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Chapter 4 - Contingency and Context

The Origins of the Jewish War against Rome

from Part I - Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2021

By
Erich S. Gruen
Edited by
Harriet I. Flower
Harriet I. Flower
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
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Summary

This chapter reexamines the extensively discussed evidence for the circumstances that drove the Jews to a seemingly irrational and hopeless challenge to the power of Rome. The account of Josephus, on which we almost exclusively rely, offers the teleological scenario of a long build-up of hostility that issued inevitably in disaster. While acknowledging the background and circumstances that lay behind the conflict, this chapter emphasizes the numerous contingencies, unanticipated events, personalities, and miscalculations that played a key role in bringing it about. The tension and anxiety that had built up for two generations in a series of individual episodes supplied a significant impetus. But error, accident, and unintended consequences are critical to understanding the course of events. Josephus’ sense of inevitability, born of hindsight and his special situation, needs a corrective.

Keywords

Josephuscontingencycontextinevitabilityrebellionzealotrybanditryprefectspeasantryrebellion
Type
Chapter
Information
Empire and Religion in the Roman World , pp. 94 - 114
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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