THE DISCONTENT OF THE JEWS UNDER ROMAN RULE
In spite of the fact that the Jews still had some power of
self-government through the Sanhedrin, the great mass of the people
hated the Romans with an almost inconceivable fury. The world had
never before seen such cruel rulers. The Assyrians had been bad, but
the Romans were worse. Think of that form of punishment which they
inflicted carelessly every day even for minor crimes--crucifixion! The
poor victim was nailed by the hands and feet to a pole and left to
hang in agony till death mercifully ended it all. Think of the
gladiatorial combats in the city of Rome and in other Roman cities,
where every day for centuries slaves or condemned criminals fought
each other with swords to the death, or fought with wild beasts while
the gloating multitudes looked on in rapture.
Moreover, not only were the Romans very cruel, they had no manners.
They were haughty in their bearing and took pains to let conquered
people know how thoroughly they were despised.
=Roman cruelty in Palestine.=--All these qualities were manifested
almost at their worst by the Roman rulers in Judæa and Galilee. Jesus
speaks of certain Galilæans, "whose blood Pilate mingled with their
sacrifices." We know nothing of this incident except what Jesus tells.
Evidently, these Galilæans had come as pilgrims to Jerusalem at the
time of one of the annual feasts. Possibly they did not salute with
sufficient respect the Roman eagles as they passed some squad of Roman
soldiers in the street. At any rate, they were taken before Pilate and
ruthlessly condemned to the slaughter.
=Roman taxes and the Publicans.=--Naturally, the thought of paying
taxes to such masters was almost unbearable. Yet each adult Jewish man
and woman was required to pay a personal or poll tax besides taxes on
his property or income. To make matters worse, the Romans were
accustomed to hire _Jews_ to collect these taxes, giving these men the
right to extort whatever they could, provided the required tribute was
paid to Rome. Of course all true Jews hated and despised these Jewish
tax-gatherers or publicans even more than they hated and despised the
Romans themselves.
VARIOUS PARTIES AMONG THE JEWS
There were some respectable Jews, indeed, as well as these
tax-collectors, who favored the Romans. There were for example the
Sadducees, a group of wealthy and aristocratic men, mostly priests,
who formed a sort of political party called by this name. Many of them
were members of the Sanhedrin. They were prosperous, and so long as
their power was not taken away they sided with the Romans. It was
nothing to them that the great mass of their poor fellow countrymen
were being brutally and wickedly robbed and ill-treated.
=The Pharisees.=--We have already spoken of the Pharisees as being
"Separatists," that is, the people who were most opposed to any
contact with heathen foreigners. Strange to say, most of the Pharisees
were opposed to any violent rebellion against the Romans. They
believed that God himself would come to the aid of his people. Many
books of the class called apocalypses were written during this period
of the history in which the writers tried to comfort their readers by
prophesying that the Lord would soon descend from heaven with armies
of angels or would send his Messiah to drive out the Romans and set up
his own kingdom. The word "Messiah" (in Greek, "Christ") means
_anointed one_.
The book of Daniel in the Old Testament is one of the books of this
period. Many similar books were written which were not included in the
canon of the Scriptures. All of them were written in rather mysterious
language--with references to trumpets, vials, seals, beasts with many
heads and many horns, and so on. This was to keep their heathen rulers
from understanding the real meaning. It would not have been safe
openly to predict that in a few years God was going to send all Romans
to eternal punishment.
=The Zealots.=--There were still others among the Jews at this time
who were not willing to wait for Jehovah to come down from heaven.
They wanted to start a revolution right away. One such man, Judas of
Gamala, led a revolt when Jesus was about ten years old in which many
Galilæans joined. It was put down by the Romans with their usual
cruelty. Very likely the fathers of some of Jesus' boyhood friends in
Nazareth of Galilee were crucified as the punishment for taking part
in this revolt. Those who sympathized with Judas continued to plot in
secret against the hated Roman oppressors. They were called Zealots.
One of them became a member of Jesus' band of twelve apostles.
SMOLDERING HATE AMONG THE PEOPLE
Whether they were actual plotters against Rome, like the Zealots, or
whether they gave their strength to eager prayer to Jehovah for
deliverance, the great mass of the common people among the Jews in the
time of Christ were burning with a fierce patriotism and with a hatred
against their oppressors such as we can scarcely imagine. The century
of freedom under the Maccabees had made them all the more impatient of
tyranny--and then to find themselves under such unspeakable tyrants as
Herod and Pilate!--this was almost unendurable.
The children drank in this spirit with their mothers' milk. Fathers
and mothers had constantly to warn their boys and girls not to show
their feelings toward Roman officers and soldiers lest some dreadful
punishment should befall them. So it went on from year to year,
growing constantly worse instead of better. The whole land was like a
heap of smoldering leaves. Sooner or later there would be a sudden
flare of open flame.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Look up in the Bible dictionary "Publicans," "Zealots," and
"Sadducees."
2. How do you explain the success of the Romans in tyrannizing the
proud Jews for so many years? Consider the part played by the
Sadducees.
3. Read Matthew 3. 1-2. Why did John's message arouse such interest
and enthusiasm?