judaism without a temple 243
not in the diversity of Judaism but in the diversity of the evidence for
that Judaism. The Christian tradition, which preserved Jewish Greek
writings such as the works of Josephus composed before 100 ce, lost
interest in the preservation of non- Christian Jewish writings after c. 100
ce because Christians were creating an extensive literature of their own.
As a result, the nature of Judaism from the end of the first century to the
end of the first millennium ce has to be divined primarily from the great
mass of religious traditions preserved by rabbis who had little or no
interest in non- rabbinic forms of Judaism (see Chapter 11), although (as
we shall see in Chapter 12) traces of these other forms of Judaism can
still be discovered in the archaeological and epigraphic record.
We have seen that, according to Josephus, who was an eyewitness
from the Roman camp, the destruction of the Temple in August 70 ce
was not intended by the Roman high command. In the chaos of the
siege a fire started by a lighted brand flung into the sanctuary by a
Roman soldier spread rapidly out of control and attempts by Titus to
save the building were in vain. Josephus was clear that Titus had been
the instrument of the Jewish God in punishing his people for their sins.
It was equally clear that, just as God had brought about in due course
the rebuilding of the Temple after its destruction by the Babylonians in
586 bce, so too its rebuilding could be expected now. The Torah con-
tained explicit injunctions to Jews to bring sacrifices and offerings, so to
decide that this was no longer possible was hardly an obvious option.
The Jerusalem Temple was not the only religious building to burn down
by accident in the Roman empire – indeed, the temple of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus in Rome had burned down the previous year. The obvious option
for Jews was to hope and pray for a rapid rebuilding of their shrine, and
for them to strain every sinew to bring it about.^3
Josephus, writing in the mid- 90s ce, took it for granted that Jews
were expected still to worship in the Temple, boasting in Against Apion
about its excellence:
One temple of the one God – for like is always attracted to like – common
to all people as belonging to the common God of all. The priests will con-
tinuously offer worship to him, and the one who is first by descent will
always be at their head. He, together with the other priests, will sacrifice
to God, will safeguard their laws, will adjudicate in disputes, and will pun-
ish those who are convicted ... We offer sacrifices not for our gratification
or drunkenness – for that is undesirable to God and would be a pretext
for violence and lavish expenditure – but such as are sober, orderly,