Jesus and Roman Rule
Part 2
III. Throughout the first century, Jews of Palestine resisted Roman rule on a
number of occasions and in a number of different ways.
A. Many Jews engaged in simple silent protests against foreign rule as, for
example, during the Passover festival described earlier
1. The festival was explicitly a commemoration of God’s deliverance
of Israel from an oppressive foreign power in earlier times (from
Egypt under Moses).
2. Many Jews celebrated the feast because they anticipated that God
would do it again (free them from Rome under… the messiah?).
3. Romans understood full well the political implications of the feast,
which is why they brought in troops for the occasion
4. On occasion, the Roman presence had the opposite of its desired
effect. For example, in the 50s, during the reign of the procurator
Cumanus, a soldier made an indecent gesture to the crowds. They
picked up stones, the soldiers moved in, and—according to
Josephus (who may have exaggerated the numbers)—20,000 Jews
were killed in the mayhem.
B. On some occasions, a Roman administrator would offend the Jews in
Palestine, and they would respond through nonviolent protest. During
Jesus’ lifetime, when Pilate assumed the prefectorship of Judea (AD
26), he set up Roman standards with the image of Caesar throughout
Jerusalem. Josephus says that Jews in the city erupted in protest and
staged a kind of sit-in; after five days and several failed threats of
killing the lot of them, Pilate backed down.
C. A very few violent insurrections also occurred in Palestine during the
first century.
1. The most significant and disastrous one came thirty-five to forty
years after Jesus’ death, when Roman atrocities (e.g., the
plundering of the Temple treasury) led to widespread revolt.
2. The Romans sent in the legions from the north and quickly
subjugated Galilee (Josephus, recall, was the commander of the
Jewish troops). A group of Galilean Jews fled to Jerusalem and
provoked a bloody civil war against the priestly aristocracy who
had been in charge of the Temple and the rest of the city. Once
they acquired control, these “Zealots” pressed the fight against the
Romans to the end.
3. This led to a horrifying three-year siege of Jerusalem, with massive
starvation within the walls. The war ended in a bloodbath in which
tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered or enslaved, rebel
leaders were crucified, much of the city was leveled, and the
Temple was burned to the ground in AD 70.
D. A fourth form of protest involved a more obviously “religious”
response. Throughout this period, we know of self-styled prophets who
predicted that God would soon intervene on behalf of his people to
overthrow the forces of evil that ruled them
1. As mentioned in Josephus and briefly in Acts, less than fifteen
years after Jesus’ crucifixion, a prophet named Theudas publicly
proclaimed that he would part the Jordan River, allowing the
people to cross into Israel on dry land, an obvious reference to the
traditions of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. The Roman governor sent
forth his troops, slaughtered Theudas and his followers, and
displayed the prophet’s head in Jerusalem.
2. About a decade later, another prophet arose (also mentioned in
Acts), called “the Egyptian.” He led a huge following (30,000
people, according to Josephus) outside of Jerusalem and predicted
that he would make the “walls come tumbling down”—a clear
allusion to Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. The Roman troops
again were sent forth, and a huge slaughter occurred.
3. John the Baptist should probably be seen as a prophet of this sort,
predicting that God would soon intervene on behalf of his people
and wreak massive destruction and judgment: “Who warned you to
flee from the wrath that is coming? Behold, the axe is lying at the
root of the tree; every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down
and cast into the fire” (Luke 3:7, 9). He, too, was executed.
4. Other Jewish prophets arose and experienced similar fates. Roman
administrators of Judea had no qualms about destroying anyone
whose predictions about God’s intervention gained them a large,
and potentially riotous, following, especially in Jerusalem.
IV. An even more widespread response to Roman rule involved a kind of
religious ideology that became popular during the period, what modem
scholars call “apocalypticism.” This ideology originated, probably, during
the time of the Maccabean revolt, but became enormously popular among
the Jews of Palestine under Roman rule.
A. This ideology may have undergirded some of the self-styled prophets I
mentioned (almost certainly John the Baptist), and it was widely held
among large numbers of Jews.
B. The name comes from the Greek term apocalypsis, which means an
“unveiling” or a “revealing.” Jews who subscribed to this world view
maintained that God had revealed to them the future course of events, in
which he was soon to overthrow the forces of evil and establish his
good kingdom on earth.
C. We know about Jewish apocalyptic thought from a number of ancient
sources: the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
and numerous “apocalypses” written at the time—i.e., books that
describe the course of future events as “revealed” to their authors.
D. Jewish apocalypticists subscribed to four major tenets:
1. They maintained a view of cosmic dualism, in which there were
two forces in the world—good and evil—and everyone and
everything sided with one of the two forces. The present age was
ruled by the forces of evil and the age to come would be ruled by
the forces of good.
2. They were completely pessimistic about the possibilities of life in
the present evil age.
3. Apocalypticists believed, though, that God would intervene in the
course of history, overthrow the forces of evil, and bring in his
good kingdom with a judgement of the entire world, both the
living and the dead.
4. Moreover, apocalypticists insisted that this future judgment of God
against the forces of evil and the appearance of his good kingdom
on earth was imminent. In the words of one famous Jewish
apocalypticist: “Truly I tell you, some of you standing here will not
taste death before they see the Kingdom of God come in power.”
These are the words of Jesus (Mark 9: 1 ). “Truly I tell you, this
generation will not pass away before all these things take place”
(Mark 13:30).
E. Jesus, as presented our earliest and most historically accurate sources,
seems to have adopted an apocalyptic point of view and believed that
the judgment would happen in his own generation.
Essential Reading:
Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction, chap. 16.
Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, chaps. 1-4.
Sanders, Judaism Practice and Belief, chaps. 1-4.
Suggested Reading:
Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination.
Crossan, The Historical Jesus, chaps. 1-4.
Rowland, Open Heaven.
Questions to Consider:
1. In view of the brief description of Roman domination of the provinces given
above, how does that situation (say, for Jews in Palestine) seem to be like
and unlike the situation of developing countries who are under the sway of
the economies and policies of major world powers today?
2. Discuss how an apocalyptic worldview might provide comfort for someone
experiencing oppression and personal suffering.
Jesus and Roman Rule Part 2
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