For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
This deeply researched and insightful book examines the causes, course, and historical significance of the Jews’ failed revolt against Rome from 66 to 74 CE, including the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Based on a comprehensive study of all the evidence and new statistical data, Guy Rogers argues that the Jewish rebels fought for their religious and political freedom and lost due to military mistakes.
Rogers contends that while the Romans won the war, they lost the peace. When the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, they thought that they had defeated the God of Israel and eliminated Jews as a strategic threat to their rule. Instead, they ensured the Jews’ ultimate victory. After their defeat Jews turned to the written words of their God, and following those words led the Jews to recover their freedom in the promised land. The war’s tragic outcome still shapes the worldview of billions of people today.
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- Examines the causes, course, and historical significance of the Jews’ failed revolt against Rome
- Argues that the Jewish rebels fought for their religious and political freedom
- Contends that while the Romans won the war, they lost the peace, ultimately ensuring the Jews’ victory
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Map 1. Herod’s Kingdom, Including Major Benefaction Sites
- Map 2. Regional Map of the Roman Near East
- Map 3. The Roman Empire during the Early First Century CE
- Map 4. Jerusalem in 70 CE
- Map 5. Flavian Rome
- Introduction: A Small and Insignificant War?
- Part I: The Breakdown of the Herodian Model
- 1 Herod Agonistes
- 2 The Little Revolt of 4 BCE
- 3 From Ethnarchy to Province
- 4 The Owl and the Golden Chain
- 5 Procurators, Prophets, and Dagger-Men
- 6 The Fuse
- Part II: The War in the North
- 7 The Regional Cleansing
- 8 The Clades Cestiana (Cestian Disaster)
- 9 John of Gischala
- 10 Cometh the Hour
- 11 “I Go, Not as a Traitor, but as Your Servant,”
- 12 Vespasian the War Criminal
- 13 The Camel’s Hump
- Part III: A Tale of Two Temples
- 14 “Now You Have Our Vote,”
- 15 Chaos in the Capitals
- 16 “The Son Is Coming,”
- 17 “The Job Is Open,”
- 18 The More Gentle Minister
- 19 Woe to the Jerusalemites
- Part IV: Jupiter Capitolinus and the God of Israel
- 20 The Tragedies of Triumph
- 21 Masada
- Part V: God’s Plan
- 22 The Causes of the War(s)
- 23 The Course and Outcome of the War
- 24 In the Beginning Were the Words
- Appendices: Contexts and Contentions
- List of Abbreviations
- Notes
- References
- Index
Through his close analysis of the war, making extensive critical use of Josephus’s works, [Rogers] raises and resolves important questions about the nature of a revolt whose ripples can still be felt in our own time.
—David Abulafia, Catholic Herald
In his excellent new book . . . Guy MacLean Rogers tries to figure out precisely what compelled the Jews of the first century to rebel against the Roman Empire.
—Simeon Cohen, Times of Israel
A beautifully produced and thought-provoking book. . . . Fascinating questions [are] debated within these pages.
—Sara Jo Ben Zvi, Segula: The Jewish History Magazine