Seat Of Jerusalem 70

Since the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 BCE, the Romans occupied Judea and govern them, sometimes through local princes they have put in place as Herod ^I the Great and Herod Agrippa ^I. sometimes directly by procurators often corrupt, arouse the hostility of the Jews based on the large population Hellenized. According to Flavius Josephus, the immediate causes of the revolt in 66, are a pagan sacrifice to the entrance of the synagogue in Caesarea , followed by the diversion of 17 talented treasure Temple of Jerusalem , by the procurator Florus Gessius . The decisive act of signing the break with Rome is the decision of Eleazar son of Ananias the high priest and chief of police of the Temple, no longer accept the daily sacrifice for the Emperor .

The revolt, which Ernest Renan wrote that she is "a fever you can not compare to the one who seizes the France during the Revolution and Paris in 1871 " , has some success at first. Jews led by the Zealots are fleeing to Beth-Horon , near Jerusalem, the ^twelfth legion of the governor of Syria Cestius Gallus , then seized control of Jerusalem, then Judea and Galilee , in a short time national unity . So the Romans they hurry from 67 General Flavius Vespasian , which incorporates, in 67-68, the control of Galilee and Samaria.

The assassination of the Emperor Nero in 68 Vespasian leads to engage in the struggle for the imperial dignity. It therefore stops the war against the Jews for his conduct from taking power of Alexandria. The fighting then a lull know that Jews do not use to organize.

The accession to the Empire secured by Vespasian to Rome and left the command of the legions of Judea to his son Titus , who is leaving Caesarea shortly before the Passover to 70 lay siege to Jerusalem after, according to Dion Cassius , a trial negotiations .

The siege

The forces

Titus is supported by Tiberius Alexander , an apostate from Judaism, former procurator of Judea, so who knows the region and has already slaughtered Jews in Alexandria as prefect of Egypt under Nero . He was also an early supporter of Vespasian in his fight for the Empire. They are at the head of four legions, the fifth macedonica, the X Fretensis, the XV Apollinaris, and the twelfth Fulminata, about 24,000 men, dubbed by many soldiers of Titus and reinforced by 5,000 men of the Alexandria army and garrisons of the Euphrates , over 50,000 men , or even 80,000 men by Graetz .

According to Flavius Josephus is 23 400 men and Jews can oppose the Romans, but they belong to opposing factions and obey multiple leaders who have killed in a fierce civil war . The only ally is outside the realm of Adiabene , and its king Izat III. At the beginning of the siege, the spring 70, Jerusalem is held by three factions Zealots led by Eleazar ben Simon, another of the winners of Beth Horon, whose stronghold is the courtyard of the Temple, Simon bar Giora holding the upper town and party the lower town and John Gischala holding the Temple Mount . According to Tacitus , "it was them that fights, betrayals, fires and some of the corn had been devoured by the flames" .

The city of Jerusalem in the ^first century

Model of Jerusalem in the ^first century - the lower town, the Temple and the Antonia fortress, left

Map of Jerusalem's ^first century and its location relative to the Old Town today

Jerusalem, completely surrounded by walls, done at the time 7 kilometers in circumference and can accommodate at the time of the seat 600 000 people . Herod had been transformed by significant work that gave him a character Hellenistic palace with its and towers that serve as barracks for the troops occupying the city varied. Pliny the Elder wrote that she is "the most famous city of the East and not only in Judea ' . At the top of the city, the Temple, built on the Esplanade where we see today the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque , is itself a fortress protected by huge walls of which still remain the Western Wall and Southern. It extends to the south of the Old City today and south of the Temple, where was born the city of David. As for the Temple, which receives donations from all communities of the Diaspora , it was coveted by the Romans as evidenced by the theft is guilty Gessius Florus and also the relief of the Arch of Titus in Rome represents the booty from the Temple. It is a building along eighteen yards on nine wide, high twenty-seven meters Tacitus said that he was of "immense wealth" and that the rabbis of the Talmud had kept an admiring remembrance: "He who has not seen the Temple of Herod has never seen a beautiful building" .

Remains believed the capture of Jerusalem, at the foot of the Western Wall

The fall of the Temple and Jerusalem was taken

Titus is therefore siege to Jerusalem shortly before Passover 70. He has with him four legions which he has first on the hills surrounding Jerusalem on Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Jews continue to disagree and Jean take this Eleazar let the pilgrims come to celebrate Passover at the Temple, to bring his men and seizing them, thereby eliminating Eleazar .

Titus then leveling the ground at the foot of the ramparts in order to facilitate the approach and build helepolis (wheel turns) that allow its army to attack the new bastion of the new town, the least upper walls of enclosure, situated north of Jerusalem. On May 25, 70, Roman armies can cross it , and then five days later, on May 30, seizing the second wall and the new town to the foot of the fortress Antonia , held by John Gischala .

The Jews of John Gischala and Simon bar Giora still inflict heavy losses to the Romans and Titus decided to build a wall around Jerusalem to 7 km in length to better isolate the city. In it, famine is beginning to wreak havoc: "The terraces were crowded with women and small children emaciated, the streets of old dead boys and young men wandered like ghosts, body bruised. Squares, where they fell scourge overwhelming. The patients had no strength to bury the corpses of their relatives and those who were still strong this treatment differed, frightened by the multitude of corpses and the uncertainty of their fate, and many fell dead on those they burying and many before them had come to the fatal moment, succumbed in this work " . And despite this, the continuing civil war then in Jerusalem, where the Zealots always engaged in numerous summary executions, especially among priests.

Josephus tries to persuade his countrymen to abandon the struggle vainly haranguing the foot of the ramparts, which earned him a head injury he is recovering quickly .

July 20, the Romans managed to pierce a hole in the wall, to meet up for a new wall that had been hastily constructed by the besieged . Then the Romans seized the tower Antonia who is shaved.

Once again, Josephus to John Titus despatch of Gischala asking him to surrender, to "stop defiling the sanctuary and to offend God," while allowing it to resume sacrifices . If John does not hear, among other notables chose to flee the city.

Tower of Antonia, the Romans built a ramp to the Temple Mount, and progress against the resistance of the Jews, to repel them, set fire to the various gates that surround the temple. At this time of the end of the siege when the daily sacrifices in the Temple had ceased, the famine in the city reached its climax: "finally, they availed themselves of their leather belts and their sandals, they scratched for the chewing the skin of their shields. Others were fed twigs of old hay. Josephus also mentions a case of cannibalism in which a mother cooks and eats her baby.

The increasingly heavy fighting in the last days of August 70. According to Josephus, Titus then meet a council of war to decide the fate of the Temple, he concludes by saying that he "never burn a beautiful book" but this version skeptical of many other historians who believe more responsibility in the fire of Titus Temple . Finally on August 29 (10 months of Loos, in Josephus), when the Romans approach the Temple, a legionnaire throw a firebrand into the temple that flared, and despite the orders of Titus and the Romans can not quench Fire .

The destruction of the Temple does not have control of the city to the Romans. Again, according to Josephus, Titus is for Jews, and especially to Simon and John, and demands their surrender in exchange for the lives saved. But as they set their conditions and seek to flee to the desert, Titus ordered to take and plunder the city, which the Romans storm September 25 (8 months Gorpie by Josephus) massacring the population and burning the city. Simon bar Giora and John of Gischala were taken prisoner.

The city is razed, only exist in what is now the Western Wall and tour Hippicus, Mariamne and Phasael now called the Tower of David.

Favius according to Josephus, the number of prisoners of war amounted to 97,000 and the number of deaths during the siege at 1.1 million, which may seem exaggerated although it must be remembered that the siege began shortly before Passover , the feast of pilgrimage where Jews were accustomed to go to Jerusalem. 700 prisoners , including Simon Bar Giora and John of Gischala, were taken to Rome for the triumph of Titus. Jean de Gischala dies in prison and Simon Bar Giora is executed after the triumph.

The end of the war and the triumph of Titus

Sestertius hit in 71 at the portrait of Vespasian. Judea Capta: a Jewish woman cries next to a prisoner with hands tied behind their backs

The fall of Jerusalem does not quite mark the end of the war because few strongholds remain in Jewish hands. Titus load a legate, Lucilius Bassus , reduce remaining pockets of resistance. Herodium , palace-fortress near Bethlehem , which is buried Herod falls rapidly, followed Machaerus on the east bank of the Dead Sea . But we must wait 3 years for the successor of Lucilius Bassus, Flavius Silva , may seize Masada , another palace-fortress of King Herod, on a hill above the Dead Sea, where the defenders, led by sicario Eleazar ben Yair , commit suicide with their wives and children to avoid traveling .

As for Titus, he returned first to Caesarea , where he gives in honor of his father Vespasian and his brother Domitian , games with Jewish prisoners, then he moved to Alexandria from where he returned to Rome. There is the triumph which involved organized Jewish prisoners and that we see depicted on a frieze of the Arch of Titus such as Josephus describes at length, which does not fail to be mentioned among the booty, he took the Jews "were distinguished in all the loot goods removed to the Temple of Jerusalem: a golden table , the weight of many talents, and a golden candlestick of the same work, but a different model than is commonly used because the column was the middle of the foot where it was fixed and he was shedding delicate stems whose arrangement reminded the appearance of a trident. Each was at its end, chiseled shaped torch, there were seven of these torches marking the observance of the Jews for that number. It was then, as the last piece of loot, a copy of the law of the Jews. " .

Consequences of the capture of Jerusalem

On the political and demographic

The fall of Jerusalem marked the end of 4 years of war, the beginning of the second diaspora. All the Jewish homeland became an imperial province, Judea is directly administered by a praetorian governor no longer dependent as before Syria. Veterans of the Roman army founded several colonies. Contributions to the temple are now paid under the legal form of the fiscus judaicus Capitoline temple of Jupiter. Agrippa II, who was an ally of Titus, will be the last king of the Herodian dynasty.

Demographically, the fall of Jerusalem is exacerbating the trends already observed in previous centuries, namely the growing importance of the Jewish Diaspora at the expense of the established influence of Judaism in the Land of Israel. The Jewish community of Rome receives a reinforcement related to prisoners deported in the city but especially the Alexandrian Judaism and Babylonian tilted. It Alexandrian Judaism who leads the revolt against Rome next ending with its destruction and it is around Babylon , outside the Roman Empire, that will develop the most productive of Talmudic academies.

In religious terms

The fall of Jerusalem and especially the destruction of the Temple have deeper consequences in religious terms. Jews and Christians are different readings of this event. As Muslims, they give him little meaning .

For Jews

The Temple is at the heart of Jewish worship as described in the Bible and Leviticus describes at length the sacrifices that were given. The Sadducees who relied solely on their religious practices have disappeared from the Torah in Jewish tradition with the fall of the Temple. They are the Pharisees behind Yohanan ben Zakkai and the doctors of the Mishnah who saved Judaism in establishing a new basis, particularly by making prayer the heart of worship instead of sacrifice and establishing the synagogue as a place of worship, replacing Temple. The synagogue recalls in its traditional plan and the Temple of Jerusalem, at its head, there is no longer a priest, a descendant of Aaron , but a rabbi who is the wisest or the most learned members of the community. Yohanan ben Zakkai restores Sanhedrin in Yavneh , which will remain the highest Jewish authority before its gradual disappearance ⁱⁿ the fifth century.

But the memory of Jerusalem and the Temple is still the center of Jewish worship. Daily morning prayer like to rebuild Jerusalem and the Jews recall at some solemn events, the remembrance of Jerusalem and its Temple. Two fasts commemorate the fall of the Temple: The Fast of Tammuz 17 calls the first breach in the ramparts of Jerusalem and that of the 9th of Av , the saddest day of Judaism, was established in memory of the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The ceremony of Seder of Passover has a hard-boiled egg, the food of mourning that recalls the Temple of Jerusalem and ends in all the Jewish families practicing so slightly by the desire "Next year in Jerusalem". And all those who attended a Jewish wedding the bridegroom heard a glass break at the end of the ceremony, always remember the loss of the Temple of Jerusalem, every Jew must remember, even in moments of joy.

For the rabbis of the Talmud does not refer to Flavius Josephus, the Temple's destruction is due not to the military superiority of the Romans, but to the gratuitous hatred that existed between the Jews . She "belongs to a long series of misfortunes that God inflicted on his people to remind him of his election duties . "

According to the tradition of the Seder Olam Rabbah , the fall of the Second Temple was in 3828 of the Creation of the World, or in 68 AD and not in 70 . But just admit that, according to this schedule, the birth of Jesus took place in 3758 and not 3760 to find the usual chronology.

For Christians

Jerusalem is the place of the Passion of Christ. This is the ^fourth century that Constantine's mother, Helena , visited Jerusalem and identified the Holy Places .

At the theological level, according to the Gospels , Jesus prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem ( Matthew (24, 1-3) and Luke (19.43)). To Paul of Tarsus , in the Epistle to the Corinthians (3, 16), the Church is the new Temple and so it becomes the true Israel (verus Israel), leaving the Temple of its raison d'etre. Fathers of the Church go even further, as Tertullian , for whom the Temple's destruction is proof of the coming of the Messiah . This is the replacement theology , that Christianity was substituted to Judaism in God's plan, first theorized by Justin Martyr from the ^second century and responsible for much of the anti-Judaism Christian. And much more recently, May 14, 1948, Independence Day of the State of Israel, the Osservatore Romano wrote: "Modern Israel is not the heir of biblical Israel. The Holy Land and its holy places belong only to Christianity, the true Israel " . It was not until the encyclical Nostra Aetate , and John Paul II to the synagogue in Rome in 1986, welcoming the Jews called "elder brothers" for this position is questioned.

For Muslims

Perhaps to help the conversion of the Jews of Medina , the ' Islam first asks its followers to look to Jerusalem for prayer. That would be because of poor results from that decision that Mecca is then substituted in Jerusalem , both for the pilgrimage for the direction of prayer ( qibla ). It was to counter the commitment of the Jewish memory (and Christian) in Jerusalem, according to Poznanski, were built ⁱⁿ the seventh century Dome of the Rock mosque and the Al-Aqsa on the esplanade of the Temple .

Bibliography

• Mireille Hadas-Lebel , Rome, Judea and Jews, Paris, A. & J. Picard, 2009 (ISBN 978.2.7084.0842.5)
• Flavius Josephus , The Jewish War , site of Philippe Remacle , 75
• Lucien Poznanski , The fall of the Temple of Jerusalem, Editions Complexe, coll. ^"Historic", 2nd ed., 1997 ( ISBN 2-87027-678-8 )
• ( in ) Menahem Stern , Zealots and Sicarii , an article in the Encyclopedia Judaica ^2nd edition, in the Jewish Virtual Library , 2008
• Vidal-Naquet , Good Use of treason, preface to the Jewish War, Editions de Minuit , 1976 ( ISBN 2-7073-0135-3 )

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