12b Jews responded to blashphemy with relentless
GUERRILLA WARS
LED BY THE STOUTHEARTED SONS
OF MATTATHIAS THE CHASMONAEAN - THE MACCABEES -
who reclaimed the holy city from Seleucid control in 164 BCE and,
for the first time in four centuries, restored Jewish hegemony in and over Judaea.
For the next hundred years, these Chasmonaeans ruled God's land with an iron fist!
They were priest-kings, each sovereign serving as both King of the Jews and high priest of the Temple!
But when civil war broke out between the brothers Hyrcanus & Aristobulus over control of this throne,
each brother foolishly reached out to Rome for support?!
Pompey took the brothers' entreaties as an invitation to seize Jerusalem for himself,
thus putting an end to the brief period of direct Jewish rule over the city of G d! In 63 BCE,
Judaea became a Roman protectorate, and the Jews were made once again a subject people.
Roman rule, coming as it did after a century of independence, was nòt warmly received by the Jews.
The CHASMONAEAN dynasty was abolished, but Pompey allowed Hyrcanus to maintain the position of high priest.
Which did not sit well with the supporters of Aristobulus who launched a series of revolts to which the Romans responded
with characteristic savagery - burning towns, massacring rebels, enslaving populations!
Meanwhile,
the chasm between the starving and indebted poor toiling in the countryside
ànd the wealthy provincial class ruling Jerusalem grew even
wider & wilder?
Asih, man, 80 jaar
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