The Jewish War: Last half of book 6

[cahn]

Last week:Lament for the destroyed trees and landscape around Jerusalem. A woman eats her own child. More discussion of Titus and whether he wanted to spare the Temple or not. The Carthage and Alexandria precedents for Romans treating defeated opponents. Torching a temple = REALLY BAD LUCK. The timetable of the siege of Jerusalem set by Vespasian's ascent as emperor.

This week: The aftermath of the burning of the temple, and the end of the siege of Jerusalem. Still some pretty awful stuff.

Next week: First half of book 7... isn't this the last book?! OK, selenak, give us a stopping point... :)

Comments

Re: Recap

[cenozoicsynapsid]

A comet isn't a terrible option for the Star of Bethlehem; the University of Wikipedia links to this article http://www.observadores-cometas.com/Star_of_Bethlehem/English/Chinese.htm which has a lot of details on potential observations of comets or novae of the period. If the "star" were a comet, it would likely have had a visible tail, which perhaps the Gospels simply do not bother to describe. There may have been more than one comet. Halley's, specifically, was visible in 12 BC, and "not a particularly spectacular apparition" in the Chinese sources. There was likely another "bushy star" in 5 BC.

I believe the scholarly consensus (back in the dark ages when I took this class) is that the tradition of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem is entirely specious and that he was likely born in Nazareth. The Gospels really want him to be born in Bethlehem because (as you pointed out wrt. Micah 5:2) it is the hometown of King David, and therefore the prophesied home of the anointed heir of David (literally what 'Messiah' means). (So, Matthew has a whole genealogy of his descent from David, Luke says he's descended from David and doesn't say how, and John straight-out says (7:41-2) "But others said, “Is the Messiah supposed to come from Galilee? Doesn’t scripture say that the Messiah is from the line of David, and from David’s village of Bethlehem?")

Anyway, we've all seen a comet, I think, and the idea that it "stops" at some particular place in the countryside is ridiculous. They may point in particular directions in the sky, but unless you're Arthur Dent, an astronomical object is not a van and it doesn't pull over for a rest every so often.