Roman Rule & The Great Revolts
Herod’s expansion, sectarian fragmentation, the destruction of the Second Temple, and Bar Kokhba’s last stand.
Biblical Narrative
When two Hasmonean brothers — Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II — went to war over the throne, both sides made the same mistake: they invited Rome to arbitrate. Pompey arrived in 63 BCE with three legions and settled the dispute by walking into Jerusalem, through the Holy of Holies, and out again. From that day, Judea was Rome's. The Hasmonean high priests continued under Roman oversight, but sovereignty was gone.
Herod the Great, appointed king of Judea by Rome in 37 BCE, was the paradox of his age: an Idumean Jew who governed under Roman law and built his kingdom in Roman style, who rebuilt the Temple on a scale beyond Solomon's — the largest religious precinct of the ancient world — and massacred his own sons when he suspected treachery. He is the king in Matthew's infancy narrative who orders the slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem. Historians outside the Bible remember him as a brilliant administrator and builder. His subjects remembered him as a tyrant.
The first century CE in Judea was one of the most spiritually fervent periods in recorded history. Multiple apocalyptic movements, prophetic figures, miracle workers, and would-be messiahs moved through the countryside. John the Baptist preached repentance at the Jordan. Jesus of Nazareth gathered followers in the Galilee, was crucified in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate around 30 CE, and generated the movement that would eventually become the world's largest religion. Saul of Tarsus had a transformative vision on the road to Damascus and carried the message to the wider Greco-Roman world. The rabbinic school of Hillel and Shammai debated the oral law in Jerusalem's academies.
The Great Revolt of 66 CE began as a tax revolt and a priestly class rebellion, spiraled into a total war, and ended in 70 CE with the burning of the Second Temple and the exile of most of the remaining Jewish population. A second revolt under Bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) ended with Hadrian destroying what remained of Jerusalem, banning Jews from the city under penalty of death, and renaming the province Syria Palaestina — from which comes the name 'Palestine.' The Land of Israel had lost its Jewish majority and its name.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.Matthew 23:37
Archaeology · History · Genetics
The Roman period is the most thoroughly documented era of ancient Jewish history. Josephus's two major works — 'The Jewish War' (written c. 75 CE) and 'Jewish Antiquities' (93 CE) — are the primary narrative sources, supplemented by Philo of Alexandria, Roman administrative records (the Pilate inscription from Caesarea Maritima, the Arch of Titus frieze), and an enormous body of New Testament texts. The intersection of Roman administrative records, Josephan narrative, and New Testament texts provides extraordinary cross-referencing possibilities.
Herodian architecture is the most visible ancient monument in Israel today. The Western Wall is Herod's retaining wall for his Temple Mount expansion — its massive 'Herodian' ashlars (some weighing 500 tons) are the largest hewn stones in the ancient world. Masada, the royal fortress palace on the western shore of the Dead Sea, preserves floor mosaics, painted plaster, a functioning synagogue, and the outline of the Roman siege ramp that ended the last Jewish revolt in 73 CE.
The Pontius Pilate inscription, discovered at Caesarea Maritima in 1961 and now in the Israel Museum, is a limestone block reading (in Latin): '[Po]ntius Pilatus, [Praef]ectus Iuda[eae]' — the only archaeological evidence bearing Pilate's name and title. This single stone inscription confirms the historical existence of the Roman administrator best known from the Gospel passion narratives.
Yodefat (Jotapata), where Josephus commanded Jewish forces and surrendered to Vespasian in 67 CE, has been excavated and shows dramatic destruction evidence — arrowheads, stones from ballistas, collapsed walls, and human bones left on the surface, apparently unburied after the Roman massacre. The historical Josephus and the archaeological Yodefat perfectly corroborate each other.
Josephus is our only surviving eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem. Without him, we would have almost nothing of the internal story of Rome's most fateful provincial war.Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem (paraphrased)