Open Collections

Polcin, Louis James

University of British Columbia

Josephus notes that Herod (r. 37–4 BCE) instituted a permanent shift in Jewish history; for the Jewish-Roman historian, Herod was the first ruler who “destroyed the long-held customs which were inviolable.” (Antiquities 15.267) While Josephus uses this claim to place Herod within a specific literary topos, Herodian engagement with non-Jewish practices is clear; Herod constructed a number of cities in honor of Augustus, such as Caesarea and Sebaste, complete with temples to the imperial cult. (Bellum Judaicum, 1.403–415; Ant. 15.326–341, 363) Yet Herod also maintained Jewish ritual baths in his palatial complexes, refrained from displaying “graven images” of people or animals within Judea, and even massively expanded the temple in Jerusalem. (BJ 1.401; Ant 15.380–423) These seeming contradictions have led scholars to develop the so-called “many faces” approach to understanding Herod, whereby he operated according to local tradition, with little regard for any organized, structured approach to legitimizing his kingship. In this study, a draft of which I would submit to Professor Hayes, I argue that we need not understand Herod’s support for Jews and non-Jews alike as contradictory; instead, I suggest that Herod adopted a predominantly Hellenistic and Roman form of rulership. I further seek to foreground a specific practice of Hellenistic rulers that has hitherto not received sufficient attention in Herodian scholarship: the support and respect for a wide array of local cults and traditions in exchange for political loyalty. This is a key link that allows us to consider Herod’s support for multiple local cults, including the Jerusalem temple, as subsumed within a common Hellenistic conception of widespread religious toleration. Within this Hellenistic framework, Herod could gain the support of each cultural group that came under his authority, thus engaging productively with the wide array of cultural and theological communities within his kingdom.

Text

2023-04-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84441

Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/