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Things
started to get fraught through the actions of the
third generation of Hasmoneans. The first of this
generation, Aristobulus, called himself King, killed
his mother and threw his brothers in prison, apart
from one who he had killed. He was succeeded by
one of these brothers, Alexander Jannaeus (a name
combining Greek elements with Hebrew), who turned
out even worse. Under his rule the Pharisees organized
an uprising which he put down by crucifying 800
of them and, while they were still alive, slaughtered
their wives and children before their eyes. Although
he was responsible for great expansions of the kingdom
he was deeply unpopular with his Jewish subjects.
His way of life was more Greek than Hebrew and the
thought of a High Priest with so much blood on his
hands was too much to bear. Something had to give
and it did, with the coming of the Romans in 63
BC.
The Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem that year,
slaughtering some 12,000 Jews in the process - a
tragic pattern set at the time of the Babylonians,
but sadly not to end here, as history will bear
evidence to. The Romans were on a conquering tour
of the Middle East and decided to act in a dispute
between two Hasmonean brothers, Hyrcanus II and
Aristobolus II, who were fighting for control. Rome
favoured Hyrcanus over the cunning Aristobolus and
so the latter was thrown into jail, while the former
was given the throne of Judea. But there were strings
attached, as now, in effect, the whole Land had
come under indirect Roman rule, as a province of
Syria. A generation later, Roman influence was brought
to bear through the selection of a new king for
the province, King Herod. Identified as someone
who could further Roman influence in the east, the
emperor declared Herod the 'King of the Jews' and
sent him off to conquer the land (things were so
uncivilized in those days!) After a 3 year campaign,
Jerusalem yet again came under siege and, after
it was taken, Herod sent his vanquished opponent,
the hapless Antigonus, off to Rome to be beheaded.
King Herod reigned for thirty three years and was
deeply unpopular. The main reason was the title
'King of the Jews', which rankled as he was really
descended from the Edomites, traditional enemies
of the Jews and forcibly 'Judaised' a couple of
generations back. He tried to alleviate this by
marrying a Hasmonean princess after divorcing his
previous wife, Doris. His new mother-in-law was
a battleaxe and forced him to install his brother-in-law,
Aristobulus, as high priest. Unfortunately Aristobolus
was drowned after high jinks in a swimming pool
(which served him right as high priests were not
meant to frolick about!), which caused international
repercussions, particularly with Cleopatra of Egypt
(yes, it was she), who had her eyes on an expansion
eastwards. Through her actions, Herod was summoned
to her friend Mark Anthony to account for himself,
which he did with a large bribe. The purpose for
recounting this episode is that this was the point
when Herod started to develop a deeply suspicious
nature which, as the Bible will attest to, was to
sink into eventual madness. |
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Yet
Herod did some good. He brought peace to the north-eastern
territories and he loved building things. He built
(with the help of a thousand burly Levites) a new
temple in Jerusalem to add to the one he built for
the Roman emperor in Samaria. He also built stadiums
and theatres, which didn't make him too popular
as they were intended for the forthcoming Greek
games. He also gave Roman names to the local regions
and towns, some of them in honour of his own family,
even though he was to try and murder most of them
in time. |
Herod's
Temple took more than 80 years to be completely
built and the final trimmings were in place barely
7 years before its destruction. Nevertheless, the
Temple was just about operational when it witnessed
something significant and unusual in about 7 BC
(or in 1 BC for traditionalists). An elderly priest,
Zechariah, had a meeting with the angel Gabriel
there while on a tour of duty. Subsequently, his
wife, Elizabeth was to give birth to a son, John,
months later. John (the Baptist) was to grow up
to be very special indeed. We read of him in Matthew
3:3, "This is he who was spoken of through the prophet
Isaiah: 'A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare
the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him'".
God's apparent silence was over. After over 400
years since Malachi, the last prophet of the Hebrew
scriptures, we now have a new voice, that of John
the Baptist and we move to the world of the Gospels.
King Herod died a madman, one of his last acts being
to order the slaughter of all infants in the Bethlehem
area, after discovering the presence of a rival
'King of the Jews'. This, of course, was Jesus,
the true King of the Jews, who by now had escaped
to Egypt. After Herod's death, his kingdom was split
into three and given to his three sons, none taking
the title of King. Herod Antipas became a tetrarch
(a minor title) and ruled Galilee, falling foul
of John the Baptist in Matthew 14:1-12. Archelaus
became the (much grander) ethnarch of Judea, which
did him little good as, after a few bad decisions,
he was banished to Europe. From this time on Judaea
was proclaimed a (minor) province of the Roman Empire
and was governed by a Roman official, or procurator,
appointed by the emperor. The fifth such procurator
was Pontius Pilate, who governed from 26 AD to 36
AD.
By
now the Roman hold on the province was firm. The
heart of the country was Judaea in the south and
Galilee in the north, separated by Samaria, which
was inhabited by a people who were not quite kosher,
with a religion that tended to 'mix-and-match' the
Judaism of the day. Jerusalem at that time was a
splendid place, the most dazzling sight being that
of the Temple. There may have been as many as 250,000
people living there at the time, swelling to the
millions during the pilgrim festivals. Local affairs
were sorted out by the Sanhedrin but real power
was held by the Romans. All major decisions had
to be referred to Rome, including the death sentence
of Jesus, which had to be approved by Pilate.
The people had high hopes for Jesus of Nazareth,
Yeshua ben Yosef. He was the one about whom John
the Baptist, his cousin, had spoken. He was the
Lord, the anointed one, the Messiah. His identity
was woven throughout the fabric of the Hebrew Scriptures,
he was the promised one of the House of David. You
could say that all of the history of Israel up to
that point, even the bad stuff, was guided by heavenly
strings so that the Son could be born into such
an environment, at such a time. God had this in
mind when, 2000 years earlier, He had made His Covenant
with Abraham, promising the possession of the land
and also of spiritual benefits to come. For all
the subsequent years, God nurtured the Messianic
line, from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, through to David
and onwards, surviving invasions by Assyrians, Babylonians,
Persians, Greeks and Romans. If Jewish survival
itself was a minor miracle, the preservation of
this promised line, as listed in the genealogies
in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 was a maj or one of the
highest degree!
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