The Roman period (63 bce–135 ce)

Question 1

New parties and sects

Answer 1

• Under Roman rule a number of new groups, largely political, emerged in Palestine. Their common aim was to seek an independent Jewish state. They were also zealous for, and strict in their observance of, the Torah.
• After the death of King Herod, a political group known as the Herodians sought to reestablish the rule of Herod’s descendants over an independent Palestine as a prerequisite for Jewish preservation
• Zealots, whose appearance was traditionally dated to 6 ce, were one of five groups that emerged at the outset of the first Jewish war against Rome (66–73 ce)
• A number of other parties were distinguished by their pursuit of an ascetic monastic life, disdain for material goods and sensual gratification, sharing of material possessions, concern for eschatology, strong apocalyptic views in anticipation of the coming of the messiah, practice of ablutions to attain greater sexual and ritual purity, prayer, contemplation, and study.
• The Damascus sect (New Covenanters) was a group of Pharisees who went beyond the letter of the Pharisaic Halakha
• long been debated whether gnosticism originated in the apocalyptic strains of Judaism that were prevalent when the Temple was destroyed in 70.

Question 2

Origin of Christianity: the early Christians and the Jewish community

Answer 2

• rise of Christianity was by far the most important “sectarian” development of the Roman period
• many scholars now regard primitive Christianity as part of a broad spectrum of attitudes within Judaism itself, rather than as peripheral to Jewish development or to the norm set by Pharisaic Judaism
• Even after Paul proclaimed his opposition to observance of the Torah as a means of salvation, many Jewish Christians continued the practice.
• The number of Jews converted to any form of Christianity was extremely small
• There were four major stages in the final break between Christianity and Judaism: (1) the flight of the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem to Pella across the Jordan in 70 and their refusal to continue the struggle against the Romans, (2) the institution by the patriarch Gamaliel II of a prayer in the Eighteen Benedictions against such heretics (c. 100), and (3 and 4) the failure of the Christians to join the messianic leaders Lukuas-Andreas and Bar Kokhba in the revolts against Trajan and Hadrian in 115–117 and 132–135, respectively.

Question 3

Judaism under Roman rule

Answer 3

• When Pompey entered the Temple in 63 bce as an arbiter both in the civil war between John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus I and in the struggle of the Pharisees against both Jewish rulers, Judaea in effect became a puppet state of the Romans.
• The papyri indicate that the war against Trajan—involving the Jews of Egypt, Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia (though only to a minor degree those of Palestine)—was a widespread revolt under a Cyrenian king-messiah, Lukuas-Andreas, aimed at freeing Palestine from Roman rule.
• The result was Hadrian’s decrees prohibiting circumcision and public instruction in the Torah, though these were soon revoked by Antoninus Pius (reigned 138–161). Having suffered such tremendous losses on the field of battle, Judaism turned its dynamism to the continued development of the Talmud.