by
Damien F. Mackey
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.
Part
One:
Judas
the Jewish Revolutionary
The Census
By now I am
fully committed 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”.
For, more
and more have I been 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 King 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 αΌΞ³ΞΞ½Ξ΅ΟΞΏ Ξ΄α½² αΌΞ½ ΟΞ±αΏΟ αΌ‘ΞΌΞΟΞ±ΞΉΟ αΌΞΊΞ΅Ξ―Ξ½Ξ±ΞΉΟ αΌΞΎαΏΞ»ΞΈΞ΅Ξ½ Ξ΄ΟΞ³ΞΌΞ± ΟΞ±Οα½° ΞΞ±Ξ―ΟΞ±ΟΞΏΟ Ξα½Ξ³ΞΏΟΟΟΞΏΟ
αΌΟΞΏΞ³ΟΞ¬ΟΞ΅ΟΞΈΞ±ΞΉ ΟαΎΆΟΞ±Ξ½ Οὴν ΞΏαΌ°ΞΊΞΏΟ
ΞΌΞΞ½Ξ·Ξ½.
Literally:
“It came to pass moreover in the days those went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus to register all the world”.
For more on
this, see e.g. my article:
Rome
surprisingly minimal in Bible
(12) Rome
surprisingly minimal in Bible
And the
Greek noun, ΞΏαΌ°ΞΊΞΏΟ
ΞΌΞΞ½Ξ·, 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 α½
λην Οὴν ΞΏαΌ°ΞΊΞΏΟ
ΞΌΞΞ½Ξ·Ξ½ 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 legends of 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 all of this together correctly) did Mattathias,
father of the Maccabees, take his family “from Jerusalem and [settle] in
Modein”.
Modein was,
as we later learn (I Maccabees 13:25), 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. [sic]
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.
For my
correction of this location, though, see my article:
Must
look elsewhere for Maccabee town, Modein
(13) Must look
elsewhere for Maccabee town, Modein
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 insisted in Part One, then what an underwhelming
account of the great man, Judas, 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 renowned 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 Maccabeus above 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.
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.
“We will
praise him forever for what he did”, wrote the inspired author of I Maccabees.
Gamaliel
should have taken note.
Finally
Judas himself was killed”, as Gamaliel said, and also: “Then all his men fled”.
But that was
by no means the end of the story (I Maccabees 9:19-22):
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”.
For more on
the greatness of Judas Maccabeus, see my article:
Judas
‘Maccabeus’, an armoured giant like Goliath, and head-lifter like David
(13) Judas
'Maccabeus', an armoured giant like Goliath, and head-lifter like David
And 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 …”.
Part
Three: The Emperor
This
now necessitates also that the main emperor affecting Judah at the time
of
Judas Maccabeus, namely Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’, must ‘collapse into’
the
main king at the time of Judas the Galilean, namely Augustus.
Time
to consider Hadrian, that ‘mirror-image’ of Antiochus Epiphanes, as also the
census emperor Augustus
(13) Time to
consider Hadrian, that 'mirror-image' of Antiochus Epiphanes, as also the
census emperor Augustus
I had
commenced by likening the poorly known partisan, “Judas the Galilean” (as
referred to in Acts 5:37), with Judas the Maccabean.
Now, 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 and his family must have occurred at the approximate
time of the Nativity 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 emperor affecting Judah at the time of Judas
Maccabeus, namely Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’, must ‘collapse into’ the main king
at the time of Judas the Galilean, namely Augustus.
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.
A
slaughterer of innocent babies
I
Maccabees 1:60-61:
“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”.
Basically,
in this article, 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.
See also my
article:
Judas
the Galilean vitally links Maccabean era to Daniel 2’s “rock cut out of a
mountain”
(2) Judas the
Galilean vitally links Maccabean era to Daniel 2’s “rock cut out of a mountain”
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:
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Mattathias.html#.WswEDuRlJ9A
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”:
https://judasthegalilean.weebly.com/judas-the-galilean.html
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 possibly
be connected.
And, as we
noted earlier in this article, 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.
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”.
And, 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”.
Angelic
manifestations
2
Maccabees 5:1-5:
“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”.
Luke
2:13-14:
“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!’”
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:
http://themaccabee.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/angels-of-maccabees.html
Angels of the Maccabees
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. [sic] 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”.
Not
surprisingly, at least in my context, there is considered to be little
archaeological evidence of building activity from the time of the Seleucids.
Why, would
this be?
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.
For Herod
according to my new context, see e.g. my article:
King
Herod ‘the Great’
(2) King Herod
‘the Great’
and:
Herod,
the emperor’s signet right-hand man
(2) Herod, the
emperor's signet right-hand man
Thus we
encounter this typical conclusion: “Yet archaeologists have found few artifacts
or buildings from this important [Macedonian-Greek] era that shaped Jewish
culture”:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422-israel-jerusalem-hellenistic-archaeology-passover-hanukkah/
…. 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. ….
“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
https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/23/6/7
(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. …. Archaeology alone can fill in the gaps. And it has
been doing so in an amazing way in recent decades. ….
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. ….
Antiochus
‘Epiphanes’ (Hadrian) was “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 article, 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 identifying 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 and his “mirror image”, Hadrian.
He must also
now, therefore, embrace the character of Augustus (= Sebastos in
Greek) Caesar, greatly re-casting imperial Roman history (over and beyond my
fusing, so far, of the era of Hadrian with Seleucid times).
