Chapter 34. Under Rome: Herod, the Great Revolt, the Fall of the Temple and Bar Kokhba

Between Pompey’s entry into Jerusalem in 63 BCE and the crushing of Simon bar Kokhba in 135 CE, Judaea moved from Hasmonean independence to client kingship, then to direct Roman rule, two catastrophic wars, and finally to the loss of its name and its capital. The period shaped both rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, and most of what is known about its central war comes from one man, Flavius Josephus, a rebel commander who went over to the Romans and wrote under Flavian patronage. This chapter follows the political story, sets out what the library’s sources say about Josephus as a witness, and then presents the revisionist and theological readings of the year 70 that the library holds, each attributed to its author.

From Pompey to Herod: the client kingdom and its fortresses

The reference shelf summarises the starting point: “In 63 BCE, the kingdom of Judaea was conquered by the Roman Republic, ending Jewish independence under the Hasmonean dynasty.” Pompey intervened in the succession war between the brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus and, after taking Jerusalem, entered the Holy of Holies, “an act of desecration as only the High Priest was permitted to enter”; the monarchy was abolished and Hyrcanus left as High Priest only [Wikipedia: First Jewish–Roman War, “Judaea under the Romans”].

Out of this settlement rose the Idumaean house of Antipater and his son Herod. The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls uses the history of Masada to show how contested Herod’s rise was: “In the year 42 BCE Jewish rebels who were opposed to the house of Antipater gained control of Masada. They held the fort until they were forced to surrender to Herod (The Jewish War 1.236-238; Jewish Antiquities 14.296).” In 40 BCE, fleeing the Parthians and the Hasmonean claimant Antigonus, Herod left eight hundred of his family and close friends at Masada (War 1.246-267) [Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, #63530, “Masada: History”].

As king, Herod fortified the desert strongholds. The same encyclopedia records that he “fortified the top of Masada with a casemate wall (a double wall divided into rooms that could serve as barracks or as an arsenal for storing weapons; many of the casemate rooms were used as dwellings by the Sicarii)” [Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, #63530, “Masada: Archaeology”]. Herodium and Machaerus belonged to the same system. His greatest work was the sanctuary: “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” [Josephus, The Complete Works, #65483, War I, ch.21].

Procurators, Zealots and the outbreak of 66 CE

After Herod’s death (4 BCE) his kingdom was divided; Josephus records that when the ethnarchy of Archelaus “was fallen into a Roman province,” Herod’s other sons Philip and Antipas governed their tetrarchies [Josephus, The Complete Works, #65483, War II, ch.9]. Davis dates the first organised resistance to the census: “The first mention of a popular leader resisting Roman rule is that of Judas of Galilee in A.D. 6/7. He preached resistance to the census ordered by the Romans … He was killed in this revolt, and his death gave rise to the Zealots,” who were “politically active in opposing Roman rule and were fundamentalist in their interpretation” of the Law [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Masada”].

The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls describes the breaking point: “During the procuratorship of Gessius Florus (64-66 CE), matters became so tense and anarchy so widespread that open rebellion broke out. Jewish rebels seized several fortresses, including first of all Masada … and sacrifices for the emperor were canceled in the Jerusalem Temple (The Jewish War 2.408-410). Battles between Jewish factions broke out in Jerusalem” [Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, #63530, “Masada: History”]. The reference shelf adds the trigger (a Greek sacrificing a bird at the entrance of a Caesarea synagogue) and Florus’ looting of the Temple treasury, and records that Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, “invaded Judaea but was defeated at Bethoron,” after which a provisional government under Ananus ben Ananus was formed [Wikipedia: First Jewish–Roman War]. Davis argues that this victory misled the rebels: rebel confidence “grew stronger when an ambush of Roman legions in the Beth Horon Pass northwest of Jerusalem gave the Jews an overly optimistic view of their chances against Rome’s might” [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Jerusalem, 70”]. Josephus states that Nero, “upon Cestius’s defeat, was in fear of the entire event of the war,” and therefore sent Vespasian [Josephus, The Complete Works, #65483, War, Preface].

Vespasian took Galilee in 67 (Yodfat, Tarichaea and Gamla). Refugees poured into Jerusalem, the moderate government was overthrown, and the city fell into “a three-way factional war between Eleazar ben Simon, John of Gischala and Simon bar Giora” [Wikipedia: First Jewish–Roman War]. Davis regards the disunity as decisive: “The only thing that may have prevailed against the Roman army was a strongly unified Jewish leadership, but such did not exist. Only in the direst straits did any of the factions cooperate.” He separates the Sicarii, “an offshoot of the Zealots,” who were not present in Jerusalem during the siege [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Jerusalem, 70”].

The siege of 70 and the problem of Josephus

Nero’s death and Vespasian’s proclamation as emperor left the siege to his son. Davis: “Titus laid siege to Jerusalem in the spring of 70, with four legions and auxiliary troops on hand. He weakened the city’s defense by allowing pilgrims to enter to celebrate Passover, then bottling them up inside to strain the food supply,” with three legions on the west and the fourth “on the Mount of Olives.” He describes Josephus’ “fruitless appeals for negotiations” from the Roman lines, the four siege towers raised near the Fortress Antonia, two destroyed by undermining and two burned by a sally [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Jerusalem, 70”]. Davis gives the dates as March to 8 September 70 and the Roman force as 70,000 men.

On the casualties Davis writes: “The numbers of people killed during the siege are incredible: Josephus claimed 1.1 million, while the Roman historian Suetonius numbered casualties at 600,000. True, Jerusalem was a major city and was packed with pilgrims … but many historians think the number reflects the casualties inflicted on all Jews in the entire campaign” and not just at Jerusalem [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Jerusalem, 70: Results”]. The reference shelf repeats Josephus’ figures (1.1 million in Jerusalem, 100,000 in Galilee), reports a modern estimate that perhaps a quarter of Judaea’s population died, and notes that “Josephus’s figure of 97,000 enslaved individuals is accepted by multiple scholars” [Wikipedia: First Jewish–Roman War].

The burning of the sanctuary is the most disputed point. Josephus insists that Titus wished to spare it and calls him as witness against the rebel “tyrants”: the internal sedition “occasioned the burning of our holy temple,” and “Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious” [Josephus, The Complete Works, #65483, War, Preface §4]. Josephus wrote this as a captured commander adopted into the Flavian household, in a history addressed to the victors; Davis treats his casualty figures and his Masada narrative with explicit caution (see below), and the same position bears on his account of who set the sanctuary alight.

Masada, 73/74 CE

After Jerusalem fell, “three fortresses remained in the hands of the rebels: Herodium, Machaerus, and Masada (The Jewish War 4.55). It is difficult to determine the number of people who escaped to Masada following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Meshorer theorized that until 73 CE people were still arriving at Masada, since coins that were minted in Ashkelon during” the following years were found there [Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, #63530, “Masada: History”]. Davis’ entry lists the defenders as “Sicarii: 960 men, women, and children. Commander: Eleazar ben Yair.” He follows Josephus through the ramp, the battering, the timber-and-earth wall the Sicarii built behind the breach and the Roman fire set against it, then warns: “None of this seems to be in dispute, but Josephus’ account of the next several hours certainly is.” In Josephus’ account, Eleazar gave two speeches during the night persuading the garrison to kill themselves rather than be enslaved [Davis, An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges, #4471, “Masada”].

Who the defenders were is itself disputed. Davis and the Encyclopedia call them Sicarii. Baigent and Leigh write: “The defenders of Masada are generally acknowledged to have been Zealots — not a religious sect, according to conventional interpretations, but adherents of a political and military movement. As it has been preserved for posterity, however, the doctrine of the garrison’s defenders would appear to have been that of the Essenes.” They point to Yadin’s discovery at Masada of scrolls “identical to some of those discovered at Qumran,” and argue, following Cecil Roth and G. R. Driver, that the Qumran sectarians were militant nationalists rather than pacifist mystics [Baigent and Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, #71853, ch.4 and ch.16].

Bar Kokhba, Aelia Capitolina and Syria Palaestina

The reference shelf describes the Bar Kokhba Revolt (dated there 132–136 CE) as “the last and most devastating of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire.” Around 130 Hadrian planned to rebuild Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, “a Roman colony dedicated to Jupiter, extinguishing hopes for the restoration of the Temple,” possibly together with a ban on circumcision. Simon bar Kokhba was declared nasi (prince) of Israel and struck his own coins. Sextus Julius Severus devastated the country after 133; “In 135, the stronghold of Betar fell, and Simon bar Kokhba was killed.” Its infobox gives 580,000 killed (Cassius Dio’s figure). The lasting result was “the renaming of the province from Judaea to Syria Palaestina, an act intended to sever the region’s historical association with the Jewish people, and the exclusion of Jews from Jerusalem.” The same article adds that “Rabbinic Judaism adopted a non-revolutionary stance, and Jewish messianism became more abstract” [Wikipedia: Bar Kokhba Revolt; Wikipedia: Syria Palaestina; Wikipedia: Aelia Capitolina].

Revisionist and theological readings of 70 CE

Atwill: the Flavians invented Christianity. Joseph Atwill argues that the Gospels and Josephus’ War were composed together as Flavian propaganda: the authors “created Jesus’ entire ministry as a ‘type’ of the military campaign of Titus. In other words, events from Jesus’ ministry parallel events from Titus’ campaign.” He presents sequences of “typologically related events that occur in the same sequence” as “the proof they left us that the ministry of Jesus was the ‘type’ for the campaign of Titus.” Among them are parallel Mount of Olives assaults, which in his reading “separate the identities of the two ‘kings,’ Jesus and Titus,” and the “naked young man” of Mark as “a prototype of Titus” escaping his pursuers [Atwill, Caesar’s Messiah, #63252, ch.3]. The thesis is reported here as Atwill’s own.

Martin: the Temple was not on the Temple Mount. Ernest L. Martin argues that “The Holy Scriptures clearly place the ‘Temple Mount’ over and around the Gihon Spring on the southeast ridge (on top of the original ‘Mount Ophel’),” and that “The Haram is the site of Fort Antonia, NOT the Temple!” On his view Titus left standing the Roman fortress, whose Herodian courses “continue to this day as a witness to the greatness of Rome. And, that central monument is now called the Haram esh-Sharif!” He attributes the later identification to the Caliph Omar’s visionary acceptance of the site [Martin, The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot, #84703, ch.2, ch.8, ch.9].

White: judgment and prophecy. The Adventist writer Ellen G. White (Romanian edition) reads the destruction as fulfilled prophecy: “Toate prezicerile făcute de Hristos cu privire la distrugerea Ierusalimului s-au împlinit la literă” (“All the predictions made by Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem were fulfilled to the letter”). Jesus foretold “judecăţile care aveau să cadă peste Israelul apostat” (the judgments that would fall on apostate Israel) for rejecting the Messiah. She treats the atrocities as “o demonstrare a puterii răzbunătoare a Satanei” (a demonstration of Satan’s avenging power) over those who submit to him, and as a type of the last generation [White, Distrugerea Ierusalimului, #13012].

Date numerology. The anonymous New Age compilation allreligionsareone places both destructions on one date: “587 Nebuchadnezzar II destroys and plunders the temple of Solomon, with help from the red haired giants … on 9/11,” and “70 Titus destroys Herod’s temple in Jerusalem on 9/11, builds a temple for Jupiter on the same spot” [allreligionsareone, #53197, timeline entries 587 and 70]. These are that text’s claims. Jewish tradition places both destructions on the 9th of Av [Wikipedia: Tisha B’Av].

Yohanan ben Zakkai and the rabbinic choice

The decisive answer to 70 CE came from inside Judaism. Karen Armstrong: “It is said that after the conquest of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yohannan had been smuggled out of the burning city in a coffin. He had been opposed to the Jewish revolt and thought that the Jews would be better off without a state. The Romans allowed him to found a self-governing Pharisaic community at Jabneh, to the west of Jerusalem. Similar communities were founded in Palestine and Babylonia” [Armstrong, A History of God, #68999]. She quotes the tradition in which Rabbi Joshua, seeing the ruins, cried: “‘Woe unto us! … that this, the place where the iniquities of Israel were atoned for, is laid waste!’ ‘My son,’ Rabbi Yohannan said, ‘be not grieved'” [ibid.]. In that tradition the consolation is that deeds of loving-kindness now take the place of sacrifice. Here the political lesson of the period becomes explicit. Messianic nationalism against imperial power (Zealots, Sicarii, Bar Kokhba) ended twice in catastrophe. The rabbis chose to accept statelessness and to replace the Temple with Torah. That debate returns with Zionism (Chapter 4.10), and the institutions built at Yavneh are the subject of the next chapter.

Key points

• Pompey’s conquest (63 BCE) ended Hasmonean independence; Herod, opposed by rebels who seized Masada in 42 BCE, became Rome’s client king and rebuilt the Temple and the desert fortresses [#63530, #65483].
• The revolt of 66 began under Gessius Florus; Cestius Gallus’ defeat at Beth Horon encouraged the rebels, and Jerusalem then split into rival factions [#63530, #4471, Wikipedia].
• Davis reports Josephus’ 1.1 million dead against Suetonius’ 600,000, notes that many historians read these as campaign-wide totals, and records that Josephus’ account of Masada’s last hours is disputed [#4471].
• Masada’s defenders were Sicarii under Eleazar ben Yair per Davis; Baigent and Leigh call them Zealots with Essene doctrine; Meshorer’s coins suggest refugees arrived until 73 [#4471, #71853, #63530].
• Bar Kokhba’s defeat (135) brought Aelia Capitolina, the renaming of the province to Syria Palaestina, and a non-revolutionary rabbinic stance [Wikipedia].
• The library holds sharply divergent readings of 70 CE: Atwill’s Flavian-invention thesis, Martin’s Gihon-spring Temple, White’s providential judgment, and a “9/11” numerology [#63252, #84703, #13012, #53197].
• Yohanan ben Zakkai, opposed to the revolt, left Jerusalem in a coffin and founded the Yavneh academy with Roman permission, choosing statelessness over messianic war [#68999].