BBC Cancels Documentary That Claims Most Jews Were Not Exiled By Rome After Temple Destroyed

At last minute, the BBC has canceled a documentary that claims to show that the exile of a large part of the Land of Israel's Jews by the Romans after the Destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba revolt that followed a half-century later never happened.

 

I imagine this documentary is, in part, probably based on the book The Chosen Few, which convincingly shows that the numbers of Jews decreased because of the new post-Destruction demands for community membership – mostly the demand to send your male children to school.

The schools were costly and, in an agrarian economy had little practical value to parents who were expected to do it. Instead, sending male children to school cost farmers and small artisans their helpers and assistants, and drove up the cost of their businesses, meaning the families had less food, less money and less of the necessities of life if they did it.

Christianity was also monotheistic and it made no similar demands of followers, and as such it had a tremendous draw for poor Jews and what we would call lower middle class or working class Jews.

In other words, most Jews simply faded away, assimillating into local Christian sects or the local pagan population, because the cost of schools – heders, yeshivas, day schools in today's parlance – was too high.

Sound familiar?

Comments

[Dave]

It's a very interesting thesis. However, I disagree that Christianity is monotheistic (once you belive in the idea of the trinity, you no longer believe in monotheism), and even the early Christians who did not believe in the divinity of Jesus were borderline heretical and on a slippery slope to total avoda zarah.

[Shalom]

The question remains, where did all the Jews who were in Israel at that time end up going? At some point the population in Israel diminished from 2.5 million around the time of the second temple's destruction, to 250,000, and it remained around that number until the 1800's. So even if they converted, where did they all go?

[Michael]

This is an interesting theory. However, we have ample historical documentation of these events from Josephus and Tacitus, among others, that show these events clearly did happen.

[Shmarya Rosenberg]

Michael –

No. Actually we do not, and that is clearly demonstrated in The Chosen Few and elsewhere. Perhaps you should read it.

[Adam Neira]

The best reference book on this period of history is...

"A Short History of the Jewish People" by Cecil Roth (1936 - A not so short 443 pages.)

Ilan Ziv sounds a bit like Shlomo Sands. Historical research is fraught with danger when people don't get to the truth of the matter. It is also very easy to get publicity by distorting and sensationalising historical facts. I am quite sure that after the second temple was destroyed circa 70 ace there was an exile from the land, but that it was neither absolute or minor. The story of the Jewish people over the last 3400 years is a remarkable one. How the faith has endured is quite remarkable.

[jancsibacsi]

Adam Neira--Good to see an improved adam neira its refreshing,adam youre eloquent writing is very interesting to me no one will ever really know what exactly happened so, its all guessing.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Pity. I looked up The Chosen Few. it's pricey but seems worth the investment. If the authors are correct, then those who chose to hold onto their faith later became economically advantaged by their literacy in an age of widespread illiteracy.
You cannot compare this with today's haredim, whose education is far below the rest of the general population. On the contrary, today it would be the polar opposite, like requiring all Jews to earn a PhD in an applied science or engineering.
Since the documentary is already completed, it will presumably appear elsewhere for viewing. I'll keep an eye peeled.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Even if a massive emigration did not take place, Jews were probably expelled from Jerusalem, which became the pagan city of Aeli a Capitolina. Jerusalemites might have been exiled internally, however. This changes nothing. What matters is identity, not racial essence. Some people like Shlomo Sand try to delegitimize the Jewish people by saying the Palestinians are the real Jews, and the current Jews are converts and therefore impostors. I say that's irrelevant because I am not a racial essentialist. Anyone practicing Judaism and maintaining a Jewish identity is a Jew, regardless of his/her DNA. (Or even secular Jews maintaining the culture but not halacha). Anyone who has rejected his/her Jewish identity is not a Jew. (I know halacha says differently, but this is how I feel). I don't give a toss if I have 100$ Semitic DNA or 0% DNA. I know who I am.

[Garnel Ironheart]

Yes and next week Failed Messiah will bring you another exclusive, the REAL reason the Temple was destroyed. It seems evidence has emerged that time-travelling Chareidim from Mea Shearim from the year 2031 are responsible after seeing that the priests of the Second Temple did not wear black hats or speak Yiddish and in their anger they're the real arsonists.
Which is about as plausible as any BBC-produced documentary.

[Dave]

Very well said, Yochanan.
Furthermore we must accept and honour any sincere converts who are willing to undergo a halachic conversion, regardless of their race or national origin.

[mb]

The exile happened after the Bar Kochba revolt failed in 136, not in 70.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

YL, and there are different ways of being exiled. If your educational skills are such that they have little value in an agrarian economy, but make you valuable in more industrialized locations, then migration is becomes almost a necessity.
Whether you leave because you are expelled or migrate voluntarily may be less important than the fact that you are different from the rest of the society. And that difference is identity.
of course, as always, you said this better.

[Garnel Ironheart]

Of course another reason the Beeb might have dropped it is because it asserts that there was a Second Temple in a Jewish Jerusalem and this would upset all their Muslim viewers who ardently believe that to be a lie.

[Reese]

Sounds like this show was brought to you by the folks who brought you the Khazars baloney.

[Avi]

"The exile happened after the Bar Kochba revolt failed in 136, not in 70."

Bingo.

The Romans brought 12 legions, a third of the Roman Army, to destroy Bar Kochba's state. They did this by systematically destroying Jewish towns and villages.

Shmarya says the thesis of this programme includes the contention that the Bar Kochba revolt never happened. The article doesn't seem to support that. In any case, such a contention would fly in the face of a lot of archeological evidence.

[Gnarlodious]

Of course they did it, because their thesis, however wrong, would cast the Jews as never really being exiled and therefore having a stronger claim to Palestine. So yeah, that's "hot" material.

[Ben]

The extension of this logic is that Palestinian Arabs are really Jews who decided to stay in Palestine and not Arab invaders from Saudi Arabia and Syria.

I the war of defamation and delegitimization Palestinian Arabs already call themselves descendants of Phisitines and Kanaanites. The next step they will claim that they are the real Jews. Just wait a little.

[Yoel Mechanic]

anyone care to elaborate on what the political implications are, and what it means to them?

[Chaim7356]

Jesus fucking Christ...Shmarya, your credulousness and total lack of familiarity with sources, are sad....the archeological record for the BK revolt is so huge, with so many thousands of pieces of evidence...wait a second - Jesus? Maybe he didn't exist, either....documentary time!

[Shmarya Rosenberg]

Do you have a mental illness? I never said the revolt did not happen. I said the mass exile did not happen.

[Yoel Mechanic]

>At last minute, the BBC has canceled a documentary that claims to show that the exile of a large part of the Land of Israel's Jews by the Romans after the Destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba revolt that followed a half-century later never happened.
------------------------------------------

Just to clarify my earlier question: I'm interested to hear a range of views on what various commentors think will be the current day political implications of this.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

just like they fake or distort the significance of archeological findings to 'create' sensational stories, i find that many israeli academics in the field of history to be lacking credibility.
they come with an agenda and build a story around it.
see their opinions on the khazars, the exodus from egypt & the very thick book of bubbe maysess of netanyahu senior (ben-zion that called himself b. netanyahu - was he ashamed of his zionist/jewish name?).
this is true for both academics from the left or the right. i distrust both.
so i don't get all excited about theories of excessive costs of antiquities ramaz & other day schools that would have caused a mass conversion to christianity and islam. where did the jews of spain italy (aka rome) and ashkenaz come from?

[Yosef ben Matitya]

the bbc is another entity that will stop at nothing to create sensational baseless theories.
they too are of those that come with an agenda and build a story around it.

[Ze'ev]

I am shocked that no one has yet pointed out that it is true that Jews are for the most part descended from Roman era exiles, it is also true that the Romans did not deport the entire population, only the upper classes.
And yes, the Palestinians are largely descended from the unlettered lower classes who were left behind.
Just as the Samaritans are the remnant of those who were never exiled by Babylon, though have a divergent enough practice that they would require conversion to be considered Jews, so are the Palestinians, despite many generations of Christian and Muslim practice, of Israelite descent.
Many of them know this and keep it a family secret.

[ger tzedek]

Posted by: Dave | April 29, 2013 at 11:09 AM

I might be biased (since I have Christian relatives I'd like to think of as Noachides), but I disagree that Christianity isn't monotheistic. There are a couple of early heresies (monophysitism and Arianism) that were troublingly iffy about monotheism, but orthodox Christianity (in both the East and West) was very focused on doctrine that avoided separating the divine nature of Jesus from G-d or mixing the divine nature of Jesus with his human nature, which clearly shows an early commitment to monotheism. Nowadays, I'd argue that mainline Christians tend to view the Trinity so abstractly that they're monotheist, whereas Evangelicals tend to relate to Jesus so concretely that their monotheism is questionable. That's just my opinion, though.

(Source: believing this sh** for 20+ years.)

[Dave]

GT, I disagree with you. However, just because I think Christianity is idolatry, I still think that trinitarian Christians can inherit Olam Haba, provided they live by the ethical laws of the Torah.
I know that sounds bizarre. However I know that Hashem is merciful.