Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 19
his support to Antipater, an Indumean general, whose House of Herod
replaced the Hasmoneans. The last Hasmonean king, Antigonus, was
executed by Mark Anthony, Caesar’s initial political successor. In 37 B.C.E.
Anthony assisted Herod, son of Antipater, capturing Jerusalem where
another major massacre took place. Herod had the support of the Pharisees
and managed to gain the confidence and support of Octavian (later the
Emperor Augustus) when Octavian defeated Anthony.
The rise and fall of empires and factions, the founding of the New
Jerusalem, and the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty convinced
many Jews that independence and a purified religion could be restored.
Their desire gained support, for a growing section of the Jewish population
began to consider independence as a means of ridding themselves of
Roman-induced hardships, puppet rulers, and insulting demands.
Palestine’s inclusion as a partner in the Mediterranean world of the Roman
Empire brought it a prosperity denied earlier, when it was merely on the
periphery between the Egyptian and Assyrian/Babylonian Empires or an
outpost of the Persian Empire. Unfortunately this new prosperity coincided
with the Roman imperial policy of emperor worship and the practice of
imperial officials attempting to enrich themselves during their brief service
overseas. Although the Romans had initially been astonished by Jewish
passive resistance when an attempt had been made to erect a statue of the
emperor Caligula in the temple, they continued nevertheless to offend the
Jews. The Roman officials’ venal behavior threatened the temple treasury
and incited a rebellion that became so egregious that the Romans eventually
razed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, leaving only one wall of Herod’s great temple
standing. The Romans made no compromises. With Jewish military
resistance crushed, the Roman emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) ordered an
end to circumcision and initiated a policy of national Hellenization. The
Christians, in some ways Hellenized Jews, remained quiet, but the Jews,
under Simeon Bar Kokhba, rebelled once again in A.D. 132. The Romans
suffered severe setbacks, and Jerusalem fell. Hadrian himself took
command, calling in an additional 35,000 Roman troops. Bar Kokhba was
killed and his followers decimated in A.D. 135. Jewish losses were
estimated at 580,000, excluding some deaths from disease and starvation.
Jews were barred from Jerusalem, and the Romans ravaged the surrounding
territory, slaughtering all those who had not fled.
In the years that followed, the Diaspora Jews made several attempts to
create independent states, most notably in southern Arabia and in
Mesopotamian Armenia. Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) realized however