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Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome
Ancient Palestine was a ferment of social conflict and ideological rivalries. Full-scale insurrectionary revolt exploded in AD 66, a revolt which took on a revolutionary character as moderate upper-class Jewish leaders were pushed aside and replaced by more radical plebeian elements. The defeat of local Roman forces led to the appointment of Vespasian to command and the invasion of revolutionary Palestine by a huge Roman army in AD 67. The war was characterized by hard guerrilla fighting in the countryside, bitterly fought sieges - culminating in the siege, fall and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70-1 - and appalling atrocities. Mopping-up operations ended with the spectacular siege of Masada in AD 73. The author synthesizes textual and archaeological evidence to produce an essentially narrative account to these events, but also deals in detail with the historical and cultural context of the revolt.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 11, 2018
Fairly well written account of the period, easy to read although sometimes with too much (easy to skip) geographical type descriptions of the area.
Faulkner has two central themes.
The first is to discuss the events in a Marxist/class warfare viewpoint – viewing the conflict as being between the moderate (or even pro-Roman) upper class and the working/peasant class revolutionaries.
The second is that these revolutionaries were primarily inspired in their attempts to turn a local insurrection to a full blown war by their belief in the Apocalypse (combined with a final Jubilee year and with Messiah who would confront and defeat an evil empire in Jerusalem).
The author presents this as an extreme version of Judaism, previously confined only to a few prophets but which was honed in the exile in Babylon (and turned into religion by in his view the subsequent writing of the Old Testament). He also places Jesus and the Essene community of the Dead Sea Scrolls firmly in this category.
Faulkner has two central themes.
The first is to discuss the events in a Marxist/class warfare viewpoint – viewing the conflict as being between the moderate (or even pro-Roman) upper class and the working/peasant class revolutionaries.
The second is that these revolutionaries were primarily inspired in their attempts to turn a local insurrection to a full blown war by their belief in the Apocalypse (combined with a final Jubilee year and with Messiah who would confront and defeat an evil empire in Jerusalem).
The author presents this as an extreme version of Judaism, previously confined only to a few prophets but which was honed in the exile in Babylon (and turned into religion by in his view the subsequent writing of the Old Testament). He also places Jesus and the Essene community of the Dead Sea Scrolls firmly in this category.
May 19, 2011
Revolutions, like volcanic eruptions, don't happen without warnings. Often the rumblings of these phenomena develop over long time periods, before finally exploding onto the surface with cataclysmic effect.
'Apocalypse-The Great Jewish Revolt against Rome AD66-73' written by Neil Faulkner (I correct the Goodreads spelling of his name) who explains the social and ideological revolutions of first century Palestine with a narrative that flows like honey. As the author clearly admits in his introduction "to discuss Palestine in the first century AD is to enter an academic, religious and political minefield, for it is a subject with implications for modern Christianity, rabbinical Judaism, the ideology of Zionism, and the present crisis in the Middle East."
Two thousand years ago, this Palestinian powderkeg contained many explosive ingredients. The tax hungry empire of Rome. The Beast. The kittim. The pro Roman backed kingships of the Herod dynasty. The land rich Sanhedrin of the Jerusalem temple, alias the Sons of Darkness of the Essene creed. The conservative Pharisee, the forerunners of todays rabbis, and at the bottom of this pile, in abject poverty, the landless and ruthlessly exploited, subjugated poor driven into revolution and violent conflict.
Faulkner expertly weaves the evidence of Josephus with the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also providing a wonderful picture of the historical Jesus of Nazareth and his pre Pauline declarations of 'Blessed are the poor' and 'blessed are they that hunger and thirst.'
From 66AD when the legions of Cestius Gallus were chased out of Jesusalem by an insurrection from the Sons of Light, all the way to the guerrilla Essene led freedom fighters who were finally cornered at Masada in 73AD, this is a historical epic that still reverberates today.
Faulkner's conclusions-"The full historical impact of the Jewish revolution of AD66-73 is impossible to estimate, for, with the passage of time, its implications escalate into an incalculable myriad. The three great Mediterranean religions of the last 2000 years-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-have been profoundly affected by it. The defeat of apocalyptic hope and the physical destruction of the Judaeo-Christian sect cleared the way for the Pauline Christians to denationalise Jesus, cauterise his revolutionary message, and repackage him as a saviour-god dispensing opiate. The Jewish disaster cleared the field also for conservative Pharisees, men like Johanan ben Zakkai of Jamnia, to recast Judaism as a religion of accomodation, conformity and obedience. And centuries later, how could Islam, that explosive resurgence of semitic monotheism, have swept across the East so easily if the old versions of the cult had not been emasculated by priests and rabbis? For Pauline Christianity and rabbinical Judaism both reflected the collapse of revolutionary hope, the destruction of revolutionary organisation, and the persecution of revolutionary cadre; they were, in essence, an escape from these terrible worldly realities into a spiritualised never-never land."
Amen to that!
'Apocalypse-The Great Jewish Revolt against Rome AD66-73' written by Neil Faulkner (I correct the Goodreads spelling of his name) who explains the social and ideological revolutions of first century Palestine with a narrative that flows like honey. As the author clearly admits in his introduction "to discuss Palestine in the first century AD is to enter an academic, religious and political minefield, for it is a subject with implications for modern Christianity, rabbinical Judaism, the ideology of Zionism, and the present crisis in the Middle East."
Two thousand years ago, this Palestinian powderkeg contained many explosive ingredients. The tax hungry empire of Rome. The Beast. The kittim. The pro Roman backed kingships of the Herod dynasty. The land rich Sanhedrin of the Jerusalem temple, alias the Sons of Darkness of the Essene creed. The conservative Pharisee, the forerunners of todays rabbis, and at the bottom of this pile, in abject poverty, the landless and ruthlessly exploited, subjugated poor driven into revolution and violent conflict.
Faulkner expertly weaves the evidence of Josephus with the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also providing a wonderful picture of the historical Jesus of Nazareth and his pre Pauline declarations of 'Blessed are the poor' and 'blessed are they that hunger and thirst.'
From 66AD when the legions of Cestius Gallus were chased out of Jesusalem by an insurrection from the Sons of Light, all the way to the guerrilla Essene led freedom fighters who were finally cornered at Masada in 73AD, this is a historical epic that still reverberates today.
Faulkner's conclusions-"The full historical impact of the Jewish revolution of AD66-73 is impossible to estimate, for, with the passage of time, its implications escalate into an incalculable myriad. The three great Mediterranean religions of the last 2000 years-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-have been profoundly affected by it. The defeat of apocalyptic hope and the physical destruction of the Judaeo-Christian sect cleared the way for the Pauline Christians to denationalise Jesus, cauterise his revolutionary message, and repackage him as a saviour-god dispensing opiate. The Jewish disaster cleared the field also for conservative Pharisees, men like Johanan ben Zakkai of Jamnia, to recast Judaism as a religion of accomodation, conformity and obedience. And centuries later, how could Islam, that explosive resurgence of semitic monotheism, have swept across the East so easily if the old versions of the cult had not been emasculated by priests and rabbis? For Pauline Christianity and rabbinical Judaism both reflected the collapse of revolutionary hope, the destruction of revolutionary organisation, and the persecution of revolutionary cadre; they were, in essence, an escape from these terrible worldly realities into a spiritualised never-never land."
Amen to that!
July 7, 2013
This book must have been produced as a high-toned impulse buy to accompany the 2012 London Olympics. For intellectual cachet it has the imprimatur of Yale University Press. Author Neil Faulkner assures its entertainment value. Faulkner has hosted such television programs as Ancients Behaving Badly and the Channel 4 series Time Team. HIs bio lists one of his interests as the low-life of the ancient world. And so he is an excellent guide for this trip to the Olympic games of 388 BC. He is conversant on their origins and religious significance, their rootedness in the aristocratic ideals of an earlier age that many elites felt were threatened by growing democratic institutions, and he loves to emphasize the squalid conditions of the remote location and the mix of piety and revelry that accompanied the event.
There are several refresher courses on the mythological background to the games. I always appreciate these vignettes since no matter how often I have read source material I find I am constantly forgetting just who fed whose children to whom or what adulterous relation resulted in what monstrosity. His main focus, however, remains on the games themselves. These are not amateur events. The athletes are professionals who may be competing for no more than an olive wreath at Olympus but also make the rounds of prize-giving games where they can win up to the equivalent of the average citizen's lifetime income. Even those who win at the Panhellenic games receive additional awards and pensions from their home city states. These are the ancient equivalent of endorsement deals.
This is entertaining popular history full of sweat and grime, blood-drenched animal sacrifice, and a constant thread of correspondences between our own celebrity sports culture and an ancient world we find alternately familiar and totally alien.
There are several refresher courses on the mythological background to the games. I always appreciate these vignettes since no matter how often I have read source material I find I am constantly forgetting just who fed whose children to whom or what adulterous relation resulted in what monstrosity. His main focus, however, remains on the games themselves. These are not amateur events. The athletes are professionals who may be competing for no more than an olive wreath at Olympus but also make the rounds of prize-giving games where they can win up to the equivalent of the average citizen's lifetime income. Even those who win at the Panhellenic games receive additional awards and pensions from their home city states. These are the ancient equivalent of endorsement deals.
This is entertaining popular history full of sweat and grime, blood-drenched animal sacrifice, and a constant thread of correspondences between our own celebrity sports culture and an ancient world we find alternately familiar and totally alien.
March 16, 2022
A detailed and informative read concerning the Jewish struggle against the might of Rome. The first half of the book covers about 70 years either side of the supposed birth of Jesus and goes onto the details of the political, social and religious lives of the Jews at that time. This part jumps around a little chronologically and can get bogged down with names and places but is interesting all the same
The remainder of the book concerns the battles between the romans and the Jews and contrasts the different fighting styles which led to mixed results for both sides
To my inexpert eye this book appears well researched and mostly flows nicely painting a fascinating picture of the times
The remainder of the book concerns the battles between the romans and the Jews and contrasts the different fighting styles which led to mixed results for both sides
To my inexpert eye this book appears well researched and mostly flows nicely painting a fascinating picture of the times
April 7, 2018
Although a gripping story of revolution against imperial might, this could have been a heavy read, but wasn't. Faulkner manages to set the scene, political and social, and provide the details of the story without losing the momentum of what went on.
September 22, 2023
The Great Greek Historian Thucydides wrote that the only real subjects of history is war and revolution. The whole of twentieth century could be written, more or less, in terms of four great events, the First world war, The Second world war, the russian reovlution, and the Second world War.
The great Jewish revolt against Rome in AD 66-73 pitted an army of peasent guerrillas against the most powerful empire and war machine of antiquity. When we study the struggle, we see a global system of robbery with violence of a world transformed compared with decades of deference and despair.
No scholar is ideally suited to the task, since none is a specialist in in all relevant disciplines the classical languages, the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical studies the archeology of Palestine, military history, social history, and the historiagraphy of revolution. Despite these difficulties , through the subject has created a huge literature much of it highly tendentious. To discuss Palestine in the first cenutury AD is to enter an academic, religious and political minefield, for it's a subject with implications for modern Christianity, rabbanical Judaism and the idelogy of zionism, and the present crisis in the middleast.
Some scholars have relied to heavily on Josephus Jewish war. Josephus was a man of his class and time and his role in the war was seriously compromised one. A combination of class hatred for the revolutionaries, ignorance of the dynamics of class struggle and a personal need for self-justification and the expectations of his Roman patrons make much of his analysis worthless. His descriptions of what happend are indespensible but albeit with many inaccuracies, but his explanations lack objectivity and sophisication, often they are little more than personal abuse, Scholars who relied heavily upon Josephus judgments have fallen down heavily. What josephus lacks is historical imagination an ability to use the general understanding of human motives to explain decisions and make sense of social action. The accounts given by participants are often prejudiced and self justifying and of limited perspective.
This book is has been influenced by three traditions, first there is what sometimes called "history from below" No one has tried to do this for the Jewish war. Historians involved in this tradition have consciously rejected what they see as an almost exclusive focus on political elites, insisting instead on the need to study the material circumstances, though-worlds and collective actions of ordinary men and women actively creating their own history.
Revolutions change history, The Jewish revolution obviously would have done so if the Jews had won.
It is far too easy for historians who know the future to condemn those who appear to fight for doomed causes. In fact, the course of history is not predetermined,; it is never the case that what happens has to happen because there is no alternative; human beings make their own history, and alternative futures are always possible. If defeat for the Jews in AD 70 was the most likely outcome, it was never a certain one, and the revolutionaries were right to fight.
What did I take away from this book?
The tactics Romans used against the Jews
Israel learned how to use against Palestinians.
"The aim of the new roman strategy of tight blockade was to cut off the latter sources of external supplies smuggling and foraging while exacerbating the pressure on internal supplies by keeping the whole mass of fighters, refugees,pilgrims and city poor bottled up inside the walls".
The great Jewish revolt against Rome in AD 66-73 pitted an army of peasent guerrillas against the most powerful empire and war machine of antiquity. When we study the struggle, we see a global system of robbery with violence of a world transformed compared with decades of deference and despair.
No scholar is ideally suited to the task, since none is a specialist in in all relevant disciplines the classical languages, the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical studies the archeology of Palestine, military history, social history, and the historiagraphy of revolution. Despite these difficulties , through the subject has created a huge literature much of it highly tendentious. To discuss Palestine in the first cenutury AD is to enter an academic, religious and political minefield, for it's a subject with implications for modern Christianity, rabbanical Judaism and the idelogy of zionism, and the present crisis in the middleast.
Some scholars have relied to heavily on Josephus Jewish war. Josephus was a man of his class and time and his role in the war was seriously compromised one. A combination of class hatred for the revolutionaries, ignorance of the dynamics of class struggle and a personal need for self-justification and the expectations of his Roman patrons make much of his analysis worthless. His descriptions of what happend are indespensible but albeit with many inaccuracies, but his explanations lack objectivity and sophisication, often they are little more than personal abuse, Scholars who relied heavily upon Josephus judgments have fallen down heavily. What josephus lacks is historical imagination an ability to use the general understanding of human motives to explain decisions and make sense of social action. The accounts given by participants are often prejudiced and self justifying and of limited perspective.
This book is has been influenced by three traditions, first there is what sometimes called "history from below" No one has tried to do this for the Jewish war. Historians involved in this tradition have consciously rejected what they see as an almost exclusive focus on political elites, insisting instead on the need to study the material circumstances, though-worlds and collective actions of ordinary men and women actively creating their own history.
Revolutions change history, The Jewish revolution obviously would have done so if the Jews had won.
It is far too easy for historians who know the future to condemn those who appear to fight for doomed causes. In fact, the course of history is not predetermined,; it is never the case that what happens has to happen because there is no alternative; human beings make their own history, and alternative futures are always possible. If defeat for the Jews in AD 70 was the most likely outcome, it was never a certain one, and the revolutionaries were right to fight.
What did I take away from this book?
The tactics Romans used against the Jews
Israel learned how to use against Palestinians.
"The aim of the new roman strategy of tight blockade was to cut off the latter sources of external supplies smuggling and foraging while exacerbating the pressure on internal supplies by keeping the whole mass of fighters, refugees,pilgrims and city poor bottled up inside the walls".
June 28, 2016
This book was something of a slog to get through, partially because I had to read it in small bits at a time, but it is full of detailed information about the revolt, including the sorts of maps, diagrams and pictures that are particularly useful in explaining what happened. The author utilizes Marxist analysis, and convincingly demonstrates the class and sectarian conflicts within the Jewish community and the imperialist domination by Rome that culminated in the seven years of revolution. The book uses a wide variety of sources such as modern studies of war and peasant revolts and lessons from the English, French and Russian Revolutions. There are witty comparisons of the Romans in Judea to America in Vietnam and Iraq, and in an absolutely splendid Marxist statement, the author comments... "The defeat of apocalyptic hope and the physical destruction of the Judaeo-Christian sect cleared the way for the Pauline Christians to denationalize Jesus, cauterize his revolutionary message and repackage him as a saviour-god dispensing opiate."
November 1, 2007
very well researched. I like that the author does not rely on Josephus as historical authority of the time, since it is clear that Josephus had a bit of a personal agenda when he wrote his version of ancient Jewish history.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews