In 586 B.C.E. the kingdom of Judah, which had for some years been a Babylonian dependency, was ended as a political institution, and the majority of its people, at any rate of the nobles and wealthy men of them, were forcibly deported8 to Babylon. The deportation9 though extensive was not complete. Some, principally peasants and artisans, were left, but in districts so long wasted by war their condition can only have been extremely wretched. Since the whole region was part of the same huge empire, the old boundary lines were probably obliterated10, and those who lived there subjected to the 57control of imperial governors residing in one or another of the walled cities of Syria or Philistia.
Within the next two generations momentous11 political changes occurred. The Babylonian empire gave way to a Persian, which, however, can at first have changed nothing except the personnel of the actual administrators12. According to a very probable tradition, one of the first acts of Cyrus was to permit, at any rate not to oppose, the remigration of some of the Judean families or clans13 to their former homes. Within the next hundred years a larger and larger number of the families deported by Nebuchadnezzar likewise returned, though never all of them and perhaps not even a majority of them. Much of the old territory must have been found unoccupied, since otherwise conflicts must have arisen with interests vested within the fifty years and more that had elapsed, and of these we do not hear. But we do hear of immediate14 conflicts between the returned exiles and those who professed15 to be the descendants of the Israelites (and Judaites) left by Assyrians (and Babylonians) on the soil. These latter were beginning to gather about Shechem, where they must already have been a dominant16 element, and where they had created a cult17 center on Mount Gerizim. The conflict tended to become compromised in time, until the activities of the reformer Ezra, backed by the civil governor Nehemiah, again and permanently18 separated them.
The returned exiles had from the beginning made the ancient capital their center, and had succeeded in obtaining permission to rebuild their ancient shrine19. 58But they were at an obvious disadvantage compared with their rivals at Shechem, until the city of David could receive the characteristic of a city—the walls which alone distinguished20 village or somewhat more densely21 populated section of the open country from the polis or city proper. These, too, were obtained through Nehemiah, and the prohibition22 of connubium between the so-called Samaritans of Shechem and the Jews of Jerusalem was the first aggressive act of the now self-reliant community.
The system of government of the Persian empire was not oppressive. The distant king of kings was mainly insistent23 upon recognition of his sovereignty and regularity24 of tribute, less as a means of support than as an acknowledgment of submission25. Within the provinces the satrap was practically king, and might make his domination light or burdensome as he chose. We have excellent contemporary evidence that he took his responsibilities lightly for the most part. In the mountains of Asia Minor26 many tribes seem scarcely to have known that they were born vassals27 of the Persian king.[60] The local satrap rarely attempted to control in detail the administrative29 affairs of the communities in his charge, particularly when such an attempt would precipitate30 a rebellion.
In Judea the open plains and low hills rendered it easier for the governor to emphasize the king’s authority than it was among the mountains of Cappadocia or the fiords of Cilicia, whose native syennesis, or king, retained both title and authority. We have, however, 59a confused and particularly fragmentary record of what actually happened in the two hundred years that elapsed between Zerubbabel and Alexander. Changes of great moment in the political, social, and religious life of the Jews were undoubtedly31 taking place, since we find those changes completed a few years later, but we can only conjecture32 the stages of the process. On the whole our sources, till considerably later, are very imperfect. The Persian period forms the largest gap in the history of the Jews.
A great many Biblical scholars, particularly in Germany, assign to this period an influence nothing short of fundamental. A large part of the texts now gathered in the Bible are placed in this time. The extreme view practically refers the beginning of Jewish history to this date, and assumes that only a very small part of the older literature and institutions survived the Babylonian exile. The new community began its life, it is asserted, with elements almost wholly dependent upon the civilization of Babylon and Persia.
It is extremely unlikely that this theory is correct. Every individual assertion of course must be judged in the light of the evidence presented for it. And on this point it may be sufficient to mention that the evidence for almost every position is of the feeblest. It consists largely in apparent inconsistencies of statements or allusions33, for which the theory advanced suggests a hypothetical reconciliation34. If these hypotheses are to be considered scientifically, they at best present a possible solution and always only one of many possible solutions. 60But the general theory suffers from an inconsistency much graver than those it attempts to remove.
The inconsistency lies in this: The soil of Palestine, never of high fertility, had greatly deteriorated35 by the frequent wars of the seventh century and the neglect and desolation of the following centuries. Commerce, because of the absence of ports, was practically non-existent. Those who returned can scarcely have found time for anything else than the bare problem of living. In these circumstances it is obviously improbable that a literary activity rich and powerful enough to have created the masterpieces often assigned to this period can have existed. The conditions of pioneers do not readily lend themselves to such activities. City life, an essential prerequisite36 of high achievements in art, was being reconstructed very slowly and was confined almost wholly to Jerusalem. The difficulty is a serious one, and is quite disregarded by many scholars to whom the bleakness37 of our records of this time affords a constant temptation.
Jewish soldiers fought in the armies of their Persian master wherever these armies went. Some must have been among the Syrian contingent38 at Marathon and Plataea.[61] The garrisons40 of the frontiers contained many of them. Recently a fortunate accident has disclosed, at the upper cataract41 of the Nile, a garrison39 community of Jews, of which the records, known as the Assuan and Elephantine papyri,[62] have opened up quite new vistas42 in Jewish history. Perhaps the most important point established is the beginning of the Diaspora. 61The existence of communities of Jews outside of Palestine, developing their own traditions and assimilating their appearance and social customs to those of their neighbors, is a matter of capital importance for the history of later Jewry. When such communities multiplied, Jerusalem came more and more to have a merely religious presidency43 over them, and the constitution of Judea itself became determined44 by that fact, while the foundations were being laid for the career of religious propaganda later so successfully undertaken.
The virtual autonomy of the Persian period allowed the development of a well-organized ruling caste of priests, in which were perhaps included the Soferim, or Scribes, men learned in the Law, who had no definite priestly functions. The scope of the high priest’s jurisdiction45, the extent of his powers, may not have been sharply defined as yet. In itself the presence of a high priest as head of the state was not at all unusual in that region. As has been said, the interference of the representative of the Persian sovereign was a variable quantity. In the second half of the fifth century a Jew, Nehemiah, held the office of tirshatha, or viceroy, an accident that was of inestimable value to the growing community, and may have finally secured the threatened political existence of Jerusalem.
One other political event, of which we have dim and confused accounts, was a rebellion—whether in or of Judea—under Artaxerxes Ochus (359-338 B.C.E.). The account of Josephus speaks of feuds46 in the high-priestly family, the murder of a claimant in the temple 62precincts, and the intervention47 of the all-powerful eunuch Bagoas.[63] That some such thing happened there can be no reasonable doubt, although we cannot recover the details. It is, however, unwarranted to make the incident in any way typical of the fortunes of Judea during Persian rule. There was no tradition in later times of Persian oppression, nor can even this rebellion, if rebellion it was, have involved serious repressive measures, since the Greek invasion a few years later found the Jews loyal to their overlord.
When the Macedonian Alexander changed the face of the East, the Jews were swept along with the rest of the loose-jointed empire built by Cyrus and Darius. Upon Alexander’s death, after uncertainties48 which the whole Levant shared, Palestine fell to Egypt, of which it was a natural geographical49 appanage as it had been for millennia50 before. Under the suzerainty of the Ptolemies the Jewish communities in Egypt received very considerable reinforcements, and the home-country became a real national expression, and rapidly attained51 a relatively52 high degree of material well-being53, since the practical autonomy of Persian days was continued. Seized by Antiochus of Asia in the decrepitude54 of Egypt, Judea entered with full national consciousness into the heterogeneous55 kingdom ruled by a singularly fantastic royal house. A blunder in policy of the peculiarly fantastic Epiphanes provoked a revolt that was immediately successful in causing the prompt abandonment of the policy, and was helped by dynastic chaos56 to a still larger measure of success.
RUINS OF THE AMPHITHEATER AT GERASA (JERASH) GILEAD, PALESTINE
(? Underwood and Underwood)
63The leaders of that revolt, the Hasmonai family, produced a succession of able soldiers. Besides the old Mattathiah and his heroic son Judah, Jonathan, Simon, and John, by selling their service dearly to this one or that one of the Syrian pretenders, by understandings with the ubiquitous Roman emissaries, above all by military skill of the first order, changed the virtual autonomy of Persian and Ptolemaic times into a real one, in which Syrian suzerainty was a tradition, active enough under the vigorous Sidetes, non-existent under the imbecile Cyzicenus.[64]
During all this time Jews, from personal choice and royal policy, had extended their dispersion throughout the new cities founded by their Seleucid masters. Until the battle of Magnesia, 190 B.C.E., Asia Minor was the real center of the Seleucid monarchy57; and in the innumerable cities established there, Jews in large numbers settled. When Judea became independent there were probably as many Jews outside of it as within it.
With the Hasmonean princes—“high priest” is the title which the Hebrew legend on their coins gives them[65]—the country entered upon a career of conquest. Galilee, Idumaea, the coast cities of Philistia, portions of Gilead were seized by John, or Aristobulus, or Alexander, so that Judea rapidly became one of the important kingdoms of the East, with which no one could fail to reckon who became active in the affairs of that region. Rome had backed the Hasmoneans against Syria so long as Syria presented the possibility of becoming dangerous. But that soon ceased. By a 64strange paradox58 of history the Hellenized East found its last champion against the Romans in the Persian kings of Pontus, and when Mithradates was crushed, it could only be a question of the order in which every fragment of Alexander’s empire would slip into the maw of the eagles. The Roman liquidator, Pompey, appeared in Asia, and Antioch became a suburb of Rome.
The pretext59 for clearing their way to Egypt by taking Judea presented itself in a disputed succession. The sons of Alexander Jannai were compelled to accept the arbitrament of the Romans, with the usual result. The loser in the award, Aristobulus, attempted to make good by arms what he had lost in the decision. A Roman army promptly60 invested Jerusalem, moved by the patent injustice61 of allowing a capable and vigorous prince to usurp62 the place of a submissive weakling. The Roman general walked into the inner court of the temple, and peered into the Holy of Holies. He found nothing for his pains, but his act symbolized63 the presence of the master, and left a fine harvest of hate and distrust for the next generations to reap.
From that time on, the history of Judea is the not uncommon64 one of a Roman dependency. The political changes are interesting and dramatic but not of particular importance: vassal28 kings, docile65 tetrarchs, finally superseded66 by the Roman procurator with all the machinery67 of his office. Judea was different only in that her rebellions were more formidable and obstinate68. But Rome had developed a habit of crushing rebellions. 65Simeon bar Kosiba, known chiefly as Bar-Kochba, was the last Jew to offer armed resistance. With his death the political history of Judea comes to an end.
The religious and social history of the Jews had for many centuries ceased to be identical with that of their country. It was a minority of Jews then living that participated in the rebellion of 68, and perhaps a still smaller fraction that took part in the rising under Trajan and Hadrian. The interest of all Jews in the fortunes of Judea must at all times have been lively and deep, but the feeling was different in the case of non-Palestinian Jews from that of men toward their fatherland.
Meeting for the study of their ancient lore69 in their “guild-house,” the proseucha, or schola, the Jewish citizens of the various cities of the Roman empire or the Parthian kingdom did not present to their neighbors a spectacle so unique as to arrest the latter’s attention at once. They were simply a group of allied70 cult-communities, sometimes possessing annoying exemptions71 or privileges, but not otherwise exceptional. An exceptional position begins for them when their privileges are abolished, and their civil rights curtailed72, by the legislation of the early Christian73 emperors.
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1
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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starkly
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| adj. 变硬了的,完全的 adv. 完全,实在,简直 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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deported
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| v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止 | |
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deportation
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| n.驱逐，放逐 | |
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obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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administrators
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| n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
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13
clans
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| 宗族( clan的名词复数 )； 氏族； 庞大的家族； 宗派 | |
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14
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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vassal
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| n.附庸的；属下；adj.奴仆的 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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33
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prerequisite
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| n.先决条件；adj.作为前提的，必备的 | |
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bleakness
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| adj. 萧瑟的, 严寒的, 阴郁的 | |
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contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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garrisons
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| 守备部队，卫戍部队( garrison的名词复数 ) | |
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cataract
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| n.大瀑布，奔流，洪水，白内障 | |
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vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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presidency
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| n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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46
feuds
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| n.长期不和，世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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47
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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48
uncertainties
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| 无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物 | |
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49
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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50
millennia
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| n.一千年，千禧年 | |
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51
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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52
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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53
well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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54
decrepitude
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| n.衰老；破旧 | |
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55
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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56
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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57
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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59
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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61
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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usurp
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| vt.篡夺，霸占；vi.篡位 | |
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63
symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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65
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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66
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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67
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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68
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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71
exemptions
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| n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额 | |
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72
curtailed
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| v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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