CL4048 The Jews of Palestine 200 BC - AD 66

In the 3rd century BC this seems to have been a largely unproblematic meeting, but something happened in the 2nd century and the encounter became, in certain quarters at least, a confrontation. It came to a head in the persecution of the Jews by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV, and there was a violent, nationalistic reaction; but Greek influence in Jewish life remained, and formed part of the cultural map of Judaism in the 1st century AD. By that time Rome too had forced herself onto this map. At the end of the 2nd century BC the Jewish author of the First Book of Maccabees, clearly writing with no personal experience of the Romans, had referred to them in admiring terms; but when Pompey arrived in Palestine with his legions in 65 BC the reality proved sadly different. Squabbling Jewish princes failed to recognise the new rules brought about by Rome's rise to world power: Pompey stormed the Temple in Jerusalem, massacred the defenders and entered the Holy of Holies. It was an inauspicious start to Roman rule in Judaea. Wiser heads, like Herod, soon saw that Rome was the only game in town, and adjusted to the new world. But Rome was a brutal imperialist power, the Jews a stubborn and divided people: perhaps the relationship was never going to work, and in AD 66 the region exploded into one of the biggest revolts that Rome ever faced. This course will examine what happened and why.

It is not a simple matter, and it is not simply a matter of politics: the Jewish state was a 'theocracy' in which politics and religion were inextricably entwined in a dynamic of disagreement. Sadducees were at variance with Pharisees, Essenes with both, rich Jews with poor ones, Herodians with Hasmoneans, nationalists with collaborators, false prophets with messiahs: it was a varied, colourful and exciting world. And scarcely noticed at the time, a Jew called Jesus was arraigned before the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, and executed. The study of the origins of Christianity is beyond the scope of this course, but the political and social world out of which it emerged is central to our concerns.