Feb. 17

On Thursday, we learned about the 1^st and 2^nd Jewish revolts, and the division of Herod’s kingdom among his sons.  The first revolt was also known as the Great Revolt, and the sources we have on this are Flavius Josephus and Tacitus. The second revolt is known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and this is when Jerusalem ceased to be Jerusalem. On the Jewish revolt coin, they appeal to old texts referencing Zion, declaring their own independence from Rome.  We have found coins from years 1-3 of the revolt, but not many from years past that because the Romans do not like when people rebel against them.

After Herod died, he had multiple wills, and he had three sons who ended up inheriting different parts of his realm.  Archelaus got the lion’s lair, the best part of the land.  He became known as ethnarch.  The people refused to call him king because Herod was the last king.  Archelaus ruled for less than ten years and he never put human images on his coins. Herod Antipas got the second best area of land and became known as tetrarch of Perea and Galilee.  He ruled over the Transjordan area, and he also refrained from putting human images on his coins.  Herod Philip, also known as Philip II, became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis far up in the north close to Damascus.  These were the worst parts of the land, but he was able to get away with putting images of himself on his coins and a temple of Augustus because he was farther away from Jewish territories. 

Feb. 15

On Tuesday we learned about Herodian/Roman Jerusalem.  It took three months for Rome to besiege Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, Herod the Great helped to kick out the Parthians.  Herod goes back to Rome and tries to get people to start calling him king.  He eventually controls Idumea, Jerusalem, Galilee, and Samaria.  Herod was sensitive to the fact that there were Jews living in parts of the land that he controlled, so when he had coins minted he refrained from putting human images on them out of respect.

Herod was a very successful leader, but he terrorized people; he was one of the most brutal dictators.  In Matthew 2 it states there was a 'murder of the innocence by Herod,' where he killed all boys two years old and younger.  There is no historical evidence that this happened, but it is quite characteristic of him to do something like this.  Herod loved himself so he ended up building a lot of huge monuments that would last long after his death.  This gave people jobs, which they were happy about.  With all of this expansion, Herod build the Western Wall, the holiest place for Judaism.  He did this while he was expanding the temple and building walls around it.

Jews hated Herod.  He was a dictator, impulsive, iduean, only half Jewish, collected taxes and sent them to Rome, and he worked for the man, the RoMAN.  Economically he was a good king and people appreciated that he gave them jobs, but the Jews never came around to liking him. 

Feb. 10

On Thursday, we talked about the Hellenistic period, Alexander the Great, the Hasmonean's, and more! During the Hellenistic period there was a Jewish rebellion leader named Josephus.  He remained the rebellion leader until he got caught. Josephus claimed to be a prophet and he wrote a very pro-Roman history exaggerating all of the numbers he mentioned.  Basically, each number he writes should be divided by ten and that is more realistically the number of people who died, or whatever the number is representing; however, his history is all we have.

Alexander the Great minted coins with pictures of him with horns on his head in order to resemble the Greek god Zeus.  He conquered modern day Syria, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, etc.  Palestine was conquered in 332 BCE. 

In Hasmonean Jerusalem, there was a Maccabean revolt around 165 BCE, which gave rise to the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans minted their own coins, which put them in control of their own town.  They put very Jewish images on the coins such as pomegranates and cornucopias.  There were no human images. They did put Greek on the coins to appease the Greeks. During this time, Jews had control for about 100 years and this would be the last time they would have control and self government until the development of the modern state of Israel. 

Feb. 8

During the first class after the midterm, we learned about Persian Jerusalem. When introduced to the prophet Ezekial, Professor Cargill compares him to a crazy guy on 3rd street. Being from LA, I've been to 3rd street a number of times and it really isn't my cup of tea, mostly because of all the crazy people.  There are a lot of musicians and dancers and then there are always a few crazies.  There is this one guy who paints himself silver and wears painted silver clothing. The only thing not silver are his small black sunglasses.  He has a whistle in his mouth and he makes funny noises and movements when people walk by, and then he expects to get paid.  Now, this isn't normally how I would picture a prophet. Ezekial would draw things in the dirt about what was about to happen.  People thought he was crazy until these visions started to come true.  They started to believe him more and more.

We then learn about this split of the Jews.  The king of Persia basically wakes up one day and asks what all of the Jews are doing there.  So, we have the Jews who stayed in Babylon, the Jews who went back to Jerusalem from Babylon, and the Jews who were left in Jerusalem the entire time.  The Jews who stayed in Jerusalem question the Jews coming back from Babylon, asking what authority they have to come into Jerusalem and live there as if it is their home.  The Jews that are returning though are coming with money.  King Cyrus of Persia gave them money to help rebuild the temple. Then, there is a Persian province created in Judea. 

Feb. 3

I'm not sure if we need to write a blog from the day of the midterm, considering we did not go to class.  The midterm was a little bit more difficult than I was expecting it to be.  I remember there being a question on something that I did not remember learning and I could not find on the study guide.  Regardless, I did fairly well and it was mostly a painless experience.

Feb. 1

On Tuesday, we finished talking about Josiah's Jerusalem and went on to talk about Jerusalem in exile.  When finishing up Josiah's Jerusalem, we learned about the Lachish letter 3.  This letter, dated to around 587 BCE, was written by a soldier in the army.  This letter gives us the idea that people back then were able to write, when previously we were unsure that they could.  The letter is evidence that soldiers were literate.  We also looked at the idea of "Why a Book?" on Tuesday.  Once information was written down, it could be discussed, argued, and different versions could be presented. People begin to analyze communication differently once it is written down. Scripture is seen as authoritative text that believers of that tradition do not argue.

Later during class we switched directions to talk about Jerusalem in exile.  Professor Cargill emphasized again that during the 2nd Babylonian exile, in 586 BCE, the temple was destroyed. I'm pretty sure that this is now a date that I will never forget because of how many times it has been repeated.  We are also brought to the idea of cognitive dissonance.  Josiah was said to be a good king, but then he died because Neco killed him.  Why did he die?  It was then explained in 2 Chronicles that Josiah died because he did not listen to Neco and Neco's command from God. The promise then needs redefining. 

Jan. 27

Religious reform is an interesting concept.  It is difficult for me to imagine someone coming into the United States, or someone emerging from the crowd in the US, and bringing religious reform so that the official religion was now Islam and everyone in the United States had to be Muslim.  If someone did not convert they would  need to get out.  Things like this still happen in parts of the world today, and they happened a lot during times when rulers such as Hezekiah and Josiah were in power.

Josiah comes in as a new king and in a way is like a second Hezekiah.  Both rulers conducted religious reforms.  They both wiped out all of the idols in the area.  Hezekiah destroyed idols and gods and even shrines for the Hebrew God, saying that the Hebrew God should only be worshipped in one place.  Professor Cargill speculates that this is the time when the Ark of the Covenant got destroyed.  No one knows for sure where the Ark is today, and Professor Cargill believes it was at one point in the list of everything that Hezekiah destroyed, but somewhere along the line it got removed from the list.  The Ark was never mentioned after this time period though, and it was also considered an idol by many so it very well could have been destroyed under the reign of Hezekiah.  Josiah came along, not quite 100 years later, and also destroyed idols, killed priests in charge of cults, etc.  These rulers were ruthless in terms of their reform.