JOHN OF GISCHALA,From the mountains of Galilee to the Walls of Jerusalem, 2013. An English translation of the Hebrew edition of 2006.
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Destruction of the Second Temple: Lessons for Today's Leaders
The rebellion of the Jews against Rome started in 66 C.E. and ended with the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem in 70 C.E. The author provides several classic stories describing what the situation was like back then. One thing is apparent: the atmosphere that existed in ancient Judea, then a Roman province, was marked by discord, divisiveness, and corruption. Religious extremism destroyed the core values of Judaism. What enabled Judaism to survive was the ascendancy of the Hillel School which stressed peace, justice, and human dignity.
2023
As the title suggests, the article introduces the historiographical debate on the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The author presents different interpretations of this event and how this came to be viewed as a watershed moment in Jewish history. In doing so, the author effectively questions long‐standing and sometimes anachronistic interpretations of historical events and formed time periods.
THE WARS OF THE JEWS OR THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
1. (1) WHEREAS the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some men who were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten together vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down after a sophistical manner; and while those that were there present have given false accounts of things, and this either out of a humor of flattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and while their writings contain sometimes accusations, and sometimes encomiums, but no where the accurate truth of the facts; I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians; (2) Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].
When was the Second Temple Destroyed? Chronology and Ideology in Josephus and in Rabbinic Literature
Journal for the Study of Judaism, 2015
Jewish tradition holds that both the first and second Jerusalem temples were destroyed on the 9th of Av (m. Taʿan. 4:6). According to Josephus both temples were destroyed on the 10th of Av (J.W. 6.250). Although Josephus proffers an elaborately detailed chronology of the temple’s final days, an attentive reading reveals that he in fact delayed the destruction of the temple by one day. Ideological motives impelled Josephus to defer the date of the destruction of the Second Temple to the date he had for the destruction of the First Temple (the 10th of Av). He proposes an analogy between the two in support of his position that God was punishing the rebels for their sins. Finally, the article suggests that the Jewish tradition that establishes the 9th of Av as the date for the destruction of both temples, derives from a mythical conception of history.
Destruction of Jerusalem Temple
Anthony Giambrone (ed.), Rethinking the Jewish War. Archeology, Society, Traditions (EB 84), Leuven, Peeters, 2020, p. 232-244., 2020
The history of the Jews - from the destruction of Jerusalem to the present time (1818)
ever, their affairs were established, and though they were subjected to an easy tribute, they lived under their own laws, in the form of a commonwealth, governed by the high-priest, and the council of seventy-two elders ; and exercised among themselves the power of life and death.* Jerusalem being at length rebuilt, fortified, and repeopled., began to resume some appearance of its former splendour, and the temple was honoured by the offerings of strangers.f After the death of Nehemiah, the government of Judea appears to have been joined to the prefecture of Syria, from which the high priests received their authority.]; This circumstance induced many persons to aspire to that high office merely through ambition and avarice, who were destitute of zeal * The grand council of the nation called the Sanhedrim, which assembled in an apartment of the temple at Jerusalem, possessed the power of life and death. The Jews styled it a hedge to the laws, because the members of the council had authority to interpret it at certain times and on certain occasions, as they thought proper. Its authority extended over all the synagogues in Judea and remote countries, and no appeal could be made from its sentence. Whether this consistory of seventy elders was a perpetual, or only a temporary institution, is a subject of dispute. The Jews, and after them Grotius, Selden, Lightfoot, and several other learned Christians, maintain that it was first instituted by Moses; that the seventy-two elders appointed to assist him were its first members; and that the Sanhedrim, so famous in the latter ages of Jewish polity, subsisted after his time until the destruction of the temple. But Basnage and others hare attempted to prove that the court of the Sanhedrim was first established in the time of the Maccabees. Basnage, p. 400. Jennings' * Dr. Prideaux and other learned writers have maintained that there were not any synagogues before the captivity, as there is no mention of them in the Old Testament, hut after that period their number was very great. They were places of prayer and religious assemblies for the worship of God. The times of the synagogue service were three days every week besides fasts and festivals. The Jews also attended prayers three times every day, in the morning, afternoon, and at night. At the east end in every synagogue is an ark or chest, in commemoration of the ark of the covenant which was in the temple; and in this ark they lock up the Pentateuch, written upon vellum with a particular ink. Sec Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p. 534, 535, and Picurl's Iteligious Ceremonies of the Jftus. + The mode of worship adopted in the Jewish synagogues subsequent to the captivity, differed but little from the present worship of Christian assemblies; for it consisted of three parts, reading the scriptures, prayer, and preaching. Graves s Lectures on the Pentateuch. Published 1807. i We have a short but beautiful description of Ezra's first preach-* See an account of these sects in Section V. t Dan. ii. 39. + Josephus's Jewish Antiquities. * Josephus. t The temporal authority, which was united with the pontifical, made the office of high priest appear of such value to Menelaus and Jason. Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 168. t Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. p. 390. C * At this time the Samaritans presented a petition to the king, in which they declared themselves not to be Jews, and requested that their temple on Mount Gerizzim might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter, and called after his name. Ilollins Ancient History. t Frideaux, vol. ii. p. 184, 1ST. * Whiston's Josephuv vol. iii. p. 46. t Ibid. cularly to those Jews recently tortured at Jerusalem by the merciless Antiochus Epiphanes, as well as those martyred 50 years before at Alexandria by the cruel Ptolemy Philopater. Prideaux'a Connection, vol. ii. p. 193. Gillie's History, vol. iii. p. 183. + Encyclopedia. * For a particular account of the battles between the Syrians and Jews, see 1 Maccabees iii. iv. t 1 Maccabees iv. * Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. t 2 Maccabees ix. Josephus, vol. iii p. 69. * 1 Maccabees ix. 28 INTRODUCTION. wickedness, and expired in agonies.* The party of Judas made the most strenuous exertions against their enemies, and unanimously chose Jonathan to succeed his brother as their prince and general. Under his direction the war was conducted with such energy and success, that the Syrians, disturbed by their own intestine divisions,, solemnly engaged to refrain from further hostilities, and a treaty of peace was concluded, f Immediately after the Syrian forces left Judea, Jonathan commenced a regular government, similar to that of the ancient Israelitish judges ; be repaired the walls of Jerusalem, fortified the city, and made several important reformations in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his country. The increase of his reputation and success, induced the competitors for the Syrian monarchy to court his friendship ; and as Demetrius had formerly persecuted the Jews, he joined the party of his rival Alexander Bela. With the unanimous consent of the people, he accepted the high priesthood from him ; [B. C. 144.] that place having been vacant seven years from the death of Alcimus. Jonathan also formed an alliance with the Romans and Lacedemonians, and rendered himself formidable by his military achievements. But after he had governed the Jewish nation with equal pru-* By the order of prophets Haggai and Zechariah, a low wall or inclosure was built round the sanctuary to separate the holy from the unholy ; and the rule was, that within this no tincircumcised person was to enter. Alcimus, in order to give the Gentiles equal liberty with the Jews, to pass into the inner courts of the temple, ordered this wall of partition to be pulled down. Prideaux'x Connection, vol. ii. p. 264. + Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p 264. * Josephus, vol. T. p. 34. * Josephus, vol. v. p. 37 40. t Jbid. t^i dp 43.
Jurnal teologic, Vol. 23/1, 2024
In 70 AD Jerusalem was conquered and the temple in Jerusalem was looted and destroyed, and among the war trophies, trophies that were part of the triumphal procession, were the precious objects taken as plunder from the temple in Jerusalem, including the seven-armed chandelier of solid gold, the gold table on which the 12 loaves of bread were placed, the embroidered curtain, the golden vessels and a Torah scroll later given by the emperors Vespasian and Titus to the temple of the goddess of peace. The triumphal arch erected in the Forum in honour of Titus was decorated with relief reproductions of these trophies and depictions of scenes from the war in which the Jews had been so cruelly defeated. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD a large number of the people and a significant number of scholars who had escaped with their lives took refuge in Jamnia and established an academic school there on the initiative of Yohanan ben Zakkai. This place and this school were to become the spiritual center of Judaism in place of the destroyed one. Here in Jamnia, Yohanan ben Zakkai gathered together scholars and scholars who created a new system of religious law that was later applied in all the countries where Jews were scattered. Here civil laws were drawn up, curricula were drawn up, prayers were established, holiday ceremonies were set, which were later adopted by all Jews in the Diaspora. Judaism was reorganising itself around the thinking of the Pharisees, but with the destruction of the Temple, the Sadducees had ceased their role and were out of history.
The Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple as a Trauma for Nascent Christianity
The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. is considered to be one of the most traumatic events in Jewish history, having an impact on Jewish groups across the entire spectrum of Second Temple Judaism. Yet scholarly opinions are divided as to whether 70 constituted a trauma for communities of Jewish Christ-believers. Some suggest that the event had relatively little impact on nascent Christian communities, while others view the event as both traumatic and formative in the development of Christianity. Scholars on both sides of this debate use the language and concept of trauma to describe the impact of 70 in the development of Christianity. Missing from the discussion, however, is a consideration of what exactly constitutes a trauma. On the basis of Jeffrey Alexander’s theories about communal trauma, this paper will argue that the destruction was experienced as a trauma by at least some Jewish followers of Christ. This response was, however, negated or denied by church leaders who argued that the event had been foretold and indeed was the deserved punish- ment for the Jewish role in Jesus’ crucifixion, and therefore should not be traumatic for Christ-believers, even those of Jewish origin.