{N}JEWISH REBELLIONS{/}

In less than ten years Augustus had transformed the Roman world of the Republic into the Empire. The entire Mediterranean basin and numerous territories very distant from its shores were subject to the authority of Rome, including Palestine.
The Jewish community had seen how Caesar had granted them privileges related to their religion. Rome guaranteed the Jews freedom of worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. It also extended this religious tolerance to the religious services held in synagogues throughout the diaspora. But all of this also accentuated a division existing among Jews themselves, namely between those like the Pharisees and Essenes who desired nothing more than the freedom of worship granted by Rome, and those who continued to demand political independence as well.
The confrontations arising from a population that was growing more and more impatient with the heavy handed harassment of Roman officials and imperial government led to three Jewish rebellions in less than seventy years, as well as to savage reprisals and to the unprecedented dispersion of the Jewish community.

{K}DIVIDED HERITAGE{/}
In the first testament that Herod the Great made, he left his kingdom to {N}Herod Antipas{/}, the second of the two sons that he had with Malthace. However, shortly before his death Herod made a new will in which he included the other son of Malthace, and {N}Philip{/}, born of his fifth wife. The king's death initiated unbelievable disruptions. {N}Archelaus{/}, son of Malthace, believed himself to be the rightful heir of the crown even before Rome had ratified his father's will. He vented his anger with terrible violence. Palestine was subject to frightening confusion and victim of rival groups.
Since succession depended upon Augustus' choice, each of the presumed heirs set sail independently of the others to plead his cause in Rome. However, pious Jews among whom the Pharisees had much influence, did not want any member of this royal dynasty that had conducted itself in such a scandalous manner. They longed for the restoration of a priesthood under the authority of a high priest worthy of the name. These pious Jews also set sail to demand an audience with Augustus after having appealed for help from the important Jewish colony in Rome.
Deprived suddenly of its political authorities and its wise leaders, the country experienced so many new disturbances that the Syrian legate, Quintilius Varus, had to intervene with troops from Antioch. This repression only served to create more animosity against the Romans among the Jewish population. It was at this time that the extreme wing of the Pharisees created the separate group of the {N}Zealots{/} who chose the path of violence to achieve their objectives.
The three brother heirs returned from Rome. Augustus ratified their father's will but with some modifications. He denied Archelaus the title of king. Instead he would be ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. Herod Antipas became ethnarch of Galilee and Perea. Philip became ethnarch of Gaulanitis, Batanea, and Trachonitis, territories to the east of the Jordan.

{K}JUDEA UNDER THE PROCURATORS{/}
True son of his father, Archelaus governed with such brutality that a large part of the population protested against him. They again sent a delegation to Rome to be liberated from this despot. Augustus deposed Archelaus whom he exiled to Gaul. The territory lost its rank as allied kingdom and was annexed to the province of Syria. Nevertheless, it was to be administered in an autonomous manner by a prefect under the jurisdiction of the provincial legate residing in Antioch of Syria. The prefect collected the taxes and commanded the auxiliary troops which were recruited locally. He alone had authority to execute sentences of capital punishment, including any pronounced by the {N}Sanhedrin{/}. Since the Sanhedrin continued to administer justice in keeping with its particular rights and to direct religious affairs, the only jurisdiction Rome exercised in this field was for the prefect to nominate the high priest. The Community of Jerusalem reserved freedom of worship under the supervision of the Roman garrison stationed in the Fortress Antonia. By exceptional privilege, the Community was exempt from imperial worship and from doing military service.
During the years that followed the deposition of Archelaus, the Jewish population of Judea had plenty of motives to complain about Roman rule. {N}Pontius Pilate{/} in particular, who ruled Judea from 26 to 36 AD, provided many examples of brutality and humiliation. Having treated the Samaritans in the same way, he was summoned to Rome to account for his conduct. He never returned. Possibly he committee suicide\u0085or was invited to do so.

{K}PHILIP{/}
The Tetrarch Philip (not to be confused with the Philip or Herod-Philip of and [Mk_6,17] cf: the following paragraph) built a city on the upper Jordan which he named Caesarea (This is {N}Caesarea Philippi{/}.), another in Gaulanitis to which he gave the name of Tiberias, and a third in Perea with the name Juliada. In this way he simultaneously honored Tiberius and Julia, daughter of Augustus, whom Tiberius had married. He also married {N}Salome{/}, daughter of {N}Herodias{/}, and left the memory of a peaceful rule. He died without heirs in 34 BC and his tetrarchy was annexed to the Province of Syria.
During the period of Solomon's reign several of these territories were subject to him and thereafter to the kings of Samaria, nevertheless the majority of the inhabitants were pagans. They participated only indirectly in the events taking place in Palestine.

{K}HEROD ANTIPAS{/}
The tetrarch established himself at first in Sepphoris as capital of Galilee. However, he found the city in terrible condition. It had been the scene of an insurrection after the death of Herod the Great which Varus then quelled with repression. Herod Antipas decided to make a new beginning with a new capital. He ordered the construction of a palace on the west bank of the lake and around that palace he would build {N}Tiberias{/} named in honor of the present emperor.
Everything looked as if Antipas would have a trouble free reign. His half-brother, Herod Philip, however, had married his cousin, {N}Herodias{/}, who would change that. {N}Philip{/} himself remained prudently on the margin of political life, but not so his ambitious wife. The intriguing Herodias was not content to live with a man without ambition. She connived with Antipas, who also was her cousin, to the point where he repudiated his wife in order to marry Herodias. The consequences were disastrous. The father of his former wife, King Aretas of Nabatea, marched against Antipas to avenge his daughter. The Roman legate of Syria, Vitellius, refused to come to Antipas' aid, and he was defeated in 36 AD. 
Nevertheless, Herodias continued her intrigues, this time to gain the royal crown for her new husband who was only tetrarch. The Emperor Caligula (37-41) was not swayed by Herodias since he already planned to give the honor to his close friend, {N}Herod Agrippa I{/}. Moreover, Caligula angrily reacted to Herodias' interventions by deposing Antipas (39) and exiling both him and her. She refused the imperial favor to follow him.

{K}AGRIPPA{/}
Emperor Caligula had already manifested his favoritism for Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great and Mariamme, by appointing him king of the ancient tetrarchy of Philip (37). In 39 he expanded his tetrarchy to include Galilee which he took from Antipas. Then when Caligula was assassinated in 41, the new Emperor Claudius granted Agrippa the ancient territory of Archelaus, that is, Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. During his brief but prosperous and peaceful reign, Agrippa knew how to combine his appreciation for Hellenism with his respect for Judaism.
In this way the kingdom of Herod the Great was reunited under the crown of one of his grandsons, but only for a short period. When Agrippa died in 44, his son was still a youth. Claudius used this excuse to place the kingdom under the rule of Roman procurators.

{K}INCREASED TENSION{/}
Caligula, during his brief reign, had ordered that his statue should be erected in the Temple of Jerusalem. He did this as a reprisal against the Jews who had destroyed an altar that had been built in his honor in Jamnia. The legate had the wisdom of delaying the execution of this imperial order. In the meantime, Agrippa had gone to Rome where he used all his influence to have the order rescinded. The assassination of Caligula was fortunate for the legate who had been advised that he should commit suicide for insubordination.
Peace seemed to have been restored and continued under the rule of the following procurators. However, under his successor, Cumanus, the arrogance of a Roman soldier twice provoked mutinies, brutal repression, and complaints to the governor who finally gave in to the accusations of the Jews. However, when another dispute arose between Samaritans and Jews, Cumanus decided in favor of the Samaritans. Two instigators incited Jewish crowds in Samaria to assassinate their enemies and burn the cities. Jewish leaders managed with great difficulty to calm the protesters, but the Samaritans presented their complaints to the legate in Syria. He sent the disputing parties to present their case before Emperor Claudius in Rome. There Agrippa, who was on good terms with Claudius, interceded for the Jews whose situation once more turned out favorably. In the meantime, Cumanus was exiled and replaced by {N}Felix{/} who was known for his arbitrary nature and his notoriously bad conduct. At this time Claudius died, leaving the empire to his son, {N}Nero{/}, by his wife Agrippina.
Jerusalem had become a turmoil of mutinous groups, and assassinations were frequent. The procurators responded with increased repression which only further incited the Zealots to seek revenge. A revolt broke out in Caesarea where Felix had his capital. His successor {N}Festus{/}, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in relation with Paul's process in Caesarea, did everything possible to put an end to the banditry and violence. However, under a succession of corrupt procurators the situation only grew worse.

{K}"THE FIRST REVOLT"{/}
A quarrel between Greeks and Jews nearby a synagogue lit the fire. The conflict quickly spread to the cities and to Jerusalem. By November 66 the whole country was in tumult with more than 50,000 men in combat. The Syrian Legate, Cestius Gallus, came from Antioch to Caesarea which he pillaged and burned. Then he dispatched the XII legion to Galilee. He appeared to have restored calm to the northern part of the country. The Romans marched to Jerusalem and surrounded it. However, Cestius, badly informed, raised the siege and withdrew. The Jews took advantage of his retreat to cut the Romans to pieces. Emperor Nero immediately reacted by sending Vespasian, whom Tacitus described as "that indefatigable warrior." Vespasian personally took command of the XV legion. His son, Titus, brought another two legions from Egypt. These, together with the legion already stationed in Palestine, gave the Roman general an army of about 60,000 soldiers.
Vespasian lay siege to one city after another: Jotapata, Tiberias, and Gamala, making him master of Galilee. In the following spring, with the borders of the Jordan clear, he took control of Jericho and thus controlled the greater part of Judea. He stationed his legions in Emmaus.

{K}VESPASIAN, EMPEROR{/}
While this campaign was going on, Nero set Rome into turmoil. His generals revolted and {N}Nero{/} committed suicide to avoid being tortured. With the emperor's death, social order broke down. Military anarchy occurred followed by civil wars. Finally the provinces of the East imposed order and proclaimed Vespasian emperor. He sent troops to prepare for his arrival in Rome, but before leaving Palestine he placed his son in charge with orders to crush the Jewish rebellion. This task had become even more urgent since the turmoil in Rome had given the Jewish insurgents time to regroup.

{K}SIEGE OF JERUSALEM{/}
The new commander in chief encamped at Guibea, five kilometers from Jerusalem. Although he had a formidable army, the city was difficult to attack and its defenders were resolved to defend it to the end. Unfortunately for them, they were not united. Moreover they were tired of the despotism of John of Gischala who had ruled Jerusalem since the year 67. They gladly welcomed a new leader, Simon bar Giora. John and his Zealots took refuge in the patio of the Temple. The Jews turned on one another with betrayals and conflagrations. Titus, having failed in an attempt to enter the city by force, lay siege to it. At the end of May 70, the northeast wall of the city fell. The troops took control of the intervening territory up to the second wall, which then also fell. Finally the Fortress Antonia was captured in July, and then on the 29 th of July the {N}Temple{/} was entered and razed. (That was the same month of Ab in which Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem.) In September the last defenders, emaciated by terrible hunger, were driven out of the upper city where they had regrouped. This was the last blow. Jerusalem lay in ruins.

{K}END OF THE REBELLION{/}
Those who escaped death were added in the slave market to their compatriots who had been captured in the battles of Galilee and Judea. A few groups of Zealots, entrenched in Herod's old fortresses, continued to resist by carrying out a war of harassment. Titus decided to finish off these pockets of resistance. Herodium and Machaerus were the first to fall. Finally after a six months siege, Masada fell in the spring of 73.
Emperor Vespasian made Palestine an imperial province with the name of {N}Judea{/}. Since the Temple lay in ruins, the temple tax was collected for the treasury of Jupiter Capitolinus, but Judaism retained the status of a recognized religion.
With the loss of political independence and the destruction of the Temple, the Sanhedrin was quickly restructured in favor of the Pharisee Doctors of the Law. They gathered in Jamnia under the leadership of Yohanan ben Zakkai. Within a short time the Sanhedrin imposed itself as the religious authority of Judaism both in Palestine and in the Diaspora. Its president was given the honorary title of "Chief Ruler," Ha Nasi.

{K}UNREST UNDER TRAJAN{/}
As can be imagined, the Jews had little sympathy fo either Vespasian or his son Titus. The third member of the dynasty, Domitian, had a tyrannical character which hardly disposed him to respect a religious worship opposed to all the other religions. Accordingly, in the long persecution against the Christians in 95, many Jews also suffered, including even members of the imperial family who had converted to Judaism.
Trajan came to power in 98. Dreaming of recreating the exploits of Alexander in the East, he decided to crush the Parthian enemy. He invaded Armenia in 114, then launched a campaign into Mesopotamia, leading his legions to the very shores of the Persian Gulf. At that time the Persians counterattacked, forcing Trajan to abandon Assyria and lower Mesopotamia.
Trajan's campaigns exhausted the state treasury. The Emperor increased taxes. The Jewish communities of the empire refused to put up with this continual increase in taxation. In Cyrene, Egypt, and Cypress resistance movements developed, and the rich communities of Mesopotamia joined them. It is probable that this movement may have taken root at least partially in Judea.

{K}BAR KOCHBA{/}
In the year 117 Trajan died suddenly in Selinus in Cilicia. It appears that disturbances within Jewish communities had subsided. Shortly after assuming the throne, Adrian visited Jerusalem in the year 130 and found it more or less in the same condition of devastation in which the Romans had left it after the first rebellion. He decided to build a new city on its ruins, Aelia Capitolina, and to erect on the very site of the Temple a shrine in honor of Jupiter Capitolino. On the other hand, it appears that he forbade circumcision at this time, which for Romans was as bad as castration. Whichever the cause, what is certain is that as soon as the emperor left the East in the year 132, a certain Simon Kosiba, also called Bar Kochba, "the Son of the Star," began leading an insurrection.
One of the most illustrious rabbis of the time, Rabbi Aqiba, supported by the priest Eleazar, recognized Simon as the Messiah. Simon extended his movement throughout the country. At first the Romans were taken by surprise and withdrew beyond the borders, leaving the country to the rebels. Jerusalem was liberated; money was coined; worship was reestablished; but all this was but a wild fancy. The legions counterattacked and the movement was suppressed even more viciously than in the days of Titus. At the beginning of the year 134 Jerusalem was again crushed by the Romans. Some resistance groups sought refuge in caves excavated in the hillsides overlooking the desert of Judah on the Dead Sea. In a short time the Romans dislodged and massacred them. Bar Kochba died in the final battle. Rome took possession of the country, eradicating all signs of the past. Judea would henceforth be Palestine.

{K}JEWISH REORGANIZATION{/}
The Jewish population of Palestine was no more than a shadow of what it had been. A great number had been killed and even more of those who were captured had been sold into slavery. Nevertheless, this "small remnant" would carry out the considerable work planned in Jamnia between the two rebellions and continued tirelessly in rabbinical schools in several cities of Palestine. Synagogues experienced a great development especially in Galilee which would become the future home of the Sanhedrin.
The Emperor Antonius Pius (138-161) was an honorable and consciencious man. His contemporaries did not spare praises about his simplicity and equanimity. Respectful of the cultural diversity of his subjects, he again allowed Jews the right to practice circumcision, but only on persons born of Jewish fathers. These concessions by Rome were not without a purpose. The Parthian threat still existed on the eastern frontier of the empire. The powerful Jewish communities in Mesopotamia always had the potential of becoming an enemy. Rome did not hesitate in strengthening the powers of the Sanhedrin by conferring on its president the title of Patriarch of the Jews.

{K}CHRISTIANS IN PALESTINE{/}
In its first period, the Christian community of Jerusalem was composed of Jews from Palestine. Formed as they were in the school of the prophets, nourished by the words of the prophets, especially by texts of Isaiah about the Servant of Yahweh, they recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah announced by their fathers. {C}"We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well: he is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth,"{/} as Philip would say to Nathanael [Jn_1,45].
For the "Christians of the circumcision," as they were called in order to distinguish them from Christians of pagan origin, the Law had not be abrogated, but transformed. Even though they did not neglect the prescriptions demanded by the Torah, their faith in Christ made them suspect in the eyes of the rest of the Jews, giving rise to frequent conflicts. It is interesting to note that when the first Jewish rebellion occurred, the Jewish Christians of Judea took refuge first in Samaria and then in Pella in Transjordan [Mk_13,14], distancing themselves in this way from the hostilities of the Jews against Rome.
Nevertheless, the Jewish rebellions had the effect of increasing diversity within the population of Palestine. Greeks, Syrians and persons that had come from all countries of  the Orient, rubbed shoulders with the Jewish survivors of the massacres and exiles. Jewish Christians existed among the Jews, who did not trust them, and among Christians who came from other peoples. This situation contributed to the dissolution of the mixed Jewish group.
Some recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah Son of God made man, whereas others limited their belief in him to being the Messiah. Between these two groups there were still many more variations of belief. In the middle of the second century, Hegesuooys, a chronicler of the Church of Palestine, named a dozen Jewish-Christian sects which had not bonded to the large Church made up mostly of faithful of pagan origin. These small, individual communities were divided among themselves and existed by their own support, and so gradually died out. When a census was taken of the bishops attending the Council of Nicea in the year 325 who represented communities from Palestine, it was noticed that not a single one of them had a Jewish name.
Before the Jewish-Christian communities disappeared they left abundant literature. These works vary greatly in importance among which we can mention the following: the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of Peter, the History of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, and the History of Joseph the Carpenter. None of these was accepted into the Canon of Scripture.
