What Events Made A Return to Judea Difficult After 70 CE

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                                                                 Judea

Jews had been living in Rome since 139 BCE, there as traders, no doubt, for that's the purpose of most traveling to far away places.  Later on, Jews would be taken to Rome from Judea as slaves; prisoners.  

Even before Rome annexed Judea as a province, the Romans had interacted with Jews from their diasporas who had settled in Rome for a century and a half. Many cities of the Roman provinces in the eastern Mediterranean contained very large Jewish communities, dispersed from the time of the sixth century BCE.

Rome had destroyed Jerusalem with fire.  People were taken as slaves or killed.  Those that could fled as far as possible to safer ground.  Judea  became a Roman province by 6 CE. Decades later, it was descending into chaos. By 132 CE, Aluf (General) Bar Kokhba had taken back Jerusalem and held it for 3 years until he was killed in battle.                                          

In spite of the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jews remained in the land of Israel in significant numbers. The Jews who remained there went through numerous experiences and armed conflicts against consecutive occupiers of the Land. Some of the most famous and important Jewish texts were composed in Israeli cities at this time. The Jerusalem Talmud, the completion of the Mishnah and the system of niqqud (In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages.

In this period the tannaim and amoraim were active rabbis who organized and debated the Jewish oral law. A major catalyst in Judaism is Judah haNasi, who was a wealthy rabbi and one of the last tannaim, oral interpreters of the Law. He was in good standing with Roman authority figures, which aided in his ascent to being the Patriarch of the Jewish community in Palestine. 

                    Aluf Bar Kokhba (Ben Kosiba Simeon) d: 135 CE

              Nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin, of Davidic descent. 

Following the 1st-century Great Revolt and the 2nd-century Bar Kokhba revolt, the destruction of Judea exerted a decisive influence upon the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world, as the center of worship shifted from the Temple to Rabbinic authority.

Some Jews were sold as slaves or transported as captives after the fall of Judea, others joined the existing diaspora, while still others remained in Judea and began work on the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jews in the diaspora were generally accepted into the Roman Empire, but with the rise of Christianity, restrictions grew. Forced expulsions and persecution resulted in substantial shifts in the international centers of Jewish life to which far-flung communities often looked, although not always unified, due to the Jewish people's dispersion itself. Jewish communities were thereby largely expelled from Judea and sent to various Roman provinces in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. 

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Head of Aphrodite, 1st century AD copy of an original by Praxiteles. The Christian cross on the chin and forehead was intended to "deconsecrate" a Holy pagan artifact. Found in the Agora of Athens. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), when he destroyed a temple for the purpose of constructing a church. Christian historians alleged that Hadrian (2nd century) had constructed a temple of Aphrodite on the site of the crucifixion on Golgotha hill in order to suppress Jewish-Christian veneration there.

                              

Lucius Quietus, left and Emperor Hadrian, above

Hadrian, Roman Emperor from 117 to 138 had removed and executed the savage governor of Judea, Lucius Quietus.  Lusius Quietus was a Roman general and governor of Judaea in  117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War(The Kitos War was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars. The rebellions erupted in 115, when most the Roman armies were fighting Trajan's Parthian War on the eastern border of the Roman Empire.)  As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history.  Originally a Berber prince, Lusius' father and his warriors had supported the Roman legions in their attempt to subdue (northern modern-day Morocco) during Aedemon's revolt in 40.

 Hadrian also supported Egyptian Jewry in disputes with Greeks, making a favorable impression on the Jews.  Then he forbade circumcision.  He visited Palestine in 130 and decided to convert Jerusalem into a roman colony, calling after himself, Aelina Capitolina.  that's when Bar Kokhba rebelled.  He won over the Jewish army and received the title, Imperator.  Judea was then a consular province called Syria-Palaestina.  The ruins of Jerusalem were reconstructed as a pagan city, and an equestrian statue of Hadrian was erected on the site of the Holy of Holies.   

 Jews had spread from their homeland in Judaea across the Mediterranean and there were major Jewish communities in Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Practicing a very different religion from that of their neighbors, they were often unpopular. As a result, Jewish communities were often close-knit, to protect themselves and their faith.

Jews had lived in Rome since the second century BCE. Julius Caesar and Augustus supported laws that allowed Jews protection to worship as they chose. Synagogues were classified as colleges to get around Roman laws banning secret societies and the temples were allowed to collect the yearly tax paid by all Jewish men for temple maintenance.

There had been upsets: Jews had been banished from Rome in 139 BC, again in 19 AD and during the reign of Claudius. However, they were soon allowed to return and continue their independent existence under Roman law.  That was Rome.  Living in Palestine was another thing.

                                         
 Julian, the only emperor to reject Christianity after the conversion of Constantine, allowed the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Temple. However Julian was killed in battle on 26 June 363 in his failed campaign against the Sassanid Empire, (The Sasanian or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians, and called the Neo-Persian Empire by historians, was the last Persian imperial dynasty before the Muslim conquest in the mid seventh century AD.  The Third Temple was not rebuilt at that time.  

Julian was Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place, caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate by the Christian Church

During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 many Jews sided against the Eastern Roman Empire in the Jewish revolt against Heraclius, which successfully assisted the invading Persian Sassanids in conquering all of Roman Egypt and Syria. In reaction to this further anti-Jewish measures were enacted throughout the Eastern Roman realm and as far away as Merovingian France. Soon thereafter, 634, the Muslim conquests began, during which many Jews initially rose up again against their Eastern Roman rulers.

The Sasanian Empire conquered Jerusalem after a brief siege in 614, during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, after the Persian Shah Khosrau II appointed his general Shahrbaraz to conquer the Byzantine controlled areas of the Near East. Following the victory in Antioch, Shahrbaraz conquered Caesarea Maritima, the administrative capital of the province. By this time the grand inner harbor had silted up and was useless, however the Emperor Anastasius had reconstructed the outer harbor and Caesarea remained an important maritime city, providing the Persian Empire with access to the Mediterranean Sea. The Sasanian Persians were joined by Nehemiah ben Hushiel. 

 Benjamin of Tiberias (a man of immense wealth), who enlisted and armed Jewish soldiers from Tiberias, Nazareth and the mountain cities of Galilee, and together with a band of Arabs and additional Jews from southern parts of the country they marched on Jerusalem.

Some 20,000 Jewish rebels joined the war against the Byzantine Christians. Depending on the chronicler figures of either 20,000 or 26,000 are given.  The Persian army reinforced by Jewish forces led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel and Benjamin of Tiberias would capture Jerusalem–without resistance, or after a siege and breaching the wall with artillery, depending on the source. 

As to Syria-Palaestina, "Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the Paralia, and Peraea, with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis, with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Transjordan part of Arabia, and most of Sinai, with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris.

 The Christian emperors persecuted their Jewish subjects and restricted their rights. Constantine the Great had moved the Roman capital from Rome to Constantinople ('New Rome') c. 330, sometimes considered the start of the Byzantine Empire, and with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire. 

I would say that the turmoil of constant war in the land of Judea from the time taken in 70 CE kept Jews from returning.  Either the land was in the hands of the Romans or the Iranians (Sassinids), making Jews most unpopular.  What Jews did was to pray 3 times a day for their return to Judah and Jerusalem to be returned to them.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/jews.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Roman_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(emperor)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_pagans_in_the_late_Roman_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria_Palaestina

Who Were the Jewish Scholars and the Sanhedrin During Roman Occupation ?

Nadene Goldfoot     

Antigonus of Sokho,  who lived in about 200 BCE,  was a Jewish sage.  He said,

"Be not like servants who serve their master in the hope of receiving a reward, but be like those servants who serve their master with no expectation of receiving a reward;  and let the fear of Heaven be upon you."  

He was the teacher of the first men to be the heads of the Sanhedrin.  

                                                               

Hillel was born in the 1st century BCE and was a scholar who founded a school known as the "House of Hillel." or Bet Hillel.  He was also the ancestor of a dynasty of patriarchs who held office in the Sanhedrin until the 5th century.  He was one of the Jews born in Babylon (today's Iraq) but had come and settled in Judah and earned a living by manual labor while studying with Shemaiah and Avtalyon who made up the 4th of the Zugot. The Zugot (pairs) were 5 generations of scholars.  The first named is the president or Nasi of the Sanhedrin and the second is the senior judge of the court or bet din.  Shemaiah  lived in the 2nd half of the 1st century BCE and  was the head of the Sanhedrin at the end of the Hasmonean Period. and Avtalyon was the chief judge. 

 Shemaiah and Avtalyon  were proselytes, converts to Judaism, descended from Sennacherib, who was the king of Assyria (today's Iraq and SE Turkey)  in 705-681 BCE. and was the son of Sargon II..  Shemaiah was the leader of the Pharisees.  Avtalyon  was a leader of the Pharisees in the middle of the 1st century BC and by tradition vice-president of the great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.   He was of heathen descent  Avtalyon is also written about in Josephus.  "Avtalyon  was one of the most influential and beloved men of his time. Once, when the high priest was being escorted home from the Temple by the people, at the close of a Day of Atonement, the Talmud (Yoma, 71b) relates that the crowd deserted him upon the approach of Avtalion and his colleague and followed them.   Avtalion used his influence with the people in persuading the men of Jerusalem, in the year 37 BC, to open the gates of their city to Herod the Great. The king was not ungrateful and rewarded Abtalion, or, as Josephus calls him, Pollion, with great honors."   ( B and V are the same Hebrew letter, so here wikipedia used the B.)  

 Sennacherib had invaded Judah in 701 BCE and had captured 46 cities, but not Jerusalem and had taken many prisoners.  A plague broke out in his camp and had forced him to retreat.  So, 400 years later, two Assyrians  had become the heads of the Sanhedrin.

Hillel was appointed president of the Sanhedrin and together with Shammai, were the last of the pairs or Zugot of scholars.  He was noted for his humility and leniency.  It was like these two were debating partners and would take opposite sides.  Hillel won all the debates.  He had 7 rules of Bible interpretation.  It was Hillel who wrote the negative form of the Golden Rule, "Do not do unto others that which you would not have them do unto you."  No doubt it was Hillel whose interpretations were studied in the time of Jesus in Jerusalem.  Shammai foresaw the dangers of Roman hegemony (influence over the Jewish morality)  and wrote many rules intended to keep the Jews from mixing with the heathen.  He took a rigorous point of view in moral and religious matters.  

The 5 Zugot were:
1. Yose ben Joezer and Yose ben Johanan (2nd century BCE) pupil of Antigonus of Sokho (200 BCE) an early mishnaic sage.  
2. Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai the Arbelite (2nd century BCE)  
3. Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shetah (1st century BCE) Judah headed Pharisee party
4 Shemaiah and Avtalyon (1st century BCE)
5. Hillel and Shammai (1st century BCE)-lived during Herod's reign

Joshua  born: in c4 BCE and died in 29 CE in Judah at age c33  in the middle of the Roman occupation.  In Greek, his name translates into Jesus who.  was also executed on the Roman cross along with thousands of other Jews.  He was to become the messiah for millions of people who follow Christianity.  The New Testament is written about him.  These Gospels represent the entire Jewish people as eager for the death of Jesus and who rejected Pilate's proposal to release him.  According to these writings, Jews took the responsibility of  Jesus's blood on themselves and their descendants.  This reflects the anti-Jewish sentiment of the early Christians and the bigger desire to absolve the Romans from guilt in the death of their savior as Rome became the center for Christianity.   There are no sources for the life of Jesus of Nazareth in Jewish literature except what it found in the Gospels and by Josephus, who reflected a Christian philosophy.  He knew he was writing for possible Christian Romans.   Though Jesus was a threat to the Romans, he was not a threat to the Jews of the time.   The Jews were hoping for a messiah to come along, but when one did that filled the bill, it turned out to be Bar Kokhba a little later after Jesus had died.  .
                                                                         

 These were terrible times for the Jews of being occupied by the Romans.  In the year 50 CE, Ben Joseph Akiva was born.  He was to become the greatest scholar of his time and to be known as Rabbi Akiva.  He was born to poor Jews and with the hatred going on for Jews by the Romans, remained uneducated until he was 40 years old.

 He had married Rachel, daughter of a rich man, Kalba Sabbua, so that tells me that he had something to offer this rich girl, probably good looks and intelligence and sincerity.  Rachel was educated as rich girls of that day could be, so she helped her husband, Akiva, to study.

 Akiva devoted himself to learning.  He studied with many leading scholars and developed his own method of biblical interpretation by using every word and sign in the Torah as a particular significance and saw it could be used to establish a source for accepted halakhic decision.  He then collected and arranged the whole Oral Law according to subjects, .  This method was used  on with the Mishnah later recorded by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (135-220) and his colleagues.

Akiva became famous and had thousands of students study at his school in Bene Brak in Judah.  This rabbi traveled a lot for the Jews on political missions.  He traveled with Rabbi Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel  and president of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, to Rome to get the reversal of Domitian's legislation against the Jews.  This was Domitian, the last Roman emperor, who worshipped  Jupiter and expected everyone else to do so.   "Titus Flavius Caesar Domitianus Augustus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96.  Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty."  Traveling outside of Judah and visiting other Jewish communities was another duty Akiva took upon himself.

The Roman government who had taken over Judah prohibited the study of the Law-Torah.  Akiva ignored this decree, of course, even publicly.  Therefore, he was arrested as a rebel and kept for a long time in prison, and was finally killed at Caesarea, probably on a cross, the main way of execution for the Romans.  His disciples were the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people during the following generations.  No rabbi of the talmudic period made a more profound impression on Jewish history and on the imagination of the Jewish people than Rabbi Akiva.  .

Meir was born in the 2nd century and was a pupil of Akiva.  He was a member of the Sanhedrin at Usha (near Haifa) after the Hadrianic persecution.  The Sanhedrin was a group of 71 ordained scholars who were both functioning as the Supreme Court and as creating legislature.  Their job was to proclaim the New Moon, declare leap years,  make decisions on state offenses and doubtful questions of Jewish law.  In Jewish literature, there is no evidence of a political body except during the troubled decades which preceded the destruction of the Temple way in the past. in 597 BCE. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, a synod was held at Usha where far-reaching legislation was enacted .  It was also the seat of the Sanhedrin for a time.  Its academy was led by distinguished scholars including Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yose ha-Gelili, the Galilean of the 2nd century CE, the leading figure in the Jabneh academy where he often debated with Rabbi Akiva.  He was known for his high moral standards.  

The head of the Sanhedrin was called the Nasi, who in its later history was usually a descendant of Hillel, and an Av Bet Din.  Before 70 CE, the Sanhedrin met in the Temple chamber called the Hall of Hewn Stone.   A very bright pupil, it was his Mishnah that he created that became the basis of the accepted Mishsnah of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi.  His brilliance was recognized and it was said that  when a decision of the rabbis differed from Meir's opinion it was "because his colleagues could not plumb the depth of his reasoning."  In other words, they just didn't understand the depth of his words.

He was also a great orator and was noted for his parables and fables, evidently something used quite often by rabbis of those days.  He was also a Torah scribe, one who knew how to write and was a writer of Torah.  Besides all that, he led a clean life, so his personal conduct exemplified his teachings as well.  The Sanhedrin disappeared from the Jewish scene before the end of the 4th century CE.
                                                                     

At this period, Ben Kosiba Simeon or son of the star- Bar Kokhba was born, nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin and a descendant of King David,  the man who became Judah's general and fought against the Romans from 132 to 135 when he was killed.  To many of the Jews of Judah, this man was the Messiah because he was what was expected to come and save the Jews; a descendant of David, a real man and a fighter against the Romans.  Rabbi Akiva was one of his main enthusiastic supporters.  Akiva told his people, "This is the king-messiah!"  (Y Taanit IV, 8)  It was Bar Kokhba who had led the revolt against Hadrian in 132 .  It was Rabbi Akiva who had proclaimed him as the Messiah, but not all rabbis accepted his view.

We know this general had great personal strength, and was autocratic and irascible from letter written by him discovered near the Dead Sea.  The revolt came about from the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a Roman colony and prohibiting circumcision on baby boys.  This revolt was brewing for some time.  Bar Kokhba's soldiers captured Jerusalem in 132 and held it for the 3 years.  It was in 133 that the Romans had their counterattack with an army of 35,000 under Hadrian and Julius Severus.  They first entered Galilee, then fought for the Valley of Jezreel, Ephraim, and the Judean Hills, retaking Jerusalem.  Betar was the Jews' last stronghold. The Romans destroyed 50 fortresses and  985 villages .  580,000 Jews died as casualties.  Others died from hunger and disease.  Judea tell into desolation.  Jerusalem was turned into a heathen city, barred to Jews.

Our heroes were rabbis who were debaters.  You had to defend your ideas against others of equal intelligence and knowledge.  Family and ancestors mattered.  We haven't changed.  Intelligence and common sense  is necessary to live in today's world.  No wonder we have produced outstanding lawyers.  The people in our Knesset in Jerusalem come from good stock.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyhclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domitian
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39555/Assyria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemaiah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abtalion
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/04/sanhedrin-court-of-ancient-israel.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/09/3rd-century-phd-level-jewish-scholars.html
Update for Amoraim: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rav_Kahana_II