OUP (2024) 204pp £16.99 (ISBN 9780190263256)
This is the latest in Oxford’s ‘Essentials of Biblical Studies’ series and aims to provide a succinct reconstruction of the history of Judea from 334 BC to AD 135. DeS. aims to look at ‘the larger story of the activities and interests on the Seleucid, Ptolemaic, Roman and Parthian empires’ which is a tall order for such a short book, and he is to be congratulated on fitting this quart of history into such an accessible pint pot. Where he cuts corners, he gives us footnotes which refer us to fuller discussion of the material elsewhere. The book is illustrated with monochrome images but not a single map—which is a pity as this reader for one had to consult an atlas more than once to set the history into its geography.
The first two chapters look at the fall-out from the death of Alexander in 323 BC as his successors fought each other for territory and sovereignty. Judea fell under the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and Jerusalem (being at this stage ‘relatively poor and small by Hellenistic standards’ [p.14]) was dominated by citizens keen to chase influence and power through alignment with their Greek overlords. One such was Joseph ben Tobiah—an unconventional Jew who was happy to disregard the Torah to enrich himself and please the Ptolemies.
Antiochus III, the ruler of the Seleucid Empire, took over Ptolemaic territory around 200 BC but met his match at Magnesia in 190/89BC when the Romans put him firmly back in his box. Greek domination changed the Jewish way of life at least in the cities, and Greek was acquired even though Aramaic remained dominant in the Second Temple period, with elite citizens speaking Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. Greek names were adopted (along with such Greek fads as philosophy, literature, and drama), and yet the Mosaic covenant was still upheld. The Wisdom of Ben Sira shows us an author who travelled widely outside Judea and yet who used his multicultural erudition to promote adherence to the ‘ancestral Jewish way of life’ (p.23): a man who can tell us how to behave at a symposium while insisting that ‘fear of the Lord’ was the beginning of wisdom. This tension between the Judean people keen to practise their rituals and the conformity expected by their Hellenized overlords culminated in the exciting history of Judas Maccabaeus (and his successor Jonathan) and the revolt against Hellenic authority in 167-141 BC, as described in chapter 2 (‘Abomination of Desolation’).
The third chapter looks at the rise and fall of the Hasmonean dynasty, forged by the Judeans from about 140-37 BC—a period which saw the growth and expansion of Judean power in Jerusalem. deS. gives us a helpful excursus here (pp. 70-8) on the three groups within Judea who have attracted a lot of attention—the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes—who are seen as partisan groups with a more or less political (as well as a religious) agenda. Pompey the Great’s ‘intervention’ in Judea is well narrated—an intervention which involved a 3-month siege of Jerusalem, the massacre of the defending followers of Aristobulus, and the entering of the inner sanctum of the temple. This ended up subjecting Judea to the rule of the Roman governor of Syria while leaving Aristobulus’ opponent Hyrcanus as a vassal ruler.
Chapter 4 (‘The King of the Jews’) looks at the family of that most colourful of kings, Herod the Great (37-4 BC), whose support for Antony and Cleopatra left him ‘in a bind’ after Actium but who talked his way into Octavian’s good books on the basis of his proven loyalty to Rome. As an ‘ally and friend of the Roman people’ he transformed Judea, expanding cities, rebuilding the harbour at (the obsequiously renamed) Caesarea and building a temple to ‘Augustus and Roma’ along with a palace, a theatre and a hippodrome there. He also rebuilt and expanded the temple in Jerusalem. His building programme saw to it that this Idumaean Jew turned Judea into a fully Roman/Hellenistic centre of economic and political stability, where his shrewd use of taxation produced employment for many thousands of workers engaged in the building projects as well as attracting many thousands of foreigners to Jerusalem who enjoyed the freedom of the pax Romana to travel there. Herod was (no doubt) a great ruler in public but his ruthless crushing of threats (especially within his own family) makes him a less laudable figure and his grisly death (not detailed here by deS.) was presumably not mourned by his nearest and dearest, many of whom had been executed by him. DeS. is excellent on the living conditions of the Galilaeans of the period (112-3) under the rule of Antipas who took over the area after Herod, and his excursus on the nature and use of synagogues (117-121) is likewise illuminating.
The period best known to Christians is covered in chapter 5 (‘Under the Eagle’s Wings: Judea under Roman Rule’) which fleshes out the background to the gospel narratives from the Judean point of view, showing us Pontius Pilate, Jesus of Nazareth (pp. 128-31) and Herod Agrippa through the lens of the Judean world in which they lived. This was a world under the protective and also oppressive eye of their Roman lords, via the governor of Syria. This oppression boiled over in the Jewish revolt of AD 66 and it is here that Josephus comes into his own as the star actor and autoptic chronicler of the events as they unfolded—events ending with the climactic and memorable siege of Masada which acts ‘as an effective set piece to serve as a coda to his work as a whole’ (p.153).
The final chapter recounts the second Jewish revolt under Simeon bar-Kochba during the rule of Hadrian, and deS. shows the ways in which some groups (such as the Essenes) have by this stage disappeared from view while others (the Samaritans at Gerizim) are still thriving to this day. Above all, the history of the period after AD70 belongs to the divergent strands of old-style Judaism against the newly formed Jesus movement which consisted of many gentile converts with no interest in becoming Jews as such, except insofar as their founder was inspired by the Hebrew Bible and its traditions. ‘By the early second century, both Roman and Christian writers were able to distinguish between “Jews” and “Christians”—something that Roman prosecutions… make absolutely clear’ (p.166).
There is an (exclusively anglophone) bibliography, an index of ancient texts and a general index. Errors are few: the most grating is where deS. misnames Gaius Pompey ‘Sextus Pompey’ (Gaius’ son) twice (pp.79 and 89). DeS. does an excellent job of presenting what can be a bafflingly complex set of events and personalities in an eminently digestible and comprehensible form, offering an objective and yet also enthusiastic view of the way in which Graeco-Roman power shaped and reacted to the pre-existing millennia-old culture of Judea—and vice versa. The results of this religious and political melting-pot are still with us today; deS. does not need to spell these out as his history speaks eloquently for itself.
John Godwin