Lecture 12

This lecture began with Jerusalem in revolt.  The main resource is from Josephus, who wrote different books chronicling the history of the Jews and the romans.  He was very pro-roman because they spared him after he was once a general for the Jews when they were revolting.

We started discussing how Herod broke up his dynasty to his sons Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip.  Here are individual notes for each of the three:

§  1. Archelaus

·         Became “Ethnarch” of Judea

·         Ineffective ruler

·         Was recalled to Rome and sent into exile in 6CE

o   Ruled for less than 10 years

·         NT reference: Matt. 2:22-23

·         Was the reason why kings were no longer occurring, Romans had it done with Governors

§  2 . Herod Antipas

·         Became tetrarch of Perea and Galilee

·         Ruled from 4BCE until his exile in 39CE

·         Jesus’ life primarily written to be in Galilee

o   So when they say Herod, they mean “Herod Antipas”

·         Made coins proving his existence

o   Didn’t have graven images

§  3. Herod Philip

·         Became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, northwest of the Sea of Galilee

·         Ruled from 4BCE until  his death in 34CE

·         On his coin he put his own image on the coin

o   Because the land he inherited was so far away from the jewish area, way up to the north

o   Also put temple

§  Which could be a temple to Caesar augustus

After these kings failed, Rome decided to start rule with Roman governors.  The governor we discussed was Pontius Palate.  This was the Roman governor who is said to have Jesus executed.  He was a very ineffective ruler, and was actually called back from his rule by Rome.  In the time of these governors, we see that the rulers were getting gradually worse, and Jewish Zealots were rising.  When the zealots were rising, the Jews began to mint their own coins to assert their independence.  Sadly, this didn't last long.  During the time of this revolt, Titus, the son of Vespasian, destroyed the temple.  This was in the year 70 CE.

With this destruction sprouted another instance of cognitive dissonance where the jews were trying to rationalize how this could happen again.  To be able to understand this, the jews started to become more spiritual, moving away from strict buildings in order to study.

There soon became a second revolt, called the "Bar-Kokhbar" revolt. Here are notes about this revolt:

o   Very few sources

§  Dio cassius, a roman historian

§  Later (5-6^th C. CE) Talmudic sources

§  Archaeology (written remains and material culture)

o   Aspects of 2^nd revolt (132-135CE)

§  Bar-Kokhbar (Simon ben Kosiba), Akiva, and MEssianism

§  Institutional and spiritual crisis (extinction of sects; e.g., birkat ha-minim; codification of Mishnah

§  Center of Judaism migrates to Yavneh, then to Tiberias

§  Jerusalem rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina (by Hadrian); the province is renamed Syria-Palestina from Iudaea

§  Jews forbidden to visit Jerusalem (Except on 9^th of Ab)

o   Bar-Kokhba Revolt Coins

§  Words are frequently misspelled/no spell check

§  Called himself “naci”

·         Means prince, and can mean messiah

§  Shows temples on all his coins

§  Many coins were overstruck

·         Meaning they were old and printed, but printed over it

·         Done because this guy was poor

·         Overstrike saved money

·         Overstrike eliminated “pagan” symbols

§  Wanted to promote Jerusalem as eternal capitol

§  Was really trying to assert himself as the prince of Jerusalem

·         Was not from a royal or priest family

o   Therefore he didn’t say king or priest, but used “prince”

o   There were revolt letters

§  Written in multiple languages

·         Outcome of Bar-Kokhba revolt

o   Emperor Hadrian punished the jews bloodily

o   Rebuilt jerusalem and called it Aelia Capitolina with a temple to Jupiter

o   Banned jews from the city

o   Banned circumcision

After this, Rome established the city Aelia Capitolina in Jerusalem.