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Jews In First Century Rome Flipbook PDF
Jews In First Century Rome
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BY WILLIAM B. TOLAR
Jews ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (19-14-19)
in First-Century
Rome
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EWISH LIFE in first-century Rome can probably best be understood if we divide that era into two parts. The status and livelihood of the Jewish people from Julius Caesar (ca. 50 B.C.) until Gaius Caligula (A.D. 37-41) was very different from their situation under Claudius (A.D. 4154) and the following emperors. Their changed status from favorable to unfavorable was not instantaneous but did begin to be apparent in Roman documents during the reign of Caligula and Claudius. It deteriorated drastically when the Jewish people rose in a disastrous rebellion against Roman authority in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine in A.D. 66 during the reign of Nero. The rebellion, which the Roman
army brutally crushed, resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. Jewish life was never the same again in the empire or in the city of Rome.1
life in Rome from about 50 B.C. until about A.D. 50. We need to begin with Julius Caesar who, when his life was in serious danger in Egypt, was rescued by a Jewish mercenary army. The
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Left: Bust of Caesar Augustus (27 B.C.-A.D. 14)
Special Privileges In light of the above information, let us give primary attention to Jewish
LESSON REFERENC E
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ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/JAMES MCLEMORE (30-25-8)
Above: House of Augustus at Palatine Hill in Rome.
ETB: The Book of Romans
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ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/DAVID ROGERS (4-12-10)
years immediately preceding the birth of Christ while Herod and his family members exercised influence with Rome’s leaders. When Paul wrote his magnificent letter we know as the Book of Romans (about A.D. 56-57), Jewish as well as Gentile believers were already in the church. Scholars overwhelming agree that many Jews were living in the city long before Paul, Peter, or even Christianity itself reach the great metropolis. Serious students of both Jewish and Christian history have long been interested in Jewish life in Rome. When did Jews first move to Rome? How many Jews lived in Rome during the first century?3 Did they live in close quarters, like ghettos? Did they have the freedom to worship in their synagogues? Did they participate in political activities?
Above: Muslim minaret erected atop the so-called David’s Tower at Jerusalem. The Herodian foundations (not seen) are actually the foundations of the tower of Phasael, which Herod built adjacent to his palace in honor of his nephew, the son of Antipater.
Scholars have long debated these questions! The questions are difficult to answer because historians (both Jewish and Roman) in the first century were not as objective and unbiased as scholars today seek to be. How accurate and objective was
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ GRECO-ROMAN MUSEUM, ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (17-22-13)
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Romans had earlier chosen Antipater (the father of Herod the Great) to be a military advisor to Jewish national leaders. Antipater led the army that rescued Caesar. As a result of this rescue, the future and fortunes of the Jewish people radically changed for the better! Caesar rewarded the Jews for their help by granting special privileges and rights both on taxation and in their religious practices. He also appointed Antipater to be governor2 over the Jews, but of course, under Roman authority! Antipater (and his son Herod) thus had made some powerful and influential friends in Rome. Jewish merchants would now be far more welcome in Rome and their business opportunities increased tremendously. Jewish families could move to the great city and live there with the approval of those who followed Julius Caesar’s powerful leadership. Even after Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C., his supporters and successors Mark Antony and Octavian (later designated as “Augustus Caesar”) led the Roman Senate in 40 B.C. to declare Herod to be “king of the Jews” under Roman rule. The special tax and religious privileges Julius Caesar had granted continued. The roads and sea lanes continued to be wide open for the expansions of a Jewish presence in Rome. Monotheistic Jews did not have to worship Rome’s national gods and goddesses. Thus, by the time Jesus was born about 4 or 5 B.C. (during the reign of Augustus, the grandnephew of Julius Caesar), the Jewish people had enjoyed special privileges under the sovereignty of Rome for nearly 40 years. Herod the Great (king, 37–4 B.C.) was a brilliant businessman and one of history’s greatest builders. He led an incredible surge of business activity in Palestine that brought Roman businessmen, architects, and engineers into the country to help build cities like Caesarea Maritima. Commerce between this great seaport and Rome was daily and direct. Jewish merchants and their families had direct access to the capital city. Their number probably surged in the
Above: Senate building in Roman Forum.
the famous Jewish historian Flavius Josephus when he wrote about them? Even though Jewish, he was living in Rome and was financially dependent on the emperor’s generosity when he wrote his famous, and important, histories of the Jews.4
Christians in Rome As important as Rome was in the time of Christ, the first actual reference to the city by name in the New Testament was in Acts 2:10-11. Jews and “proselytes” from Rome were in Jerusalem at Pentecost when Peter preached his great sermon about Christ. In all probability, some converted Jews went back to Rome and started the first Christian church in the capital city. The date would have been about A.D.
Jewish Beliefs and Traditions But let us go back to better days during the early part of the century and the time of Christ. In the latter part of the first century B.C. and in the first half of the first century A.D., Jews in Rome seem to have lived and worshiped generally as they did in other cities of the world at that time. They lived together
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ber of religious groups in Rome.
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Left: Rome’s Emperor Claudius was both alarmed and bewildered at the growing num-
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ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (19-11-16)
28, 29, or 30. If this is true, then neither Peter nor Paul started the first church in Rome. On his second missionary journey to Corinth, Paul had met a Jewish couple named Aquila and Priscilla “who had recently come from Italy . . . because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome” (Acts 18:2, HCSB). Suetonius, the Roman historian, wrote that Claudius banished the Jews from Rome because “the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus.”5 The words of Suetonius probably referred to the preaching of Christians that Jesus was the “Christ” or “Messiah.” The tumults were thus probably “messianic.” Unbelieving Jews in Rome could have reacted violently, as we find them doing throughout the Book of Acts in response to Paul’s preaching. After many years of tolerance by former emperors of non-Roman religions in Rome, Claudius during his reign (A.D. 41-54) viewed with alarm the growing influence of nonRoman cults in the capital city. Around A.D. 49, the edict of Claudius (mentioned above) banished the Jews from Rome. This decree meant many of the faithful—both devout Jews and Jewish believers—were expelled from their own homes. After Claudius’s reign, things turned even worse for both Christians and Jews in the Roman world. Although Nero (A.D. 54-68) cancelled the edict of Claudius, he later blamed the Christians (many of whom were Jewish believers) for burning Rome in 64. Two years later (66) Jews in many key cities of the empire rose in rebellion when a riot between Jews and Gentiles broke out in Caesarea Maritima and spread to other cities.
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Right: Inside building VIII at Masada looking out a window toward the Dead Sea. Masada is on the
were not politically active and did not advocate rebellion against Rome and its national religions. Polytheists could worship Rome’s gods, but Jews would not; so they had to be extra careful to show they were loyal, honest, hardworking, and nonthreatening to Rome’s customs and manners. The Romans tolerated most all religious groups on principle as potential invokers of all gods’ divine graces upon the state and society. However, only the Jews were excused from supporting the imperial cult because of the special favors Julius Caesar and his successors granted. These special privileges, and their rigorous and aggressive defense of them by the Jews, caused
EGOMANIA AND BLOODSHED ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/DAVID ROGERS/METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART/NEW YORK (339-3)
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in close proximity because of racial and religious differences with most of Rome’s inhabitants. The daily life of devout Jews centered on family life, work, and local synagogue activities. Their monotheism separated them from their polytheistic pagan neighbors, so they probably spent their time mostly with other Jews, except for business activities. Other racial and religious enclaves were present in Rome, so the Jews were not the only ones who lived segregated lives among their own kind in the big city. Jewish people, however, had to be especially careful in Rome to give the appearance of being law-abiding persons. Rome was relatively tolerant of foreign religions if those religions
Left: Mosaic flooring from King Herod’s (37-4 B.C.) fortresspalace atop a large flattopped escarpment in Israel known as Masada. Here the last Zealots of the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-70 resisted the Roman Legions of Flavius Silva for 3 years after the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9-7-18)
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KEN TOUCHTON (1-16-3)
west shore of the Dead Sea and was one of Herod’s fortresses. At the insistence of Rome’s emperor, Caesar Augustus (Octavian), the Roman Senate appointed Herod, the son of Antipater, king of Judea.
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ust of Emperor Gaius Caligula (A.D. 37-41). Upon the death of Emperor Tiberius (A.D. 1437), his grandnephew Gaius Caligula was brought from Capri to Rome and was immediately appointed emperor. Though bouts of epilepsy caused erratic behavior, he emphasized improving Rome’s utilitarian
work (such as road construction) and its military. As he neared his death, he insisted that a statue of himself be placed in Jerusalem’s temple and other area synagogues. The order was countermanded after his death, yet the idea contributed to the unrest that resulted in the First Jewish Revolt in A.D. 66.
William B. Tolar is distinguished professor of biblical backgrounds and special consultant to the president, retired, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
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1. Josephus, the historian who was a military leader in the rebellion’s early stages, was an eyewitness to the rebellion and thus a reliable source of information. 2. Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, William Whiston, trans. (Philadelphia: The International Press, n.d.), 1.10.3. 3. Many highly respected scholars believe there were as many as 50,000 Jews living in Rome in the first century. 4. For further study see Josephus, The Wars of the Jews and The Antiquities of the Jews. 5. Suetonius, Claudius, John C. Rolfe, ed. and trans., vol. II, The Loeb Classical Library, G. P. Goold, ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 25.4.
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emperors, were possible only because their religion was limited to a single small race. If a non-Roman religion did not proselyte Roman citizens away from their national religion, refuse obedience to the state by refusing to pay taxes, threaten public morality, or create public strife, then Rome was typically very tolerant of it. Officials could be indifferent to various religions when tolerance served their purposes, and they could be incredibly brutal when it did not. i
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many Romans to have contempt for the Hebrews. Jews would not worship the deified emperors nor serve in the military legions of Rome, but the Jewish community was not numerous enough to prove a real danger. In Rome itself the regulations governing the Jews were somewhat stricter than they were in other parts of the empire, and on several occasions the Jews were exiled from the city. In general, however, they were not molested. The privileges granted to the monotheistic Jews, in spite of their refusal to worship the
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