Bibliography
| Title: How Did the Temple Mount Fall to Pompey? Pages: 276-289 Type: Generic Year: 1997 Abstract: "Matthews, Christopher R. in: NTAb 42,2 (1998) 343: Careful examination of Josephus' account of the siege of the Temple Mount by Pompey (Ant. 14:58-68) reveals a number of problematic details. The behavior Josephus attributes to the Jews on the Temple Mount permitted limited defense on the Sabbath, bus disallowed effective defensive measures, which the Pharisees ruled to be acceptable. The followers of Aristobulus who were besieged on the Temple Mount, however, seem to have followed the strict Sadducean halakah that forbade fighting on the Sabbath under any circumstances. The intermediate situation depicted by Josephus corresponds to neither of the known halakic approaches. Thus Josephus attributed to Aristobulus' fighters a purely theoretical halakah that bridged the gab between the strict law that had been accepted before the Hasmonean revolt and the Pharisaic halakah with which he was familiar. // Fisk, Bruce N. in: OTA 21,2 (1998) 319: Does Josephus' description of Pompey's siege of the Temple Mount (Ant. 14.58-68) contain historically worthless elements inserted to solve problems posed by his sources? According to Strabo (followed by Josephus in Antiquities and by Cassius Dio) the Mount fell on the Sabbath, ad the Jews offered no significant restiance. According to War 1.148, the Romans executes Jewish resisters who attempted to flee. But the explanation of Strabo and Josephus for the Jews' minimal resistance - the priests chose rather to continue the Temple service than to defend themselves - lacks plausibility, a does Josephus' claim (Ant. 14.63) that a strict self-defense-only policy governed Jews on the Sabbath. Mattathias' more aggressive approach (1 Macc 2:29-37; cf. Jos. Antiquities 12; paralleled in Tosefta, b. 'Erud.3-5) was probably also the Pharisaic view during the late Hasmonean period. It appears that Josephus attributes to Aristobulus' followers an imaginary, mediating position between this Hasmonean-Pharisaic halakha and the older prohibition of all Sabbath warfare. Aristobulus' actual Policy, which tolerated no fighting whatsoever on the Sabbath, accord better with Sadducean views." Keywords: Jewish History: Roman Era |