Rebellion against Rome took many forms. There were certain folks that were known as bandits or robbers. These were not ordinary thieves. They were insurrectionists who robbed from the wealthy who supported Rome. These folks were often Robin Hood type figures who gained popularity with the people. Another group of rebels were the Sicarii or dagger men. They carried short curved knives that could easily be concealed. At opportune times the Sicarii would assassinate Roman sympathizers.

Ever since Pompey entered Jerusalem in 63 BC, there were pockets of armed resistance against Rome. However, rebellion reached a fever pitch in AD 60 to AD 70. In AD 60 the Jews ceased the daily sacrifice to Caesar in the temple. This was the final offence that brought the wrath of Rome upon all of Palestine.

Here is a summery of the conflicts that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple:

In A.D. 60 skirmishes between the Romans and the Jews began to break out.

In A.D. 66 Cestius led Roman armies against Jerusalem. However, for no apparent reason he broke off his attack and retreated. The Jews pursued and killed many Romans thus humiliating the Roman army. This created confidence in the rebels that God would lead them to victory over Rome.

In A.D. 67 Vespasian led armies in siege against Jerusalem. However, at Nero’s death Vespasian withdrew his armies and returned to Rome to become emperor.

In  A.D. 70 Titus, the son of Vespasian, began the final siege of Jerusalem. Josephus in his work called “The Wars of the Jews” gives a detailed account of the destruction of Jerusalem. It was one of the most horrific sieges in history. Titus surrounded the city during the Passover feast, thus the number of people in the city was double the normal amount.

Various factions inside the city began to fight one another. In one skirmish the combatants accidentally set fire to the city’s grain reserves. Normally, Jerusalem had enough in reserve to endure a lengthy siege. However, the loss of these reserves led to a devastating famine. Josephus records that bands of cutthroats roamed the streets murdering entire families for even a morsel of food. Many resorted to cannibalism.

In time Titus breached Jerusalem’s defenses and surrounded the temple. A ferocious battle ensued. Titus ordered his soldiers not to harm the temple itself. It is not clear who set fire to the temple structures. Some say it was overzealous Roman soldiers. Others say it was the Jews themselves in a final act of defiance. After the fire had run its course, the Romans tore the stone structures of the temple apart in order to recover the vast quantities of gold that the fire melted. They left not one stone on top of another. Some believe this was a fulfillment of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.

We often hear Jesus words quoted, “… for all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matt. 26:52).” Some say He was condemning all military action throughout time. If this was the case, Jesus words simply were not true. Everyone who has taken the sword in conflict has not died violently. I believe Jesus’ words were most likely a warning to His own people. He was saying if you try to bring the kingdom of God by violence, you will all die. He was right. Those who rebelled against Rome died often in a very cruel manner.

The instrument that would overcome Rome was not the sword but the cross. It was not an act of violence but an act of love. It was not vengeance but forgiveness that eventually conquered the Roman empire.

There was not a unified movement against Rome in first century Palestine. Rebels rose up in many different forms, and at times they ended up fighting each other.

We might have the idea that Jesus was the only one in that day that declared he was the Messiah. On the contrary, there were a great many who thought they were Israel’s deliverer. That number only grew after the death and resurrection of Christ. Most people did not believe that the Messiah would be divine. They believed their savior would be like the deliverers of old. It was thought that the true Messiah would do at least three things. He would build the true temple of God, he would deal with the gentile problem, and he would establish the kingdom of God. However, most understood these things from an old covenant perspective. They expected their savior/king to build a temple made of stone. He would bring a violent end to the gentiles and other sinners occupying the promised land, and he would establish a revitalized old covenant Israel.

The people had one test to determine who was a real or false Messiah. If they ended up on a Roman cross, that settled the issue. Rome crucified Israel’s would be messiahs as traitors. The cross meant failure. If you died there, it meant you were a fake, and you were only getting what you deserved. This begs the question of how Jesus could ever be called the Christ after dying at the hands of the Romans. There can be only one explanation. The resurrection. In fact, scholars believe that the fact that Jesus’ following grew so rapidly after the cross is one of the greatest proofs that Jesus rose from the dead.

The book of Acts lists a number people who clamed messiahship. Gamaliel who was a Pharisee spoke of “Theudas who claimed to be somebody, and about 400 men rallied to him." There was also "Judas the Galilean, ...who led a band of people in revolt " (Acts 5:36-37). Acts also talks of an Egyptian who led four thousand men into the wilderness to be murdered (Acts 21:38).

Then there was Simon:

"Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying ‘This man is what is called the Great Power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts" (Acts 8:9-11).

Non-biblical sources have quoted Simon as saying, "I am the Word of God, I am the Comforter, I am Almighty, I am all there is of God."

Later in the first century two of the most terrible false messiahs came on the scene.

Menahem In 66 A.D: Menahem was the son of a rebel named Judas the Galilean. Judas believed the Jews should have no ruler but God, and of course murder was the way to accomplish this. Menahem took his father’s philosophy to new heights by raising a powerful band of cutthroats. He overpowered his opponents who preferred peace with the Romans, and made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem dressed as a king. Menahem then took control of the temple and had the high priest Ananias put to death. He committed all sorts of abominations. Finally, when he was entering the temple dressed in royal robes, an angry mob seized and killed him.

John of Gischala Late in 67 A.D: John of Gishala rose to power. He was even more brutal than Menahem. He had tens of thousands of people put to death. Anyone who supported the Romans or desired peace was worthy of death in John’s eyes. The priesthood supported peace with the Romans, so they became his enemies. At one point he seized the temple with the help of the Idumeans and killed the high priest. So fierce was the fighting that 8,500 died on the temple grounds. John then appointed a high priest that was a mockery. John of Gischala continued his murderous rampage until Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D. He was captured by the Romans and lived the rest of his life in prison.

Jesus was the only one that fulfilled the Messianic expectations, only He did it in a way many misunderstood. He did establish the true temple of God on the earth. His temple was not build by hands but made by God with living stones. That temple or dwelling place of God on the earth is His church. He did deal with the gentiles and the sinners. However, he did in a way so unexpected that Paul called it a mystery. He did not come to destroy folks like the Romans. He came to forgive them. He came to make the Jew and the gentile into one new man. And Jesus did bring the kingdom of God, only it was not an temporal kingdom one could find on a map. It would dwell in the hearts of His people.

Those who tried to establish the kingdom of God by violence tasted the reality of Jesus warning. “… for all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matt. 26:52).” More on this in my next post.

In 63 BC the Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem. Roman occupation of the Holy City had begun. A little more than 130 years later Jerusalem and its most sacred building, the temple, lay in ruins. It is amazing the Jews and the Romans were able to coexist for that long. The Romans were pagans occupying the promised land. They brought with them strange gods and strange ways of thinking and living. Rome did allow the Jews to practice their religion, but Roman paganism and Caesar worship was constantly encroaching upon Jewish beliefs. For example, Herod once had a huge golden eagle, the symbol of Rome, placed atop the great gate to the temple, and the priesthood enacted a daily sacrifice for Caesar. The Romans also placed an unbearable tax burden upon the Jews. All this combined with Roman brutality made Jewish rebellion inevitable.

The New Testament speaks little of the friction between Rome in the Jews. We do know that one of Jesus’ disciples was a zealot. The zealots favored armed rebellion against Rome. They believed that God would deliver Israel with the sword. Their reasoning went back to the days of David. When there was a gentile problem, what did David do? He got out his sword and dealt with it, and God was on his side. Surely, God would raise up a new Son of David who would do the same.

It is interesting that one of Jesus disciples, Simon, was a zealot (Luke 6:15, Acts 1:13). Considering the fact that Jesus opposed violent rebellion against Rome, many probably wondered why Jesus would choose such a fellow. The irony increases when we add the fact that Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were very much in league with Rome. There were probably no two groups of Jews in Palestine who hated each other more than the tax collectors and the zealots. Yet, Jesus chose one of each. Most people probably would have been afraid that these two fellows would kill each other. Not the Lord. He knew the kingdom of God was more powerful than the hatred of men. The very fact Jesus chose two men so opposite in their worldviews was a demonstration of its power.

The Sadducees

The Sadducees were of the wealthy ruling class in Jesus’ day. Many of them comprised the priesthood that controlled the temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish legal council called the Sanhedrin. They were in some ways more conservative than the Pharisees. They only recognized the Torah as the inspired word of God. They acknowledged neither the profits nor the oral traditions that came after the first five books of the Bible. Consequently, they did not believe in the resurrection or any life after death. They were often at odds with the Pharisees over this matter.

People had different ways of reacting to Roman occupation. The Sadducees thought is was best to try to get along with Rome. Why not? They were well off, and as long as they kept on Rome’s good side, they could live comfortable lives. The Sadducees opposed Jesus because they feared the people, and they feared Rome. The vast majority of the Jews did not share the Sadducees acceptance of Roman rule. They believed the Messiah would come, sword in hand, and drive the gentiles out of the promised land. Even though Jesus never spoke against Rome or advocated rebellion, the Sadducees shared the popular view of what the Messiah could be. Thus, in their minds, any messiah figure was a threat to their power.

In the second half of the first century rebellion against Rome led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. During the final siege against Jerusalem the rebels killed many of the Sadducees. In an effort to save their lives some of the Sadducees came over to the rebel’s side only to die at the hands of the Romans. This was the end of the Sadducees power. However, the Pharisees continued to shape Judaism in a post temple world.

The Essenes

In Jesus’ day some people wanted to fight Rome. Others wanted to live with Rome. The Essenes chose isolation as their response to the crazy first century world. They formed an community on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. There the Essenes thought they could live as the true people of God. They rejected the Herods, the temple, and even the Pharisees as corrupt. In their mind, only they were true Israel. They would create a pure community from which the Messiah would come forth to redeem Israel (They actually believed God would send two messiahs, one a priest and the other a king). They, the sons of light, would be the ones he would use to reestablish Israel. The impure Jews as well as the gentiles were bound for destruction.

The gospels do not mention the Essenes. The Romans destroyed the Essene community before converging on Jerusalem. Many scholars believe the Essenes were the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Pharisees

The Pharisees rose to prominence in what scholars call the second temple period. The Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 587 BC. The time after the Jew’s return from exile is known as the second temple period. It was a time when the gentiles were constantly encroaching upon the Jewish people, their customs, and religion. The Pharisees were a group that set out to preserve the Jews from this perceived threat. The very name “Pharisee” is derived from the Hebrew word that means “to separate.”

The Pharisees were very zealous for the Law of Moses, but they also considered themselves the guardians of the oral traditions that scholars developed over generations. The oral traditions interpreted the Law of Moses. For example, the Law said to keep the Sabbath. They were not to work on God’s holy day. Yet, what was work and what was not? The oral traditions filled in the details the Moses left out. For instance, how far could a person walk on the Sabbath without it being work? The interpreters decided that the distance was 2000 cubits which is about 2/3 of a mile. This was known as a Sabbath’s day journey. Where did they get that number? When the Hebrews carried the Ark of the Covenant in the wilderness, God commanded them to walk 2000 cubits behind the ark. They decided that was God’s way of telling them how far one could walk on the Sabbath. Yeah, right.

It is interesting that Jesus deliberately broke the Pharisee’s oral traditions every chance He got. In John chapter nine Jesus healed a blind man by spiting on the ground, making mud, then rubbing it in the man’s eyes. He then told the fellow to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. According to the Pharisees, Jesus broke the Sabbath not once but three times in healing this man. First, it was considered unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus broke this tradition often. In fact, if we read the gospels, we will see that His favorite day to heal was the Sabbath. Second, making the little bit of clay that Jesus put in the man’s eyes would have been considered work. (No, I am not joking.) Third, making the man walk to the pool of Siloam and back would be considered illegal as well. If we read John chapter eight, we see that Jesus was probably in the vicinity of the temple when he performed this miracle. A quick look at a map shows that the journey to the pool and back was well over 2000 cubits.

In this we see one of the great ironies of the scriptures. The Pharisees had great zeal for God. The average Pharisee fasted two days a week and paid his tithes to the penny. Yet, their zeal for God did not lead them to God but away from God. They examined the Law to the smallest detail, but they entirely missed what the Law was saying. John tells us that Jesus was God’s word made manifest. In other words He was Torah in the flesh. Yet, the Pharisees stood in the presence of the perfect revelation of Torah, and they did not know Him. In fact, they wanted to kill Him. (To be fair, we cannot say this is true of all the Pharisees. In fact, some later became Jesus’ followers.)

The Law was meant to lead people to love God and their neighbor. Most of all it was meant to lead to Jesus. It is ironic that because the Pharisees came to none of these things, they were the most impure of all. Jesus said that if the people’s righteousness did not exceed that of the Pharisees, they could not enter the Kingdom of God.

Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees should be a lesson to us all. If our zeal for God has led us to contempt for our brother, we aren’t following God at all.

The Priesthood

In first century Palestine there was no separation between church and state. The priests at the temple in Jerusalem not only officiated over the religious life of the Jews, but they were also rulers and judges.    
 
Herod, who was himself a pawn of Rome, had his own pawns installed in the Jewish priesthood. By the first century the election of the High Priest was more political than religious. The Romans wanted the priesthood to support their occupation, and the Herods made sure their desire was carried out. However, it would be unfair to categorize all of the priesthood as sympathetic to Rome. Some did support rebellion against Rome, but those at the highest levels were undoubtedly in Rome's back pocket. 
 
We see evidence of this loyalty to and fear of Rome in the Gospels.
 
“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.
 
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, ‘What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.
 
If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.’”
John 11:45-48
 
“But they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!’
Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’
The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’
Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.” (John 19:15-16)
 
Josephus recorded that the priesthood went so far as to authorize a daily sacrifice for Caesar in the temple. This was a source of continual angst for the Jews. In the final Roman/Jewish conflict the cessation of the daily sacrifice for Caesar was considered an act of war that helped lead to the destruction of Jerusalem.

The priesthood lived in luxury well beyond that of the average man. They supported their lavish lifestyles with a temple tax which every Jew was required to pay. Richard Horsley in his book “The Message and the Kingdom” describes what archeologists have discovered about the living conditions of the priesthood.
 
“…impressive archeological remains of their Jerusalem residences show how elegant their life style had become. In spacious structures unhesitantly dubbed ‘mansions” by the archeologists who uncovered them in the 1970’s, we can get a glimpse of a lavish life in mosaic floored reception rooms and dining rooms with elaborate painted and carved stucco wall decorations and with a wealth of fine tableware, glassware, carved stone table tops, and other interior furnishings and elegant peristyles.”
 
The priests lived lavish lifestyles while the average Jewish peasant struggled to survive. The temple taxes combined with taxes imposed by Herod and Rome were literally threatening the existence of the Jewish people. The people of the land were carrying a burden they could scarcely bear or tolerate. Palestine had become a powder keg waiting to ignite.

The priesthood was undoubtedly jealous of Jesus’ popularity, but their main motivation for seeking to kill Jesus was fear.  When a new king came to power, he would set his version of the priesthood in place. All this talk of Jesus becoming the new king undoubtedly unnerved the priests in Jerusalem. If Jesus came to power, they thought they would be out of a job or killed. And the Romans did not take too kindly to unauthorized kings. In their opinion, Jesus was inviting the wrath of Rome.  They did not understand that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world and his priesthood was not according to flesh and blood. 

The Romans declared Herod the Great king of Judea in 40 BC. It was the beginning of even greater misery for the people of God. In the Jew's mind there were three criteria for judging whether a king was a true king of God. One was his relationship with the temple. A true king would set the temple aright or build the true temple of God. Another was that he would deal with the enemies of Israel and put them asunder. Finally, a true messiah/king would establish the true kingdom of God in the land. Such ideas went way back to David and Solomon and were reinforced in the Maccabean revolt.

Herod the Great must have thought one out of three ain't bad. He set out to build the grandest temple of them all to give him his place in history and perhaps in the people's hearts. He began rebuilding the temple in 19 BC. Solomon’s temple took seven years to build. Herod’s grand design was not completed until AD 63. It was a project so monumental that it took over eighty years to finish.

There is considerable debate over the exact size of Herod's temple. Josephus records that the temple walls were about six hundred feet in length and formed a perfect square. Many modern scholars dismiss Josephus’ description as highly exaggerated. The reason is that Josephus’ description is too large for what they believe to be the location of the temple mount. However, if we place the Roman fort Antonia at the modern temple mount and place the temple about a third of a mile to the south where Josephus and other writers of the day placed it, it becomes a perfect fit.

The buildings within the temple were utterly amazing for their day. The inner structures of the temple complex were at least twice as large as they were in Solomon’s temple. Many walls were covered with solid gold. The best artists from all over the world contributed to the mighty structure. Only the finest materials were used, for example the walls were made of a white limestone that made the structure appear as if it was glowing. It was said that if a person had not seen Herod’s temple, he had not yet seen a beautiful building.

Herod’s temple was magnificent in its spectacle and customs. However, beneath it all lay corruption, compromise, and greed. Rome was the seat of power in the first century world, and its influence reached even to the sacred courts of Israel’s most holy place. At one time Herod the Great had a large golden eagle placed over the main gate to the temple to pay homage to Rome. One could only imagine the horror this would cause in the Jews of the day. The Law of Moses strictly forbids any graven images, yet the king placed one over the very entrance to the temple. Moreover, Herod not only placed the eagle over the temple, but also placed other symbols associated with Rome in the temple’s various courts. It is no wonder that many of the Jews considered both Herod and those who ran the temple as illegitimate.

The temple was a sight to behold, and it did bring employment to many craftsmen and workers in Jerusalem. However, someone had to pay for it. Some of the funds came from the temple tax collected from the Diaspora (Jews scattered abroad). Yet, a great burden also fell upon the poor of Palestine.

Unfortunately, Herod's appetite for building projects was not satisfied with the temple. In Jerusalem alone he built the Antonia fortress, a palace, theater, and an amphitheater. He also built or rebuilt certain cities to reflect his glory. Apparently, Herod liked covering all the bases, so he also built a temple to Caesar in the city that would later be called Caesarea Philippi and Greek temples and structures both in Palestine and throughout the world. Of course, the average man paid for all of these projects.

It could be said that Herod the great was quite mad, at least at the end of his life. He was afraid that there would be no morning upon his death, so he gave orders that renowned and beloved men across the land would be put to death at his passing. In Herod's mind this would ensure that the land would morn at the death of the "great" king. Thankfully, his orders were never carried out.

At Herod's death, Rome divided the kingdom among Herod's sons Antipas, Archelaus, and Phillip. None of them were any better than their father. The one that got the Northeast region was Philip. When Philip came to power, he changed the name of the city Paneas to Caesarea Philippi. He did so to honor two people. It does not take a language specialist to figure out who those two people were. The name Caesarea was to honor Caesar and the second name Philippi Philip chose to honor himself. It was in this wicked city that Jesus proclaimed that He was the messiah and that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.

After Herod the Great's death the Jews did not have an official king over the land until AD 41 when the Romans gave Agrippa, Herod the Great's grandson the throne. Agrippa truly thought himself to be a god (messiah/king). Josephus records that he wore a tightly woven silver suit in public in order to give himself the appearance of a god. In fact, in Acts 12 we see many did refer to him as divine. God only allowed his arrogance to continue for a short time.