Quote:
Quincy:
Titus's sacking of Jerusalem aside, it seems, from what I've read, that most of ancient Palestine's Jewish population probably stayed put, converted to Christianity and then Islam, and gradually became Palestinians.
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I kind of doubt it Quincy, because after the Bar Kochaba revolution in the 2nd century Rome didn't allow
any Jews to live in Palestine/Israel. At least that's my understanding of it. Post 130 CE/AD or so, the population was either all pagan or a mix of pagans and Samaritans. The Samaritans were Israelite and Hebrew (from the Northern Kingdom, post Solomon); but definitely not Jewish (from the Southern Kingdom), in fact were a pain in the butt to the Jews on several occasions.
After the Persian (Iranian) king Cyrus allowed the Jews to return and even start rebuilding the Temple, the king died while it was only half finished. Then the Samaritans convinced his son, Cambyses, that the Temple was a threat and that Jews were trouble makers; so during Cambyses' reign (6 years) the work on the temple stopped. After his death, Darius was the new king and he thought the Samaritan plea was nonsense, so the rebuilding started up again. (Josephus, Antiquities: 11) In Ezra chapter 4, Cambyses is called Ar-ta-xerx'es, but Cyrus and Darius have the same names with the story essentially the same, although a bit more abbreviated in the bible version.
In the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus of Syria (precipitated by the king's sacrificing a pig to Zeus in the Temple of Jerusalem), the Samaritans show up in Josepheus, Antiquities: 12, also. When Antiochus was marching on Jerusalem they sent an emissary to him saying, in effect, "We're not like our cousins to the south; you can sacrifice a pig to Zeus on our Holy Mountain, Gerizim, anytime."
Whether pagan or Samaritan, most of the people of the area seemed not particularly grounded in any sort of faith but changing whenever the powers-that-be change. The idea that Jews would stay on in Palestine, just converting to Christianity, has a huge hole in the logic: in the 2nd century, Rome was periodically butchering Christians. Would a Jew in Palestine say to a Roman centurion, "It's ok, I'm really a Christian."? The answer would be something like, "Great, it seems like ages since I've seen a good crucifixion!"
Robert Meyer
[This message has been edited by Robert Meyer (edited July 31, 2006).]
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