The collision of Rome, Israel, and the early Christians
Review of Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman
This is one of those dense history books that separates the true history buff (or academic) from the casual reader. Starting more or less from the reign of the Julio-Claudians – the first imperial dynasty of the Roman Empire after the fall of the Republic (27 BCE to 68 CE) – the book compares the cultures when the vassalage of "Judea" (as worked out by Herod during Augustus' reign) functioned well, follows the deterioration of relations that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, and then examines the aftermath of repeated rebellions and the rise of Christians (and anti-Semitism). For many reasons, this is one of the most interesting historical nexuses there is.
First, the Imperial Regime of Rome was consolidating itself. The republican forms, such as rule (or some checks and balance) by the Senate as well as alternation of power, still existed but were increasingly irrelevant. In the Republic’s place, a kind of quasi-religious autocracy (hinting at a totalitarian regime) had firmly taken hold. Following the prudent Augustus, you witness the decadent and perhaps senile Tiberius, the cruelly insane Caligula, the almost-great Claudius, and finally the unbalanced Nero – at each transfer of power, political institutions deteriorated, eventually leading to the terrible year 69 CE, in which there were 4 emperors who claimed power in successive civil war. The Army and Praetorian Guard emerged as vital power brokers for the rest of Rome's history.
Goodman covers these years as a narrative, but also as political science and cultural critique. He offers a detailed description of how Augustus' regime evolved and what the consequences were.
Second, the Jews had reached a crucial period that would define their religion and culture into the modern era: with their monotheism and strictly prescribed culture of purity and moral comportment, their "tribal" mentality was beginning to distinguish clearly who belonged and who didn't. Compared to the licentious Romans with their multiple gods and tolerance for diversity and morals, they appeared rigid and exotic. The intra-Jewish conflict involved the cosmopolitan Sadducees, who emphasized Hellenistic culture, versus the inward-turning Pharisees; with the destruction of the Second Temple, the latter emerged as more influential, eventually leading to the Rabbinic Judaism that survives to the current day. This filled the greatest gap in my historical knowledge and hence was most instructive for me, but it was very heavy going at times.
Third, there were the Christians, who at that time were merely a sect of the Jews. With the destruction of the Second Temple, they lost their credibility. This led to the Hellenization of Jesus with the teachings of Paul, in effect transforming the Jewish moral code into an evangelical universalism while discarding some of their “unacceptable” practices, such as the circumcision that so horrified the Romans. This new Christian sect grew slowly, amazingly to become the official creed under the Emperor Constantine around 300 CE, almost totally divorced from its cultural and ethnic origins with the Jews.
What the book accomplishes so masterfully is to explain how circumstances aligned themselves to create a terrible cataclysm for the Jews. It was at the time that Nero was ousted, the author argues, that Vespasian – the military governor of the province of Assyria – needed the appearance of a major victory to make his claim to the office of Emperor. Somehow, under his son Titus, this meant crushing the Jews and perhaps even purposefully burning Herod's Second Temple in 70 CE, though that may have been an accident as Goodman argues.
The result was a fundamental disenfranchisement of nearly unprecedented savagery, which stamped the Jewish soul forever afterwards, as deeply as occurred over 1,000 years before, under the Egyptians. Interestingly, he argues that this was not at all inevitable but a direct consequence of the power struggles in Rome. The bitterness and rebelliousness it engendered among the Jews then led to a series of violent wars and periodic repression and persecution. Hadrian took over, in 117 CE, and after a major rebellion he turned old Jerusalem into a Roman colony, which lasted under the Byzantines until the Moslem conquests over 500 years later. Finally, Goodman sees the emergence of the Christians as the basis for anti-semitism, an argument that I didn't quite follow.
For anyone who can concentrate on historical detail, this is a great read full of insight and fascinating trains of reasoning. While academic and targeting a sophisticated audience with at least university education, it is beautifully written and flows in a uniquely informal style that incorporates rigorous logic and wonderful narrative description. Once I was with it, I deeply enjoyed it.
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