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Destruction of Judaic Documents
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"I don't know how much book (or scroll) destruction went on in those days,
but (hypothetically) if a succession of groups inhabited Qumran, would they
destroy manuscripts that they found there, or would they tuck them away into
a cave...." (Archbishop Adam C. Bacon, Comparative Religion, Univ. of
Washington)
"Are there any other examples of 1st Century 'book-burnings'?" (Daniel
McMenamin)
"Is there evidence that the Romans destroyed texts at other sites? I do not
know what group might not have like the Qumran group. I simply do not
understand why the Romans cared about texts." (David Jay Kaufman)
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I think this is related to the Romans' Judaeomisicism (hatred of Jews
and all things Judaic) resulting from Jewish rejection of emperor-worship
(cf. "Antisemitism," Ency. Jud., 3:89), plus two wars with the Jews (though
I recognize that this pushes the envelope beyond the first-century in the
question), plus the Romans' "hunting out and execution of all who claimed
Davidic descent" in the reigns of Vespasian, Domitian and Trajan (Baron, _A
Social and Religious History of the Jews_, p. 121).
"Herod, who also had to face a challenge to the legitimacy of his
rule, forged for himself a pedigree going back to David, after first
destroying the genealogical records maintained in the Temple (according to
the third-century Christian historian Africanus)." ("Genealogy," Ency. Jud.,
7:381). This is particularly interesting since Herod was a Roman vassal and
Christian Africanus later treats him as a scheming Jew.
Eusebius writes (EH III.xi-xii): "Hegesippus relates ... that
Vespasian, after the capture of Jerusalem, ordered a search to be made for
all who were of the family of David, that there might be left among the Jews
no one of the royal family and, for this reason, a very great persecution
was again inflicted on the Jews."
While Schurer almost dismisses any historicity in this because only
Hegesippus writes of it (The History of the Jewish People in the Age of
J---- Christ, I:528), he ignores the fact that Roman historians had a vested
interest in not acknowledging a rival to Rome. Hegisippus, writing later in
life, would not want to acknowledge anything that might authenticate Jews,
another messianic candidate, or Judaism -- all of whose very existence
contradicted the replacement theology of the emerging post-135 CE
(non-Jewish) Christian Church (see also the N'tzarim Virtual Community
Center below, and my books _Who Are the N'tzarim?_ and _The N'tzarim
Reconstruction of Hebrew Matiytyahu_). Nor does Schurer give any credible
reason why Hegesippus would fabricate such a story.
Davidic genealogy, the basis for any claim to being the Mashiyakh,
changed from what had been a public record (Josephus, Vita I:6 in note to
Schurer II:240) to tightly-held secrets and no remaining scientifically
credible public documents genealogically connecting Jews today to David or
Aharon.
As part of their hunt to preclude any potential successor messianic
rivals to the emperor (and later to the Church's claim to Christ),
eliminating the prerequisite public genealogical records seems a virtually
certain step. This is especially compelling since, before the Romans'
hunted down all of the Davidic offspring they could find, public
genealogical records were well documented. After this period, unless a UFO
took them, it seems real likely the Romans had something to do with their
disappearance. This same Judaeomisic fervor would be likely to manifest
itself in the destruction of all Jewish texts -- especially Hebrew and
Aramaic texts which they couldn't read. The Romans perceived Judaism as a
threat to emperor-worship and later to their replacement theology.
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Yirmiyahu Ben-David, Pakiyd 16
K'hiylat Ha-N'tzarim
(World-wide Congregation of Nazarene Jews)
N'tzarim Virtual Community Center in
Ra'anana, Israel at
www.netvision.net.il/~netzarim
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