RE: Did Jesus Christ exist as a historical human or was he a theological construct?
June 8, 2010 at 12:53 am
(This post was last modified: June 8, 2010 at 12:55 am by Minimalist.)
As the web site says, Antipas began the reconstruction as soon as he became king....(really "tetrarch") as he wanted Sepphoris to be his capital. While it eventually grew to 150 acres no one really knew how much of that was developed by Antipas and how much by later builders. It is safe to say that Antipas' building projects would have provided employment to the locals and IF jesus was in the area he or his family would have benefited from the project.
On the second point I think you have to study a little Roman history. Beginning in 67 BC, the Roman senate gave an extraordinary command to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great.) Pompey's primary mission was to eradicate piracy from the Eastern Med. He was given an enormous fleet and 8 legions of infantry aside from the army of Licinius Lucullus who had been operating in Asia Minor all along. He was totally successful. With a few political machinations Pompey arranged to have himself made commander in the war against Mithridates, King of Pontus. By 64 he had not only won that but had added Armenia and its king Tigranes as a client state.
Then...he turned south.
http://www.unrv.com/roman-republic/pompey.php
* Actually....less than one century. UNRV is usually better than that!
Thus, Jewish duplicity set the stage for Roman intervention in their affairs. There is a rumor (probably true) that a large bribe was paid to Pompey or his assistant, Scaurus, for such intervention but settling the region down would have been high on Pompey's priority list. Dynastic problems invited foreign intervention and that was the last thing Rome wanted. BTW, when Pompey installed Hyrcanus on the throne he also allowed Hyrcanus' general to become one of the most powerful men in Judaea. That man's name was Antipater and he is today best known as the father of Herod the Great.
For reasons which have never been terribly clear to me the Romans had an aversion to direct rule of Palestine. Herod the Great not only survived changing sides during the Roman civil wars he actually seemed to thrive. He was handed his crown for the last time by Augustus himself. The Judaeans had to petition Augustus to remove one of Herod sons, Archelaus, to become a Roman prefecture and Augustus agreed....apparently because Archelaus was such a shmuck that he was actually causing problems. From 6 ad to 41 BC, Judaea was a prefecture under the auspices of the governor of Syria, who hung out in Antioch. The Judaean prefects, including Pontius Pilate, had a force of perhaps 3,000 men...most in garrison duty either in Jerusalem or Caesarea. Anyone who wanted to start trouble had only to look towards Syria to know what was waiting for them.
Syria was thus the key position. Damascus sat at the western terminus of the silk road, arguably making it the most valuable piece of commercial real estate in the world. I can't tell you why the Romans did not seem to want anyone other than a Herod to rule Palestine. It is certainly not the model they used elsewhere in the empire. But for 150 years, with few interruptions, they trotted out one Herod after another to be "king." Go figure.
BTW, Antipas did not die in 39. He was removed by Caligula and pensioned off to Gaul so that Herod Agrippa I, Caligula AND Claudius' boyhood friend, could be installed as king. In 41, they added Judaea to Galilee and thus rid themselves of the prefecture. Herod Agrippa I died in 44 and his son was too young to take over. A series of Roman procurators were assigned and the shit did hit the fan.
As soon as Herod Agrippa II was old enough they made him "king."
Perhaps the Romans simply did not like the Jews?
On the other two things, PM an email address that can handle large attachments. I think Lost Christianities is a 6 meg file. The other one is smaller. It's a .pdf file so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to open it.
On the second point I think you have to study a little Roman history. Beginning in 67 BC, the Roman senate gave an extraordinary command to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great.) Pompey's primary mission was to eradicate piracy from the Eastern Med. He was given an enormous fleet and 8 legions of infantry aside from the army of Licinius Lucullus who had been operating in Asia Minor all along. He was totally successful. With a few political machinations Pompey arranged to have himself made commander in the war against Mithridates, King of Pontus. By 64 he had not only won that but had added Armenia and its king Tigranes as a client state.
Then...he turned south.
http://www.unrv.com/roman-republic/pompey.php
Quote:After settling affairs in Syria, the people of Judaea called upon Pompey for assistance in their own internal conflicts. The Jews had enjoyed nearly 2 centuries of independence * from the Seleucids, but a power struggle that was leading to civil war threatened their stability. Two brothers, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, both vied for the Jewish throne and Pompey offered to play the mediator. Hyrcanus eventually received Pompey's endorsement, and Aristobulus apparently conceded, but his followers did not.
While Pompey was conducting a minor campaign against the Nabataeans, the followers of Aristobulus seized the principal city of Jerusalem and refused to recognize Hyrcanus' authority. The Romans reacted swiftly and laid siege to the city. Within 3 months, Pompey took Jerusalem and put Hyrcanus on the Judaean throne. While still independent, Hyrcanus now owed his crown to the Romans, and was established as a tribute paying client kingdom, much like Armenia.
* Actually....less than one century. UNRV is usually better than that!
Thus, Jewish duplicity set the stage for Roman intervention in their affairs. There is a rumor (probably true) that a large bribe was paid to Pompey or his assistant, Scaurus, for such intervention but settling the region down would have been high on Pompey's priority list. Dynastic problems invited foreign intervention and that was the last thing Rome wanted. BTW, when Pompey installed Hyrcanus on the throne he also allowed Hyrcanus' general to become one of the most powerful men in Judaea. That man's name was Antipater and he is today best known as the father of Herod the Great.
For reasons which have never been terribly clear to me the Romans had an aversion to direct rule of Palestine. Herod the Great not only survived changing sides during the Roman civil wars he actually seemed to thrive. He was handed his crown for the last time by Augustus himself. The Judaeans had to petition Augustus to remove one of Herod sons, Archelaus, to become a Roman prefecture and Augustus agreed....apparently because Archelaus was such a shmuck that he was actually causing problems. From 6 ad to 41 BC, Judaea was a prefecture under the auspices of the governor of Syria, who hung out in Antioch. The Judaean prefects, including Pontius Pilate, had a force of perhaps 3,000 men...most in garrison duty either in Jerusalem or Caesarea. Anyone who wanted to start trouble had only to look towards Syria to know what was waiting for them.
Syria was thus the key position. Damascus sat at the western terminus of the silk road, arguably making it the most valuable piece of commercial real estate in the world. I can't tell you why the Romans did not seem to want anyone other than a Herod to rule Palestine. It is certainly not the model they used elsewhere in the empire. But for 150 years, with few interruptions, they trotted out one Herod after another to be "king." Go figure.
BTW, Antipas did not die in 39. He was removed by Caligula and pensioned off to Gaul so that Herod Agrippa I, Caligula AND Claudius' boyhood friend, could be installed as king. In 41, they added Judaea to Galilee and thus rid themselves of the prefecture. Herod Agrippa I died in 44 and his son was too young to take over. A series of Roman procurators were assigned and the shit did hit the fan.
As soon as Herod Agrippa II was old enough they made him "king."
Perhaps the Romans simply did not like the Jews?
On the other two things, PM an email address that can handle large attachments. I think Lost Christianities is a 6 meg file. The other one is smaller. It's a .pdf file so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to open it.
