. A brief struggle ensued between pro-roman Jews and the rebels, during which the rebels seized the fortress Antonia and massacred the Roman garrison. In October 66, Cestius, the Syrian governor, attacked Jerusalem. Inexplicably (humanly speaking), though success seemed assured, Cestius withdrew, suffering considerable casualties during his retreat. The victorious Jews set up a revolutionary government. Sovereignty lost Jewish independence lasted only four years. Jewish governance did not bring peace. It was a period of fear and incredible hardship for the average Jew as increasingly radical rebel factions wrested control and asserted their authority. Soon a reign of terror was imposed by radical revolutionaries upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was subjected to a scourging that was prolonged by international events. The scourging could have ended soon after Vespasian s invasion of Palestine in A.D. 67. But the death of Nero in 68 meant that operations had to be suspended while control of the imperial throne was disputed. Finally, in the summer of 69, Vespasian resumed his campaign, and after he was proclaimed emperor the task was taken up by his son Titus. Vespasian (left) and his son Titus When Christ was put on trial before Pilate, the Jews had the chance to secure the release of a prisoner. Pilate suggested they should ask for Christ s release, but the people demanded that Barabbas be freed. Barabbas was one of the Lestai; he had been jailed for insurrection. When the people rejected Christ and asked for Barabbas to be freed they rejected the prospect of a future Kingdom in favour of their hopes for a kingdom in their time. In A.D. 70, as Jerusalem was besieged and finally taken by the Roman legions, they received the just reward for that choice. Thousands of Jews were killed or enslaved. The Kingdom of God had not come as they had expected, the revolt had been doomed from the start. Many Jews survived, to continue living in Palestine for generations, but the end of the Jewish commonwealth had come. Israel had been scourged by her own people and put to death by the Romans. Medal of Vespasian, commemorating the capture of Jerusalem More scourging was to come, and it would be two thousand years before Jews could reclaim sovereignty in the Land. The Apostle Paul addressed the Roman Christians as follows: Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again (11:19-23). By God s grace, Israel will return to the Land in her fullness and God s Kingdom will be established there, though not as envisioned by the revolutionaries of A.D. 66. (To be continued)