The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (20 page)

At first the contest was between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus. The more ambitious Aristobulus secured capitulation from his brother. Hyrcanus II was content to retire, but Antipater, an Idumean governor, and the wealthy Jews he influenced, secured the help of the Nabatean kingdom and convinced Hyrcanus II to rebel. He was briefly successful, pursuing Aristobulus II, who took refuge in the temple.

In the meantime, Roman armies under the leadership of Pompey's representatives subdued the ever-unstable Seleucid kingdom. Both brothers appealed to Rome, but Pompey eventually supported Hyrcanus II. Aristobulus II and his group again barricaded themselves in the temple. Pompey defeated Aristobulus (eventually taking him captive to Rome), walked into the holy of holies, installed Hyrcanus II as high priest but not as king, and made Judea a client kingdom under the rule of an imperial governor in Syria. The independent Jewish state had come to an end, and Rome was now in charge of Palestine. The Jews had to deal with the
fourth great crisis
in their national identity:
life under Roman rule.

Table 2.3: The Five Major Crises of the Jews in the Second Temple Period

The Roman Period (63 BC–AD 70)

Roman History and the Conquest of Palestine
According to tradition, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus.
⁴⁶
In the fifth century BC, Rome became a republic. Several centuries later Rome prevailed over the North African rival city Carthage (146 BC). In 63 BC, Pompey extended Roman rule to Palestine. At first, Roman rule must not have looked any different to the local populace than Syrian dominance. Several men
were jockeying for power—Antigonus (the heir of Aristobulus II), Hyrcanus II, Antipater (the Idumean), and Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod.

Hyrcanus II was not a particularly strong leader. His failure to act decisively on occasion led the Roman governor to redraw the political lines and the duties of the high priest. He would no longer be the chief political leader of Jerusalem. In essence, the temple state had come to an end (Josephus,
Jewish War
1.169). Herod had been given Galilee, and Phasael received Judea. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus II (40–37 BC), would not give up easily. In an alliance with the Parthian Empire, he had Phasael kidnapped and killed. Antigonus captured Hyrcanus II, and Josephus reported that Antigonus bit off Hyrcanus's ears himself so that he could no longer be the high priest (
Jewish War
1.270). Antigonus then took the title “king and high priest” for three years and was the last of the Hasmoneans.

The Herodian Dynasty
Meanwhile Herod had fled to Rome, where he was named “king of Judea” by the Roman Senate in 40 BC.
⁴⁷
For Herod, however, being named king and assuming control of his apportioned territory were two different things. Although assigned rule in 40 BC, Herod did not actually win his kingdom until 37 BC when he deposed Antigonus with the help of Antony. Antony brutally dispatched Antigonus by tying him to a cross, having him flogged, and then killed. According to Dio Cassius, this was “a punishment no other king had suffered at the hands of the Romans.”
⁴⁸

Herod was technically a client king under the authority of Rome; thus he was considered “a friend and ally of the Roman people.” He was an able administrator, but he was cruel and paranoid. His ability is seen in the agricultural and commercial enterprises he started that brought prosperity to the region. Moreover, Herod spent his wealth on many public works and building programs such as the expansion of the temple, which was considered one of the eight wonders of the ancient world.
⁴⁹
But Herod was also brutal and deeply suspicious, which provoked him to take murderous action. His wife Mariamne (a Hasmonean princess, granddaughter of both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus), for whom he had genuine affection, bore him several sons and daughters. But when he suspected that some of his sons were planning to take the kingdom, he not only killed his sons through Mariamne but eventually became convinced that Mariamne herself was involved and had her killed. Herod's reputation for cruelty and paranoia was well established. Caesar Augustus is reported to have said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son.
⁵⁰

SIDEBAR 2.3: THE WIVES OF HEROD THE GREAT

Herod the Great had at least five wives, and they are listed here with their sons.

1. 1. Doris became the mother of Antipater.
   
2. 2. Mariamne, the Hasmonean princess, bore four children: two sons, Aristobulus (through whom came Herod Agrippa I and II) and Alexander, and two daughters, Salampsio and Cypros.
   
3. 3. Another Mariamne, daughter of Simon the high priest, gave birth to Herod Philip (Mark 6:17).
   
4. 4. Malthrace bore Archelaus (Matt 2:22), who was deposed as ethnarch of Judea in AD 6; and Herod Antipas (Mark 6:14; Luke 23:7), the tetrarch of Galilee.
   
5. 5. Cleopatra was the mother of Philip, who became tetrarch of Iturea.
   ¹
   

__________________________

¹
Scott,
Jewish Backgrounds
, 98.

Herod suffered from dementia and died a grisly death. True to form, however, he sought to ensure mourning in Jerusalem for his death. As his demise drew near, he had prominent citizens arrested and ordered them to be executed upon his death. Instead, contrary to his instructions, they were released. Although the particular stories of Herod in the NT (see Matthew 2) are not corroborated by external sources, the cruel and paranoid picture painted there is in keeping with what we know of Herod's character elsewhere.
⁵¹

Herod's sons were briefly given ruling positions. Archelaus was appointed ethnarch over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, which included Jerusalem (4 BC). Rome dismissed him in AD 6 because of his incompetence. Archelaus was not a skillful administrator like his father, but he was like him in being cruel and paranoid. Ultimately, the most significant outcome of Archelaus's rule was that Jerusalem was placed under direct Roman control.

Also in 4 BC, Philip, who married Salome, daughter of his half brother Herod Philip, was made tetrarch over Iturea and Trachonitis (areas northeast of the Sea of Galilee). On all accounts, Philip was an able and conscientious ruler.

Another of Herod's sons, and the one considered to be the most capable and astute, Herod Antipas, was made tetrarch over Galilee and Perea (4 BC).
⁵²
He divorced his wife (daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas IV) to marry the wife of his half brother, Herod Philip (not the Philip mentioned above), and martyred John the Baptist for his condemnation of this act (Mark 6:14–29 and parallels). Subsequently, Aretas (see 2 Cor 11:32) inflicted a heavy defeat on Herod Antipas.

Table 2.4: Roman Governors in Judea (Note: Partial List; All Dates Are AD)

After AD 6, Judea was made a Roman province and as such was under the rule of Roman imperial governors (prefects until Claudius, later procurators).
⁵³
The governors lived in Caesarea and only went up to Jerusalem on feast days. However, they kept a strong military presence in Judea. They also built the fortress of Antonia directly across from the temple and high enough to look down on the open courts.

The Jews were exempt from many of the major requirements of client kingdoms. They were allowed to mint coins without offensive images, containing only names without ascriptions of deity. A sacrifice to Yahweh on behalf of the Roman government took the place of the required sacrifice to the gods. They also had limited autonomy through the rule of the Sanhedrin, over which the high priest presided.

The Roman Emperors and Governors of Palestine
As mentioned, Rome was constituted as a republic in the fifth century BC, with the Roman Senate governing the affairs of the nation. The second and first centuries BC saw the Romans rise to world supremacy. In the period preceding the NT era, Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate by Brutus—whose act of treachery was to become proverbial (“brutal,” “brutality”)—and other senators in 44 BC. The name
Caesar
then became the title for all Roman emperors.
⁵⁴
Thereafter, Octavian (later known as Caesar Augustus) defeated his rival Antony and the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra in a naval battle off the coast of Actium, Greece, in 31 BC, and became the first Roman emperor.

This ushered in the “Golden Age” (so called by the Roman poet Virgil) of Rome under Augustus, who ruled from 31 BC until AD 14. This period was characterized by the rule of
Roman law, providing it stability; the “Roman peace” (
pax Romana
), providing a climate conducive for the construction of roads and the unification of the Empire; and general prosperity and affluence. Tiberius (14–37) succeeded Augustus and reigned during the lifetimes of John the Baptist and Jesus (Luke 3:1).
⁵⁵

The Roman governor of Palestine at the time of Christ's ministry was Pontius Pilate.
⁵⁶
His tenure was characterized by bribery, insults, executions without trials, and grievous cruelty. Pilate's early career was marked by arrogance and a willingness to off end the Jews, likely facilitated by the support provided by his powerful patron in Rome, Sejanus, prefect of the praetorian guard under Tiberius. This Sejanus administered the empire for Tiberius, while the latter stayed on the Isle of Capri. According to Philo, Sejanus had a particular dislike of the Jews and the Jewish nation, and Pilate may have been implementing Sejanus's policy toward Judea.
⁵⁷

But after Sejanus was executed in the year 31 for treason against Tiberius, Pilate no longer had the powerful patron on his side. Thus Pilate's conciliatory attitude toward the Jews at the crucifixion of Jesus was most likely due to Sejanus's removal.
⁵⁸
After a series of gaffes on Pilate's part, the Roman governor of Syria removed Pilate in the year 36 and sent him back to Rome to answer to Tiberius, who, fortunately for Pilate, died before he arrived. Pilate is not heard of again after his return to Rome, but Eusebius (c. 260–c. 340) recorded that he committed suicide.
⁵⁹

In Rome, Tiberius was succeeded by a series of emperors variously known for their cruelty and immorality: Caligula (37–41); Claudius (41–54), who expelled the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2; see Suetonius,
Claudius
25); Nero (54–68), perpetrator of atrocious acts against Christians and responsible for the fire of Rome in the year 64 (Tacitus,
Annals
15.44) and the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul (65 or 66); Galba, Otho, and Vitellius
(68–69); Vespasian (69–79); and Domitian (81–96; Suetonius,
Domitian
12–13), during whose reign the book of Revelation was most likely written.
⁶⁰

After Pilate's death, Palestine was governed by Roman procurators, including Felix (52–59) and Festus (59–61). Finally, Florus's raiding of the temple treasury ignited a Jewish revolt in 66, which climaxed in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70
, precipitating the
fifth major crisis
for the Jewish people. With the destruction of the central sanctuary, temple worship and the sacrificial system ceased. As a substitute, Jewish rabbis established a school in Jamnia to study the Torah (the OT law). Under Hadrian (117–138), the Jews rebelled again in what is known as the “Bar Kokhba revolt” (132–135). This uprising, too, was crushed by the Romans, resulting in a cessation of the Jewish state until 1948.

From the the time of the Babylonian captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 70, the Jewish nation was subjected to a series of occupational forces with only a brief interlude of self-rule during the Maccabean era. When Jesus was born and later began his public ministry, messianic expectations were widespread, and the Jewish hope of liberation—though construed primarily in political and nationalistic terms—was at a fever pitch.

The “Fullness of Time”

Paul stated in his letter to the Galatians that the Lord Jesus appeared “when the fullness of time came” (Gal 4:4 NASB). The expression “fullness of time” (
to plērōma tou chronou
), among other things, conveys the notion that Jesus came “at just the right time.” But what made the time of Christ's coming “just the right time”?
⁶¹

In the context, Paul's reference to the “fullness of time” in Gal 4:4 pertains to believers' adoption to sonship through the redemptive work of Christ (see vv. 5–7). This marked a new phase in salvation history subsequent to the period during which the law served as the primary point of reference (see Gal 3:16–26). The notion of fulfillment in Jesus is struck by both Jesus himself and the evangelists, especially Matthew and John.
⁶²
R. Longenecker stated, “Set in the context of a fulfillment motif, the statement tells us that Jesus, God's Son par excellence, is the culmination and focus of all of God's redemptive activity on behalf of humanity.”
⁶³