Judaism III: Antisemitism and Zealotry in Antiquity

I started writing this before the "I think of Rome" meme, so don't accuse me of nothing!

Many ‘tians come to me with an intention of blaming the issues they have with Jews on the Talmud, as a way to prove the innocence of the Biblical Jews. It is worth mentioning that some of the more distasteful passages from the Talmud are interpretations of scripture from the Pentateuch. Some of these do seem rather ridiculous, but they are not inspired by any “Oral Torah” stuff. For example, the statements qualifying Gentiles not as men come from the Old Testament using the title of “Adam” or “men” as denoting the Jewish People (Ezekiel 34 : 31) in particular. Another big one, this idea that Gentiles were created to serve Jews (idk if this is in the Talmud) comes from Isaiah 14:2:

“And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.” (KJV)

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these are accurate translations. But the Jews don’t exactly come off as particularly friendly to anyone else in the Old Testament anyways. It’s just that Christians give Jews the benefit of the doubt and assume everyone else was just so very bad towards the Jews, a standard they (understandably) do not give them in medieval and modern times. The Jews were essentially just as disliked among their neighbors in ancient times as they were in modern times, this is a core part of the Bible.

But, I’m getting off topic about Jews. I could talk about alleged Biblical events like the Jewish massacre of the Amalekites. But let’s talk about what is attested outside of the Bible, particularly Jews during the classical era and the Jewish-Roman Wars. As well as the Jewish diaspora and what Greeks and Romans thought of Jews. My point here is to show you that Jews had a reputation as a generally unwholesome people before Jews became thoroughly Talmudic.

So, the Maccabean Revolt was really the first major war between Jews and the Western World (of the time) not including the Philistines. The Philistines were Mycenaean Greek Sea People, this is nothing short of proven fact at this point. In fact, the Sea People in general were probably at large just pirates from the general area of the Central Mediterrenean (from the Aegean to Baleares). There isn’t much of a mystery at this point. It’s been genetically proven that there were people in Ashkelon at the time of partial or full Mycenaean ancestry, and the Bible described the Mycenaeans as coming from Crete (which by that point I believe was Mycenaean, although many probably also used Crete and Cyprus as jumping off points).

And you can see the Greek distaste for Jews here on full display, and vice versa. Albeit, we don’t get to the really violent stuff on behalf of Jews until the Roman wars as far as I know. But it is pretty funny, these Jewish zealots hate the Gymnasium because they view going to the gym as pagan. Meanwhile these more assimilated Jews who are going to Gymnasium are found to be repulsive by Greeks because of their circumcised penises, which they view as not only mutilated, but also indecent. But aside from the meme value, I really can’t say much else on the Maccabean revolt. It lacks the grand massacres of the later wars with the Romans as far as I know.

Jewish Roman Wars

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So there are three Roman-Jewish Wars. The first Roman-Jewish War, the most famous one, with Titus and whatnot. The initial Jewish revolt in Jerusalem was preceded by probably around two decades of political violence by a Jewish zealot group known as the Sicarii. This group attacked both influential Jews who they opposed as well as Romans and Roman sympathizers. This group is featured in Varg Vikernes’ TTRPG ‘MYFAROG’, and plays a similar role in that game. There had already been various riots of Jews in preceding decades, often resulting in thousands dead. For example, a Passover riot in Jerusalem resulted in the reported deaths of 20,000-30,000. But the political and ethnic quarreling reached a boiling point in 66 AD, when the Jews of Jerusalem took the city, lynched Roman officials, sympathizers, and colonists, and began expelling gentiles wherever they went. The Roman Garrison was murdered entirely even after surrender.

What happens in the meantime is not the subject of this post. But in the aftermath, the Romans responded in kind by famously sacking Jerusalem. Several cities were destroyed by the Romans, but this was not necessarily for revenge so much as it was because these Jewish Zealots were completely unwilling to surrender. This war is often credited as the expulsion event of Jews from Judea, although I don’t know if this is entirely accurate. The Jewish diaspora in the Mediterranean was already significant at this point, which I’ll get to later, and on top of that Jews obviously remained very significant in the region considering the similar conditions of the third Jewish-Roman War.

Some Christians will say this was punishment on the Jews for rejecting Jesus, which is ridiculous. The Romans didn’t discriminate between Jews and Christians. Not for this war, and probably not in any realistic sense for the following wars. To the average Roman, the distinction between Jews and Christians would be like our distinction between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Christian historians centuries later claim that the Christians had left Jerusalem some time before the war, but even if this is true much of the Jewish countryside as well as many other towns and cities were laid to waste. Much of the Jews who were forced to flee across the Mediterranean were, in fact, early converts to Christianity. People misunderstand these early Christian centers in places like Greece and Anatolia and Alexandria to be fully comprised of Gentiles, when in reality these places had very large Jewish populations (we’ll get into that).

The second and less often discussed Jewish-Roman war is perhaps the most interesting of the three if you ask me. The Kitos War was a Jewish revolt not centered in Judea, but among the Jewish diaspora across the Roman-Persian East. Jews actually were delegated a fair amount of power by the Parthians, and even ran a few cities and towns in Mesopotamia in Parthian times. Much of urban Mesopotamia was majority or plurality Jewish. So when Trajan invaded Persia, many local Jews were very loyal to the Parthians and began to engage in partisan warfare behind Roman lines. Indeed, much of the reason Trajan’s position in Mesopotamia wasn’t tenable was because of the Jewish partisan violence. Iranians and Babylonians also engaged in it, but Jews disproportionately so and by their own volition rather than through coordinated military machinations

The Jewish revolts in Parthia soon spread to Jewish settlements elsewhere in the east. Particularly in Egypt and Crete. The Jews revolted in Cyrene and Crete, and upon gaining control immediately began committing outright genocide against gentiles. It is especially bad in Crete, where Cassius Dio reports 240,000 Greeks were killed. In Cyrene, not much less. As Cassius Dio reports:

“[The Jews] would cook their [Romans and Greeks] flesh, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood, and wear their skins for clothing. Others they would give to wild beasts and force still others to fight as gladiators. In all, consequently, two hundred and twenty thousand perished.”

These revolts were led by someone described as a self-proclaimed King of the Jews, Lukuas, but were not necessarily indicative of religious devotion. After destroying Cyrene, Lukuas made his way towards Alexandria, a city which was 1/3 Jewish at the time. The city had already been evacuated, but Lukuas’s forces nevertheless destroyed much of the cities ancient temples and set it ablaze. Jews revolted across Egypt, Rome’s most important province. This is not the first time the Jews of Alexandria were subject of social unrest. They had rioted during the first Jewish-Roman War as well, and before that they had been engaged in violence in the streets with the Greeks of Alexandria during the reign of Caligula.

Lukuas and other rebel leaders then made their way to Judea, where they were sheltered by religious authorities. However, by this point the Romans had refocused efforts on eradicating the rebellious Jewish forces and the rebels were soon surrounded in Judea around the city of Lod. The Talmud speaks of these Jews as martyrs.

The Roman response to this happening was complete expulsion of Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene. This meant every Jew. Again, the Romans did not de facto consider Christianity to be its own religion at this point, so this probably also entailed the ethnically Jewish Christians of the area at least to some extent, regardless of whether or not they were involved in the rebellion. By the early 2nd century AD Christians were beginning to be distinguished for administrative purposes, but they were still considered a movement of Jews.

The final and second most famous war considered a “Jewish-Roman War” (although in reality not the last Jewish-Roman War) is the Bar Kochba Revolt. Bar Kochba was a Jewish false messiah who instigated brutal guerilla war against the Roman Empire under Hadrian. One of the primary causes of this war was actually Hadrian’s restrictions on circumcision, which like I said, was something the Greeks and Romans found disgusting. Bar Kochba massacred unknown amounts of gentiles, particularly Roman and Greek colonists, as well as Jews and Christians who refused to join his army or collaborate with him. Interestingly, the Samaritans did actually fight with Bar Kochba. So, although I highly doubt Christians were fighting with him, the Bar Kochba Revolt was certainly not a reflection of the “Talmudists”. Again, the Jews praised this sort of violence within the Bible against innocent gentiles. No reason to think the Talmud was the cause and not the effect.

Roman Antisemitism and the Conclusion of Bar Kochba

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I really would like to get more into the result of the Jewish-Roman wars, but let’s talk a little bit about how the Romans and Greeks perceived the Jews. I will be deriving much of this from Thuletide’s great article on Greco-Roman Racialism.

The Greeks, as mentioned before, viewed the Jewish practice of circumcision as disgusting. Although, it’s worth mentioning that at the time other near eastern peoples also practiced circumcision. The Egyptians practiced it, or at least a partial form of it. The Syrians, Arabs, and Phoenicians also practiced it to some extent. But not necessarily as a ritual necessity. Herodotus says the Egyptians practiced it for hygienic purposes, which may make more sense in a warmer and more densely packed environment I suppose. The Greeks and Romans had a general distaste for these eastern peoples as soft, conniving, quick to accept tyranny, and effeminate, but also considered them quick-witted. Jews and Syrians were considered natural slaves in the Aristotelian sense, which Cicero says as if it is common knowledge:

“[Gabinius, Roman governor of Syria] handed [the revenue-farmers] over as slaves to Jews and Syrians, themselves peoples born to be slaves.” —On the Consular Provinces, Cicero (56 BC)

Jews had been settling in Italy since before Christ, and it didn’t take long after Christ for the Jews to be expelled from the city of Rome twice. One thing people do not realize about the Jews is that they have not always been so ethnocentric. Jews were actually largely disliked by the Romans early on for their proselytization efforts. While they were described as extremely vitriolic towards non-Jews, they made very active efforts to convert gentiles to Judaism in the same way Christians would later do. In 139 BC and 19 AD, Jews were expelled from Rome for this reason. Later some time during the reign of Claudius, Jews would be expelled for a third time from the city of Rome. Suetonius suggests this was over argumentations of a man called “Chrestus”, which may mean Jesus Christ, or not. This was only around a decade or two after the death of Jesus. It is possible the edict was a response to intra-Jewish violence between Messianic Jews and those who denied Christ. Again, the Romans made no distinction until later on.

Roman authors were very critical of Jews, especially following the destruction of the first Jewish-Roman War. Tacitus is extremely critical of Jews and likely influenced Hadrian’s later antisemitism, which we will get to. Here are some passages from Tacitus on the Jews:

“Whatever their origin, these observances are sanctioned by their antiquity. The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness. Wretches of the most abandoned kind who had no use for the religion of their fathers took to contributing dues and free-will offerings to swell the Jewish exchequer; and other reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others. Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child, and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution - hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death.” —Histories 5.5

“Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral.” —Histories 5.4

And here’s a quote from Seneca:

“the customs of this accursed people [the Jews] have gained such influence that they are now received throughout all the world. The vanquished have given laws to their victors.” — On Superstition, Seneca (1st Century BC to AD)

But yes, Judaism during the Hellenistic and Roman periods was very persistent at proselytizing which was one of the main reasons it was hated. Juvenal and Horace both mock Jewish proselytism in their satires. Philo, probably the most famous Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, says “Our customs win over and convert the barbarians and the Hellenes, the continent and the isles, the Orient and the Occident, Europe and Asia, the whole world, from end to end”. At this point I am too lazy to find source for this quote, but I see a lot of trustworthy articles citing it so… Stop being a soicuck! Fucking hell!…

Anyways, if it wasn’t obvious enough at this point, a lot of Romans did not like Jews. It seems especially the case among conservatives like Tacitus and Juvenal, who were more generally pretty xenophobic people. I really suggest more focus on Tacitus for our modern movement. Germania is not only a contra point to this ridiculous idea that Romans were obsessively Germanophobic (Germans were hardly irrelevant to any Romans during this period), but also shows that Roman conservatives viewed themselves in a similar position as ourselves. The Germans to Tacitus were a reflection of what Romans had been like in more ancient times. Chaste, republican, free from tyranny, deeply moral, pure-blooded, and battle-ready. Now, he witnessed Urban Rome as a cloaca gentium, this cesspool of the descendants of slaves and foreigners, largely from the Greek east. Indeed, even during the reign of Trajan, Rome was not the city it had been a century or two prior. Rural Italy was probably not so different, but we really need a better genetic profile of Imperial Italy to know what exactly was going on. BUUUUUUT I digress……

Now, we get back to the topic at hand… Hadrian’s reinforcements have arrived in Jerusalem. Bar Kochba is on borrowed time. How do you respond to the third major Jewish revolt in less than a century? Well, for Hadrian, it was ehh, how yuo say, Total Judean Death…

This was probably the event which really took the Jewish world out of Jerusalem. Jews were not completely eviscerated within the Holy Land, but it was certainly heavily depopulated. Cassius Dio reports 580,000 slain in warfare, and probably much more due to the resulting disease and famine. Untold numbers more were sold into slavery. Dio also reports that a total of 985 settlements and 50 outposts were destroyed by the Romans. This is corroborated by modern archaeology, which shows that virtually all Jewish sites that intersected with the Bar Kochba revolt were partially or entirely destroyed in that time.

This event was, at least in my opinion, more typically genocidal than anything the Nazis or the Tsarists or the Crusaders did. But, perhaps not a discussion for Substack… However, it was too little too late for Hadrian. Jews now were widespread across the Empire, coming in Vanilla flavor and Christian flavor. That is not to mention the many Jews who resided in Babylonia and Persia.

Conclusion

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I don’t want to make this out as extremely critical of Jews any more than it is critical of Romans. But it’s just worth knowing these things if you’re gonna talk about Jews. Like, yeah, it’s understandable why Jews were so violent just like it’s understandable why the Romans were reciprocally violent. But this does contest these Atheist notions that Jews “literally are just vibing and don’t force their religion onto others”. This also contests the Christian notion that the ethnocentric element of Paganism is “Jewish”. Jews were very proselytizing up until they realized they couldn’t compete for converts with Christians. Then they reverted inward. Today Jews are still proselytizing, but instead of promoting Judaism they promote “Jewish Values”. See my earlier post on Judaism for more on that.

It also helps understand Jewish genetics. Zionist-baiting papers like to model European Jews in a very peculiar way, as a 50/50 split between Levantine Israelites and Northern Italians. This is in spite of the fact that Jews were mostly concentrated in urban areas which were not genetically like modern Northern Italians until the High Middle Ages, and on top of that Jews tended to be more concentrated in Southern Italy than Northern Italy during Roman times. It makes much more sense to model Jews using urban Imperial Romans/Greeks/Anatolians or modern Southern Italians, but this reduces the excess Levantine which makes it polemically less valuable for Zionists. Obviously this latter model makes more sense when you consider that Jews were converting gentiles en masse, largely from the urban poor (hardly “Roman” by any means). This is true for Christians as well, by the way.

This does not mean that ancient Israelites were Aryan or some shit either. It’s very clear now that genetically the closest people to ancient Israelites are Samaritans. Which is ironic, considering how they were slandered as being mixed and hence not Jews.

Anyways, this one was way longer than I anticipated, but next one in the Judaism installment will be about Zionism. I know, it is a lot of Jewish content. But I promised I would make four, and I have built up a lot of stuff about Jews over the years of iFunny silencing anything involving Jews. It must be let out now. Then we can not talk about Jews for a while.