2/15/11 and 2/17/11; Lectures 13 and 14

This week, 7^th week, we discussed Herodian Jerusalem including the time of Christ and Jerusalem in Revolt. When we left off last Pompey was controlling Jerusalem. In 63 BCE, in what was known as the “Abomination of Desolation”, Pompey entered the Holy of Holies, which of course is unheard of unless you are high priest. Eventually Herod the Great took Jerusalem in 37 BCE from the Parthians in a siege. Scholars often argue over whether or not Herod the Great was actually a good king. To me, Herod actually seemed to be a pretty good ruler, even though the Jews hated him. While Herod was loyal to Rome through taxes, he was very sensitive to the Jewish customs. Herod was forcibly “Judaized” as a child and he considered himself the king of the Jews during his reign from 37 – 4 BCE. He was a very effective ruler and he was best known for his massive building projects. He was also known in biblical accounts for the murder of massive amounts of innocent children, 2-years of age and younger, in an effort to kill Jesus. Scholars question whether this event actually took place though. Herod was a strong ruler who ruled with fear. His massive construction projects did give jobs to a large number of people. Some of the building projects credited to the Herodian Rule were: the fortress of Herodion, the city of Caesarea that included theaters and aqueducts, and the complete expansion of the 2^nd temple including the construction of the Western Wall. Closing the lecture on Herodian Jerusalem we talked about the time of Jesus and the lack of archaeological evidence of his existence. Some artifacts of been discovered but nothing that directly related to anybody named Jesus from that time period. We have to ask though, is the absence of evidence of Jesus evidence of absence?

Next we discussed the 1^st and 2^nd Jewish Revolts during the Roman Rule, which lasted from 63 BCE – 614 CE. The 1^st Revolt, or the “Great Revolt”, took place from 66 – 73 CE. The 2^nd Revolt, or the “Bar Kokhba Revolt”, lasted from 132 – 135 CE. When Herod’s rule ended his kingdom was split up between his 3 sons: Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip. Roman procurators gradually replaced the three sons, basically Jerusalem fell under direct rule by the Romans. These rulers included Pontius Pilate, who is best known for the role he plays in the biblical accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion. Eventually, in 66 CE, we begin to see Jewish Revolts break out and the Roman governor of Syria is defeated. We see archeological evidence of this revolt from Jewish revolt coins that have been discovered. In 70 CE Titus, the son of the Roman Emperor, takes over Jerusalem and destroys the 2^nd Temple on the 9^th of Ab. The people of Jerusalem fled to the mountain holdout of Masada that Herod the Great built. In 73 CE the Romans took the holdout and the people committed suicide. Simon Bay Kokhba started the Bar Kokhba Revolt. This revolt has fewer sources but we do find archaeological evidence in the form of coins and letters regarding the revolt that date to the time period. Most of the coins were modeled after the 1^st revolt and some were overstrikes of other coins, which indicated they were trying to save money. The letters found were written in multiple different languages indicating that the people revolting did not speak Hebrew and were trying to make it look like the first revolt. The outcome of the Bar Kokhba Revolt was the massive, bloody punishment of the Jews by Emperor Hadrian. He banned circumcision and kicked the Jews from the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.