Lecture 13: Feb 16

Todays topic was Jerusalem in Revolt. There were two revolts. the fist was the Great revolt 66-73 and the second was the bar kokhba revolt 132-135CE.Herod the great dies in 4 BC. (which is how we know that Jesus was born around this time). He had many wills and in them described what happened to Herods Kingdom. It was given to his sons.One was given to Archelaus. He became the ethnarch of Judea. He got all the main lands. However, he was an awful ruller and was exiled in less then ten years. The second son was Herod Antipas. He became the tetrarch of perea ad Galilee. He too was exiled but lasted much longer then his first brother. He ruled the region up in Galilee as well as the transjordan.  The third son was Herod Philip, sometimes called philip the second. He became tetrarch of Iturea nd trachonitis. It was way up in the north and he basically got the worst part. He ruled until his death in 34 CE.As all these sons disappear, the area that they controlled was taken over by procurators.
The Romans to over and began to rule. One man was Pontius Pilate. He was the only governor mentioned in the Gospels. He was highly ineffective and provoked the jews. He tried Jesus and sent him to his execution. He was such an awful ruler that he was recalled to Rome. There was a stone with an inscription on it, that talks about Pontius Pilate.It helps us prove that he did exist.WIth all the other govenors, all of the Roman ones were inexperienced and inept. Under their rein, there was growing internal jewish conflicts as well as provocatins from all sides. As time went on there was a steady decline of law and order under their rein. The Jews became tired of it and by summer of 66CE, the jews revolted against Rome.One way to assert you own athority was to make you own money. It was a way to state their own independce. So they created Jewish Revolt Coins.
The revolt broke out in 66CE. In 67CE, Rome appointed Vespasian to conquer Galilee. In 68-70, Nero Dies he committed suicide. And Vespasian became emperor. Then in the spring, his son Titus took charge. On the 9th of Ab, the northern city falls and the temple was destroyed. People scattered becasue they wanted to get out, and it was told they went to Masada.So even though the temple was destroyed by Titus in 70CE, the ruins remained there and in 135 CE, Hadrian built a temple to Jupitor in its place. Now we are faced with the same problems in 586. WHere will God go? and what does it mean to be Jewish if there is no temple? Hadrian came up with an idea. He said that if you are Jewish you have to pay a half shekle. If they dont want to pay the tax all they had to say was they werent Jewish.
We then looked at pictures of Masada. I love when he shows us pictures.Professor then showed us pictures of coins that they created after Judea was captured. They were called Judea Capta. On one side, there was a women who was sitting at the bottom of a tree and she is crying. It was a constant reminder to the Jews that they had been conquered.
We then moved on to the second revolt. There are very few sources about this revolt.THe revolt in a nut shell, it was from 132-135. He name was Simon ben Kosiba. It can be interpreted as the liar. And so he changed his name to bar-kokhba son of the star. There was an institutional and spiritual chrisis. you can see this through some of the prayers the jews were saying. The center of Judaism migrates to the west to a place called yavneh and then to Tiberias. Jerusalem rebuilt as Aelia capitolina, by hadrian. The province was renamed syria-palestina from Iudaea. That was a big insult to the Jews. THen the jews were forbidden to visit Jerusalem except for one day of the year on the 9th of Ab and mourn their defeat.
Some of the archiological evidence of this revolt was the coins that were created. It wasnt very successful because the revolt wasnt that big. Words were frequently misspelled.There were also revolt letters. With the coins, there were many different sayings on them. "the redemption of isreal",the freedom of jerusalem,
who was simon Bar-kohba. He really wanted to be considered the prince. He was not from a royal family or a priestly family so he could not take the title king or priest.The outcome: emperor Hadrian punished the jews bloodily. He banned circumcision. He rebuilt Jerusalem as a roman city with a temple to Jupiter. And then banned Jews from the city. This was the end of Jerusalem for a very long time.