D. Falk, 2002
1. Roman Rule over Palestine
1.1.1. Roman Coins:
Roman coins: http://www.amuseum.org/book/page8.html
Widow’s mite: http://www.amuseum.org/book/page7.html
Roman procurators: http://www.amuseum.org/book/page12.html
Tribute penny: http://www.amuseum.org/book/page13.html
City Coins of Palestine: http://www.amuseum.org/book/page21.html
1.2. Roman Conquest
-see “Pompey takes Jerusalem” under the Hasmonean Dynasty.
1.3. Jewish Response to Roman Conquest
1.3.1. Psalms of Solomon 1
The Psalms of Solomon are Jewish psalms dating from the early Roman period, some of them reflecting specifically on the Roman conquest of Palestine in 63 BCE. The authors are unknown: some have thought they were written by Pharisees, others have suggested they were written by Essenes.
(translated by G. Buchanan Gray in R. H. Charles, ed., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913) 2: 631-652)
[Jerusalem is speaking as a mother, reflecting on the horror of the invasion of Jerusalem in 63 BCE by the Roman general Pompey. She believed that her “children” were righteous and therefore God would protect them, but she now believes that Pompey was successful because her “children” must be terrible sinners]
1 1 I cried unto the Lord when I was in distress [ ],
Unto God when sinners assailed.
2 Suddenly the alarm of war was heard before me;
(I said), He will hearken to me, for I am full of righteousness.
3 I thought in my heart that I was full of righteousness,
Because I was well off and had become rich in children.
4 Their wealth spread to the whole earth,
And their glory unto the end of the earth.
5 They were exalted unto the stars;
They said they would never fall.
6 But they became insolent in their prosperity,
And they were without understanding,
7 Their sins were in secret,
And even I had no knowledge (of them).
8 Their transgressions (went) beyond those of the heathen before them;
They utterly polluted the holy things of the Lord.
1.3.2. Psalms of Solomon 2
[also reflecting on Pompey’s attack on Jerusalem, and especially the fact that the gentile general entered the inner sanctuary of the Temple where no one but the high priest was to go. How could God have allowed this? The psalmist’s answer: The people must have deserved it because of their sins. But the Psalm is written from after the death of Pompey in Egypt, and views this as God’s punishment on Pompey for his arrogance.]
1 When the sinner waxed proud, with a battering-ram he cast down fortified walls,
And Thou didst not restrain (him).
2 Alien nations ascended Thine altar,
They trampled (it) proudly with their sandals;
3 Because the sons of Jerusalem had defiled the holy things of the Lord,
Had profaned with iniquities the offerings of God.
4 Therefore He said: Cast them far from Me;
5 It was set at naught before God,
It was utterly dishonoured;
6 The sons and the daughters were in grievous captivity,
Sealed (?) (was) their neck, branded (?) (was it) among the nations.
7 According to their sins hath He done unto them,
For He hath left them in the hands of them that prevailed.
8 He hath turned away His face from pitying them,
Young and old and their children together;
9 For they had done evil one and all, in not hearkening.
10 And the heavens were angry,
And the earth abhorred them;
11 For no man upon it had done what they did,
12 And the earth recognized all Thy righteous judgments, O God.
13 They set the sons of Jerusalem to be mocked at in return for (the) harlots in her;
Every wayfarer entered in in the full light of day.
14 They made mock with their transgressions, as they themselves were wont to do;
In the full light of day they revealed their iniquities.
And the daughters of Jerusalem were defiled in accordance with Thy judgment,
15 Because they had defiled themselves with unnatural intercourse.
I am pained in my bowels and my inward parts for these things.
16 (And yet) I will justify Thee, O God, in uprightness of heart,
For in Thy judgments is Thy righteousness (displayed), O God.
17 For Thou hast rendered to the sinners according to their deeds,
Yea according to their sins, which were very wicked.
18 Thou hast uncovered their sins, that Thy judgment might be manifest;
19 Thou hast wiped out their memorial from the earth.
God is a righteous judge,
And He is no respecter of persons.
20 For the nations reproached Jerusalem, trampling it down;
Her beauty was dragged down from the throne of glory.
21 She girded on sackcloth instead of comely raiment,
A rope (was) about her head instead of a crown.
22 She put off the glorious diadem which God had set upon her,
23 In dishonor was her beauty cast upon the ground.
24 And I saw and entreated the Lord and said,
Long enough, O Lord, has Thine hand been heavy on Israel, in bringing the nations upon (them).
25 For they have made sport unsparingly in wrath and fierce anger;
26 And they will make an utter end, unless Thou, O Lord, rebuke them in Thy wrath.
27 For they have done it not in zeal, but in lust of soul,
28 Pouring out their wrath upon us with a view to rapine.
29 Delay not, O God, to recompense them on (their) heads,
To turn the pride of the dragon into dishonour.
30 And I had not long to wait before God showed me the insolent one
Slain on the mountains of Egypt,
Esteemed of less account than the least on land and sea;
31 His body, ( too,) borne hither and thither on the billows with much insolence,
With none to bury (him), because He had rejected him with dishonour.
He reflected not that he was man.
32 And reflected not on the latter end;
33 He said: I will be lord of land and sea;
And he recognized not that it is God who is great,
Mighty in His great strength.
34 He is king over the heavens,
And judgeth kings and kingdoms.
35 (It is He) who setteth me up in glory,
And bringeth down the proud to eternal destruction in dishonour,
Because they knew Him not.
36 And now behold, ye princes of the earth,
the judgment of the Lord,
For a great king and righteous (is He),
judging (all) that is under heaven.
37 Bless God, ye that fear the Lord with wisdom,
For the mercy of the Lord will be upon them that fear Him, in the Judgment;
38 So that He will distinguish between the righteous and the sinner,
(And) recompense the sinners for ever according to their deeds;
39 And have mercy on the righteous, (delivering him) from the affliction of the sinner,
And recompensing the sinner for what he hath done to the righteous.
40 For the Lord is good to them that call upon Him in patience,
Doing according to His mercy to His pious ones,
Establishing (them) at all times before Him in strength.
41 Blessed be the Lord for ever before His servants.
1.3.3. Psalms of Solomon 8
[Also reflects on Pompey’s conquest of Jerusalem. Pompey is “him that is from the end of the earth, that smiteth mightily” (v. 16). The nation at the time was in the midst of strife as two Hasmonean brothers–Hyrcanus and Aristobulus–fought over who was heir to the throne. They both appealed to Pompey to support their cause, and thus the psalmist blames these two factions for the Roman conquest–the Jewish leadership brought the Roman domination on themselves, even welcoming Pompey into Jerusalem (v. 18-19)!]
1 Distress and the sound of war hath my ear heard;
The sound of a trumpet announcing slaughter and calamity,
2 The sound of much people as of an exceeding high wind,
As a tempest with mighty fire sweeping through the Negeb.
3 And I said in my heart; Surely (?) God judgeth us;
4 A sound I hear (moving) towards Jerusalem, the holy city.
5 My loins were broken at what I heard, (5) my knees tottered:
6 My heart was afraid, my bones were dismayed like flax.
7 I said: They establish their ways in righteousness.
I thought upon the judgments of God since the creation of heaven and earth;
I held God righteous in His judgments which have been from of old.
8 God laid bare their sins in the full light of day;
All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God.
9 In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger;
10 They wrought confusion, son with mother and father with daughter;
11 They committed adultery, every man with his neighbor’s wife.
They concluded covenants with one another with an oath touching these things;
12 They plundered the sanctuary of God, as though there was no avenger.
13 They trode the altar of the Lord, (coming straight) from all manner of uncleanness;
And with menstrual blood they defiled the sacrifices, as (though these were) common flesh.
14 They left no sin undone, wherein they surpassed not the heathen.
15 Therefore God mingled for them a spirit of wandering;
And gave them to drink a cup of undiluted wine, that they might become drunken.
16 He brought him that is from the end of the earth, that smiteth mightily;
17 He decreed (?) war against Jerusalem, and against her land.
18 The princes of the land went to meet him with joy: they said unto him:
Blessed be thy way! Come ye, enter ye in with peace.
19 They made the rough ways even, before his entering in;
They opened the gates to Jerusalem, they crowned its walls.
20 As a father (entereth) the house of his sons, (so) he entered (Jerusalem) in peace;
He established his feet (there) in great safety.
21 He captured her fortresses and the wall of Jerusalem;
22 For God Himself led him in safety, while they wandered.
23 He destroyed their princes and every one wise in counsel;
He poured out the blood of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the water of uncleanness.
24 He led away their sons and daughters, whom they had begotten in defilement.
25 They did according to their uncleanness, even as their fathers (had done):
26 They defiled Jerusalem and the things that had been hallowed to the name of God.
27 (But) God hath shown Himself righteous in His judgments upon the nations of the earth;
28 And the pious (servants) of God are like innocent lambs in their midst.
29 Worthy to be praised is the Lord that judgeth the whole earth in His righteousness.
30 Behold, now, O God, Thou hast shown us Thy judgment in Thy righteousness;
31 Our eyes have seen Thy judgments, O God.
We have justified Thy name that is honoured for ever;
32 For Thou art the God of righteousness, judging Israel with chastening.
33 Turn, O God, Thy mercy upon us, and have pity upon us;
34 Gather together the dispersed of Israel, with mercy and goodness;
35 For Thy faithfulness is with us.
And (though) we have stiffened our neck, yet Thou art our chastener;
36 Overlook us not, O our God, lest the nations swallow us up, as though there were none to deliver.
37 But Thou art our God from the beginning,
And upon Thee is our hope (set), O Lord;
1.3.4. Edict of Augustus. Josephus, Antiquities 16.162–5
[Edictu of Augustus on Jewish Rights, 1 BCE.]
Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power, proclaims: Since the nation of the Jews and Hyrcanus, their high priest, have been found grateful to the people of the Romans, not only in the present but also in the past, and particularly in the time of my father, Caesar, imperator, it seems good to me and to my advisory council, according to the oaths, by the will of the people of the Romans, that the Jews shall use their own customs in accordance with their ancestral law, just as they used to use them in the time of Hyrcanus, the high priest of their highest god; and that their sacred offerings shall be inviolable and shall be sent to Jerusalem and shall be paid to the financial officials of Jerusalem; and that they shall not give sureties for appearance in court on the Sabbath or on the day of preparation before it after the ninth hour. But if anyone is detected stealing their sacred books or their sacred monies, either from a synagogue or from a mens’ apartment, he shall be considered sacrilegious and his property shall be brought into the public treasury of the Romans. [Whiston translation]
1.3.5. Edict of Claudius. Josephus, Antiquities 19.287–91
[Edict of Claudius on Jewish Rights, 41 CE]
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power, proclaims: . . .Therefore it is right that also the Jews, who are in all the world under us, shall maintain their ancestral customs without hindrance and to them I now also command to use this my kindness rather reasonably and not to despise the religious rites of the other nations, but to observe their own laws.
1.3.6. Strabo, The Geography, Book XVI.ii.34-38, 40, 46, c. 22 CE
[Strabo, a Roman writing ca. 22 BCE, shows some knowledge of Judaism, but some considerable confusion (e.g., that Moses established the Temple at Jerusalem, that Jews were vegetarians and practiced female as well as male circumcision)]
These districts (of Jerusalem and Joppa) lie towards the north; they are inhabited generally, and each place in particular, by mixed tribes of Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians. Of this description are the inhabitants of Galilee, of the plain of Jericho, and of the territories of Philadelphia and Samaria, surnamed Sebaste by Herod; but though there is such a mixture of inhabitants, the report most credited, among many things believed respecting the temple and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, is that the Egyptians were the ancestors of the present Jews. An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called Lower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judea with a large body of people who worshiped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing, the Divinity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; that the Greeks also were error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God, said he, may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things. Who, then, of any understanding would venture to form an image of this Deity, resembling anything with which we are conversant? On the contrary, we ought not to carve any images, but to set apart some sacred ground as a shrine worthy of the Deity, and to worship Him without any similitude. He taught that those who made fortunate dreams were to be permitted to sleep in the temple, where they might dream both for themselves and others; that those who practiced temperance and justice, and none else, might expect good, or some gift or sign from the God, from time to time.
By such doctrine Moses persuaded a large body of right-minded persons to accompany him to the place where Jerusalem now stands. . . . Moses thus obtained their good opinion, and established no ordinary kind of government. All the nations around willingly united themselves to him, allured by his discourses and promises.
His successors continued for some time to observe the same conduct, doing justly, and worshipping God with sincerity. Afterwards superstitious persons were appointed to the priesthood, and then tyrants. From superstition arose abstinence from flesh, from the eating of which it is now the custom to refrain, circumcision, cliterodectomy, and other practices which the people observe. The tyrannical government produced robbery; for the rebels plundered both their own and the neighboring countries. Those also who shared in the government seized upon the property of others, and ravaged a large part of Syria and of Phoenicia. Respect, however, was paid to the Acropolis [Zion, or the Temple Mount in Jerusalem]; it was not abhorred as the seat of tyranny, but honoured and venerated as a temple. . . .Such was Moses and his successors; their beginning was good, but they degenerated.
When Judaea openly became subject to a tyrannic government, the first person who exchanged the title of priest for that of king was Alexander [Alexander Jannaeus]. His sons were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. While they were disputing the succesion to the kingdom, Pompey came upon them by surprise, deprived them of their power, and destroyed their fortress first taking Jerusalem itself by storm [63 B.C.]. . . .
Galilee.
Pompey curtailed the territory which had been forcibly appropriated by the Jews, and assigned to Hyrcanus the priesthood. Some time afterwards, Herod, of the same family, and a native of the country, having surreptitiously obtained the priesthood, distinguished himself so much above his predecessors, particularly in his intercourse, both civil and political, with the Romans, that he received the title and authority of king, first from Antony, and afterwards from Augustus Caesar. He put to death some of his sons, on the pretext of their having conspired against him; other sons he left at his death [in 4 B.C.] to succeed him, and assigned to each portions of his kingdom. Caesar bestowed upon the sons also of Herod marks of honor, as also upon their sister Salome, and on her daughter Berenice too. The sons were unfortunate, and were publicly accused. One of them [Archelaus] died in exile among the Galatae Allobroges, whose country [Vienne, south of Lyons in France] was assigned for his abode. The others, by great interest and solicitation, but with difficulty, obtained leave to return to their own country, each with his tetrarchy restored to him.
1.3.7. Tacitus: From The Histories, Book V, c. 110 CE
[Tacitus, a Roman writing ca. 110 CE, discusses various theories concerning the origin of the Jews, and prefers a popular story that the Jews were a race of lepers expelled from Egypt]
Some say that the Jews were fugitives from the island of Crete, who settled on the nearest coast of Africa about the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the power of Jupiter. Evidence of this is sought in the name. There is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida; the neighboring tribe, the Idaei, came to be called Judaei by a barbarous lengthening of the national name. Others assert that in the reign of Isis the overflowing population of Egypt, led by Hierosolymus and Judas, discharged itself into the neighboring countries. Many, again, say that they were a race of Ethiopian origin, who in the time of king Cepheus were driven by fear and hatred of their neighbors to seek a new dwelling-place. Others describe them as an Assyrian horde who, not having sufficient territory, took possession of part of Egypt, and founded cities of their own in what is called the Hebrew country, lying on the borders of Syria. Others, again, assign a very distinguished origin to the Jews, alleging that they were the Solymi, a nation celebrated in the poems of Homer, who called the city which they founded Hierosolyma after their own name.
Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease [leprousy], which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods.
The people, who had been collected after diligent search, finding themselves left in a desert, sat for the most part in a stupor of grief, till one of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to look for any relief from God or man, forsaken as they were of both, but to trust to themselves, taking for their heaven-sent leader that man who should first help them to be quit of their present misery. They agreed, and in utter ignorance began to advance at random. Nothing, however, distressed them so much as the scarcity of water, and they had sunk ready to perish in all directions over the plain, when a herd of wild asses was seen to retire from their pasture to a rock shaded by trees. Moses followed them, and, guided by the appearance of a grassy spot, discovered an abundant spring of water. This furnished relief. After a continuous journey for six days, on the seventh they possessed themselves of a country, from which they expelled the inhabitants, and in which they founded a city and a temple.
Moses, wishing to secure for the future his authority over the nation, gave them a novel form of worship, opposed to all that is practiced by other men. Things sacred with us, with them have no sanctity, while they allow what with us is forbidden. In their holy place they have consecrated an image of the animal by whose guidance they found deliverance from their long and thirsty wanderings. They slay the ram, seemingly in derision of Hammon, and they sacrifice the ox, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis. They abstain from swine’s flesh, in consideration of what they suffered when they were infected by the leprosy to which this animal is liable. By their frequent fasts they still bear witness to the long hunger of former days, and the Jewish bread, made without leaven, is retained as a memorial of their hurried seizure of corn. We are told that the rest of the seventh day was adopted, because this day brought with it a termination of their toils; after a while the charm of indolence beguiled them into giving up the seventh year also to inaction.
This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their other customs, which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength to their very badness. The most degraded out of other races, scorning their national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among themselves they are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful. Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren. Still they provide for the increase of their numbers. It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant. They hold that the souls of all who perish in battle or by the hands of the executioner are immortal. Hence a passion for propagating their race and a contempt for death. They are wont to bury rather than to burn their dead, following in this the Egyptian custom; they bestow the same care on the dead, and they hold the same belief about the lower world.
Quite different is their faith about things divine. The Egyptians worship many animals and images of monstrous form; the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples. This flattery is not paid to their kings, nor this honor to our Emperors. From the fact, however, that their priests used to chant to the music of flutes and cymbals, and to wear garlands of ivy, and that a golden vine was found in the temple, some have thought that they worshiped father Liber, the conqueror of the East, though their institutions do not by any means harmonize with the theory; for Liber established a festive and cheerful worship, while the Jewish religion is tasteless and mean.
1.4. Josephus
Josephus, Apion 2.170-3
“[Moses] did not make religion [lit. piety] a department of virtue, but the various virtues–I mean, justice, temperance, fortitude, and mutual harmony …–departments of religion. Religion governs all our actions and occupations and speech; none of these things did our lawgiver leave unexamined or indeterminate … He left nothing, however insignificant, to the discretion and caprice of the individual.
2. Herodian Period
2.1.1. Coins of the Herods
http://www.amuseum.org/book/page9.html;
http://www.amuseum.org/book/page10.html;
http://www.amuseum.org/book/page11.html
2.2. Herod the Great
2.2.1. Herod made “King of Jews”. Josephus, War 1.284
In 40 BCE Octavian Caesar] convened the (Roman) Senate. To it Messala, along with Atratinus, presented Herod, detailing both the good services of his father (Antipater) and (Herod’s) own support for the Romans… And since the Senate was moved by these things, when (Marc) Antony came up and said that Herod should be king to help carry on the war with Parthia, all concurred.
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.2.2. Herod Eliminates Opponents. Josephus, Antiquities 14.414–80
414 [During the winter of 38-39 BCE] while snow fell from God, (Herod) came to Sepphoris (in Galilee). And as the guards of Antigonus (his opponent) had left, he was unopposed for their provisions.
415 Then, planning to end the evil deeds of some bandits who were dwelling in caves, from (Sepphoris) he sent a cavalry troop and three infantry companies out against them. These (caves) were very close to a village named Arbela [= khirbet Irbid, between Capernaum and Tiberias].
416 And in forty days he arrived in full force…
417 And he rallied all of Galilee, except those in the caves…
422 Now the caves were in extremely rugged hills. They had entrances in the middle of cliffs with sharp rocks around them. The bandits hid out in these places with their whole households.
423 But the king (Herod) had crates built and he let these down on them, hanging by iron chains from a machine on top of the mount….
424 Now the crates were full of soldiers holding big hooks with which they were going to kill the bandits who stood against them, by dragging them out and pulling them down…
430 So when these things happened, the caves were quiet. And leaving (his friend) Ptolemy as general in those parts, the king went into Samaria…
432 But those who had previously troubled Galilee attacked Ptolemy and killed him…
433 But Herod came back and punished them. For he captured some of the rebels. And he besieged and killed those who sought refuge in fortified positions. And he tore down their fortifications, thus ending the rebellion. And he also penalized the cities of Galilee 100 talents.
450 After this [in 37 BCE] the Galileans rebelled against those in power in their territory and drowned those who minded Herod in the Lake [= Sea of Galilee]. Much of Judea also revolted…
479 And right away every place was filled with murders. On the one hand, the Romans were enraged by frustration in their siege (of Jerusalem). And, on the other, the Jews around Herod were eager to have no opponent left.
480 And whole masses were slaughtered: in the alleys, crowded in their houses, and even taking refuge in the temple. There was no mercy for either young or old. Nor were the weakest women spared. Rather, none controlled his hand, even when the king [Herod] circulated the order to stop. But like madmen they took vengeance on all ages..
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.2.3. Herod as Tyrant. Josephus, Antiquties 15.1–
(1) HOW Sosius and Herod took Jerusalem by force; and besides that, how they took Antigonus captive, has been related by us in the foregoing book. We will now proceed in the narration. And since Herod had now the government of all Judea put into his hands, he promoted such of the private men in the city as had been of his party, but never left off avenging and punishing every day those that had chosen to be of the party of his enemies. But Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple of his, were honored by him above all the rest; for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advised the citizens to receive Herod, for which advice they were well requited. But this Pollio, at the time when Herod was once upon his trial of life and death, foretold, in way of reproach, to Hyrcanus and the other judges, how this Herod, whom they suffered now to escape, would afterward inflict punishment on them all; which had its completion in time, while God fulfilled the words he had spoken.
(5) At this time Herod, now he had got Jerusalem under his power, carried off all the royal ornaments, and spoiled the wealthy men of what they had gotten; and when, by these means, he had heaped together a great quantity of silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony, and his friends that were about him. He also slew forty-five of the principal men of Antigonus’s party. . .
(9) And Strabo of Cappadocia attests to what I have said, when he thus speaks: “Antony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be brought to Antioch, and there to be beheaded. And this Antony seems to me to have been the very first man who beheaded a king, as supposing he could no other way bend the minds of the Jews so as to receive Herod, whom he had made king in his stead; for by no torments could they he forced to call him king, so great a fondness they had for their former king; so he thought that this dishonorable death would diminish the value they had for Antigonus’s memory, and at the same time would diminish the hatred they bare to Herod.” Thus far Strabo.
(22) He [Herod] also did other things, in order to secure his government, which yet occasioned a sedition in his own family; for being cautious how he made any illustrious person the high priest of God, he sent for an obscure priest out of Babylon, whose name was Ananelus, and bestowed the high priesthood upon him.
[Herod’s mother-in-law, the Hasmonean Alexandra schemes to pressure Herod to appoint the brother of his wife Mariamme as high priest instead]
(23) However, Alexandra, . . . could not bear this indignity. . . . Accordingly, she wrote to Cleopatra . . . to desire her intercession with Antony, in order to gain the high priesthood for her son [Aristobulus].
[Herod complied, but then had Aristobulus murdered shortly after]
(39) SO king Herod immediately took the high priesthood away from Ananelus . . . He was one of the stock of the high priests and had been of old a particular friend of Herod; and when he was first made king, he conferred that dignity upon him, and now put him out of it again, in order to quiet the troubles in his family, though what he did was plainly unlawful, for at no other time [of old] was any one that had once been in that dignity deprived of it. It was Antiochus Epiphanes who first brake that law, and deprived Jesus, and made his brother Onias high priest in his stead. Aristobulus was the second that did so, and took that dignity from his brother [Hyrcanus]; and this Herod was the third, who took that high office away [from Arianflus], and gave it to this young man, Aristobulus, in his stead. . . .
(50–56) [Herod became jealous of the handsome Aristobulus who quickly won the affections of the population, and Herod had him drowned in his swimming pool]
At first they were only spectators of Herod’s servants and acquaintance as they were swimming; but after a while, the young man, at the instigation of Herod, went into the water among them, while such of Herod’s acquaintance, as he had appointed to do it, dipped him as he was swimming, and plunged him under water, in the dark of the evening, as if it had been done in sport only; nor did they desist till he was entirely suffocated. And thus was Aristobulus murdered, having lived no more in all than eighteen years, and kept the high priesthood one year only; which high priesthood Ananelus now recovered again.
[adapted from Whiston translation, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/]
2.2.4. Herod Suppresses Dissent. Josephus, Antiquities 15.365–71
365 Then [about 20 BCE] (Herod) also excused those in his kingdom from a third of their taxes—allegedly to recover from the crop-failure, but also to regain those who harbored resentment. For they were bitter about the enactment of those practice which relaxed their religion and threw aside the traditions. And there were also arguments from all who were ever provoked or upset.
366 But (Herod) also paid much attention to such a situation, taking away their opportunities and ordering them to their labors, whatever happened. And no congregating was allowed to those around the city, nor was wandering or dwelling in community. But everything was watched…
368 Thus, on the one hand, by every method he completely suppressed those who were so bold as not to go along with his projects. On the other, he asked the people to submit to swearing loyalty and compelled them under oath to declare their good will to him, or at least to support his rule.
369 Out of good treatment and fear, therefore, the crowds yielded to what he wanted. But those who summoned courage and made trouble for him he submitted to every method of torture.
370 Now he even tried to persuade Pollion [= Abtalion] the Pharisee, as well as Samaias [= Shemaiah] and the bulk of their associates to take the oath. But they would not concur. Yet, by gaining respect through Pollion, (the Pharisees) were not punished like those who expressed dissent.
371 And those who were called Essenes by us were also excused from this obligation.
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.2.5. Herod’s Building projects. Josephus, Jewish War 1.401–25
(401) ACCORDINGLY, in the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before enclosed. The expenses he laid out upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it were unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that were erected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side. The cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel he repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which he called Antonia, in honor of Antony. He also built himself a palace in the Upper city, containing two very large and most beautiful apartments; to which the holy house itself could not be compared [in largeness]. The one apartment he named Caesareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [two great] friends.
(403) Yet did he not preserve their memory by particular buildings only, with their names given them, but his generosity went as far as entire cities; for when he had built a most beautiful wall round a country in Samaria, twenty furlongs long, and had brought six thousand inhabitants into it, and had allotted to it a most fruitful piece of land, and in the midst of this city, thus built, had erected a very large temple to Caesar, and had laid round about it a portion of sacred land of three furlongs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus, or Augustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a most regular manner.
(404) And when Caesar had further bestowed upon him another additional country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hard by the fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium, . . .
(407) But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between the citadel Cypros and the former palace, such as were better and more useful than the former for travelers, and named them from the same friends of his. To say all at once, there was not any place of his kingdom fit for the purpose that was permitted to be without somewhat that was for Caesar’s honor; and when he had filled his own country with temples, he poured out the like plentiful marks of his esteem into his province, and built many cities which he called Caesareas.
[adapted from Whiston translation, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/]
2.2.6. Herod’s Construction: Pictures
See http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/herod.htm
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/temple.htm
2.2.7. Herod Controls Priests. Josephus, Antiquities 15.403–8
403 Now a well-fortified and exceedingly strong citadel was built at right angle to the north side (of the temple). The kings and high-priests of the Hasmonean family had erected this before the time of Herod and called it “Bira” [= “fortress”]. Here they deposited the ceremonial robe which the high priest wore only when he had to offer sacrifice.
404 King Herod kept it under guard there. After his death it was subject to the Romans, until the time of Tiberius Caesar [in 36 CE]…
408 But before this it was under the seal of the high-priest and treasurers. And one day before the feast the treasurers would go up to the Romans and, after examining their own seal, would take the robe. Then, after the feast was over, they would return to this place and put it back, after showing the chief of the guard the corresponding seal.
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.2.8. Sanhedrin vs. Herod. Josephus, Antiquities 14.163–184
But now the principal men among the Jews, when they saw Antipater and his sons to grow so much in the good-will the nation bare to them, and in the revenues which they received out of Judea, and out of Hyrcanus’s own wealth, they became ill-disposed to him; for indeed Antipater had contracted a friendship with the Roman emperors; and when he had prevailed with Hyrcanus to send them money, he took it to himself, and purloined the present intended, and sent it as if it were his own, and not Hyrcanus’s gift to them. Hyrcanus heard of this his management, but took no care about it; nay, he rather was very glad of it. But the chief men of the Jews were therefore in fear, because they saw that Herod was a violent and bold man, and very desirous of acting tyrannically; so they came to Hyrcanus, and now accused Antipater openly, and said to him, “How long wilt thou be quiet under such actions as are now done? Or dost thou not see that Antipater and his sons have already seized upon the government, and that it is only the name of a king which is given thee? … for Antipater and his sons are … evidently absolute lords; for Herod, Antipater’s son, hath slain Hezekiah, and those that were with him, and hath thereby transgressed our law, which hath forbidden to slay any man, even though he were a wicked man, unless he had been first condemned to suffer death by the Sanhedrim yet hath he been so insolent as to do this, and that without any authority from thee.”
Upon Hyrcanus hearing this, he complied with them. The mothers also of those that had been slain by Herod raised his indignation; for those women continued every day in the temple, persuading the king and the people that Herod might undergo a trial before the Sanhedrim for what he had done …
… when Herod had received the kingdom, he slew all the members of this Sanhedrim …
But when Hyrcanus saw that the members of the Sanhedrim were ready to pronounce the sentence of death upon Herod, he put off the trial to another day, and sent privately to Herod, and advised him to fly out of the city, for that by this means he might escape.
2.2.9. Opposition to Herod. Josephus, Antiquities 17.149–57, 165
149 The most eloquent and unequalled interpreters of the patriarchal laws [= Torah] were Judah ben Sariphai and Matthias ben Margaloth, men especially endeared to the people through educating the youth. For all who preoccupied themselves with virtue were with them day after day.
150 [In 4 BCE] when they heard the king’s illness was beyond cure, these men stirred up the youth against whatever works the king had built contrary to the patriarchal Torah. To tear these down, (they said), would be taken as acts of piety, stemming from the laws. For indeed, all these other things had happened to (king Herod)…—even this illness—because he dared to go against what the Torah specified….
155 Now with such words they stirred up the young men. And a report reached them corroborating these sages by indicating that the king had died. So, in broad daylight, in sight of the crowds gathered in the temple, they went up and pulled down the (imperial) eagle and cut it up with axes.
156 Now the king’s officer assumed with great insight—for the deed was reported to him—that if this was done, they would go on to worse things. So, bringing a large enough force, he encountered the crowd of those who were trying to take the accursed thing down…
157 He captured no less than forty of the young men who dared to stay while the rest of the crowd fled as they approached. And the instigators of their daring, Judah and Matthias, who deemed it disgraceful to yield him space to enter he also led to the king. And the king had them bound and sent to Jericho. Then he summoned those in charge of the Jews..
165 And Herod deposed Matthias from the high-priesthood. And he had the other Matthias, who stirred up the faction, burnt alive along with some of his disciples. And on this night there was a lunar eclipse.
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.2.10. Herod’s Death. Josephus, Antiquities 17
174 By (Herod’s) edict, the noteworthy Jewish men of all the nation were made to come to him [at Jericho] from wherever (they were). Now there were many, as the whole nation was summoned. And all heeded the edict, for death was waiting those who did not respond to the letters. The king was mad at all alike, the innocent as well as those evidently guilty.
175 So, confining them all in the hippodrome, he sent for his sister Salome and her husband Alexas….
176 For he was not ignorant of the thinking of the Jews, how they wanted and would rejoice at his death. For even while he lived there was pressure to revolt and insult his projects. . . .
178 So, (Herod ordered Salome and Alexas), when they saw that he had lost his life, they were to station in the hippodrome soldiers who did not yet know of his death and command them to kill the prisoners. And if they did away with them in this manner, they would not ruin his pleasure in two ways: by confirming those things which he communicated to them when he was about to die and by honoring him with a noteworthy mourning. . . .
191 Having done these things, Herod died five days after he killed his (oldest) son, Antipater. He was king for thirty-four years after he imprisoned Antigonus but thirty-seven after he was appointed by the Romans. He was a man cruel to all alike: angry with his inferiors and haughty to the righteous. . . .
193 But before the king’s death was found out, Salome and Alexas sent back to their homes those who had been summoned to the hippodrome.
[translation by Mahlon Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/herod.html#KofJ]
2.3. Herodian Temple
2.3.1. Herod renovates the Temple. Josephus, Antiquities 15.380–425
(380) AND now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was, to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting memorial of him . . .
(391) So Herod took away the old foundations, and laid others, and erected the temple upon them . . . Now the temple was built of stones that were white and strong, and each of their length was twenty-five cubits, their height was eight, and their breadth about twelve . . .
. . . He also encompassed the entire temple with very large cloisters, contriving them to be in a due proportion thereto; and he laid out larger sums of money upon them than had been done before him, till it seemed that no one else had so greatly adorned the temple as he had done. There was a large wall to both the cloisters, which wall was itself the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man. The hill was a rocky ascent, that declined by degrees towards the east parts of the city, till it came to an elevated level. This hill it was which Solomon, who was the first of our kings, by Divine revelation, encompassed with a wall; it was of excellent workmanship upwards, and round the top of it. He also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom, which was encompassed by a deep valley; and at the south side he laid rocks together, and bound them one to another with lead, and included some of the inner parts, till it proceeded to a great height, and till both the largeness of the square edifice and its altitude were immense, and till the vastness of the stones in the front were plainly visible on the outside, yet so that the inward parts were fastened together with iron, and preserved the joints immovable for all future times. When this work [for the foundation] was done in this manner, and joined together as part of the hill itself to the very top of it, he wrought it all into one outward surface, and filled up the hollow places which were about the wall, and made it a level on the external upper surface, and a smooth level also. . . .
(403) Now on the north side [of the temple] was built a citadel, whose walls were square, and strong, and of extraordinary firmness. This citadel was built by the kings of the Hasmonean race, who were also high priests before Herod, and they called it the Tower, in which were reposited the vestments of the high priest, which the high priest only put on at the time when he was to offer sacrifice. These vestments king Herod kept in that place; and after his death they were under the power of the Romans, until the time of Tiberius Caesar . . . 408) . . . they were kept under the seal of the high priest, and of the treasurers of the temple; which treasurers, the day before a festival, went up to the Roman captain of the temple guards, and viewed their own seal, and received the vestments; and again, when the festival was over, they brought it to the same place, and showed the captain of the temple guards their seal, which corresponded with his seal, and reposited them there.
. . . (41) Thus was the first enclosure. In the midst of which, and not far from it, was the second, to be gone up to by a few steps: this was encompassed by a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription, which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death. Now this inner enclosure had on its southern and northern quarters three gates [equally] distant one from another; but on the east quarter, towards the sun-rising, there was one large gate, through which such as were pure came in, together with their wives; but the temple further inward in that gate was not allowed to the women; but still more inward was there a third [court of the] temple, whereinto it was not lawful for any but the priests alone to enter. The temple itself was within this; and before that temple was the altar, upon which we offer our sacrifices and burnt-offerings to God. Into none of these three did king Herod enter, for he was forbidden, because he was not a priest. However, he took care of the cloisters and the outer enclosures, and these he built in eight years.
(421) But the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months; upon which all the people were full of joy; and presently they returned thanks, in the first place, to God; and in the next place, for the alacrity the king had showed. They feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple: and for the king, he sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did the rest every one according to his ability; the number of which sacrifices is not possible to set down, for it cannot be that we should truly relate it; for at the same time with this celebration for the work about the temple fell also the day of the king’s inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it now coincided with the other, which coincidence of them both made the festival most illustrious.
[adapted from Whiston translation, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/]
2.3.2. Herodian Temple.
See http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/temple.htm
A site by the Jerusalem Archeological Park: http://archpark.org.il/article.asp?id=26
2.3.3. Jerusalem in the 1st Century:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/Jerusalem.htm
An interactive model of Jerusalem: http://www.holylandnetwork.com/temple/model.htm
-click the links to the Temple, Phasael Tower, Herod’s Palace, Hasmonean Palace, Theatre, Damascus Gate, Antonia Fortress, Huldah Gates
2.3.4. Temple Warning Inscription. 1st c. CE
See http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/temple_warning.htm
No outsider shall enter the protective enclosure around the sanctuary. And
whoever is caught will only have himself to blame for the ensuing death.
[Translation by K. C. Hanson and Douglas Oakman;
http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/templewarning.html]
2.3.5. Function of the Temple.
(optional) A description of the Temple from a PBS special
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/temple.html
2.4. Temple Security
2.4.1. Riot Control. Acts 21:27-36.
When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up all the crowd, and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching men everywhere against the people and the law and this place; moreover he also brought Greeks into the temple, and he has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Troph’imus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30 Then all the city was aroused, and the people ran together; they seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31 And as they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 He at once took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them; and when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. 35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd; 36 for the mob of the people followed, crying, “Away with him!”
2.4.2. Passover Riot. Josephus, War 2:10–13
[4 CE, while Herod Archelaus was ethnarch and ruler of Judea]
(10) . . . at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to he celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship; some of these stood in the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death], and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their sedition. At this Archclaus was aftrighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain those that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At these the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed them; but the tribune fled away wounded, and had much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, by the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who, falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed by Archelaus’s heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went, and left the festival.