RELG 433 - Biblical Archaeology
Course Notes
Module 15
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Jewish Revolts
The World of the New Testament
This week's section takes us from the time of the Jewish Revolts against Rome, through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, to the Missionary Journeys of Paul and other Christians.
During this period, our focus with move from Israel/Palestine and the Levant, to Asia Minor and Europe.
 The Dead Sea Scrolls |
Jewish Revolts |
New Testament World |
|---|
The Dead Sea Scrolls are some the writings and library of a group of Essenes who lived at what is now known as Qumran. The name used by the Essene community for the place is not known.
The Essenes were a Jewish group who were very concerned with staying pure and uncorrupted by what they regarded as the worldly ways of the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem. They retreated to the desert by the Dead Sea, and built a community where they could study and worship in their own way. When the Jewish revolt broke out, the Qumran community does not seem to have taken part in the fighting. They hid their precious scrolls, mostly rolled up and stored in tall pottery jars with lids, in the caves near the community. They then either fled into the wilderness, or they may have joined with the Zealots who were trying to hold Masada against the Romans.
Those who knew where the scrolls were hidden were either killed or unable to return to retrieve the scrolls, so most of the scrolls remained hidden until 1947, when some of them were discovered by Bedouin and sold to a local dealer.
The scrolls are the earliest surviving manuscripts of some of the Books of the Bible, and as such are of great importance for Biblical studies. They date from the time before the Canon of the Old Testament was closed - the Jewish Councils had not yet decided which books were to be counted as inspired Scripture, and which were not. The scrolls also include writings which are not part of the Bible - such as rules for how the Community was to be organized and run, and some particular Essene teachings and accounts of conflicts between the "Sons of Light" and the "Sons of Darkness".
Many of the Scrolls are now housed in the "Shrine of the Book" - a museum built especially for them in Jerusalem.
The Roman occupation of Palestine provoked rising resentment in the Jews, leading to the First Jewish Revolt, and in 70 AD Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the Temple, Matth. 24:1-2, was fulfilled.
The Roman general Vespasian began the siege of Jerusalem, but was recalled to Rome to become Emperor when Nero died.
Vespasian left his son Titus in charge of the siege, which lasted for about three years, during which time many of the inhabitants died from starvation. On taking the city, the soldiers threw down all the stones from the Temple, into the Tyropoeon Valley which used to run beside the Western wall of the Temple. There is no longer a valley there, though some of it has been excavated to reveal the Herodian foundation walls which retained the dirt and rock upon which the Temple courts and buildings were built.
During the Siege of Jerusalem Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai realized that the Jews could not win, and that the Romans would wipe out not only the inhabitants, but also the whole Jewish culture if everyone stayed in Jerusalem.
In order to escape from Jerusalem, he pretended to be dead, and arranged for his disciples to carry his "corpse" out of the city - with his scrolls packed into the coffin with him. The Romans allowed the funeral procession to leave, and, once clear of the city, Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai revealed himself to the Roman commander, Vespasian, and asked to be allowed to go in peace with his students, to study in the north of the country. The Romans allowed him to do this, and he and his school eventually settled in Jamnia, also called Yavneh, where Jewish culture was preserved for future generations.
This was the time of the Jewish general Josephus (his Romanized name) - who also realized that he was on the losing side, so deserted his Jewish soldiers, and went over to Vespasian's side. After the revolt was put down, Josephus settled down as a Roman citizen, and wrote accounts of Jewish history and culture for the Romans. In these accounts he mentions Jesus - early evidence for Jesus' life and reputation among non-Christians as a prophet and wonder-worker.
The northern part of Israel - the region of the Galilee - had a more ethnically and religiously mixed population, and did not fight so strongly against the Romans. So pockets of Jewish culture survived, particularly in the region of Tiberias, where Jewish scholarship was preserved.
One exception was the town of Gamla, in the Golan, which Josephus had led against the Romans. After Josephus defected to the Romans, the people of Gamla continued to resist, until the town was captured and destroyed.
Even after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, a group of Zealots took refuge in the caves in the Judean wilderness by the Dead Sea, and in Masada, the fortress palace which had been built by Herod the Great on top of a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea.
In 73 AD, after a 3-year siege, the Romans, under Flavius Silva, were about to break into Masada. The Zealots decided that they would kill their own families and then themselves, rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Two women and a group of children hid when it was time to be killed, and later told the Romans what had happened : this was recorded by Josephus as part of his account of the Jewish Wars.
In recent excavations at Masada, Yigael Yadin found pieces of pottery, with inscriptions, which are thought to mark who would be the men chosen to kill their compatriots and then themselves.
When the Romans finally broke into the fortress, they found that the Jews had set all the stores of food and weapons on fire, and then killed themselves.
In 122 AD the decision by the Emperor Hadrian to build a Roman town, Aelia Capitolina, on the site of Jerusalem, sparked the Second Jewish Revolt, led by Simon bar Kochba. The name "bar Kochbar" means "Son of a Star" - Simon bar Kochbar set himself up as a Messiah, and tried to fulfil some of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament - it may be that he changed his name, in accordance with Balaam's prophecy in Numbers 9:7. Because of the prophecy of Malachi 4:5, bar Kochbar declared that his friend Rabbi Akiva was the prophet Elijah who had come to prepare the way for bar Kochbar. The Romans eventually captured Rabbi Akiva and tortured him to death.
While the Jews were rising against Rome, the Christians were spreading out from Jerusalem into Asia Minor and Europe - even into India, as the ancient Mar Thoma Church of India testifies to the missionary activity of St. Thomas.
The New Testament gives a detailed account of Paul's missionary journeys and the founding of Christian communities in leading towns of Asia Minor and Europe, but it is also clear that other Christians were also taking the news of Jesus wherever they went.
It is not known for sure how Christianity reached Britain. Some Roman remains from the first century AD in Britain have Christian inscriptions and symbols. The Roman legions which had served in Palestine were moved throughout the Roman Empire, and some of them were sent to Britain, so it is possible that some of the soldiers had become Christians in Palestine and brought the news with them.
Many of the ancient cities of Greece and Asia Minor - now Turkey - have been excavated to the first century period, and give us a picture of what the cities looked like at the time Paul and his companions visited them.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
