Periodization: The Second Temple Period

The second temple period (515CE-70/135CE) may be divided into the following sub-periods, namely,

• restauration (under the Persian empire), from c500 to c300,
• Ptolemaic rule, from c300 to 200,
• Seleucid rule, from c200 nominally to 63 but de facto only until the death of Antiochos VII Sidetes in 129, during the time of John Hyrkanos (134-104),
• Hasmonean rule, from 129-63, and finally
• Roman dominance, from 63BCE-70/135CE.

It is the last one of these sub-periods that I refer to here as the "late Second Temple period," an expression used by many historians.

The difference between these periods is indicated by the different languages and civilizations involved in determining the fate of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. As in the First Temple period, Jerusalem is part of a region (often referred to by modern scholars as Syro-Palestine, the designation used by the Romans after 135CE) that is claimed by the competing imperial centers located in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Syro-Palestine continues to provide a fertile agricultural base and hence a desirable source of revenue. It is part of important trade routes, both over land and sea, connecting Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Late Second Temple Period (63BCE-70CE/135CE): Jewish Jerusalem under the Romans

Under the Romans, Judea (after 135: Syro-Palestine) no longer constitutes the boundary between two empires but it turns into an integrated link in the unbroken chain of Roman provinces encircling the entire Mediterranean, and it sustains the legions protecting the empire against its Parthian (Persian) competitors.

The relation between Judea and Rome began in Maccabean times, when the Roman senate and the Jewish people struck an agreement of mutual friendship and military support. Hundred years later, in 63BCE, Pompey appears at the gates of Jerusalem, conquering it in the name of the Roman senate and people (senatus populusque romanus). From then on, the Romans act as the ultimate political authority.

At first, Roman rule does not affect the relative autonomy Judea had enjoyed under the Hasmoneans, and the entire extended region they had united by force (including the Galilee in the North, the Decapolis in Trans-Jordan, and Idumea in the South) continues to be ruled from Jerusalem. As the Ptolemies and Seleucids did before them, the Romans appointed the ruler of Judea. As before, this ruler had to pay tribute to the empire. The Jews were thus forced to pay taxes that sustained not just their administration, military, and other ambitions but also helped to sustain the Roman empire.

King Herod the Great (40-4BCE)

The most impressive Judean king of the late Second Temple period was Herod ("the Great") some of whose descendends continued to rule Judea, the Galilee, and other places as Roman client kings until the end of the first century CE. Herod was the son of an Idumean general (Idumaea being the Romanized version of biblical Edom, the Idumeans, to the South of Judea, had been conquered and forcibly Judaized by the Hasmoneans) who had attracted the attention of the Romans and who made him king instead of the Hasmonean Matthatias Antigonos (40-37). Herod had to take his kingdom by force, which did not particularly endear him to the Jews.

Aside from his ruthlessness (which seems to reverberate in the gospel episode of the 'murder of the babes'), Herod is remembered for the splendid cities, palaces, and fortifications he built all over Palestine, including most notably the complete rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The latter project he began late in his career and it was not fully completed until shortly before its complete destruction 100 years later, in 70CE.

Under the rule of Herod, Jerusalem is

• the seat of Herod's small empire which is on a par with the state unified under King David (as restored by the Hasmoneans),
• the location of vast building projects, including the rehabilitation, enlargement, and beautification of the temple compound,
• burdened with heavy taxation,
• the host of great numbers of pilgrims (numbering in the hundreds of thousands) from around the extended Jewish diaspora, flocking to Jerusalem three times annually for the pilgrimage holidays of Passover and Pentecost (Shavuot) in the early and late Spring, and of Sukkoth (Booths) in the Fall.

After the death of Herod:Prefectorial/Procuratorial Rule (6CE-66CE)

Herod is succeeded by his and the Samaritan princess Malthake's son, Archelaos (4BCE-6CE), who reigned over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea and held some of the most thriving port cities (Cesarea and Jaffo). His was apparently such a reign of terror that the Roman emperor (the Caesar Augustus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke) granted the wish of a delegation of Jewish notables to depose him. After Archelaos was banished to Vienne in Gaul (France), the status of Judea fatally changed. It was no longer a client kingdom but turned into a procuratorial province, ruled directly by Roman prefects (6CE-41CE) or procurators (44-66CE).This lead to a steep decline in the political and economic situation. Taxation, expropriation, and empoverishment gave rise to insurrections and wars of social banditry that eventually exploded in the first war against Rome (66-74CE). The social overtones of the Galilean movement around Jesus of Nazareth, the founding figure of the later Christian religion, as well as his death at the hands of the Romans (crucifixion) is consistent with the violent response of the Roman administration to this form of insurrection.

Here are some of the major facts and factors pertaining to this period.

• Prefects (from among the Roman nobility) ruled Judea from 6-41.
• This is followed by the reign of the Herodian King Agrippa I., one of the tetrarchs (regional kings), over the entire realm of his grandfather, King Herod (from 41-44).
• After Agrippa's death, Judea is again under direct Roman administration (procurators), namely from 44 to the 66. The supervision of the temple and the office of the high priest is assigned to Agrippa II. whose kingdom is, however, not over Judea but over the parts of Lebanon, the Galilee, and other areas.
• Procuratorial rule strengthens the priestly aristocracy (high priests and Sanhedrin) but also generates friction between them and Rome and her representatives (procurator, tetrarch).
• The rebellion against Rome breaks out in response to procurator Gessius Florus's taking money from the temple treasury.

Jewish War against Rome (66-74CE)

The uprising against Roman rule over Judea which begins in 66 and lasts until the crushing of the last vestiges of resistance in 74 is usually called the Jewish War or the First Jewish War, to distinguish it from the second Jewish rebellion against Rome in 132-135 (the Bar Kokhba revolt).

The event signalling the end of major resistance to Rome is the destruction of the temple (70). According to Josephus, our main source of information about these events, Titus, the Roman general commanding the Roman legions that were laying siege to Jerusalem, had no intention of destroying it. As in previous wars, however, the temple compound was the last refuge for the Jewish defenders. Given the violence of the conflagration it is not surprising that the Romans set fire to the building that symbolized Jewish national pride and served as a defensive bastion.

Over the next four years the Romans eliminated one nest of resistance after the other.One of the final and most dramatic events of this war took place on the Herodian desert fortress of Massada. When it was clear that the fortress was no longer defensible, the remaining fighters drew lots and committed suicide, with the commander, Eleazar ben Yair, killing himself at the end.