William Tyler
Roman Palestine
William Tyler - Roman Palestine
- Welcome to everyone. and they’ve kind of put a map on. Now, this map I sent everyone, it’s just to get us sort of familiar with what was going on period I’m talking about. And I’m really looking at the reign of Herod the Great. It’s been described, that is to say using modern terminology, Israel was four boxes, one on top of the other. And you can see them as you go from red, from the blue at the bottom to the sort of rusty colour at the top. Idumea at the bottom, Judea, Samaria, and the one that isn’t marked is Galilee. Those were the core of ancient Israel. The pink part on the left, which doesn’t mention but includes Gaza was originally inhabited by Philistines. And at the time of Roman Palestine was administered by locals, direct local officials directly responsible to Rome. And its relationship to the kingdom of Israel was a slightly awkward one. To also inherit reign, the other dark piece on the east of the Jordan you can see matching the colour of Galilee and to the west and to the east of the north where it’s called Batanea. A small part of it is the David Golan Heights, but then Israel as it were, Roman Palestine ruled part of that. So Roman Palestine is all the blue, all the sort of rusty purple colour and half the brown. The pink bit in the middle, which is where Gaza is today, was Roman, but it was not administered by King Herod. The pink at the top was actually where the Venetians had their towns of Venetians being great traders. All of this I hope will become clear as I talk about it. All you need to remember is that it was a very large country when Herod the Great was alive.
And then Rome subsequently created a very much larger province, which they called not Israel or Judea, but they called Syria Palestine. I think studying maps can drive you mad. Studying maps of this particular area in the Middle East will drive you mad quicker than studying any other maps that I know of. And so having said that about the map, you’ve all got the map ‘cause it was all sent to you so you can print it off, you can look back at it. The only thing I think I need to mention, you can see that Jerusalem is next to the word Judea. And you can see Masada is down to the right of the word Idumea. Those are the sort of two places that are important to mention before I start talking. So I’ll now ask if the map can be removed. Thank you. And I will, as they say, begin. Rome. Rome in the first century BCE and the first two centuries CE. Now I’m using the nomenclature BCE and CE because I had a number of people said that they preferred me to use that. But I’m sure you all know that BCE is also BC and that CE is also AD. It’s simply C is common era. Before the common era and the common era, BC and AD. But I’ll use BC and C. But if you read older books, you’ll see BC and a D used and not BCE and CE. I’m never entirely sure why we changed, given that the common era is the Christian era anyhow, but there it is. That’s what we do. So I’m talking about Rome, Rome.
Rome in the first century BCE, first two centuries CE, the greatest city on earth, the capital of the largest empire that the west had ever seen, the world had ever seen to that point, an empire of deeds and an empire also of ideas, a grim society in many ways by modern standards. Yet also a society that created great literature, great architecture, great law, and created modern western Europe, Rome. But there was another city on another continent that was destined to shape Western thought too. And that, of course, is Jerusalem, the centre of Judaism, the centre of Jewish culture and society, which itself has influenced Western culture enormously. Jerusalem with its famous temple, an older society, even than that of Rome itself. And finally, Jerusalem, which in the period I am talking about, created a new religion out of Judaism. And that new religion was Christianity, which in its term was to influence Western culture. So both Judaism and Christianity emerging in the Middle East had an impact on Western and indeed all of Europe, a massive influence. So Rome and Jerusalem will figure into today’s story and indeed in the story next week or in half that story when we look at the crusades of the Middle Ages. This was a time in this particular area of the world where there was much politicking, much religious divisions, and much social turmoil. No change there, you might say. I said just a moment ago that the Jewish people were older than those of Rome.
According to tradition… And I’m sure many of you will know lots of the things I say today and will be very quick to correct me. But according to tradition, we can trace Jewish people back to about 2000 BCE to the time of Abraham. Archaeological data suggests that we may be able to go back before that, but perhaps even a further 1000 years to roughly 3000 BCE. We can’t pinpoint the moment that you can say for certain that there was a Jewish people. All we can say is that it’s thousands of years BCE. And that is important. It’s important not just the historians, but it has an importance in the events that are happening today. And some of you may be listening to me from Israel and you know specifically what that’s about. And I said earlier that maps are such a difficult issue and maps, if you like to call it that, or borders, land is still a major issue of conflict for Jews in the Middle East of the 21st century. This is a land that has almost never seen a continuous peace. It’s very different for those of us brought up in Britain where we have been a stable society for a thousand years If we go to Solomon. Solomon died in about 922 BC. Now, let that just settle in a minute. 922 BCE. The Romans came to Britain in 55 BC, nearly a thousand years difference, leading Trudy’s hero and indeed mine, derailing the 19th century British conservative prime minister, who in an argument in the House of Commons, made this tremendous statement, “Yes, I am a Jew.” He was facing antisemitism in the house. “Yes, I’m a Jew. And while the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon,” he said.
And that is an important to me, not just a funny remark, it was a very funny remark and certainly a put. X x But it’s also important. It’s important that we understand the depth of history that we’re looking at. Now, I’m not talking about ancient history. I’m not talking to talk about Solomon. I’m not going to talk about Moses. This is not my purpose. We decided we’d start at this point, this juncture. And it’s an interesting juncture at which to start the story of Jews and Arabs and indeed Christians also in the Middle East for in this period that I’m talking about this week and next week, we shall see the collapse of the Jewish national state. We shall see the rise of Christianity, not as a fringe subset of Judaism, not even as a tiny group of worshipers who many of whom became non-Jewish, but of a religion that took over the empire of Rome. And then thirdly, we shall see next week the rise of the third monotheism which emerged from the Middle East, Islam. So this is the cradle of modern society. It is also in this period where divisions occur and those divisions divide us today. And for those who say, why bother to study history? It’s all in the past. Forget about it. Let’s get on with today. Well, this is a clear example that if we can understand the past, it will give us a clue to the present and possibly even to future settlement in the Middle East. After Solomon’s death in 922, the kingdom of Israel was split into two, a northern and a southern kingdom.
The northern kingdom, Israel had its capital in Samaria. The southern kingdom of Judea, its capital in Jerusalem. Israel had many Samaritans living in it, as well as Jews, whereas Judea was largely Jewish. Now, one of the problems with this area then and in a sense now is the multitude of people and then the multitude of religions. The Samaritans, after all, as readers of the Christian Bible know were considered unclean, really second rate citizens because we have in the New Testament the story of the good Samaritan. Samaritans weren’t meant to be good, but Jesus had the story that even the unclean, the people that weren’t meant to be good could sometimes be better and kinder than those who were religious, in this case as Jesus was Jews. I’m going to lead the question of many of these peoples, like the Samaritans and others to Trudy when she’s speaking later this week to talk about. She is the expert. I am not. And I’m certainly not going to get involved in the differing theologies of those on the borders of Judaism if you like. But I will give an indication of some of the important people around. We’ve already mentioned, of course, Jews. We’ve also mentioned Samaritans. The enemies of Judea at this time from external and the enemies of Rome externally were the Parthians from the East. There’s also the Canaanites, which both Christian and Jew know and recognise from the Torah and from the Christian Old Testament who worship Baal amongst other gods. Now, the worshipping of Gods is important in the story today. Judaism was a monotheism god, not a risk a whole range of gods, only one true God. Christianity also, as to say, there is only one true God. And Islam is to say there is only one true God, Allah.
All three monotheisms. And in this story, they come up against Rome where it seems almost every piece of water, a spring a river had a god or a goddess. There’s god and goddesses for everything, both international Roman gods and goddesses like Jupiter, but also local gods and goddesses. As I say, restricted to one particular locality. And that’s something that neither Jews nor Christians living in the Roman Empire could ever accept. How could they? You can’t put a Jewish God, the Christian God in such a company because Judaism and Christianity and later Islam says there’s one God. So there can’t be multiple gods. We’ll come back to why that is important later. There’s also the Greeks in the Middle East. Now, the Greeks are important right up until the 1920s in the Middle East. Why? Well, at this stage in the Roman Empire, and many of the Greeks were traders, which they went on being into the 20th century, they were more than that. They were also the educated elite very often. So for example, Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote in Greek because Greek was the lingua franca of the area. It’s not the lingua franca of the Roman empire. In Britain, far away island of Britain under Roman rule, you either spoke Celtic or you spoke if you were educated, and you were a member of the elite, you spoke Latin. But in the Middle East, the lingua franca was in fact Greek. And this Greek story is a thread which will go through a lot of what I say during this course.
I’ve mentioned the Venetians who were traders and indeed one of the earliest trading groups from the Middle East to trade with Celtic Britain before the Romans came, seeking tid in Cornwall in particular. And then there were the Arabs. Now, I’m saying nothing about the Arabs today, and I’m not passing the Arabs to Trudy. I passed everything else I don’t want to talk about to Trudy, but I’m keeping the Arabs and I will do the story of the Arabs and the rise of Islam next week. In fact, it’s next. Let me get this right. It’s next Wednesday, I think, I’m doing, if I’ve got it right, I’m doing the Arabs. We check on that, but I’m doing the Arabs next time. There were other groups as well. It is multicultural, multilingual, multi-ethnic area. And the Jews stand out. Why? Because they have a very advanced society. They have a one God. And when I say an advanced society, they have a very literate society as you might expect. And into this rich stew of peoples and religions is dropped like a stone, the Romans, the Romans. And the year is 63 BCE. And onto the stage of Middle Eastern history, or if you like the history of Palestine, a word that the Greek used first to indicate the whole of that land strides the figure of the great general, Pompey, in 63 BC. In 63 BC, Pompey was part of a triumvirate with Crassus and Caesar, a ruling the Roman Empire. A few years previously in 67 BCE, the last ruler of a line of kings and queens of Judea died. At her death, there’s a fight over the throne.
The people fighting for the throne sought Roman aid, but it wasn’t the royals fighting over the throne that is important, but the court official, the chamberlain of the court, a man caught Herod Antipas and his son Herod, whom we know as Herod the Great. There are many stories in other cultures of the chamberlains of a court taking charge and getting rid of the dynasty. These are the people with power. These are the people who know where the bodies are buried as we say. And it was those people that came to the fore. But in 63 BCE, Pompey arrives and sacks Jerusalem. I’m using a book called “History of the Jews” published by Captivating History. And in this, I’ll read the following: To Pompey’s credit, he refrained from looting Jerusalem. Having taken it, he left the temple unmolested, for example. And he assured the Jewish priesthood that the Romans would not interfere with Jewish religion. However, from this point, Judea was considered to be an extension of the existing Roman province of Syria, and it had to pay taxes to Rome. The great Jewish thinker, Maimonides, in Spain in the Middle Ages, thinking back to the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63, Maimonides wrote, “At times the truth shines so brightly that we perceive it as clear as day. Our nature and habit then draw a veil over our perception and we return to a darkness almost as dense as before. We’re like those who though beholding frequent flashes of lightning still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the light.” And he’s referring back to the Babylonian captivity of ancient times. And he’s saying now that Jews are in another captivity, this time of Rome.
Now, it was a different sort of captivity, but it was captivity nonetheless. In Britain, the Roman author Tacitus wrote that the Romans brought civilization, but it was in fact slavery. And here in Judea, Israel, they also brought well not civilization because unlike Britain, as I’ve just said, this part of the world was already civilised. But there was no mistaking that the Romans were the rulers and the Jews and other peoples the ruled. It was a moment, it was a moment which maybe at the time, I’m sure at the time, wasn’t regarded as a moment of great measure. The Jewish people thought that, first of all, through having a client king of the Roman, client king, that the Romans appointed Herod the Great, they would be okay, but they weren’t going to be okay. And we, of course, this is the problem with history. You all know the end of the story before you can get to the beginning of the story. But if you want to allocate blame for the diaspora of the Jewish people, then the blame lies with Rome. Here in Britain, we accepted Roman rule and our elite became a local Roman elite. And when the Romans withdrew, we struggled to keep it going and couldn’t until we were conquered by Saxons. The Jews, however, resisted. The majority resisted. And most importantly, the clergy resisted, the Pharisees, Sadducees and so on, which truly will explain the differences. They resisted. And they resisted because they did not like. Well, they did not like basic, the fact that Rome worshipped a whole myriad of gods, including previous emperors made gods on death. I’ll call it Israel, Judea.
The Civil War over the throne went on and Herod fled to Rome, but he returned backed by Romans in 39 BCE. Now, if you want to learn… I’m sure lots of you know the complexities of this infighting. That isn’t really important to the general story that I’m trying to say. I’m saying that one of the reasons that Rome was successful is because the Jews were divided themselves and the Romans capitalised on that. And when they appointed Herod as their client king, which they were to do in 32 BCE, they’re trying to say to the Jewish people, look, we’ve given you your own king, even though his strings were pulled by Rome. So everything’s as it was, but people weren’t so foolish as to believe that. Herod himself was born about 73 BCE. He was given during this Civil War crisis. He was given Roman citizenship. He was Rōmānus sum. I’m a Roman citizen, a very proud boast, which meant something. He was Rōmānus sum. In the thirties, when he becomes a client king, he isn’t much liked by many of his subjects. Think of the stack in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. His parents’ background is fascinating. His father was from Idumea, the bottom box, if you like, sometimes referred to as Edom and Edomites. They were not Jews. In fact, rather like Canaanites, the Jews rather looked down upon them. And Herod the Great’s mother was a daughter of an Arab sheikh . Nothing is ever quite in this area what you might expect it to be. Herod’s father was a convert to Judaism, not a born Jew. And Herod was also not a born Jew. As to a converted Jew, yes, but a father that was from Idumea and a mother that was from the Arabian Desert. He’s interesting.
And one of the reasons he’s interesting and is called great is because he managed somehow not only to keep the country together whilst Rome hovered in the background, but to expand his country. And we saw that on the map, to expand it to the Golan Heights, to expand it to the east of the River Jordan. He was in the business. Well, the Romans liked him because he could fight the Parthians. So he’s a buffer state in some ways. That is Herod. But what he’s famous for is initiating a massive building programme, restoring to greater glory than ever the temple in Jerusalem, building a fortress to defend the temple. He built walls, new walls around Jerusalem. He built a new market in Jerusalem because, of course, Jerusalem was… That’s one of its major purposes, a great market between east and west. He bought new fortresses on its borders like Masada, which you know or know about. And which comes into our story in a moment. He built an amphitheatre. Oh, very Roman. He built a theatre, very Roman in Jerusalem. He built a meeting place for the Sanhedrin. Oh, well, that’s a sort of stop, if you like. And his greatest success was building a port, Caesarea Maritima. He named it after Caesar, after the Roman, the title for king, emperor, Caesar Maritima. He’s falling at the Romans. Caesarea was a magnificent, opulent city, as well as port. He dedicated it in 9 BCE, and it was built on purpose to rival Alexandria in Egypt. In other words, to take trade from Alexandria and bring it to the Judean coastline.
And from there, they exported spices, perfumes, incense, which have been imported from Arabia and then exported across the world. Things like pepper, for example, which in Anglo-Saxon, England, you kept locked up because it was so difficult to acquire bead. The Venerable Bede left pepper as a gift in his will. It was so valuable. He also built on a Roman scale for Caesarea and aqueduct to bring good, clean water into the town. He built bath and villas and a circus, all very Roman. He also had built pagan temples in one of which the emperor himself was worshipped . What? Well, that does not go down well with religious Jews and their religious leaders. What is he doing? And anyhow, where did he get the money from? And that was another problem. He taxed heavily. It’s considered the debt this period. Jews were the most heavily taxed people within the Roman Empire. And he spent the taxes on what? Building pagan temples. Building a temple to the emperor. “This man isn’t a Jew at all. How can he be?” they said. How can he be? And perhaps worst of all, in Jerusalem, he placed a Roman eagle on top of the gateway into the temple itself, a symbol of Roman power in the heart of Jewish culture. And the priests of the temple were ordered by the Emperor Augustus to sacro twice a day to himself, the Roman Senate, and people. Now, it’s often said that if you want to fail dramatically as a British prime minister, you interfere with football at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. In the ancient world, if you were dealing with Jews and their monotheistic religion, the most stupid thing you can do is to alienate the priests. This is where the power lay, not with Herod. And that is what the Romans proceeded to do.
So Herod is, yes, he had political acumen in keeping the country together and to some extent, free of Roman direct interference at least. He also kept the country safe from external threats. Twice he defeated the Parthian enemy. But his own people began to distrust him, began to, I think not too strong a word, to hate him. He was a usurper in the eyes of many who was his father. His father was only the chamberlain. This is not the line of David. He taxed heavily, as I said, and used the money for war and building projects. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how some leaders, you think of even democratic ones, you think of Mitron, let alone someone like Saddam Hussein or the rulers of North Korea over the decades who built massive buildings as to leave a legacy. The problem is with Herod, his legacy of buildings was Roman and not Jewish. He also employed mercenary troops, not only against external enemies, but internally. He had a secret police force. My own, he died by the way, in 4 BCE. Probably they think now from cancer, one sort or another. My own favourite fact… You have to forgive me, I’m sorry. My own favourite fact is he married 10 times. I mean, I can’t make a joke that used to be perfectly proper to make of having 10 wives because that would be absolutely non-woke today. But I think probably you can all think of what the answer to that is with 10 wives because of what comes with the wife. But I’ve not said anything. But his first wife… This is what I find tremendous. His first wife was called Doris. Now, I dare think that’s fantastic. You’d think she’d have some exotic name. Well, maybe Doris was exotic in the last century BC.
But to an English ear, it just sounds rather fun. He left his kingdom divided. There’s a whole interesting series of lectures we could go about dividing inheritance. He divided his inheritance between his surviving sons. One got Galilee and the east bank of the River Jordan, one got the Golan Heights and its interior, and one got Samaria and Judea. he weakened the kingdom. Incidentally, he’d already had his two eldest sons executed. Not a nice man. I said he died in about 4 BCE. By 6 CE, the inevitable happened. Rome declared Judea a full province of the Roman empire and appointed and appointed a procurator or a provincial government, the most famous of which, of course, is Pontius Pilate from the Christian Bible. Later in the century, it will be incorporated into this larger province that the Romans called Syria Palestina. Words are very complicated at this period. And the complication over words like Israel and Palestine, which exists today were just as odd and awkward then. It’s not the words that matter. It’s the maps that matter. As the maps matter today, who knows those negotiating a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict at this very moment may have maps strewn in front of them.
And if they do, I bet they’ve got maps of this period strewn in front of them and saying, yes, but we were here and we were there, whatever. Borders and boundaries are extremely difficult and another cause of much friction across history. Now, Rome may have conquered all, but as I said before, the Jews never really accepted Roman rule, unlike in Britain. And you can see why. This is advanced civilization. This isn’t a barbaric land like Britain. This is an advanced civilization, one older than Rome itself. And it doesn’t like being pushed around. It doesn’t like paying taxes to Rome who like paying taxes. And it certainly doesn’t like the idea that they’re muscling in against Judaism. And it’s one God and true God with this whole raft of gods. In a book written by Norman Kotker, he writes this. This book is called “When Rome Ruled Palestine.” It’s on my blog, you can look it up. He writes this: For two centuries, 63 BCE when Pompey arrived to 135 CE when Bar Kokhba’s rebellion failed, conflict rage between the Romans and the Jews, sometimes breaking into open warfare, but more often seething under the surface. In 66 CE occurred the great Jewish revolt that was to last seven years to 73 CE. The revolt began, well you can all tell me the answer, as a reaction to Roman taxation, to the fact that the Romans were… Well, that the Romans were in charge and the Jews were not in a land that the Jews were guarded as their own. But the final crunch came when a new governor was appointed a man called Florus, F-L-O-R-U-S. And Flores was… Well, he was greedy for himself, as well as for Rome. And he was certainly not astute enough to understand that the Jews that he’d come to rule were not like other parts of the Roman empire that could simply be bullied about. And what he did was requisition all the gold held in the temple. This set up a series of street incidents in Jerusalem.
Young men took to the streets and carried baskets around. And they were asking for donations in the baskets very sarcastic. Make a donation because Florus is obviously so poor. He’s had to take the gold from the temple. So please put your money in this so that Florus can have a decent way of life. Well, it’s an amusing way to demonstrate. Flores had no sense of humour. He sent the Roman army into the city and 3500 Jews were slaughtered, many of those crucified. 3,500. Those of you who are British, but maybe others as well know of the Amritsar massacre in India in the early 20th century when the British opened fire on on Sikhs. But there was nowhere near a number like that. It was a tiny number. And yet its repercussions were great in terms of the move for Indian independence. And so this action by Florus lit a touch paper in Judea. And this Norman Kotker again. And he writes this: Revolt broke out, not just streets now in Jerusalem, but a full blown revolt after 3500 were executed. The revolt was led by the zealots, the extreme grant of the Pharisees that had long advocated open rebellion against the foreign oppressors.“ The Pharisees were the strongest religious group, and they were those who objected strongest against the multi-god Roman empire. They were also nationalists. And the zealots were an extreme branch of the Pharisees. Zealots was a Greek word. It just meant in groot, enthusiast. These zealots give us the meaning in English today of the word zealot, which is more than an enthusiast.
The revolt was led by the zealot’s extreme branch of the Pharisees that had long advocated open rebellion against the foreign oppressors. They were resolved to expel the Romans from the Holy Land and we establish an independent Jewish nation ruled by God alone and governed in accordance with Jewish religious law. Now, Trudy again will be saying more about the zealot because it’s part of the story she will tell about the Pharisees. But I’m sure everybody understands what they are. This is a nationalist group who are motivated strongly, not just by political but by religious views as well. It’s religious and political views, combining it to create a cause that they have, get rid of the Romans. They took Jerusalem, and they faced a five month siege, which eventually the Romans won by firing the gates. In 70 CE, so the war was over. No, it wasn’t for a small group managed to escape the burning of the city. And finally, a last stand was made in the Herodian Fortress of Masada. But the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem was more. I’ve written was catastrophic. Well, that’s not true. It was more than catastrophic. It was far worse than that. When those who managed to escape found themselves eventually at Masada, they found enormous stores of barley, and wheat, olive oil, wine, and dates placed there from century earlier by Herod and perfectly preserved in the dry air of the Dead Sea basin. The vast systems of the fort held ample supplies of water as long as strict rationing was imposed. The fortress itself was almost impregnable. Nevertheless, the Romans were determined to assault Masada to leave no corner of Palestine where rebellious Jews could find shelter. They built a camp at the base of the towering bluff. It took them nearly a year to climb up to the top of Masada, and they built a wall around the fortress so that no one could escape. And eventually, they took the fortress. The zealots, however, refused to surrender.
And Kotker says, "The zealous refused to surrender. Although they knew they could not hold out no longer, they vow to die rather than give into the Romans.” The Jewish historian Josephus described the scene. I’m sure many of you know this, It’s a dreadful scene. Josephus says, “The zealots classed and fondly embraced their wives and took their children in their arms, clinging to them and weeping as they kissed them for the last time. Then each man executing them with a stranger’s hands killed his wife and children to keep them from being killed by the Romans or sent off to a life of slavery. Next, they quickly heaped together all their effects and set fire to them. And having chosen by lot 10 of their number to slay the rest, they laid themselves down each beside his fallen wife and children and throwing their arms around them made ready their throats for those who discharged the mournful office,” wrote Josephus. Comment here, “The 10 men chosen by lot cut the throats of their comrades. Then they drew lots once more to choose the man who killed the other nine. Upon finishing his task, he looked around the room at the scene of a slaughter and finally killed himself.” 953 people, nearly a thousand people killed At Rome’s feet now lay the prone body of the people of Judea. The Jews who survived disperses around the world. The great diaspora begins. Many leave.
Many the Romans placed in slavery. Many the Romans that had executed. But one side effect of the Jewish diaspora is that Christianity was also involved in the escape from this land, those Jews who become Christian. Why? Because the Romans made no distinction between Jew and Christian. To them they were all the same. Too difficult to explain the theological divisions between them. Yet there was one final stand made against Rome by Simon bar Kokhba, which is going to be talked about by Trudy later in this week. But it’s really over with the fall of the Masada./ A friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, he died young, Neil Faulkner wrote a book called… It’s on my blog called “Apocalypse.” It’s the story of this Jewish revolt against Rome that ended at Masada. And he writes this about the chances of its success. We know, of course, it failed. He wrote, “Between 15 and 7 BC, the Romans conquered all of Germany as far as the river L. In AD 9, when the provincial governor attempted to tax a new territory, the Germans rose in revolt, destroyed three legions in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest and threw the Romans out. Henceforth, most of Germany remained outside the empire. Rome then was not invincible, but was successful revolt a possibility for the Palestinian Jews in AD 66 to 73. Peace had been made with Parthia only in 63. And this dangerous enemy had in the past penetrated deeply into Roman territory and inflicted punishing defeats on the legions. In AD 60 or 61, the Boudican rebels had almost driven the Romans from Britain. In AD 68, 9, Rome was consumed by civil war. And in AD 70, there was a major revolt of Germans and in the Rhineland.” And he said, “Well, had events gone differently that Jews could perhaps have won.”
But he said, “Realistically, how could they? There were only 50,000 Jews in arms at the best of times, and most of these, well, these were not professional soldiers like the Legionaries. These were farmers called up.” He said, “The defeat for the Jews was the most likely outcome, although it was never a certain one.” And he says, “Of course, they were right to fight.” Now, Neil, you need to know, is a Marxist or was a Marxist. He’s the only Roman, his ancient Roman historian I’ve ever met who was a Marxist. But he was a quiet man, a scholar, and a brilliant teacher. But you need just to carry that he was. This is his conclusion on the great Jewish revolt. Revolutions change history. The Jewish revolution would obviously have done so if the Jews had won, but failed revolutions also change history. The full historical impact of the Jewish revolution of AD 63 to 73, 66 to 73 is impossible to estimate for with the passage of time, its implications escalate into an unconquerable myriad. The three great Mediterranean religions of the last 2000 years, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have been profoundly affected by it. The defeat of apocalyptic hope and the physiological destruction of the Judeo-Christian set cleared the way for the Paul line Christians to denationalise Jesus, quarterize his revolutionary message, and repackage him as a saviour God dispensing opiate.
The Jewish disaster cleared the field also for conservative paras or rabbis as they came to be called to recast Judaism as a religion of accommodation, conformity, and obedience. Well, you might not agree with that, but what you can’t disagree with is that the profound effect of the Roman victory in 73 and then underlined with the victory against Simon bar Kokhba later. In the 130s, sealed the fate not of Judaism, but of the Jewish people and a homeland to which they’re not to return until 1948. The final words in Neil’s book, I think, are brilliant. I’m biassed because I knew the man and I knew how clever he was. Well, you judge for yourselves. It took the Romans four long years, eight legions to crush the revolt. Four years, eight legions to crush the revolt. This is another story, of course, and one whose details are probably lost forever, but enough is known to convey a message of hope. It’s that even in the darkest days of defeat, no matter how brutally men and women are subjugated, as long as there is evil in the world, there will be zealots and flickers of defiance. And as long as that is so, there will sometimes be mighty congregations when the suns of righteousness shine forth and there is light of a possible sunrise. I’m often accused of being so depressing in history talks. But just listen to this. A message of hope, it is that even in the darkest days of defeat, no matter how brutally men and women are subjugated, as long as there is evil in the world, there will be zealots and flickers of defiance. And as long as that is so, there will sometimes be mighty complications when the suns of righteousness shine forth and there is light of a possible sunrise.
Isn’t that great in the context of where we are in 2024? Now, I mentioned Simon bar Kokhba and that’s where I’m going to sort of end. Now, he was a militant, if you like, leading a rebellion. He was also religious. It’s a fascinating description of him, which is given in Norman Kotker’s book. And it reads like this: Rumours began about him to sweep through the nation that the Messiah come and that the Roman power was finally going to be overthrown by Kokhba, a wise and skillful military leader was hailed as the Messiah. His followers interpreted his name to mean son of the star, one of the epithets of the Messiah. But he was reluctant to claim messiahship or to use that title so he called himself Prince of Israel. In the period we’ve been talking about, that is to say under Roman rule, the Jews became anxious for some hope. And the hope was based in religion, the coming of a Messiah, but the coming of a Messiah that would be a military leader, as well as a religious leader, hence the bar culture thing. Numerous people came forward to claim to be that Messiah. And one of those that came forward was, of course, Jesus of Nazareth. And you remember that when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, they put over his head, “The Romans, King of the Jews,” a title of the Messiah. But Jesus wasn’t the military Messiah that the Jews were anxious for. After all, Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar the things to Caesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s.” His message was not of war, but at peace. It is possible that Christianity would have just survived as a subset of Judaism or maybe died out together if someone hadn’t picked up the ball as it were and run with it.
And that man was saw, subsequently pulled. And it is in Norman Kotker’s book, he has a chapter called “Paul, the First Christian.” And so it was Paul, the first Christian. And Paul took the message of Jesus beyond Judea, Samaria, Israel, took the message to the wider world. And that message is an extraordinary one in terms of what it achieved. And what it achieved was this, it achieved the taking over of the entire Roman empire. It was largely the effects of Paul that helped Christianize the non-Jewish populations of the Roman empire. By the fourth century, there were Christian churches in Britain. I think the earliest is probably the third century in Britain. This segment would only grow over time. And soon non-Jewish Christians would outnumber Jewish Christians. By the fourth century CE, when a Roman emperor named Constantine came to the throne, Christianity would not only be accepted, but became the official religion of the empire. One religion, Christianity. So out of the collapse of the Jewish state, a subset of Judaism, Christianity was a subvert Rome itself. It’s an amazing story. I’m going to finish with a quotation from the Osprey series. I love the Osprey series. This one is “The Jewish Revolt 66-74” by man called Sheppard. And in it he writes this and with this I end. And I’m sorry, I’ve gone over. I got so excited today.
The result of a struggle with Rome, Israeli independence was definitively lost and the Jewish state disappeared from the map for more than 1,800 years. Many of those Jews not sold into slavery, bled, or were exiled abroad, marking this as the definitive origin of the diaspora. The Jewish wars had other long term implications that went far beyond the immediate struggles over status and territory. Christian and Jewish scholars alike point out the rebellion as the final parting in the ways between the followers of Jesus. Until then, a dissident set the Judaism and the Pharisaic rabbinical tradition of mainstream Judaism. So the defeat of the Great Rebellion sent Jews scattered for nearly 2000 years and also scattered the seed core of Christianity. It’s an extraordinary story, isn’t it? And having sort of done it and talked about it today, I’m amazed as I speak what a story this is. Next week, we will look at Arabs, where they came from. We’ll look at the rise of Islam. And we shall look at the clash between Islam and Christianity in the crusades of the Middle Ages. And Trudy will go on to talk about Jews at the time of the Crusades. So there’s a lot of good stuff to come from both of us, and I hope you’ll all keep tuned in. But I guess I’ve got questions to answer. Let’s have a look.
Q&A and Comments:
Gosh, I read I had over 800 questions, but actually that was the number of people listed. Thank goodness. Let’s see if I got any questions. Have I got any questions? Yes.
Rita didn’t get a map. I’m sorry that lockdown. Yeah, somebody else did get it. I’m sorry if you didn’t.
“Please comment,” says Della, “on the influence of Greek culture and religion on the Romans.” Immense. I don’t know that there’s any other way you can put it. Immense. Greek culture was the parent of Roman culture. Of course, it was in every sort of way, in architecture, music, in literature, in poetry, in history, in everything is Greek culture central. My point is, earlier, if you heard me say about Greeks in the Middle East, Greek culture is more important and far longer lasting than Roman in the Middle East. And we will come to that in due course when we look at the Byzantine Empire.
Q: Monty. Earlier this year, The Guardian newspaper published a four-page article headed “The New Science of History: How Technology is Opening a Treasure House and Knowledge about the Past.” Is this something that will be of interest to you?
A: Well, yes, indeed, indeed it is. I think I don’t know how I say anymore.
Q: Where does Aramaic come in?
A: Well, Aramaic is the language spoken, but the Greek cultural language was Greek. If you want me to talk about language at some point, yes, I will talk about that. And it may be important to talk about American Arabic. So if I make a note. I’ll say something more next week about it. But the point was about Greek. Now, Jesus and his disciples wouldn’t have spoken Greek, for instance.
Sheila said, “There’s a very good book on Romans and Judea called ‘Rome and Jerusalem’ by Professor Martin Goodman.” And somebody else said they saw the review.
Q: Sheila says, “I don’t know if you can blame our diaspora on roads. If we had not rebelled against Roman rule challenging the largest empire, what did they expect? A Messiah?”
A: Well, yes, they did. Yes, they did. I think it’s the only response I can give to that. I don’t think for one moment that the Jews had, despite the end at mess, the Jews didn’t have a death wish. It was just that they could not tolerate Rome. Their sadness is that they were in the wrong place geographically. The Germans managed in the Maine to get rid of the Romans, but they simply couldn’t in the Middle East, sorry, this is still Sheila. We’re about 30 different sex amongst Jews in the time leading up to the Jewish revolt, time of Jesus and after. Yes, it’s Judaism and Christianity. Well, and Islam, all three of the monotheism have been noted through history for various divisions within themselves. When the Jews came back to Judea from Babylon, they did not have sovereignty. They were part of the Persian empire, then taken over by Alexander the Great. They got some sovereignty when the Maccabees beat Antiochus. True. Also during this second temple period, lots of Jews lived outside Judea. Yes. In Alexandria, Babylonia, even Rome. That’s also true. And of course, in all those other bits of the Middle East that we’ve mentioned.
Yes, not all Jews. Absolutely right, Shelly. Not all Jews lived in what I’ll describe as Herod Israel. That’s true. Although the majority of Jews did. There’s already a diaspora of sorts. You are correct. But the real issue of the diaspora is the loss of a land. Nations can’t afford to lose land and language. And although the Jews lose language, or religion, or culture, they did lose their land for nearly 2000 years.
Q: Did Herod Jewish soldiers?
A: Yes, he did, but there weren’t sufficient numbers, hence the use of mercenaries.
Q: Was it Herod who had Jesus killed?
A: No, no, no. Herod is long dead by then. Oh, somebody’s answered that. Thank you, Ron. I was just about to say your second sentence. You said, “No, Herod died. You are thinking a Herod Antipas, but Antipas ruled in Galilee.” And that was the point that he ruled in Galilee. And therefore the Romans could say that although Galilee was part of Rome, they were able to sort of shift the burden to him or Pontius Pilate did washing his hands a bit. Yeah.
The New Testament says, Ron, describe something called the massacre of the innocents, supposedly ordered by Herod the Great who heard news of the birth of Messiah. Well, there is considerable doubt about whether the so-called massacre of the innocents ever took place, or if it did, when? Oh gosh, it’s easier talking to a Jewish audience and a Christian audience about this. The trouble with the four gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus is that they were written so long after the event that it is difficult for historians, it’s difficult for historians using them as primary source material, partly because they are religious in nature, obviously, they’re telling the story of Jesus, that Christians believe is the Son of God. So if it’s a religious story, then fact is not necessarily to the foremost. It’s a religious story that’s important, not the historical story. And the other problem is we don’t have secondary sources that are sufficient in any way to substantiate the gospels. So it’s extremely difficult. When you get to the Acts of the Apostles in the Christian New Testament, that’s fine. That’s Paul. That’s all straightforward stuff. It’s the actual life of Jesus, which is difficult.
Q: What were Herod’s qualifications and qualities which led to, et cetera?
A: I’d love, I’d love to say what he had a PhD from the University of Jerusalem. No, he didn’t. No, his qualification was as he was his dad’s son and therefore inherited the office of chamberlain. And he had power. His qualities were ruthlessness in gaining power, a ruthlessness that was managed to be put into practise by falling to the Romans. He provided Romans with money for soldiers. He even provided them with soldiers at one point. Yeah.
Rose, if you think Herod had many wives, Solomon holds record with 700 wives. I can’t imagine that. No, I don’t even want think about that.
Cheryl. The Herod joke you can repeat is that you had an edited this complex. Oh, that’s clever. Oh, Simon. Sorry, Simon said that. That’s very, very good. I like that.
Carrie. Two quick things. True that the UK has been stable compared to the Middle East for a thousand years, et cetera, our 17th century civil war, and one or two other moments. Yeah, that’s not important actually in terms of the culture never changed. And it wasn’t an outside event, and it was soon over. From my American friends, we soon found that not downside of a republic because the Republican leaders like Cromwell wanted to make themselves kings.
Oh, I didn’t. I’m not even suggesting, although there were those who said to Washington that he should have made himself king. Also you said Jewish, Christian, Muslims created modern society. I think actually in fairness to myself, Carrie, I said modern European society. No, I wasn’t talking about Indian, Chinese, and African. Now, African civilizations really have not impacted, Indian and Chinese have. You are right, they are significant, but not to the story of Western Europe and of course, America, Canada and so on.
Lena, I would add to that, that the Mesoamerican cultures, although I stay from other parts world, very significant within themselves. Yes, I understand that. And of course, anthropologically and culturally, both of you are saying, Carrie and Lena, are true. But I was talking about its effect on people like us who are listening today. I don’t think I’ve got many Chinese listeners, for example, and I’m looking at Europe.
Yeah, no, you are right, Shelly. The Judean kings before Herod, not from the line of David. No, they weren’t. But the Romans at one point sought out all from the line of David and had them killed. Oh, Susan, I knew someone would do this, and I was hoping you would.
Susan, bless you. Name Doris comes from the Greek word doron, or in the modern language… I can’t do that. I don’t know. Dupo, it means gift. Yes, yes. Dorothea, for example, meant the gift of the gods. Oh, and you have bought Theodore, which means gift of the gods.
And Myrna has added, so does Nathaniel. Mumley. I’ve been fascinated with the history. You recommend me a line in the sand, but how complicated the history relating to that area. I was intrigued to listen to today’s thought on an even earlier period. All of this area is constantly difficult. That is why I tried today to make it as broad a story as I could. I guess that many of you who are Jewish know the details of the story, but then it occurred to me that you might not. There’s no reason why you should know the details. It’s to have a broad sweep is what I’m trying to, so that you’ve got some other people talking about base specific things. Not least Helen is going to talk about base specific things. Now, I keep telling you, I’m the hack adult educator. I paint a broad picture in the hope that if you are interested, you can read some books, you can listen to other lectures, and you can follow up on your own interest on the internet.
You are right, Shelly. Of course, not all rabbis were for rebellion. Some knew it couldn’t succeed and some, yes, and some collaborated to use a modern word.
Estelle. That’s a really interesting point, Estelle. Of all the numbers murdered by their families and friends at Masada, the only one man was guilty of committing the sin of suicide. And the sin of suicide in Judaism becomes the sin of suicide in Christianity. Suicide only ceased to be a crime in England in 1961. In three years before I started reading law at Oxford, suicide was still a crime.
Ron, according to Josephus and also Cassius, Dio Cassius, as many as a million Jews died in the two rebellions, the Great Rebellion and the Bar Kokhba. And he writes simply a disaster.
Shelly, the rebellion in 135 took place because the Babylonian diaspora was 70 years, and this is about 70 years from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Please name David. David, it’s on my blog, which you can look up, but I’ll tell you the answer in a minute. You look up William Tyler, and it should come up. If you put William Tyler blog, it should come up on Google. But the answer is Faulkner, Neil Faulkner, F-A-U-L-K-N-E-R. We shall meet him again much at the end of the course,. He wrote about Lawrence of Arabia, and he wrote a brilliant book about Lawrence, I mean a really brilliant book, and the end of the Ottoman Empire. And Neil Faulkner, F-A-U-L-K-N-E-R. It’s on my David, my blog, which you can access. Talk Historian it’s called. If you put talkhistorian.com, talkhistorian.com, it should get through to my blog. And you’ll find every week I put up a synopsis and a book list. Incidentally, I meant to say some time ago, I don’t necessarily keep to the synopsis ‘cause I write the synopsis early, usually before I write the lecture. And sometimes in writing the lecture, I change the order, or I miss things out and put other things in. But the synopsis gives you an idea and the books are there.
Rabbi Akiva believed in Bar Koziba and the sign he was burnt at the state, not burnt, just executed.
Oh, somebody else is… Marcia, thank you. Marcia has typed the author of the book “Apocalypse” for everyone. Neil Faulkner. Thanks.
Q: Is Josephus a credible historian?
A: Yes.
Susan, I recommend the novel by Sue Monk Kidd, “Book of Longings” about the wife of Jesus.
Sorry, Irene, I can’t bring the map back up because I don’t control it, but you should have been sent the map with the details of how to log on for tonight’s lecture, but someone’s given it to you below. That’s great. So all you need to do is click below.
Ronnie. The sound was not always clear. I’m sorry about that Ronny, Denise. And the captions were disastrous. Well, the captions on the map, that’s why I sent the map out. I can’t do anything about the sound. It will be your end, not my end, simply because if it was my end, I would have hundreds of people saying we couldn’t hear. So it may be some external factor affecting your machine this evening. I guess that’s probably what it is, but it’s not something I can do. And as for the map, that’s why send it out so that you can blow it up for yourselves and see it for yourself. If you can’t find it, just put on the internet Google map of Herod the Great’s kingdom or Herod the Great’s Israel, map of Herod the Great’s Israel, and you’ll get a map.
And somebody’s put up my blog at talkhistorian.com/blog. Thanks very much. That’s nice. Thank you, Susan. That’s very kind of you.
And, Jerry, thanks. You can get it. If they sent it to you, you can print it off or as I just said, you can print it directly for yourself off the internet. I think I’ve gone through all the questions and comments. Thanks ever so much to you. You understand, I’m sure, that as a non-Jew, I’m not nervous anymore because you’re all good friends, but I’m anxious. I’m anxious. Well, I’m anxious not to offend, but I hope I wouldn’t do that. But I’m also interested is the right word for you to come in and say, “You didn’t get that quite right or my understanding is…” That is absolutely fine so don’t ever stop doing that because that’s helpful to everybody, but it’s also helpful to me. Sometimes it’s quite difficult. It’s quite difficult, actually.
Funnily enough, I’ve never talked about Christianity at all to a Jewish audience and I find that quite interesting. It gives me a certain freedom to talk about Christianity. It’s interesting for me. And we’ll see how we get on, but next week it’s about Islam and the rise of Islam, and these dreadful crusades, jihad of Islam versus crusades of the Christians. And as I said, Trudy will be speaking separately about the Jews during the, all of which is, I hope, you’ll find as fascinating as Trudy and I do talking about it. So thanks for listening. See you all next time.