The Life and Times of Herod the Great

What follows is but a brief summary of the life and dynasty of the most famous and infamous of Judean kings, known to history as Herod the Great. From the beginning of his reign, popular discontent, which he had already faced as governor of the Galilee, reached high proportions, led by certain Pharisees and some of the nobility. Only with harsh and brutal measures did Herod succeed in bringing it under control. In 35 B.C.E., to shore up his hold on the throne, he installed the Hasmonean Aristobulus III as high priest and married Mariamme, his sister. However, realizing that Aristobulus, as a descendant of the Maccabees, was very popular, Herod soon had him drowned. This was only the first of a chain of killings he perpetrated, often against members of his own family regarding whom he harbored the darkest and most irrational of fears.

Having set to rest the internal challenges to his control, Herod soon faced other problems from abroad. Called before Antony in 34 B.C.E. to defend himself for the death of Aristobulus, Herod was acquitted. Yet Cleopatra VII, the queen of Egypt, persuaded Antony soon afterwards to give her possession of certain territories in the region of Jericho that were among the best agricultural lands in Herod’s kingdom. Rather than resist and alienate this powerful woman, Herod cleverly arranged to lease back his own land. In this way, paying what amounted to a small tribute, he retained his territory intact. Although Herod’s war with the Nabatean Arabs ended in victory in 31 B.C.E., his army suffered great casualties. That same year an earthquake killed some thirty thousand people and Herod had to undertake massive relief works in its aftermath. When Antony was defeated at the battle of Actium, Herod quickly changed sides in the Roman civil war and allied himself with Octavian, now known as Augustus Caesar. In gratitude, Augustus confirmed Herod in office in 30 and returned to him the territories taken by Cleopatra.

Domestic, internecine jealousies led Herod to put his wife Mariamme to death in 29 B.C.E. The resulting psychological depression and recriminations led in turn to the execution of other family members and courtiers. Among them were other Maccabean descendants, killed for fear that they might reassert the claims of the Hasmonean house.

The consolidation of Herod’s power made possible a variety of massive building projects that befitted his status as a Roman client king. Theaters and amphitheaters were constructed. He built a palace in the upper city of Jerusalem, as well as the Antonia fortress north of the Temple. In non-Jewish areas, both within his kingdom and outside, he built temples to pagan gods and in honor of Caesar and funded athletic games. Although quite Hellenized, and born of a non-Jewish mother, hence not Jewish according to the predominant view, he often sought to avoid offending his Jewish subjects. At other times, however, he completely violated Jewish laws and sensibilities. From 22 to 9 B.C.E. he built the port of Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, intended as a shipping point to foster his role in the international grain trade. Many fortresses were rebuilt, including Masada, where he had hidden his family when he fled to the Roman Senate in 40 B.C.E.

Herod’s largest and most beautiful project was the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. He began in 20/19 B.C.E., yet work on the details was still proceeding long after his death when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Although Herod adhered to Pharisaic demands regarding many aspects of the Temple’s construction, he ignored them in other respects. In consequence, the Pharisees continued to be hostile to him, and it is even doubtful that the Sanhedrin functioned in his time. Herod appointed and removed high priests at will. The Sadducean elements, therefore, were also opposed to him, as were the heavily taxed common people. He was able to maintain control only because of his extremely close relations with Augustus and the Roman authorities and because of the repressive tactics he used to subjugate the populace.

The last years of his reign were dominated by family intrigues. (He had had a total of ten wives.) Herod’s son from his first marriage, Antipater, schemed successfully against the sons of Mariamme, Alexander and Aristobulus. Eventually, Herod accused them of treason before Augustus, then had them tried and executed, probably in 7 B.C.E. When Antipater sought to gain control of the kingdom, he was accused of plotting to kill Herod and was imprisoned. As Herod’s domestic situation deteriorated, so did his health. In 4 B.C.E. he executed Antipater and gave instructions that a large group of leaders of the country were to be put to death after he died, a plan that never took effect. Five days after his son’s execution, he died. The entire country breathed a sigh of relief as the reign of this despot and murderer came to an end.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.

The Building of the Second Temple

While there is no complete description of the Temple built by Zerubbabel, considerable detail can be gleaned from various sources. It had two courtyards. One report suggests dimensions of 500 by 100 cubits (about 750 by 150 feet) for the inner courtyard. There were at least four gates inthe wall of the outer courtyard, and at least one of them faced a street. There were at least two gates to the inner courtyard. Various chambers surrounded the Temple in both courtyards. Most of these were in the outer courtyard, and were used for the storage of tithes, equipment, and vessels. Certain high officials apparently merited private chambers within the Temple precincts.

The returnees constructed their altar on the site of the altar of the First Temple. The Temple building was of hewn stone, with wooden beams reinforcing the walls from within. The Temple itself was 60 cubits (approximately 90 feet) high. The Holy of Holies was empty, as there was no ark and no cherubim.

The construction was completed in 515 B.C.E., and the rededication was celebrated amidst great pomp and ceremony. After twenty years of effort, sacrificial worship could now take place in accordance with the rules laid down by the codes of the Torah. The Temple would stand as rebuilt by Zerubbabel until the Hasmonean period. While substantial refurbishing was undertaken by Simon ben Yohanan (Simon the Just) ca. 200 B.C.E., he did not modify the basic structure. (Herod the Great would substantially refurbish the Temple starting in 20/19 B.C.E.) The returnees to Zion had fulfilled their dream; God’s house had been rebuilt and He would continue to dwell in their midst.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.

Enoch

1 and 2 Enoch are totally separate works. Each, however, takes its cue from the biblical statement that God “took” Enoch (Gen. 4:24). Enochic literature, texts containing revelations to or about this enigmatic biblical figure, appeared quite early in the Second Temple period, certainly by the second century B.C.E. The impact of these traditions on later Jewish esoteric and mystical literature is significant.

1 Enoch (the Ethiopic Enoch) is an apocalyptic book in which Enoch reports his vision of how God will punish the evildoers and grant eternal bliss to the righteous. Enoch describes the angels and the heavenly retinue. He also has visions regarding the Elect, the Son of Man, and reveals a collection of astronomical data which provide the secrets of the natural order. Visions of the destruction of the sinners then occur, followed by a recounting of the history of the world as a series of “weeks.” An account of the birth of Noah and the flood concludes the book. The work is preserved in extensive manuscripts from Qumran, covering virtually all of it except chapters 37–71 (there are 105 chapters). Qumran evidence and the Greek manuscripts for parts of the book indicate that 1 Enoch is a composite of materials, mostly from the second century B.C.E., the final redaction of which must be dated after the completion of the Parables section (chaps. 37–71) sometime in the late first century C.E. Qumran versions included the so-called Book of the Giants, which is not included in the Ethiopic book.

2 Enoch (the Slavonic Enoch) is to some extent related to 1 Enoch. It is essentially a description of Enoch’s life and the lives of his descendants up to the flood. Enoch’s journey to the seven heavens is described, followed by God’s revelation of the history of the world up to Enoch’s time and the prediction of the flood. Then Enoch returns to earth, where he instructs his children in matters of belief and behavior, emphasizing the importance of his books. Finally there is a description of Enoch’s ascension to heaven. It is impossible to determine whether the book was composed in Hebrew or in Greek, or is a composite of both. The text must have been complete by the end of the first century C.E. It was passed down in two separate Slavonic recensions, one longer than the other. The Book of Jubilees is a prime example of the genre of rewritten Bible in which Second Temple authors recast and retold biblical stories in order to teach their own lessons.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.

Josephus, Plagiarism and the Great Revolt

Most of what we know about Jewish history in the era of the revolt and the Hasmonean dynasty is known from the works of the historian Josephus. He was born in 37/38 C.E. to a priestly family. After acquiring an excellent education in Jerusalem, he tells us, he studied in the schools of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, and then with a desert hermit named Bannus. When he returned to Jerusalem at nineteen, he took up the approach of the Pharisees. In 64 C.E. he was sent to Rome to secure the release of certain priests imprisoned by the procurator. During the war against Rome he served as commander of the Galilee, where he was unsuccessful, either because he only half- heartedly supported the revolt or for objective military reasons. After his surrender he took the side of the Romans, later claiming that he had believed that only some form of accommodation could end the ill-advised war and save the nation and its Temple from destruction. When the war ended he went to Rome. There he received from Vespasian a place to live, Roman citizenship, a pension, and lands in Judea. He must have died around 100 C.E.

There are some important things to keep in mind about Josephus as a historian. First, he did not in fact author most of what his works preserve. The great bulk of it comes from various sources, including Jewish materials, documentary evidence (some forged), and some of the best-known historians of Antiquity, which he compiled, sometimes even slavishly, ignoring contradictions with his own words or with his other sources. Second, he had a specific ax to grind. He sought to demonstrate to the Jews that life under Rome was not so bad as long as religious freedom was guaranteed. He also wanted to show the Romans that the war had been brought about by a minority of the Jews and had not reflected the attitude of the people at large. This was certainly one of the main functions of his Jewish War, written toward the end of Vespasian’s reign, between 75 and 79 C.E. He also attempted to relate the story of the war as if he had not been among those to blame for its failure. This is especially evident in his Life, a work which cannot be precisely dated. His Antiquities of the Jews, completed in 93 or 94 C.E., is a history of the Jews from earliest times to the end of the first century C.E. This work also has a purpose, to show the hoary antiquity and, hence, legitimacy of the Jews and Judaism within the Greco-Roman world. In his Against Apion, written after Antiquities, the purpose is to respond to anti-Semitic propaganda and to maintain that Jews had not set themselves apart from the human race by their religion, as their enemies alleged, and did not believe the ridiculous things often attributed to them.

Josephus’s works, written in Greek (one may originally have been composed in Hebrew or Aramaic) served to educate both Greek-speaking Jews and non-Jews about the nature and history of the Jews and Judaism. These books were quickly lost to the Jewish people, as assimilation and conversion to Christianity led to the decline of the Greek-speaking Jewish community whose members would have read Josephus’s works. In the Middle Ages some of his writings circulated again in the form of the book of Josippon, a medieval Hebrew translation of a Latin adaptation. Without Josephus, the entire Herodian period and the story of the Great Revolt would be, historically speaking, virtually unknown.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.

Benedictions on the Shema

Numerous fragments found in the Qumran caves have been classified by scholars as liturgies. Whereas many of the earlier-known fragments were at best insubstantial, more recently published material has changed the picture radically. Now we have prayer texts for daily prayers and Festivals as well as various supplicatory prayers. These texts show that numerous rituals and liturgies, similar in scope to those of talmudic tradition, were associated with the sectarians of Qumran.

Among the prayer texts dating to the Hasmonaean period (100–75 B.C.E.) is a text scholars have entitled Daily Prayers, found in cave 4. It consists of a series of prayers to be recited on the various days of the month. The liturgical materials found here are too short, however, to have constituted the entire liturgy. These prayers appear to have constituted a small section of the worship service, which changed on a daily basis throughout the month and perhaps throughout the year. Specific texts are designated for evening and morning, although no specific nighttime prayer appears to be included here. The material for each day of the month represents a discrete literary unit, and the days are numbered according to lunar months.

Each day’s entry begins:

On the x of the month, in the evening, they shall bless, recite and say: Praised be the God of Israel Who…. May peace be upon you, O Israel.

Then the text takes up the morning prayer:

When the sun goes forth to illumine the earth they shall bless, recite and say: … They shall bless and recite: Praised be the God of Israel….

The text is very fragmentary and no complete unit survives or can be reconstructed with certainty. Nonetheless, we can gather some sense of the text from this otherwise broken excerpt:

… the light of day for our knowledge … in the six gates of ligh[t … and we,] the sons of Your covenant, will prais[e Your name] with all the troops of [light … al]l the tongues (endowed with) knowledge, bless … the light of peace [upon you O Israel…. On the seventh of [the month in the evening, they shall bless, recite and sa]y: Praised be the God of Is[rael Who … righteousness … al]l [th]ese things we knew….] Blessed be [the G]od [of Israel] … (DAILY PRAYERS 7–9 IV 1–8)

In the rabbinic liturgy, the Shema is preceded by two benedictions and followed by one in the morning and two at night. Of the two benedictions before the Shema, for both morning and night, the first benediction deals with the heavenly luminaries, and the second with God’s revelation of the Torah to Israel and the commandments. It is most likely that the benedictions preserved here, focusing on the cosmic order and the heavenly luminaries, were expanding upon a precursor of this first benediction before the Shema.

As we mentioned earlier, the Mishnah dates the recitation of the Shema to Second Temple times. In the same passage, the Mishnah notes that in the view of the Rabbis, some benediction was associated with the Shema already in Temple times. We can therefore conclude that an early version of the blessing on the heavenly luminaries—the first benediction before the Shema—must have then been in use. Although in rabbinic tradition this benediction varied only for morning and evening, with passages added later for Sabbaths and Festivals, the version used at Qumran varied each day of the month.

Daily Prayers, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia 1994.