The Temple dominated the landscape of Israel. Josephus wrote that the entire staff for the Temple Mount complex was about 25,000 including priests, janitors, vendors, musicians, guides, etc. Raised above the courtyards was the Temple Sanctuary itself with a great cedar door plated in gold. About 1000 priests were always at work in the Temple attending to the sacrifices, readings, chantings, music, blowing horns, and cleansings. In the inner Court of the Priests stood the giant altar of burnt offerings where hundreds of lambs and other animals were sacrificed each day. There were four courtyards each set higher than the previous one. The Temple itself had massive gateways with double gates plated in gold and silver. The Royal Portico around the complex had three rows of columns that were long and high and plated in gold. The Temple was built of white stone and white marble. Moriah on the east side of Jerusalem covering more area than the Acropolis in Athens. It was a huge complex of buildings on top of Mt. The masterpiece of Herod and the showplace of Jerusalem was Herod’s Temple which became one of the great tourist attractions of the world. Inside it was like its own city with courtyards, baths, and apartments. It had massive square towers at each of its corners. It was named after Herod the Great’s friend Mark Antony.
The Antonia Fortress was built by Herod on the hill just north of the Temple so that it looked like part of the Temple Mount complex. It had three tall towers of white marble, mosaic floors, jeweled furniture, and silver and gold everywhere. Herod had built an awesome palace on the summit of the hill in the northwest part of Jerusalem.
#FALL FALL FALL INTO THE WALLS FULL#
In the first century, the historian Pliny wrote that Jerusalem was the most splendid city of the east, always full of pilgrims and tourists bringing prosperity. Such was the anarchy that Josephus returned to in 66 AD. Fighting broke out in the city between several different Jewish factions fighting each other. A large group of them stormed the Antonia Fortress where the Roman soldiers were garrisoned and killed all the Romans there. Various factions of zealots and extremists ruled the day.
Unemployed rebels burned the archives containing the records of debtors. The wise men of Jerusalem knew that war with Rome was insanity, but they came to prefer it rather than the terrible abuse from Florus. The Roman historian Tacitus reported that Florus pushed the Jew’s patience to the breaking point. A new Governor, Gessius Florus, was openly anti-semetic, and very clear in his actions that he wished to harm the Jews. Josephus returned home in 66 AD to find a deteriorating political climate in Jerusalem. He became close friends with the Empress of Nero until Nero went nuts and killed her. He came to admire Roman soldiers as he observed their intense training and organization. While in Rome, Josephus received a crash course in Roman culture, power, and politics.
The Roman Governor spent most of his time away from Jerusalem, and only about 1000 Roman troops were in Jerusalem, most of which were native Syrians or Idumeans. There were a large number of religious zealots who employed knifemen called “sicarri”. Faction fighting became common between Jewish sects, and class war had broken out. Rich Jews employed their own private armies. At that time, Rome’s control of Israel was loose and corrupt. In 64 AD, Josephus left Jerusalem for Rome to be an advocate for some priests that had been arrested. There was only about 4000-6000 of these respected men.
They were elite well educated laymen who wielded great influence with the people. Josephus was educated and groomed to be a priest in the Temple, and at the age of 19, he studied to be a Pharisee. Josephus was born in Jerusalem in 37 AD into the aristocratic Hasmonean family. Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem about 30 AD. When the end came, Jerusalem was in ruins, over a million Jews were dead, and Israel had vanished. In fact, he gives us our only record of went on at Masada. In the first person, as seen through his eyes, he described the Jewish revolt, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the Masada story. Therefore Josephus was an eyewitness to all the events that he wrote about. He identified himself as a Jewish priest, a member of the royal family, a Jewish general, and a Roman prisoner who became a guide for the Roman army. Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote near the end of the first century two books about the Jewish-Roman War fought from 66-73 AD.
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