Tear It Down

by Chairman Joe

   One day in Jerusalem Jesus' disciples pointed out the beautiful stones of the temple. Jesus told the disciples that the time was coming when every one of the temple's stones would be thrown down.  Indeed, the Romans completely destroyed the temple a few years later at the end of the First Jewish Revolt. The Wailing Wall remains, but that was part of the platform on which the temple was built.

   Herod the Great, the king who tried to kill Jesus as a baby, built this temple. He also built a large seaport, and a hilltop fort at Masada overlooking the Dead Sea. It was the taxes for these projects and ever increasing taxes extorted by the Romans that led to the revolt in 66 AD.

   The Jews had great success at first, chasing the Romans and their Jewish lackeys out of the country. But the Romans could not afford to lose Judea. Judea wasn't valuable in itself, but it provided vital access to the rich Roman provinces of Syria and Egypt. Jerusalem was strongly defended so the Romans headed north to Galilee and defeated the Jews there. Most of the Jewish fighters in Galilee escaped to Jerusalem.

   You'd think the Galileans and the army already in Jerusalem would have banded together. But instead they started fighting among themselves. In the hubbub, most of their food supply was burned up. The Romans just had to sit back and wait. It took another three years to subdue the countryside. The last refuge of the Jews, Herod's hill fort at Masada, fell on this day in 73 AD.

   Many thousands of Jews were killed in the war. Thousands more spread over the Roman world in what's called the Diaspora. And lots of Jews stayed right where they were and tried to live as best they could under the Roman thumb. 

   In 115 when most of the Roman Army was fighting in Persia, the Jews in the Diaspora and in Judea revolted again. It took two years to put this revolt down. Things remained tense in Judea until a third and final revolt broke out in 130 AD. It was set off when the Roman governor attempted to build a temple to the god Jupiter on the site of Herod's temple. It took the Romans two years to get organized. Then it took another four years and most of the Roman Army to put the revolt down.

   With the revolt over, the Romans practiced genocide on the remaining Jewish population in Judea.  Many were sold into slavery in Rome. Many went into the Diaspora. The leader of the revolt, Simon bar Kokhba had been considered the Messiah. The Jewish Christians could not support him and this split ended any chance of Jews and Christians continuing on the same path. 

Masada, Israel's most popular attraction after the zoo.