Legion near Judea at time of Jesus

[Crispvs]

Why would Judea need legionary assistance most of the time, apart from times such as the Jewish Revolt in the AD60s, which is outside the time period being asked about anyway?

The period being asked about is c.6BC to c.AD36 (*).

During this time the prefect of Judea had c.500 cavalry and c.2880-3360 infantry at his disposal, which should have been ample to handle the day to day military needs of the praefecture. As the Judean praefecture was under the oversight of the governor of Syria, it would be for the governor of Syria, rather than Pilate or his predecessors, to decide on whether and what further military assistance was required if the situation appeared to demand it.


(*) As Herod the Great died in 4BC, Jesus must have been born before this, as Matthew's gospel specifically mentions that the family returned to Judea from Egypt after Herod the Great had died and when Herod Archelaus was king. Luke's reference to the census called by Quirinius, governor of Syria (presumably in the name of Augustus) would point to AD6, when Herod Archelaus was deposed, but Luke's emphasis on it being the first census might suggest that he has somehow confused the census in AD6 with a sort of census / survey of nobles and potential threats to the throne that Herod the Great had ordered in his dying days ten years earlier, which would then fit quite well with Matthew's account. Luke (who was writing in the late AD50s or early AD60s) says Jesus started his ministry when he was about thirty (so perhaps somewhere between twenty eight and thirty five) and it is clear from both the gospels and Josephus this this was after the appearance of John the Baptist in c.AD28. Pilate fell from office in AD36 so that year provides the cut-off date.

Crispvs