Rome

Josephus, an eyewitness to the Temple, defends its splendor and its laws to the Greco-Roman world. He takes the reader on a tour of the building in its heyday, explaining details such as how far Non-Jews and women were permitted to proceed and what lay inside, while also countering Apion’s slanderous depictions of donkey worship and human sacrifice within its walls. By opening the Mosaic constitution with the Temple and grounding its rituals in Torah law, Josephus presents it as an enduring foundation of Jewish tradition, whose significance outlives the building itself.

Can translators improve texts like Shakespeare? Or the Bible? Christians, drawing on the Greek Septuagint, claimed that the voice in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3) refers to John the Baptist. Jews, relying instead on the Aramaic Targum, viewed this verse as explicitly foretelling the return of Jewish exiles after the destruction of the Second Temple. But what did Isaiah actually mean?

After Abram expresses doubt that Sarai will have children and questions how he can be sure his descendants will inherit the land, YHWH establishes the Covenant of the Pieces, lasting 400 years, extending through Israel’s time in Egypt up to their entry into the land. Does this covenant hold lasting significance for later generations, or is it replaced by God’s “everlasting” Covenant of Circumcision?

The most powerful Jew in antiquity, Tiberius Julius Alexander, served as procurator of Judea, governor of Egypt, and general in the Roman army. Without his support, Vespasian wouldn’t have become emperor, and his son Titus wouldn’t have led the siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Though his uncle Philo and Josephus Flavius may have disapproved of some of his choices, Tiberius acted out of loyalty to Rome, not apostasy from Judaism.

Samson, Saul, Jonathan, and David insult the Philistines for being uncircumcised. Antiochus IV prohibited circumcision, while Mattathias and later John Hyrcanus forced others to circumcise. In Roman times too, Emperor Hadrian forbade circumcision, and Bar Kochba circumcised Jews by force. Was circumcision a cause of the revolt?

The Shavuot rebellion and consequent burning of the Temples’ porticoes during the time of Augustus Caesar made no impression on subsequent Jewish historiography, despite the later humiliating defeat of the rebellion’s suppressor, Varus, in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. Another lost memory of Shavuot is the all-night vegetarian feast, prayer, and Torah study of the Therapeutae, an egalitarian ascetic Jewish community in Egypt.

What we know about abortion in the ancient world from legal and medical texts.

The Great Revolt against Rome was rooted in the Hasmonean ideology of Judean independence, yet Josephus, who warned against fighting Rome, still celebrated the Hasmonean military triumph against the Greeks.

The Second Temple was destroyed in the course of the Judaean Revolt (66–73 C.E.) against Rome, and looms large in Jewish history for the way in which it decisively shaped the future of Judaism. But how different was it from other revolts against Rome? Are there elements that mark the Judaean Revolt as unique and essentially different?

Hidden behind the strange rabbinic definition of walled cities is a polemical response to the notorious claim of Emperor Hadrian, who rebuilt Jerusalem as the pagan city Aelia Capitolina.

The Hasmonean princess Mariamme is best known today for her tempestuous and doomed marriage to Herod the Great. During her lifetime, however, Mariamme was a Jewish celebrity in her own right. As a descendant of the Hasmonean family on both her maternal and paternal sides, Mariamme was the closest thing that Jews had to royalty.

Despite the negative evaluations of Herod found in traditional Jewish sources, archaeological evidence suggests that, with some notable exceptions, Herod viewed himself as connected to the Jewish religion and made efforts to adhere to its laws, even in his personal lifestyle.

The Romans were baffled as to why Jews would not eat pork, an idiosyncrasy that became the subject of speculation as well as ethnic humor. In response, Jewish texts highlight the way the hated Romans remind the rabbis of pigs and wild boars.

In the Bible, Esau is the ancestor of the Edomites who live on Mount Seir, southwest of Judah. So how did the rabbis come to associate Esau and Edom with Rome? Two main factors are at work here: Christianity and Herod.

What brought Rome to present a military campaign against the small and distant province of Judaea as a great victory? Why did such a small rebellion succeed for so many years? What brought Titus to raze the most important metropolis of Judaea when much less would have put down the rebellion? Finally, why did the Flavian emperors actively publicize the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple? The answer to these questions should be sought not in Jerusalem, but in Rome and its political climate.

Berenice is infamous for being the traitorous lover of Titus and for rejecting the Great Rebellion against Rome, along with her brother Agrippa II. But she was also a pious woman who took a nazirite vow, was attached to her God and her people, and even risked her life to save her fellow Jews from Roman soldiers.

Deuteronomy’s law of the rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:18–21) poses numerous problems. Like the rabbis, Josephus interprets the law, but his conclusions are quite different.

The mysterious Jewish holiday in rabbinic times that begins and ends with the execution of two brothers.