ROME GAVE BIRTH TO JUDAISM

By Harrell Rhome, M.Div., Ph.D.

FOREWORD.

In the first century, for all intents and purposes, the Roman Empire gave birth to two major world religions: Judaism and Christianity.  The modern Judaic religion was created directly through their actions, both hostile and conciliatory.  Before beginning this saga, we must understand the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, in the ancient world.  The ancient port cities were the hubs and recipients of the news of various events as it spread about the world.  Let’s recall that all ports and roads in the western world (and thus, who travels on them) were controlled by Rome.  The talk that filled the market places, coffee houses and taverns, as it does today, involved local and some world events, but among the subjects hotly discussed back in the day was religion.  Especially after CE70, Judaism spread globally and was found in all large cities, especially the ports.  Many Sephardic Judaics were involved in shipping and related port and market enterprises. 

And, another new faith was also becoming popular.  Especially in its later forms, it too was a Roman creation.  Just as Judaism came from Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean, so did this one.  It didn’t have a clearly distinct name at first, but soon came to be called Christianity. Both these Semitic religions and their early development as forces in world events were heavily influenced by Roman interests and priorities.  Some Christians and others seem to think the Jewish religion is from ancient times, but it only came into existence a few decades after Christianity arose.  As you will see, Rome is heavily involved with both these dynamic religious movements of the ancient world.

“OPERATION TITUS” WAS BOTH AN END AND A BEGINNING.

          The olden Hebrew-Habiru religion was centered on the Temple, where the blood flowed continually from primitive animal sacrifices, and where they kept “god in a box” called the Ark of the Covenant.  If their Semitic deity didn’t live in the box, he supposedly spoke from there.  As we know, the Hebrews originally were tribes and clans of wandering Egyptians.  The Ark box is how their nomadic tribal deity travelled along with them.  Both their religion and the stories about it were based on an existing Egypto-Semitic mythos and body of folklore.  The old religion had regional rivals with related gods such as Ba’al, Moloch and others.  This included a very similar Semitic sect called Samaritans.  They held their perhaps even earlier tradition of bloody animal sacrifices on Mt. Gezerim rather than in a temple.  They were excluded by the Judaic religion as they were a non-Talmudic primitive form.  But, all the eastern Mediterranean kingdoms and ministates were eventually absorbed and incorporated into the Roman Empire. 

ROMAN WARS WITH JUDEA.

The little Palestinian backwater was a trouble spot.  Without going into lengthy detail, there were more than a few rebellious outbreaks.  There was even a Judaic proto-terrorist cult, the Sicarii, skillful assassins who covertly stabbed their less radical opponents while brushing up against them on the streets or in the marketplace.  They were the forerunners of Irgun and all the other Zionist gangs who used terrorist tactics in establishing their modern ministate.  The Romans eventually grew fed up and frustrated.  While many folk were good Roman subjects, even Imperial citizens, Palestine remained a problem with its revolutionary proto-Zionists. 

Rome finally decided to put an end to the problem once and for all with what I like to call Operation Titus.  The Siege of Jerusalem was the critical event in CE70, followed by the fall of the Masada mountain fortress three years later.  The Roman assault force was, of course, commanded by future Emperor Titus.  Among other things, the Temple, a magnificent architectural structure of the ancient world, was completely razed and burned, the holy things carried away by the Roman Legions.  Without a doubt, the Cohan and Levite priestly castes were either liquidated or scattered to the winds.  It made no difference anyway; their Temple and their rituals were gone.  Jerusalem was thoroughly looted and leveled.  Practically nothing remained of the old Hebrew holy city.  

These events were both a symbolic and literal end to the ancient Hebrew religion.  It was no more.   The Judaic Palestinian people were either driven away or enslaved and taken to Rome where some of them helped build the Coliseum.  In addition to bringing in valuable slaves, this forced migration transplanted more than 20,000 Jews to live in Rome.  Some Judeo-Roman families today trace their lineage there.  As we see again and again as we study the history of the ancient world, Judea and Rome have ongoing close connections.  Since the Roman Empire was multicultural and racially diverse, we must assume that Judaics and Romans intermarried and interbred.  While in Palestine, Titus met, fell in love and had an extended affair with Bernice, daughter of Herod Agrippa, the Roman puppet ruler.  This lasted until he was crowned. Rome and Judea; family relationships surely and certainly deepen connections. 

JERUSALEM IN THE YEAR 70:
THE CITY, THE TEMPLE, THE ANCIENT RELIGION AND THE PEOPLE ARE GONE.

Aelia Capitolina, a new Roman colony town was eventually built over of the flattened ruins of Jerusalem, begun over half a century later by the Emperor Hadrian.  Among other things built atop the rubble and ashes of the old city was a huge Roman street similar in size to a modern six lane highway.  The new city was a grand Roman affair, complete with forums, baths and ornate pagan temples.  The physical and cultural changeover was complete.  Jerusalem was over with, done and gone.  After the Second Jewish Revolt in 132-135, Jews were forbidden to enter the area except for the Tisha B’Av observance commemorating the destruction.  This means the ninth day of the month Av, a varying date in July or August.  With this one exception Jews, were banned from living there or making pilgrimages.  Since Aelia Capitolina was built on an open concept plan without city walls, the Roman Tenth Legion was assigned the task of policing the area, preventing Jews from entering at any other time.  Aelia Capitolina continued until the fourth century when the city began to grow in size again.  From the reign of Constantine until the seventh century, the Jews were banned.  He began building all kinds of churches and shrines at alleged sacred spots all about the region, mostly found by his mother, Helena.  The gullible Helena came seeking holy sites and holy relics.  With the help of various scam artists, she “found” what she was looking for.  Some say she ended up with enough pieces of the “true cross” to build a house!     

Called Jerusalem again, it once again began to have Jewish residents.  Rome and the Christian religion changed the scenery radically.  Palestine was now the holy land of the new Christian religion.  These churches and shrines, built by Constantine, are most of the things you see today on a tourist visit to the Zionist state.  Now you know the real story of why the so-called Holy Land and what visitors are shown there is a super tourist trap and a farce, based on the confabulation and imagination of “Saint” Helena and her son, Constantine.  In other words, what you see and what you’re told are Roman creations.

The illustration shows the grand plans for the new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, including the huge six lane street.  Note the camp of the Tenth Legion, special troops stationed there to prevent Jews from entering except on Tisha B’Av.

Operation Titus put a violent and definitive end to the old Hebrew Temple cult.  From this death event came a birth.  Rome also served as the midwife, perhaps we might even say the mother of an essentially new religious movement called Judaism.  The involvement didn’t just end with the destructive birth, as you might think.  Oddly enough, it appears that Rome cared for its troubled and violently born child, immediately fostering Judaism’s healthy growth and development.   

A ROMAN-SPONSORED SANHEDRIN QUICKLY COMES INTO PLAY.

Not all the Jews left Palestine.  Some very special ones remained by Imperial invitation and under Imperial protection.  With full permission and blessing of the Romans, the Sanhedrin moved over to the coastal city of Jamnia (Javne, Jabneel), actually a much nicer location.  Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai promptly received permission to found a halakha seminary and Talmudic law school.  Not only that, the money needed must have been considerable, but with presumed Roman cooperation, the yeshiva complex was created without delay.  This new “Judaic Vatican”, founded and blessed by Rome, became a major force in systematizing the still evolving Judaic religion, among other things, determining the canon of scriptures.  Hundreds of years later, Judaic scholars based in Palestine produced the Aleppo Codex, working with both the Hebrew and Aramaic texts.  The works of Rabbi Johanan had a tremendous cultural and theological impact on the evolving Judaic religion.  His writings plus those of his students and later devotees comprise a great deal of the Mishna, a significant component of the modern Talmud.

A seventeenth century painting by Nicholas Poussin shows the destruction of the Temple, followed by images of the Arch of Titus as it appears today and a bust of the Roman Emperor, a true plague and Scourge of the Jews.  As a direct result of his actions, Titus is the rather unlikely and incongruous founder and creator of the modern-era Talmudic religion called Judaism.  

          When travelers visit Jerusalem today, they are taken to the old quarter and shown the usual tourist traps and supposed streets and stops where Jesus walked, etc.  As already said, this is all a crock of matzo!  I was fortunate enough to have a good guide, and was shown a bit of so-called underground Jerusalem.  While more interesting than the upper streets, this too is somewhat of a facade.  One must probe several levels beneath that to find the ruins of the city destroyed during Operation Titus.  This brings to question the actual location of the Temple and the supposed ruins thereof, but no time for that now.  What you see in Jerusalem today largely exists only in the public imagination.  Naturally, apart from the Zionists, the Roman Vatican is the primary purveyor of these deceptions.  There are many accounts that tell of the siege and days of killing and looting that followed it.  The Mishna Talmud affirms the massive and rather complete destruction, possibly written by eye witness survivors or those who talked with them.  As the texts say, the looting and removal of the various objects occurred two days before the building was burned to the ground.

“Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av... it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up.  Ta'anit 4:6.”

“On the seventh the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth and towards dusk of the ninth they set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole of that day.  Ta'anit 29a.”

THE ROMAN POPE AND THE JEWS.

          As we know, the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av marks the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, as seen on Titus’ Arch.  Until Napoleon occupied Rome, some new Popes would ride in a parade to the arch where the Jews, their community elders and rabbis, were required to ritually honor and greet him.  Some of them must have descended from the slaves brought from Jerusalem.  They ritually acknowledged and saluted Emperor Titus, the Conqueror of the Jews, despoiler of their holy city, desecrator of their Temple, greeting him at his godlike arch in the human form of the Pope, also a reigning Roman monarch.  They ceremonially presented him with an ornate copy of the Torah.  The newly crowned Pontifex Maximus would decline, saying something to the effect of “Good Law, but bad religion.”  From this and other events, the Arch of Titus is indelibly imprinted in Jewish history.  In 1555 when Pope Paul IV re-ghettoized the Roman Jews, they were gathered at the Arch and forced to swear an oath of submission to him.  Rome and Judah have connections of several sorts.  Some are quite deep and intense. 

COMING SOON, A JUDEO-ROMAN TEMPLE?

I assume that various Temple artifacts are still in possession of the Vatican, maybe even the Ark, ritually and symbolically quite significant.  The Vatican must have all of the extant items.  While allowing for the possibility that the Temple devotees destroyed certain objects to avoid capture and defilement, many things were carefully removed before the building was razed and burned.  Then they were taken to Rome.  Unless some covert transfer has occurred, where else would they be?  I doubt the Vatican catacomb gnomes ever really lose or misplace anything, especially something this important.  But neither the Church nor the Jews openly address these rather esoteric and delicate matters.  Are the artifacts being held for the time when a Third Temple is erected?  Along with renewed Cohanim priests and special yeshivas to train them, a red heifer, required for the first ritual sacrifice, has been successfully bred.  

Will the pagan Pontifex Maximus Pope of the Vatican have a throne there so he can alternately reign from both power centers?  If so, we could call this a Judeo-Catholic Temple.  I suppose this would be the ultimate act of union between Judea and Rome. 

Would this yet again bring forth a new religion, based on Judaism and Vatican Two Catholicism?  The Pope has already affirmed that the Holocaust dogma of Judaism is also a crucial part of Catholic dogma as shown in 2008 and 2009 in the matter of Bishop Williamson.  Will Judea and Rome produce an offspring?  We already have so-called Judeo-Christianity as a workable name, so who can really say?  Stranger marriages have been made and even stranger children have been born! 

The image below from the Arch of Titus portrays the sacking of the Temple and removal of the sacred objects.  As seen when I visited Rome, the arch is still quite impressive even after all this time.  When walking around there, one can perhaps imagine and mentally picture the grand papal parades and large crowds of ancient days.      

WHEN ROME DESTROYED JERUSALEM, JUDAISM WAS BORN.

          As we know, modern Judaism has little to do with the ancient Hebrew faith.  Judaism is Talmudism.  The Talmudic writings grew to prodigious proportions in old Babylon.  The Judeo-Persians later brought the halakha (both oral and written traditions) back to Israel/Canaan/Palestine, where the Talmud continued to grow, especially with the Jerusalem Talmud as well as the later Mishna additions.  It was Talmudic Judaism, the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees, not the ancient Hebrew Temple faith, which spread about the ancient world.  How did this come about? 

2008 was a great year for some really useful and informative books about Judaics and Judaism.  One of the most comprehensive (1199 pages) and persuasive ones was E. Michael Jones’ The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit And Its Impact On Modern History.  Dr. Jones, a traditional Catholic writer, speaks about the evolution of Judaism and its supremacist geopolitical messianism after Titus and his Legions completely razed Jerusalem.  By that time in history, the Pharisee cult was the dominant religious party.  Particularly after the fall of the Temple and the migration out of Palestine, they thoroughly and totally recreated and recast the ancient Hebraic faith into Talmudism, which began to be called Judaism. 

[Begin quoting.] 

While it seemed that the Jewish nation had perished in the aftermath of the siege, a remnant escaped to the Diaspora communities in Arabia, Egypt and Cyrene, whence they took both their hatred of Rome and their revolutionary messianic politics.  A remnant of the peace party also escaped.  Sensing the revolution was leading to a catastrophe, Jochanon ben Zakkai had himself smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem as a corpse wrapped in a shroud.  When Titus’ Jewish spies informed him the Jochanon was a friend of Rome, the Roman general granted him one request.  Jochanon asked for permission to start a school.

From this school, the new religion of Judaism arose.  The Jews had no Temple, no burnt offerings, no priesthood, and no Sanhedrin or ruling body.  All they had was a book, and out of this book they created a new religion.  The role of the Rabbi was to comment on the book.  The commentary was known as Talmud, which became the basis of the new Jewish religion.

THE WORD OF GOD WAS NULLIFIED BY THE TALMUD.

The Talmud absorbed the Torah, allowing Jews to view the rise of Christian Europe with consolation born of disdain.  …  The Talmud, says [Dr. Heinrich] Graetz, ‘preserved and promoted the religious and moral life of Judaism,’ but it did so by bringing about separation and control….

The Talmud may have protected the Jews from schism and sectarian divisions, but the price the Jews paid for this protection was complete rabinnic control. 

The Talmud took sacred scriptures out of the hands of the common Jews and made their interpretation the sole purview of the rabbis as codified in Talmudic lore.  The word of God was nullified by the Talmud.  The Talmud, the saying went, permitted whatever the Torah forbade.  The Jew, in other words, could not appeal to sacred writ without the permission of the rabbis who controlled the Talmud.

The Talmud insured that blasphemy and subversion became a part of Jewish culture, because, as one scholar noted, the Talmud is the creator of the Jewish nation and the mold of the Jewish soul. 

[End quoting.]

          After CE70, the Diaspora truly began.  Most of the Jews either left Palestine as slaves or émigrés of one sort or another.  Of the few who stayed, many of their descendants later converted to Islam when confronted by the jihads of the 700s.  This is why some modern Jews and Palestinians show a genetic affinity.  In the rest of the ancient Roman world, Jews became an important part of trade and transportation as well as dominating the financial realm until the 1500s when the Church allowed Christians to practice usury.  Israeli history professor Shlomo Sand and others say that contrary to popular belief, the Judaism of the late Roman Empire period was a proselytizing faith.  While it is little known, in certain instances, Talmudic Noahide Law requires gentile conversions.  While done out of fear of the Jews, the Book of Esther shows that converts to the ancient Hebrew religion were accepted.  For several reasons, Judaism spread over the global scene during the time we survey.  Indeed, it always has attracted various spiritual seekers, and synagogues were in all major centers, not just in the Roman realm but to the east as well.  Oriental Judaists from Babylon and Baghdad helped convert the populous central Asian Khazar kingdom c.CE740, who became known to the world as the Ashkenazi Jews.  The Talmud was on the move. 

SYNOPSIS.

The somewhat tamed and pacified Judaic faith actually served the Roman aristocrats and power brokers pretty well for over two centuries.  Eventually Imperial interests looked other directions and state policies changed.  Rome adopted, completely took over, remade and vigorously promoted the other new first century Semitic religion called Christianity.  By the late 300s, they thoroughly transformed and adapted it to their overall aims and goals.  And, of course, they used it against the Jews.  Perhaps the Romans feared their increasing growth and influence.  By this time in history, Judaics of one sort or another were a fairly large and influential part of the empire.  When Constantine came to the throne, he strongly promoted Christianity, banning Judaic proselytizing and conversions. 

There were both actual and psychological effects.  Not only were they confined to ghettos, Jews could not share their faith with others, even if asked.  They were legally forced to become culturally insular.  Already separatist in their orientation toward non-chosen ones, Jews turned spiritually inward to longstanding ethnocentric Talmudic traditions, supplemented by their Sufi-like mysticism, swaying and chanting, ceremonial magic, dreams of golems, Kabalistic numerology and gematria.  But in the more worldly environs, Jews cooperated with and profited from Roman hegemony rather than resisting it.  By the mid to late 300s, very few Jews lived in Palestine.  Many dwelt in Roman cities and in her colonies. 

Rome’s first century geostrategic goals in the eastern Mediterranean were achieved.  For the most part, their Palestinian problems were over and done.  No matter what the later effects on world history, Roman state policies and military actions during the first two centuries – both for and against – gave rise to an essentially new religion called Judaism.  When we survey the chronicles of the past, we see a very old, very odd and curious kinship between Romans and Jews.  What is more, this dysfunctional connection goes on.  No one knows what the future holds, but on the other hand, we can observe and learn from an ongoing stream of events in world history related to this persistent and consistent theme.
 
Nietzsche said it best.

"It's the longest ongoing conflict, Judea against Rome, Rome against Judea"

# # #