Wednesday, August 30, 2023

It is the 30th of August, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

We head back to the early church today- and a figure we encountered on yesterday’s show- Flavius Josephus, the historian who lived in 1st century Palestine. He was raised Jewish in the line of priests, in the school of the Pharisees, which for our sake means they were politically moderate. They didn’t much mind the Romans, who kept relative peace and allowed them to practice their religion.

You might remember that it was Herod the Great- the patriarch of the other Herods who was allowed to rebuild the temple that was destroyed in the Babylonian exile. Ezra and Nehemiah had started, but it kind of fizzled out. Herod decided it would be his legacy to rebuild the Temple, which served during the time of Jesus and was even a meeting place for the new Christians.  

And it was the site of one of the largest and most significant revolts in the history of the Roman Empire.

Let’s go back to the 60s. Nero is the emperor, and he is… not very nuanced. It’s fair to call him a bad guy. He persecuted not just Christians but anyone who either questioned his authority or could be shaken down for money.

And Nero needed money- after all, it was in 64 that the great fire of Rome destroyed the great city (and it was rumored that Nero started the fire to blame scapegoats). And then, Nero was tasked with assigning a new procurator over Palestine. And Nero wouldn’t select someone like Herod, who had respect for Jewish customs. But rather, he appointed Gessius Florus, one of the more notorious names in Jewish history. He allowed the Greeks to sacrifice at the temple (rendering it unclean), and he stole from the temple to enrich himself and the emperor. Those who opposed him were imprisoned and crucified.

In the year 69, upset with Florus’ response to the increasing unrest amongst the Jews, Nero sent Vespasian- the famed equestrian military leader, into Jerusalem to put down the rebellion. And then Nero, suffering from a series of rebellions, likely killed himself. This year would go down for the Romans as “the year of 4 Emperors” when four different figures claimed that authority. The last was Vespasian himself, who would head off to Rome and leave his son Titus in charge of the siege of Jerusalem.

In the spring of 70, Titus allowed Jewish pilgrims to make their way into the city but did not let them out. This, along with the wall he built to keep anyone from leaving, led to massive shortages. Eventually, the Roman army breached the inner walls, which had made Jerusalem difficult to capture, sacked the city, and, most importantly, destroyed the Temple- the last to ever stand. This would have implications for the Jewish people who either abandoned their faith or began the transition to rabbinic Judaism (that which emphasized teaching and right conduct over the sacrificial system), and for many, it further cemented Jesus as a prophet who had seemingly predicted these things (that’s a whole other conversation with all kinds of implications for Christian eschatology- end times teaching).

It should be noted that just about everything we know about this revolt and the siege comes from Josephus- as the Jewish Joseph he was a general in the first revolt but by the time of the siege had switched his allegiance to Vespasian and went by the name “Flavius Josephus” taking the royal name of Vespasian himself. Because of the significance of the event in Jewish, Roman, and Christian history, his telling of the events has often been recounted, but it is important to note the way in which his story aggrandizes Vespasian and Titus, who used the siege of Jerusalem as vindicating the rule of Vespasian.

But regardless of the possible exaggerations, the Temple fell on this day, known as the 9th of Av on the Jewish calendar- it is a day of fasting because the Temple fell, but it is also taught that the Spies who returned with bad news about the promised land, it is the day of the massacre during the Bar Kochba revolt, Jewish exile from both England and Spain respectively and the start of World War 1.

Today, we remember the tragedy of the siege and its place in the development of both Judaism and Christianity on this day in AD 70.

The last word for today is from Psalm 137- written in response to the Babylonian exile and destruction of the first temple:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars

    we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord

    while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

    may my right hand forget its skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

    if I do not remember you,

if I do not consider Jerusalem

    my highest joy.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 30th of August 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

 The show is produced by a man whose favorite temples include Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, India’s Lotus Temple, and Indiana Jones “Of Doom” he is Christopher Gillespie.

 The show is written and read by a man who asks that you go rewatch the scene from Temple of Doom with the heart- it doesn’t hold up- not scary at all; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be OK.