by
Damien
F. Mackey
Part
One:
Judas
the Jewish Revolutionary
Although the Maccabees are conventionally separated
from the Herodians by approximately a century and a half, there might now be reason
to think that they were contemporaneous.
The Census
Without
committing myself to identifying Judas Maccabeus with “Judas the Galilean” of
Acts 5:37: “… Judas the Galilean appeared
in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was
killed, and all his followers were scattered”, at the time of my writing:
Judas Maccabeus - Judas the Galilean
I then definitely
had well in mind such an historical linking.
For, more and more was I finding
parallels between the Maccabean age and the Herodian age. Obviously, then, one
would expect to find reference to a “census” at the time of the Maccabees,
since this was a major issue at the time of Herod the Great (Luke 2:1): “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should
be taken of the entire Roman world”.
Please note that the Greek version of
this verse makes no mention whatsoever of “Roman”: 1 Ἐγένετο
δὲ
ἐν ταῖς
ἡμέραις
ἐκείναις
ἐξῆλθεν
δόγμα
παρὰ
Καίσαρος
Αὐγούστου
ἀπογράφεσθαι
πᾶσαν
τὴν
οἰκουμένην.
Literally: “It came to pass
moreover in the days those went out a decree from Caesar Augustus to register
all the world”.
And
the Greek noun, οἰκουμένη, does not necessarily mean “world”, but can
also mean “land”. According to Fiona J. R. Gregson (Everything in Common?: The Theology and
Practice of the Sharing of ...):
“… while
ὅλην τὴν οἰκουμένην
could point to the whole world, or at least the whole known world, it could
also be used of a region, and allowing for poetic exaggeration to a smaller
area”.
“Judas the
Galilean” who “appeared in the days of the census”,
according to Gamaliel, may just be that required link between the Maccabees and
the census of Luke 2.
If so, if Judas the Galilean were
Judas the Maccabean, then the census must have occurred while the father,
Mattathias was still alive. For, in the legends of Judas the Galilean, his older
partner, Matt[at]hias, was yet alive. As we read in “Judas Maccabeus - Judas the Galilean”:
Every day this throng of Israel's future sat and
listened to the wizened Matthias and his younger partner, Judas, preach the
Kingdom of Heaven. The relationship between the two wise men can be argued
as well as their ages, but the pattern of the Maccabees suggests that Matthias
was the older father figure (or literal father) and Judas, the son. How
they came to the Temple, to this point in the history of Israel can be deduced
from what preceded them.
…. A movement was forming that was based upon the
distant exploits of Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabee (170 BCE). ….
Just as, in Luke
2:3, when “everyone went to their own town to register”, and
2:4: “… Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to
Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of
David”, so, at that time (If I am putting this together correctly) did
Mattathias, father of the Maccabees, take all of his family “from Jerusalem and
[settle] in Modein”. Modein, as we later learn (I Maccabees 13:25), was their
ancestral home: “Simon had the body of his brother Jonathan brought to Modein,
to be buried in the town of their ancestors”.
Archaeologists have become very excited lately thinking that they may
be on the verge of discovering the lost Maccabean tomb at what they consider to
be the site of ancient Modein: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/09/22/have-israeli-archaeologists-uncovered-long-lost-tomb-maccabees.html
…. A large mausoleum recently uncovered in Israel may be the Tomb of the
Maccabees, the celebrated Jewish family that led an uprising against the Greeks
in the second century B.C. Archaeologists, however, are still searching for
conclusive evidence that the site is the Maccabees’ final resting place.
The Israel Antiquities Authority, working with local residents and volunteers,
recently excavated the site near the city of Modi’in, 19 miles northwest of
Jerusalem, long rumored to be the Maccabees’ tomb.
The Maccabees – Matityahu the Hasmonean and his five sons were from the
ancient city of Modi’in. The archaeological site at Horbat Ha-Gardi is close to
the Arab village of Al-Midya, which bears a similar name to that of the ancient
Modi’in, and attracted nineteenth-century archaeologists.
The tomb is described in two 2,000-year-old books – ‘The Book of the
Maccabees’ and the ‘Antiquities of the Jews’, which was written by ancient
historian Josephus Flavius. Described as a tall, impressive structure
surrounded by columns, the mausoleum was covered with pyramid-like roofs and
was said to overlook the sea.
….
Amit Re’em, who managed the recent Horbat Ha-Gardi excavation for the
Israel Antiquities Authority, told FoxNews.com that the tomb certainly bears a
resemblance to the one described in the ancient books. “It was circled with
pillars,” he said, adding that the tall building had pyramid-style structures
on its roof. “People could see it from the sea, from [the coastal city of]
Jaffa.”
An excavation of the tomb by Charles Clermont-Ganneau in the late
nineteenth century revealed mosaics adorned with a cross on the floor of the
burial vaults, prompting the French archaeologist to assert that the site is
Christian in nature. The tomb was then abandoned by archaeologists until the
recent attempt to reveal its secrets.
“It’s a wonderful site, it’s a beautiful site,”
Re’em told FoxNews.com. “We re-exposed the tomb chamber and the mosaic
with the decoration of the cross.”
The archaeologist noted that the Maccabees had a place of honor in early
Christianity, which could explain the cross decoration, and speculated that
early Christians may have re-dedicated the burial tomb, a theory also put
forward by Clermont-Ganneau. However, Re’em acknowledged that there is still
insufficient archaeological evidence to identify the Maccabees’ tomb.
“We’re still searching, we’re looking for the smoking gun, the hard
evidence that will enable us to tell people that this is the Tomb of the
Maccabees,” he said. ….
However, a location
only “19 miles northwest of Jerusalem” would not serve to make Judas a
“Galilean”, as according to Gamaliel in Acts 5:37. Accordingly, I do not expect
the archaeologists to find the ancestral Maccabean tomb at (or near) Horbat
Ha-Gardi.
My tentative choice
for ancient Modein would be Sepphoris in Galilee, not far from Nazareth:
on account the fact that Judas
the Galilean and his followers had escaped to Sepphoris, a very important city
at the time.
Part
Two:
Gamaliel’s
feeble account of Judas?
‘… Judas the
Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt.
He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered’.
Acts 5:37
If Judas the
Galilean, the partisan referred to here by Gamaliel, were Judas the Maccabean,
as I have strongly suggested in Part
One, then what an underwhelming account of the great man
the highly-respected
Pharisee gives of him here!
The best that he
can say of Judas is that ‘he was killed’ and his ‘revolt’ came to nothing.
Gamaliel was, of
course, the strict teacher of St. Paul himself, who claimed to have been
“educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of
our fathers …” (Acts 22:3).
So much for
that.
But compare Gamaliel’s
miserable account of Judas with the one given in 1 Maccabees 3:3-9:
Judas brought greater glory to his people.
In his armor, he was like a giant.
He took up his weapons and went to war;
with his own sword he defended his camp.
In his armor, he was like a giant.
He took up his weapons and went to war;
with his own sword he defended his camp.
He was like a ferocious lion roaring as it attacks.
Judas hunted down those who broke the Law
and set fire to all who oppressed his people.
In fear of him, lawless men huddled together in terror,
not knowing which way to turn.
He advanced the cause of freedom by what he did.
He made life miserable for many kings,
but brought joy to the people of Israel.
We will praise him forever for what he did.
He went through the towns of Judea
and destroyed all the godless men.
He relieved Israel of its terrible suffering.
His fame spread to the ends of the earth,
as he gathered together those who were threatened with death.
“Finally
Judas himself was killed” (9:18), as Gamaliel said, and also: “Then all his men
fled”.
But that
was by no means the end of the story (vv. 19-22):
“Jonathan
and Simon took their brother's body and buried it in the family tomb at Modein,
and there at the tomb they wept for him. All Israel mourned for him in great
sorrow for many days. They said,
It can't be! The mighty hero and
savior of Israel has been killed!
The other deeds
of Judas, his battles, his courageous deeds, and his great accomplishments,
were too many to write down”.
Nor
was Judas merely a warrior-priest. He was also a man of culture. Gamaliel may,
in fact, have owed it to Judas Maccabeus that he now had access to important
Jewish literature, because (2 Maccabees 2:13-14): “… Nehemiah
… established a library and collected the writings of David, letters of the
kings concerning offerings, and books about the kings and prophets. Judas also collected the books that had been scattered because of
the war, and we still have them”.
The herculean effort of Judas Maccabeus did
not terminate with his death, as one might think from Gamaliel’s synopsis, but
was carried on by his brothers, Jonathan and - most notably - Simon (Sirach
50:1-2): “The greatest of his brothers and the pride of his people was the High
Priest Simon … who repaired the Temple and laid the
foundation for the high double wall and the fortifications of the Temple …”.
A summary
so far
This now necessitates also that the main
king in Judah at the time of Judas Maccabeus, namely Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’,
must ‘collapse into’ the main king there at the time of Judas the Galilean, namely
Herod ‘the Great’.
I had commenced
by likening the poorly known partisan, “Judas the Galilean” (as referred to in
Acts 5:37), with Judas the Maccabean, with whom I had intended later to forge
an identity.
That I began to
do in Part One and Part Two of this new series.
And, since Judas
the Galilean is connected by Gamaliel with “the census”, which must be that of
Luke 2:1-2: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree
that a census should be taken of the
entire world. (This was the first census that took
place while Quirinius was governor of Syria) …”, then the revolt against the
Seleucid Greeks by Judas the Maccabean must have occurred right at the
time of the birth of Jesus Christ.
As noted earlier in this series, some translations
of Luke 2 have a census “of the entire Roman world”, even though the word
“Roman” was not originally included here by Luke.
This new
revision of our by now composite (but historically real) “Judas” means a massive
reduction of some 170 years in terms of conventional BC-AD history.
This now
necessitates also that the main king in Judah at the time of Judas Maccabeus, namely
Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’, must ‘collapse into’ the main king there at the time
of Judas the Galilean, namely Herod ‘the Great’.
Do
we find a census at the time of Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes?
Do
we find, at that time, a ‘slaughter of innocents’?
We shall
definitely find that Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’ was a slaughterer of babies,
along with men, women, children and the elderly.
And what about
Luke’s “Caesar Augustus” (Καίσαρος Αὐγούστου)?
Part
Three: The “King”
(i)
A slaughterer of innocent babies
“Mothers who had
allowed their babies to be circumcised were put to death in accordance with the
king's decree. Their
babies were hung around their necks, and their families and those who had
circumcised them were put to death”.
I Maccabees 1:60-61
Basically, in
this series, I am in the process of merging the early era of the Jewish
revolutionary, Judas Maccabeus (c. 170 BC, conventional dating), with that of
the partisan, Judas the Galilean (c. 4 BC, conventional dating) and the era of
the birth of Jesus Christ.
There are some
remarkable parallels arising here.
The father of
Judas Maccabee was one, Mattathias (I Maccabees 2:1, 4) - the name “Mattathias”
perhaps being a Hellenised version of Matthias:
Now we encounter
the name, Matthias, in the case of Judas the Galilean, whose mentor bore this very
name. And I would agree with this comment that connects well with the
Maccabees: “It is quite probable that Matthias was the father and Judas the son. However, it also implies that
there were other brothers involved”:
Whilst the
Maccabean account does not specifically refer to a census, we do have that same
Lucan situation of an emperor issuing a binding decree to his subjects (I
Maccabees 1:41-43): “Antiochus now issued a decree that all
nations in his empire should abandon their own customs and become one people.
All the Gentiles and even many of the Israelites submitted to this decree. They
adopted the official pagan religion, offered sacrifices to idols, and no longer
observed the Sabbath”.
The two may be connected.
And, as we noted earlier in this series, just as Joseph and Mary had
departed for Joseph’s ancestral town of Bethlehem, in accordance with the
census decree, so did Mattathias at this same time (according to my revision)
take his family to their ancestral town of Modein.
According to the legends associated with Matthias and “Judas the
Galilean” these partisans firmly opposed the census. But it may have been,
instead - taking our cue from the Maccabeans - the decree to “abandon their own
customs and become one people” that they so vehemently opposed.
Judas the
Galilean went to Sepphoris in Galilee, which I have surmised may be the proper
location for the disputed “Modein”.
Slaughter of babies
Reminiscent of
our own age, the lives even of babies were not safe.
Mattathias the
father of the Maccabees, lamenting (I Maccabees 2:6): ‘Why was
I born to see these terrible things’, will include amongst the ghastly sins and
crimes of the oppressors (v. 9): ‘Our children have been killed in the streets
…’.
At the beginning of the uprising, the faithful Jews were attacked on
the Sabbath. Again, not even the children were spared (v. 38): “So the enemy
attacked them on the Sabbath and killed the men, their wives, their children,
and their livestock. A thousand people died”.
After the death of Mattathias, Judas, fighting against “Seron,
general of the Syrian forces”, will remind his followers that their “children”,
too, were in danger (I Maccabees 3:20): “Our enemies are coming against us with
great violence, intending to plunder our possessions and kill our wives and
children”.
Perhaps the most
striking passage of all in our revised context is 2 Maccabees 8:4: “They also
asked the Lord to show his hatred of evil by taking revenge on those who were
murdering his people, mercilessly
slaughtering innocent children, and saying evil things against the Lord”.
For, we speak
today of the very same “slaughter of the innocents” in relation to Mathew 2:16:
“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi,
he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its
vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had
learned from the Magi”.
Part
Three: The “King”
(ii)
Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’ merges into Herod
“About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt. And it
happened that over all the city, for almost forty days, there appeared
golden-clad horsemen charging through the air, in companies fully armed with
lances and drawn swords, troops of horsemen drawn up, attacks and
counterattacks made on this side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing
of spears, hurling of missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all
sorts. Therefore all men prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a
good omen”.
2
Maccabees 5:1-5
“And
suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!’”
Luke 2:13-14
The era of
Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’, the era of Herod ‘the Great’, saw - as we have found
- the issuing of a kingdom-wide decree demanding conformity by the ruler’s
subjects.
People at the
time moved back to their ancestral homes.
Babies were
being slaughtered in the streets in those days.
Angelic
manifestations were also occurring. For instance, we read at:
In
the Book of the Maccabees I and II, there are few, if any, references to Angels.
For the most part, they are historical documents concentrating on the momentous
events that befell Israel and the Jews in the years 167-160 BC. What follows is
excerpts from the I and II Maccabees that actually mention Angels or other
related supernatural phenomena. As the Bible states:
Angels of the LORD protect the Temple treasury from the Greeks
Heliodorus,
because of the king's commands which he had, said that this money must in any
case be confiscated for the king's treasury. So he set a day and went in to
direct the inspection of these funds. There was great anxiety and distress
throughout the whole city...While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that
he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had
entrusted it, Heliodorus went on with what had been decided. So when he arrived
at the treasury with his bodyguard, then and there the Sovereign ruler of
spirits and of all Divine authority caused so great a manifestation that all
who had been so bold as to accompany him were astounded by the power of God and
became filled with terror and fright. For then there materialized unto them a
magnificently thoroughbred horse, with a rider of frightening appearance, which
rushed furiously at Heliodorus and struck at him with its front hoofs. Its
rider was seen to have armor and weapons of gold. Two young men also
mysteriously appeared in front of him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful
and splendidly dressed, who stood on each side of him and scourged him
continuously, inflicting many blows on him.
When
Helidorus suddenly fell to the ground and deep darkness came over him, his men
took him up and put him on a stretcher and carried him away, this man who had
just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great retinue and all his bodyguard
but was now unable to help himself; and they recognized clearly the sovereign
power of God. While he lay helpless, speechless because of the divine
apparition, deprived of any hope of recovery, they praised the LORD who had
acted marvelously for his own place. And the temple, which a little while
before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled with joy and gladness, now
that the Almighty LORD had appeared. Quickly some of Heliodorus' friends asked
Onias to call upon the Most High to grant life to the one who was lying quite
at his last breath.
At
the same time the high priest, fearing that the king might get the idea that
some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews in regard to Heliodorus,
decided to offer sacrifice for the man's recovery. While the high priest was
making the offering of atonement, the same young men appeared again to
Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, 'Be very
grateful to Onias the high priest, since for his sake the Lord has granted you
your life. Also make sure that you, who has just been scourged by Heaven,
report to all men the majestic power of God.' Having said this they vanished.
Then
Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made very great vows to the Savior
of his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, he marched off with his forces
to the king. After this he bore testimony to all men about the deeds of the
supreme God, which he had seen with his own eyes. When the king asked
Heliodorus what sort of person would be suitable to send on another mission to
Jerusalem he replied, 'If you have any enemy or plotter against your
government, send him there, for you will get him back thoroughly scourged, if
he escapes at all, for there certainly is about the place some power of God.
For he who has his dwelling in heaven watches over that place himself and
brings it aid, and he strikes and destroys those who come to do it injury.'
This was the outcome of the Divine incident involving Heliodorus and the
protection of the treasury.
-
II Maccabees 3:13-40
Numerous Angels of the LORD suddenly appear throughout Jerusalem
About
this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt. And it happened that
over all the city, for almost forty days, there appeared golden-clad horsemen
charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn
swords, troops of horsemen drawn up, attacks and counterattacks made on this
side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing of spears, hurling of
missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all sorts. Therefore all
men prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.
-
II Maccabees 5:1-5
Five Angels of the LORD join Judas Maccabaeus in Battle against the
Pagan Greeks
Just
as dawn was breaking, the two armies joined battle, one having as a promise of
success and victory not only their own valor and ability, but their reliance
upon the LORD, while the other made rage and hate their leader in the fight.
When the battle became fierce, there appeared unto the enemy from Heaven five
resplendent men on horses with golden bridles, and they were leading the Jews.
Surrounding Maccabeus and protecting him with their own armor and weapons, they
kept him from being wounded. And they showered arrows and thunderbolts upon the
enemy, so that after becoming confused and blinded, they were thrown into
disorder and cut to pieces. Twenty thousand five hundred were slaughtered,
besides six hundred horsemen.
-
II Maccabees 10:28-31
An Angel of the LORD arrives to support the Jews against the Greeks
When
Maccabeus and his men got word that Lysias was besieging the strongholds, they
and all the people, with lamentations and tears, prayed for the LORD to send a
good angel to save Israel. Maccabeus himself was the first to take up arms and
he urged the others to risk their lives with him to aid their brothers. Then
they eagerly rushed off together. Even there, while they were still near
Jerusalem, a horseman appeared at their head, clothed in white and brandishing
weapons of gold. Thus encouraged, they all praised the merciful God together as
one and were strengthened in heart, ready to assail not only men but the even
the wildest of beasts or walls of iron. They advanced in battle order, along
with their Heavenly ally, for the LORD had indeed bestowed mercy upon them.
They hurled themselves like lions against the enemy, and slew eleven thousand
of them and sixteen hundred horsemen, and forced all the rest to flee.
-
II Maccabees 11:6-11
Matthew 2:12-13,
19:
“And
having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, [the Magi] returned to
their country by another route.
When
they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up’, he
said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I
tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him’.”
“After Herod died, an angel of the Lord
appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and
his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the
child’s life are dead’.”
Again, it was a
time when the sacred writer would break off into a lament.
Compare the
“great mourning” in I Maccabees 1:25-28:
“There
was great mourning everywhere in the
land of Israel.
Rulers
and leaders groaned in sorrow.
Young
men and young women grew weak.
The
beauty of our women faded.
Every
bridegroom sang a funeral song,
and
every bride sat mourning in her room.
All
our people were clothed with shame,
and
our land trembled for them”.
and in Matthew 2:17-18:
“Then
what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
‘A
voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping
and great mourning,
Rachel
weeping for her children
and
refusing to be comforted,
because
they are no more’.”
Compare also the
“trembled” in I Maccabees 1:28: “All our people were clothed with
shame, and our land trembled for
them”[,] with Matthew 2:3: “When
Herod the king heard it, he trembled,
and all Jerusalem with him”.
As for the
outstanding “King” at the time, I have already connected:
Antiochus 'Epiphanes' and Herod 'the Great'
Antiochus 'Epiphanes' and Herod 'the Great'. Part Two:
‘The King’ of Daniel 11
and:
King Herod 'the Great', Sulla, and Antiochus IV
'Epiphanes'
Not
surprisingly, at least in my context, there is little archaeological evidence
of building activity from the time of the Seleucids, although the Citadel (or Akra) has recently been found:
Newly-discovered Seleucid Fort ('Acra') a challenge to
identity of 'Temple Mount'
Why?
Well the most impressive
building works of Herod ‘the Great’ in the land have not been recognised for
what (I think) they really are, Seleucid
Greek.
Thus we
encounter this typical conclusion: “Yet archaeologists have found few artifacts
or buildings from this important [Macedonian-Greek] era that shaped Jewish
culture”:
….
Alexander the Great conquered Judea in the 4th century B.C., and his successors
quarreled over the spoils. Jerusalem, Judea’s capital, sided with Seleucid King
Antiochus III to expel an Egyptian garrison, and a grateful Antiochus granted
the Jews religious autonomy. For a century and a half, Greek culture and
language flourished here. Yet archaeologists have found few artifacts or
buildings from this important era that shaped Jewish culture.
Conflicts
between traditional Jews and those influenced by Hellenism led to tensions, and
Jewish rebels took up arms in 167 B.C. [sic] The revolt was put down, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes sacked the city, banned traditional
Jewish rites, and set up Greek gods in the temple.
According
to the Jewish author of 1 Maccabees, a book written shortly after the
revolt, the Seleucids built a massive fort in “the city of David with a great
and strong wall, and with strong towers.” Called the Acra—from the Greek for a
high, fortified place—it was a thorn in the side of Jews who resented Greek
dominance. ….
Part
Three: The “King”
(iii)
Antiochus/Herod merges into Hadrian
“One of the mysteries surrounding the revolt involves the founding of
the city Aelia Capitolina, the name the Romans gave to Jerusalem. Did the
Romans establish Aelia Capitolina before the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, thereby
inciting the Jews to revolt? Or did they establish it after the revolt and
exclude the Jews from the city as punishment?”
Hanan
Eshel
According to my
recent series of articles:
the legendary, and poorly-known, Simon Bar-Kochba,
was not a C2nd AD Jewish zealot at all, but was, instead, the celebrated Maccabean
High Priest, Simon “Thassi”, the Hasmonaean, conventionally dated (but no
longer by me) to the C2nd BC.
The Temple of Jerusalem was still standing, as
clearly depicted on the coins of that period.
Hence there was no Second Jewish Revolt in the
C2nd AD – the place had been thoroughly ‘cleaned out’ by the Romans during the
Jewish Revolt that had terminated in 70AD.
Hadrian, who was not actually a Roman emperor, but
was the Roman-loving, Hellenistic Greek, Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes:
Antiochus 'Epiphanes' and Emperor Hadrian. Part Two:
"Hadrian … a second Antiochus"
did not build a
new Jerusalem, the Aelia Capitolina, at
least not in the C2nd AD.
Hadrian’s
building works in Jerusalem can hardly be distinguished from the buildings
there of Herod ‘the Great’, who was anyway, I believe, Hadrian’s other alter ego.
See my article:
Herod and Hadrian
in which one
will read: “Differentiating
the works of the two sovereigns is neither easy nor, in the context of current
politics, especially sought after. In some quarters, Herod – the half Jew –
is viewed in a poor light, but then Hadrian, the nemesis of the Jews, is
castigated as a vicious tyrant …”.
My above article
about the “meagre sources”, the extremely limited knowledge, surrounding the
Bar Kochba revolt is borne out in the following inconclusive piece by Hanan
Eshel:
(Biblical Archaeology Review 23:6,
November/December 1997)
Roman Jerusalem
Aelia
Capitolina: Jerusalem No More
Unlike
the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–70 C.E.), which was chronicled in
detail by the first-century historian Josephus, the Second Jewish Revolt, the
so-called Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.), is known only from scraps of
ancient literature.1 Archaeology alone can fill in the gaps.
And it has been doing so in an amazing way in recent decades.a
One
of the mysteries surrounding the revolt involves the founding of the city Aelia
Capitolina, the name the Romans gave to Jerusalem. Did the Romans establish
Aelia Capitolina before the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, thereby inciting the Jews to
revolt? Or did they establish it after the revolt and exclude the Jews from the
city as punishment? Scholars, as might be expected, have taken two views.
Recent numismatic evidence—coins from the Judean desert—may provide the answer.
The
first view, that the founding of Aelia Capitolina preceded the revolt, is
supported by the Roman historian Dio Cassius. In 130 C.E. Emperor Hadrian
(117–138 C.E.) made a tour of his eastern lands, traveling through Judea,
Arabia and Egypt before returning to Rome. According to Dio, Hadrian founded
Aelia Capitolina during this journey.2 ….
Concluding Note
Having now
sought to tie up (i) leading revolutionaries of the time of Antiochus IV
‘Epiphanes’, namely Mattathias, Judas and Simon Maccabee, with leading
revolutionaries of the time of Herod ‘the Great’, namely Matthias and Judas -
{and also at the time of the emperor Hadrian, Simon Bar Kochba} - and (ii)
dreaded, persecuting kings, Antiochus with Herod (and Hadrian), the burning
question now becomes whether we can include in this ‘persecuting kings’ mix
(ii) Luke 2:1’s “Caesar Augustus”.
Hadrian was
certainly known as “Caesar Augustus”:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hadrian
“Hadrian, also spelled Adrian,
Latin in full Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus …”.
Part
Three: The “King”
(iv)
Was the “King” also “Caesar Augustus”?
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went
out a decree
from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed”.
Luke
2:1
If, as according
to this present series, the beginning of the Maccabean revolution took place at
the time of the compulsory “census”, that is, at the time of “Judas the
Galilean” (Acts 5:37) - whom I am indentifying with Judas the Maccabean - then
the Roman world had not yet arrived at the stage of Empire, but was a somewhat
burgeoning Republic.
This would then
mean that the “Caesar Augustus” to whom Luke refers at the time of the royal
“decree”, the time of the “census”, now needs to be reconsidered as well.
{I have
previously observed that the word “Roman” is entirely absent from Luke’s
original Greek}.
By now the
persecuting “King” at the time of the Maccabees, at the time of “Judas the
Galilean” - the “census” - has been found to have been a persecuting monster,
already previewed in Daniel 11, who will slaughter even innocent babies in the
course of his quest for absolute power. He is, all at once, Antiochus IV, his
“mirror image”, Hadrian, and Herod ‘the Great’.
Were the “King”
now also to embrace the character of Augustus (= Sebastos in Greek) Caesar, then Roman imperial history, too, needs
to be re-cast (over and beyond my fusing, so far, of the era of Hadrian with Seleucid
times).
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