Maps and Years: Timeline of the Jews in the first century

  • After the reign of Herod the Great (37-4 BC), Palestine was divided among his sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Ten years later, Archelaus was deposed and Judea became a Roman province. Judea was then ruled for a long time by the high priest Caiaphas (18-36) and the Roman governor Pilate (26-36). Galilee was ruled by the tetrarch Herod Antipas (4 BC-39) and the Golan and adjacent areas by his brother Philip (4 BC-33/34). Philip was married to Salome (according to the historian Josephus) or her mother Herodias (according to the Gospels of Mark and Matthew).
  • John the Baptist protested against the marriage between Herod Antipas, the ex-wife of his brother Herod (and possibly the widow of Philip). After Philip's death, Herodias and Antipas tried to inherit his territories. Because of his marriage to Herodias, Antipas was divorced from his first wife, the daughter of the Nabataean king Aretas. A war with Nabatea ensued between the two rulers in the summer of 36, in which Aretas won and possibly took possession of the trade routes between Nabatea and Damascus, which ran through the territory of the deceased Philip. Emperor Tiberius ordered the governor of Syria, Vitellius, to launch a military punitive expedition against Aretas. But in early 37, near Jerusalem, he received news of Tiberius' death. Vitellius abandoned the expedition and Aretas remained in control of the gates of Damascus until his own death in the year 40.
  • In the year 37, the new emperor Caligula made his friend Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, king over the territories of Philip. Herodias and Antipas therefore traveled to Rome in 39 to also request the title of king. However, Caligula banished them to Lyon in Gaul and added Galilee to Agrippa's territory.
  • Meanwhile, in 38, there was a pogrom in Alexandria, Egypt, the second largest city in the empire after Rome, between its huge Jewish community and the Greek citizens. The tension was caused by the Jewish desire for more civil rights. The riots broke out after Agrippa traveled in full Roman regalia via Alexandria to Palestine. The rioters provoked the Jews by erecting idols and altars to Caligula near Jewish synagogues. An orgy of violence ensued. The conflict spread to the city of Jamnia in Palestine. After much bloodshed, the matter came before Caligula in 38/39, who condemned the Jews. He ordered the new governor of Syria to place a statue of himself in the temple in Jerusalem. This led to much resistance, particularly in Galilee, and the governor began to stall for time. Caligula reacted furiously and ordered the governor to commit suicide, but before his order could be carried out, Caligula was assassinated in January 41.
  • Agrippa, now back in Rome, played an important role in appointing Claudius as Caligula's successor in the year 41. Claudius then made Agrippa king of all Israel until Agrippa's death in the year 44. 
  • From 44 to 66, Judea was ruled by various Roman governors amid growing tensions. In the late 50s, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned in Caesarea under the governors Felix and Festus. In the year 62, James, the leader of Jesus' followers, was stoned to death, at the instigation of the young high priest Ananus.
  • In the year 66, the Jewish Revolt broke out. The Roman soldiers in Palestine were defeated. Violence broke out everywhere in Syria between Jews and non-Jews. Emperor Nero (54-68) sent General Vespasian to crush the revolt. In the year 70, his son Titus captured Jerusalem, where the temple was destroyed by fire.

Triumphal Arch of Titus carrying away spoils from the destroyed temple of Jerusalem, Creative Commons License

  • The war lasted until 73. Hundreds of thousands lost their homeland, their freedom, or their lives. In Rome, a triumphal arch was erected for Titus, as the conqueror of Judea. The Colosseum was built with the plundered treasures and the sale of prisoners as slaves. The temple tax, which Jews in and outside Judea paid for the temple in Jerusalem, was from then on collected by Rome for the temple of Jupiter: the fiscus judaicus. This was a great humiliation, which was strictly enforced until its abolition in the year 96. Under Emperor Domitian, people suspected of Jewish practices, including the followers of Jesus, were also required to pay this tax. Without the leadership of princes or high priests, the Jewish people had to carry on. Rabbis became more important and Jerusalem lay in ruins.
  • The Second Jewish War of 115-117 broke out while Emperor Trajan was trying to conquer the Parthian Empire, where many Jews lived, with his legions. The Mesopotamian Jews attacked the Roman garrisons that Trajan had left behind on his campaign to the Persian Gulf. The struggle also flared up in the Roman Empire: in Libya, Egypt, and Cyprus. Many wanted to push on to Judea and restore Israel's independence. It became a brutal war in which the Jewish rebels suffered many casualties and destroyed countless pagan temples. Fear of "the Jews" was widespread. When the tide turned, many Jewish residents were killed. The prominent position of the Jewish population in the city of Alexandria came to an end.
  • Around the year 130, Emperor Hadrian is said to have ordered the prohibition of circumcision and the construction of a temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem. The Third Jewish War broke out (132-136). The influential Rabbi Akiva saw Simon Bar Kosiba as a man anointed by God who would fulfill the prophecy of the 'star of Jacob'. Under the name Bar Kochba (son of the star), Simon ruled Judea and Jerusalem for three years. Christians were pressured to renounce Jesus in favor of Simon, according to a church father. The rebels' desire was to rebuild the temple as a Jewish sanctuary. A devastating war with Rome ensued. Once again, hundreds of thousands lost their homes, their freedom, or their lives. All surviving Jews were brutally expelled from Judea. A new city was built on the ruins of Jerusalem: Aelia Capitolina, named after Emperor Aelius Hadrianus and the Roman supreme god Jupiter Capitolinus. From this time on, the Christian bishops of Jerusalem no longer bore Jewish names but Greek ones.
  • In the second century, Galilee became the center of Jewish intellectual activity. Rabbis established the exact text of the Torah and recorded its oral interpretation in the Mishnah. A new Judaism developed around the Law and the synagogue: Rabbinic Judaism.