Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan Read Free Book Online Page A

Temple of Jerusalem. It was Herod who
     had the Temple raised on a platform atop Mount Moriah—the highest point in the city—and
     embellished with wide Roman colonnades and towering marble columns that gleamed in
     the sun. Herod’s Temple was meant to impress his patrons in Rome, but he also wanted
     to please his fellow Jews, many of whom did not consider the King of the Jews to be
     himself a Jew. Herod was a convert, after all. His mother was an Arab. His people,
     the Idumeans, had come to Judaism only a generation or two earlier. The rebuilding
     of the Temple was, for Herod, not only a means of solidifying his political dominance;
     it was a desperate plea for acceptance by his Jewish subjects.
    It did not work.
    Despite the rebuilding of the Temple, Herod’s unabashed Hellenism and his aggressive
     attempts to “Romanize” Jerusalem enraged pious Jews who seem never to have ceased
     viewing their king as a slave to foreign masters and a devotee of foreign gods. Not
     even the Temple, the supreme symbol of Jewish identity, could mask Herod’s infatuation
     with Rome. Shortly before its completion, Herod placed a golden eagle—the sign of
     Roman dominion—over its main portal and forced his handpicked high priest to offertwo sacrifices a day on behalf of Caesar Augustus as “the Son of God.” Nevertheless,
     it is a sign of how firmly Herod held his kingdom in his grip that the general odium
     of the Jews toward his reign never rose to the level of insurrection, at least not
     in his lifetime.
    When Herod the Great died in 4 B.C.E. , Augustus split his realm among his three sons: Archelaus was given Judea, Samaria,
     and Idumea; Herod Antipas—known as “the Fox”—reigned over Galilee and Peraea (a region
     in the Transjordan northeast of the Dead Sea); and Philip was handed control over
     Gaulanitis (modern day Golan) and the lands northeast of the Sea of Galilee. None
     of Herod’s three sons were given the title of king: Antipas and Philip were each named
tetrarch
, meaning “ruler of a quarter,” and Archelaus was named
ethnarch
, or “ruler of a people”; both titles were deliberately meant to signal the end of
     unified kingship over the Jews.
    The division of Herod’s kingdom proved a disaster for Rome, as the dam of anger and
     resentment that had been built during his long and oppressive reign burst into a flood
     of riots and violent protests that his nebbish sons, dulled by a life of idleness
     and languor, could hardly contain. The rioters burned down one of Herod’s palaces
     on the Jordan River. Twice, the Temple itself was overrun: first during Passover,
     then again at Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks. In the countryside, the bandit gangs
     that Herod had beaten into submission once again began tearing through Galilee, slaughtering
     the former king’s associates. In Idumea, Herod’s home region, two thousand of his
     soldiers mutinied. Even Herod’s allies, including his own cousin Achiab, joined the
     rebellion.
    These uprisings were no doubt fueled by the messianic expectations of the Jews. In
     Peraea, a former slave of Herod’s—an imposing giant of a man named Simon—crowned himself
     messiah and rallied together a group of bandits to plunder the royal palaces at Jericho.
     The rebellion ended when Simon was captured and beheaded. A short while later, another
     messianic aspirant, a poor shepherd boy named Athronges, placed a crown upon his head
     andlaunched a foolhardy attack against Roman forces. He, too, was caught and executed.
    The chaos and bloodshed continued unabated until Caesar Augustus finally ordered his
     own troops into Judea to put an end to the uprising. Although the emperor allowed
     Philip and Antipas to remain in their posts, he sent Archelaus into exile, placed
     Jerusalem under a Roman governor, and, in the year 6 C.E. , transformed all of Judea into a province ruled directly by Rome. There would be
     no more semi-independence. No more