How We Got To the Roman Invasion of the Holy Land of Judah

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

Son, Judas Maccabee, a 1st son, , leader with brothers fighting against Antiochus Epiphanes in 167-66 BCE Syrian army.  He died in 160 BCE.  He occupied Jerusalem in 164 BCE, then purified the Temple and brought assistance to Jewish communities in transjordan and Galilee.  He forced the Lysias to recognize religious freedom, and maintained his resistance, insisting on political freedom for which he was killed in battle at Elasa. Lysias (/ˈlɪsiəs/; Greek: Λυσίας; c. 445 – c. 380 BCE) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BCE.

 Among Jews, Judas Maccabee is our prototype of heroism..  

The home of Mattathias, a priest in the village of Modiʿim (now Modiʿin), 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Jerusalem, quickly became the centre of resistance. With him were his five sons, John Gaddi, Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabeus, Eleazar Avaran, and Jonathan Apphus. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, gives Mattathias’s great-grandfather the surname Asamonaios. From this title comes the name Hasmonean that was applied to the dynasty that descended from the Maccabees in the following century. 

                    Judaea, Roman spelling for Judah.  

The Hasmonean dynasty ; Hebrew: חַשְׁמוֹנָאִים‎ Ḥašmōnaʾīm) was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king" or "emperor"). Forces of the Roman Republic conquered the Hasmonean kingdom in 63 BCE and made it into a client state; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.

Most certainly, it is known that in 139 BCE, Simon Maccabeus, brother of Judah Maccabeus, leader,  sent a Hasmonean embassy to Rome in order to strengthen his alliance with the Roman Republic against the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom. The ambassadors received a cordial welcome from their coreligionists already established in Rome.

Large numbers of Jews even lived in Rome during the late Roman Republican period (from around 150 BCE). They were largely Greek-speaking and poor. As Rome had increasing contact with and military/trade dealings with the Greek-speaking Levant, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, many Greeks, as well as Jews, came to Rome as merchants or were brought there as slaves.

The Romans appear to have viewed the Jews as followers of peculiar, backward religious customs, but antisemitism as it would come to be in the Christian and Islamic worlds did not exist (see Anti-Judaism in the pre-Christian Roman Empire). Despite their disdain, the Romans did recognize and respect the antiquity of the Jews' religion and the fame of their Temple in Jerusalem (Herod's Temple). Many Romans did not know much about Judaism, including the emperor Augustus who, according to his biographer Suetonius, thought that Jews fasted on the sabbath. Julius Caesar was known as a great friend to the Jews, and they were among the first to mourn his assassination.

In Rome, the Jewish community was highly organized, and presided over by heads called άρχοντες (archontes) or γερουσιάρχοι (gerousiarchoi). The Jews maintained in Rome several synagogues, whose spiritual leader was called αρχισυνάγωγος (archisunagogos). Their tombstones, mostly in Greek with a few in Hebrew/Aramaic or Latin, were decorated with the ritual menorah (seven-branched candelabrum).

Some scholars have previously argued that Jews in the pre-Christian Roman Empire were active in proselytising Romans in Judaism, leading to an increasing number of outright converts. The new consensus is, that this is not the case. According to Erich S. Gruen, though conversions did happen, there is no evidence of Jews trying to convert Gentiles to Judaism. It has also been argued that some people adopted some Jewish practices and belief in the Jewish God without actually converting (called God-fearers).

In 71 BCE, 6,000 slaves were crucified along the 200-kilometer (120 mi) Via Appia from Rome to Capua  after the Spartacus Slave Uprising..

According to another book, The New Testament, a Jew by the name of Jesus, was nailed to the Roman's cross by 30-33 CE.  It was already said that avenues were lined in these crosses with Jews on them.  The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in 30 CE or 33 CE. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and considered an established historical event.

Rome attacked and occupied the land of Judah by The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt (Hebrew: המרד הגדול ha-Mered Ha-Gadol), or The Jewish War, which was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled Judea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity.

By 70 CE, Rome had been occupying Judah, and then looted and  destroyed the 2nd Temple and the city of Jerusalem. Herod (73 BCE-4 BCE) son of Antipater the Idumean and Cypros, his Nabatean wife, a man made king of Judea by the Roman Senate.  He had rebuilt the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and erected the 2 new cities of Sebaste and Caesarea.  Outside Judea, he was regarded as a generous patron and as a spokesman and protector of the Jews. So the beautiful makeover of the Temple lasted about 66 years before his bosses destroyed it. Solomon himself ruled from about 961 to 920 BCE.  The 1st Temple he built was destroyed in 586 by the Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians when they had attacked and took away prisoners.   The Temple was rebuilt by Jews freed from Persia in 538 BCE who were told to return and rebuild. Later, of course, Herod had his turn.          

Herod can be compared to the House of Cards American president-Francis Joseph Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey (fictional character and the protagonist villain) on Netflix.   Herod was so evil. When a young governor of Galilee, he executed dissidents.  The Sanhedrin was going to punish him for it-by death, but he was saved by the intervention of Hyrcanus and Sextus Caesar, governor of Syria.  He married his 2nd wife, the Hasmonean Mariamne, who died in 29 BCE, granddaughter of the high priest, Hyrcanus, son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean (135-104 BCE). She became mother to 3 sons and 2 daughters.  Her life was wretched, loathed by Herod's family whom she regarded as upstarts.  She hated Herod who had murdered her kinsfolk.  Herod's sister, Salome, convinced Herod that Mariamne was an adulteress, so she died, condemned and executed.  Doris (Sarah) of Jerusalem is said to be the 1st wife of Herod. Born in Idumea/Edom/Mt. Seir, mother of Antipater III of Judea. 

Resource;

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.geni.com/people/Doris-of-Jerusalem-King-Herod-1st-wife-married-him-twice/6000000003645877042 

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

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

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maccabees/Jewish-resistance#ref72913

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus#:~:text=The%20crucifixion%20and%20death%20of,considered%20an%20established%20historical%20event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War

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

Cleopatra and Mark Anthony Take The Spotlight in CNN's Part II of Jerusalem

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

                                                             Mark Antony

CNN continued their series with part II on Jerusalem 900 years since King Solomon had died. It was called "39 B.C.: The rise and fall of Herod the Great.

 CNN mention the Judean rulers, the Hasmoneans, Jews who fought against the Greek Syrians as told in our Chanukah story, and that led to Cleopatra, to my surprise and her lover, Mark Anthony.  Neither are mentioned in the Torah or even the Tanakh to my knowledge, but Mark Antony (Born as Marcus Antonius, Mark Antony was a politician and Roman general who performed the significant task in reforming the Republic of Rome). is mentioned in my Jewish encyclopedia under Herod's vital information.  King Herod 73 BCE-4 BCE) , who they rightly mention, was the son of Antipater, the Adumean by his Nabatean wife, Cypros,  They more plainly put it as  Herod being a half-breed being his mother was an Arab.  Antipater, his father,  was of obscure origin and had become governor of Idumea for Alexander Yannai and Salome Alexandra, growing rich from trade with  Arabia.  

  Herod the Great ( 73 BCE-4 BCE) had taxed his people heavily because of his extravagance but also on account of the large sums Mark Antony demanded from his protege, which Herod seemed to be.  During a conflict between Antony and Octavian, Herod turned against the Nabateans whom he defeated.  After the battle of Actium, he was confirmed by Octavian in his kingdom and his territory was enlarged.  That's when Herod murdered all possible rivals in his family, including his brother-in=law, Aristobulus II, the last Hasmonean high priest.  He put to death his wife, Mariamne, killed before she was 25 years old, and according to CNN, had loved her very much, but was filled with obsessive compulsions and paranoia, was talking to her while walking, etc, though she was long dead.  He continued to be fearful of power taken from him, so also killed his 3 sons, whom he loved., and then was so depressed that he went on a building spree in Jerusalem, building to ease his mind, evidently, to get rid of his depression.  He even built buildings in Samaria.  CNN stated that he knocked down Jerusalem to build it up again and tackled the Temple, tearing it down to rebuild better than Solomon had by doubling the size of the Temple.  The retaining wall we see had been 60 to 80 feet higher.  This is far more than what is told in the Bible.  

Herod went through all that building to prove he was as good as Solomon, and didn't see it destroyed 74 years later after his death by the Romans in 70 CE.  CNN commented at the end about Jerusalem, the city of Peace, hasn't seen much of any peace with people fighting over it, which is true, but then the comment was something about that there will not be any peace until Jerusalem is shared by the people. 

                                                                

    Cleopatra b: 69 BCE d: August 10, 30 BCE at age 39. of Macadonian Greek heritage ruling Egypt. CNN had Cleopatra VII (b: 69 BCE d: August 10, 30 BCE), daughter of Ptolemy XII Aulettes, the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh and Cleopatra V,  an unknown mother,  in kahoots to kill Herod with Herod's wife, Mariamne, to no avail.                                                                 

'Most likely a posthumously painted portrait of Cleopatra with red hair and her distinct facial features, wearing a royal diadem and pearl-studded hairpins, from Roman Herculaneum, Italy, 1st century AD."  Her nose is most distinctive in both pictures.                                              

 Mariamne died in 29 BCE and was a Hasmonean princess, the 2nd wife of Herod and daughter of Alexander, son, son of Aristobulus II.  She was married to Herod at an early age, and bore him 3 sons and 2 daughters.  My records say she had a a terrible marriage and was hated by Herod but CNN stated that he loved her very much but couldn't trust her.  Her brother, Jonathan, was a full born Jew (should have also been a Cohen, of the tribe of Levi), and that was the credential of being a high priest, and so was placed in this position.  That made him 2nd to the King in power.  Herod killed him, too.  

                                                                     

     Cleopatra, played by Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Antony by Richard Burton

Cleopatra then came into the picture.  "She wants Jerusalem for herself to rule because it is rich with traders who meet together, in Jerusalem.  Another reason she has for wanting it was because she feels that Judea had been part of Egypt", said CNN.  That would have been before the Exodus led by Moses who died in 1271 BCE, outside of Canaan, which forced Joshua to take the lead.  Cleopatra, not listed in my Jewish Encyclopedia, was born in Egypt.  That could be going back to Pharaoh Shishak listed under I Kings around 1271 BCE.  The last time Egypt had that land was 1,241 years ago from the time Cleopatra was 39.  It was not a recent loss.  NOW, IT WAS IMPORTANT, BUT NEVER WAS BEFORE.  It's real-estate value had gone up.  This is all assertained and stated in CNN's Jerusalem part II. 

                                                  

A difficult position to be compared with the beauty of Elizabeth Taylor

Cleopatra is still in the news.  "News that Israeli actress Gal Gadot is to play Cleopatra in a new film has ignited a storm of protests.

                                                             

 Critics accuse Gadot of perpetrating “genocide” and cultural appropriation by planning to play the ancient Egyptian queen. A prominent Pakistani journalist blasted “Your country steals Arab land & now you're stealing their movie roles…” Some are claiming that a Jew cannot play Cleopatra, and the role should go to an African or Arab actress instead.  Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress, singer, martial artist, and model. She was born in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel on April 30, 1985 in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel. She's 5'10" tall.   Her parents are Irit, a teacher, and Michael, an engineer. She served in the IDF for two years, and won the Miss Israel title in 2004.

(Elizabeth was a convert to Judaism, having married a 2 Jewish men out of 7 husbands, numbers three and four were Jewish: theater and film producer Mike Todd, whose father was an Orthodox rabbi, and singer Eddie Fisher., ) My comment is that it would have been nice; thoughtful, but maybe none were available.  I appreciate seeing actual native people playing the part of a distinctive group.  We're lucky they asked Gal Gadot as she is Jewish, and that's close.

                                                             

An Egyptologist is now insisting that Gal Gadot is actually an appropriate choice to play the ancient Egyptian queen.  Here’s what Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist and anthropology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, had to say on Twitter:

“Cleopatra was Cleopatra VII (yes there were many others!). She was of Macedonian Greek descent (father= Ptolemy XII Auletes) but… was was her mother’s ethnicity? Egyptian? Greek? Other? Many possibilities. We don’t know for sure,” Parcak explained. “Her mom was *probably* Cleopatra V, the only attested wife of Ptolemy XII. We know of one child she had, it’s not 100% certain she is the mother of Cleopatra. Cleo V’s ethnicity is unknown, very little known about her generally, hence Cleopatra’s ethnicity= 50% Greek, 50% ?”  

Cleopatra was a complex figure. Cleopatra VII (there were many Queen Cleopatras in Egypt – the final queen is the most famous) lived 69-30 BCE, and reigned during a tumultuous time in Egyptian history. Her political life touched on many regions, including far away Israel and Rome. Cleopatra didn’t rule in a vacuum – she was a real woman, who played a central role in Middle Eastern politics. No matter how much we think we know about Cleopatra, there’s always more to discover.

Cleopatra VII was born into the Macedonian Greek family that ruled Egypt in 69 BCE. (Cleopatra wasn’t African – though she did distinguish herself by becoming the only monarch to bother learning the Egyptian language.) She became queen at age 18, reigning with her brother Ptolemy XIII, whom she later married.

                                             

 Josephus (Yoseph ben Mattityahu ha-Cohen) (b, about 38 CE-d: 100 CE) of a priestly family, Cohens,  mentions "Cleopatra of Jerusalem" twice: once in his Antiquities of the Jews 17.1.3 and once in his The Jewish War 1.28.4. Cleopatra of Jerusalem was not related to the Hasmonaean Dynasty. She had married King Herod the Great in 25 BC. Herod possibly married her as a part of a political alliance.  Cleopatra of Jerusalem was a woman who lived in the 1st century BC during the Roman Empire. She was the fifth wife of King of Judea Herod the Great.  This seems to be mixed up history right from Josephus.  We know of Cleopatra having Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony as lovers, but Herod the Great?  Common history is that Mark Antony and Cleopatra had to commit suicide at the end which CNN did concur.  Josephus was a Jewish General who was caught and given a chance to live if he wrote history for the Roman audience.  

I wondered where CNN's writers, probably historians from colleges, got their history, as I don't believe it comes from the Tanakh (Old Testament.)  Google, who knows everything I ask of it, said, " Apart from their undoubted mutual affection, Cleopatra needed Antony in order to revive the old boundaries of the Ptolemaic kingdom (though her efforts to convince him to give her Herod’s Judaea failed), and Antony needed Egypt as a source of supplies and funds for his planned attack on Parthia. He made Alexandria his headquarters "  " https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Antony-Roman-triumvir/Alliance-with-Cleopatra      

                                                           

  The end f the 6 day War in 1967 allowed the Jews to enter Jerusalem that had been kept from them since 1948 when the ARABS would not allow them in.  Even today, they are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, where the 1st and 2nd Temples were located.  Now they pray at the Wailing Wall, the Kotel.   

I want to remind readers that when in 1967 in the Six Day War when Israel fought a DEFENSIVE war against all the Arab nations and Israel won as if a miracle had happened, Israel did not force the Arabs out of Israel.  They were told to leave by their own Arab leaders.  Those that stayed are the ancestors of the Palestinians making up 20% of Israel's population and are serving in the Knesset with their own political parties.  We're even meeting with Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, inviting them to see Israel because they are from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, and we wouldn't mind if some decided to return and live in Israel.  We are now in the times of the Abrahamic Accords, when Arab countries such as the UAE are making peace compacts with Israel.  Israel has extended the OLIVE BRANCH to all the Arabs, and they are now rethinking their positions and hopefully want peace as much as Israel  wants it.  

CNN caused me to do more research including Cleopatra, a character I love, and her boyfriend, Mark Antony and their connection to Jerusalem.  The information sounded a little like adopted historical fiction, but enough was true.  It covered an interesting period that I have been trying to fill in that doesn't get much advertising;  the time before the 1st century CE.  

Resources for movie ;  epic historical drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. 

My resources:

Cleopatra, the movie in 1963 as seen in 1963.  

CNN's Jerusalem Part II

" https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Antony-Roman-triumvir/Alliance-with-Cleopatra

https://voegelinview.com/of-infinite-variety-the-promise-of-comedy-in-shakespeares-antony-and-cleopatra/

New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

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

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/18/middleeast/jerusalem-original-series-faith-and-fury-timeline/index.html

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

https://www.screengeek.net/2020/10/15/gal-gadot-cleopatra-backlash/