The Second Era of Decline
In 63 B.C Pompey, after taking over the old Sleucid
Empire of Syria, turned towards Jerusalem. Thousands of Jews were killed during
the three month long siege of the Holy City, and by the time the Roman army
broke through the walls of Jerusalem, they were killing each other in
confusion.
The Romans abolished the Maccabean dynasty and appointed
Antipater as their puppet ruler. But soon after Julius Caesar’s murder in 44
B.C, Antipater was poisoned and a civil war ensued in Palestine with different
groups vying for dominance. To restore order, the Romans nominated a clever Jew
named Herod as their viceroy to rule the Israelites. Herod reigned for the next
33 years by patronizing the Jewish religious hierarchy on the one hand, and
propagating the Greco-Roman culture and showing his faithfulness to Caesar on
the other hand. In order to demonstrate his loyalty to Judaism, he ordered a
reconstruction of the second Temple. The result was the largest and most
magnificent building complex of the ancient world. At the same time, the moral
degeneration of the Jews continued and reached its lowest ebb during the reign
of Herod.
After Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided among his
three sons: (a) Archelaus became the ruler of Smaria, Judeae, and northern
Edom, but was replaced in 6 C.E. by a Roman governor; (b) Antipas became the
head of Galilee and Jordan in northern Palestine; whereas (c) Philip ruled the
land between river Yermuk and Mt. Hermon
It is significant to note that during all those years of
indirect Roman rule, the
Jews had, in general, enjoyed
full religious autonomy. The Romans would obviously intervene in matters of
political or military nature, but the everyday administration of justice and
local affairs — like the Sanhedrin court in Jerusalem — were left wholly to the
Jewish officials responsible for applying the Mosaic Law.
It was this Jewish court, Sanhedrin, that convicted
God’s last messenger to
the Children of
Israel — Jesus
Christ or Prophet Isa (AS) — of
blasphemy, and requested death sentence from
the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate. The
collective rejection of Prophet Isa (AS) by the Israelites was not a
minor crime in the
sight of Almighty
Allah (SWT) —
as he was Allah’s Rasool, or envoy. This time Divine
punishment appeared in the form of Roman armies, and the Holy City was
destroyed for the second time.
The Romans had appointed Agrippa I, grandson of Herod
the Great, to rule the territories that were once under Herod himself. Soon
afterwards, a serious protest against the Romans led to an open Jewish revolt
in 66 C.E., which neither King Agrippa II nor the Roman procurator was able to
contain. The Romans retaliated with full military might, ultimately leading to
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. by the armies of General Titus. The
loss of life among the Jews was incredibly high, as 133 thousand
are reported to
have been killed
in Jerusalem alone. Thousands
were made slaves, starved to death, or killed in Roman amphitheaters. Herod’s
Temple was burned and completely demolished.
Emperor Hadrian later built a new Roman colony, called
Aelia Capitolina, over the desolate ruins of Jerusalem. However, the Jews were
banished from their Holy City and were not allowed to re-enter for the next half
a millennium.
As mentioned before, the advent of Prophet Muhammad
(SAW) in the 7th century C.E. constituted a golden opportunity for the Jews to
escape from the wrath of God the Almighty. They, however,
not only rejected
the Prophethood of Muhammad (SAW) as a community, but also
earned the unenviable reputation of being the worst enemy of Islam and Muslims.
As a result, their second era of decline has continued till the present, and
they remained, to this date, a condemned and disgraced people. We shall return
to this topic after a while.
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