Jerusalem Under Siege

[Narukami]

Very expensive on Amazon.

Here is a review from there:

http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Against-...ainst+Rome

Jerusalem Against Rome (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture & Religion) (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion) [Paperback]
J Hadas-Lebel (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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5.0 out of 5 stars Textual analysis of some oft-overlooked depictions of Roman-Jewish warfare March 25, 2009
By James J. Bloom VINE VOICE
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I was aware of Dr. Hadas-lebel's excellent work on the Jewish revolts through her popular book on Josephus Flavius. This is a much more scholarly work, though well written. For the most part it combs through Jewish writings of the period embracing the three major Jewish revolts against Rome, 1st through 2nd centuries AD, to get the Jewish take on these events. Apart from Josephus' detailed (though suspiciously self-serving) diary of the First Revolt, there is very little on the Jewish side. Rome has been represented by the fragments from Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and the early Christian church prelates. Professor Hadas-lebel had to comb through some very dry and excruciatingly a-historical Jewish tractates on Torah interpretation (Midrash, Talmuds, etc.) to glean the ambiguous historical references. She has performed a valuable service. For my part, my eyes cross when I have to sift through all the tediously legalistic and sacerdotal blather contained in the Talmuds. She has had to apply some very creative, if at times a bit too trusting, interpretations of the Talmudic references to possible historical events. After all, the religious pedants writing the various tractates were really not much concerned with "history" as such and were thus often anachronistic in referring to historical events and persons. Also, they were fond of using allegory, so we can't even be certain that the people and events are real. I am glad that Ms. Hadas-lebel has performed this valuable service in wading through this dull material and mining it for whatever historical nuggets we can find on the "Jewish reaction" to Roman rule, mis-rule, and persecution.

:wink:

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