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The independence of the Hasmonean state was maintained until 63 BCE; and the evidence of the Qumran manuscripts indicates that literary activity continued apace in this period, attesting as it does to a wide variety of genres. Much of this activity is represented by works now in fragmentary form which treated the religious life of Israel in general or the ordering of the Yahad in particular: it seems that some of the pesharim may date from the later years of Hasmonean rule. In 63 BCE, however, the Romans took control of Jerusalem and Judaea, while confirming in office the reigning Hasmonean high priest John Hyrcanus II. The events leading to these political changes involved Jewish factionalism on a grand scale and effective civil war, one group of Jews aligning themselves with John Hyrcanus and his Pharisee supporters, another with his energetic brother Aristobulos II and the Sadducees. The Psalms of Solomon, composed originally in Hebrew and surviving in Greek translation, consist in their final form of 18 poems which reflect on this civil strife, the Roman intervention under Pompey which brought it to an end, and on its uncomfortable aftermath. Jewish attitudes are judged; the nature of Pompey’s invasion is critiqued and analysed; and the ultimate future of the Jews is entrusted to God and the activities of a Davidic Messiah (Atkinson 2004).

The end of the Hasmonean state, and the advent of the Romans as rulers of Judaea, led to the eventual rise of Herod I as king of the Jews, a position he maintained from 37 to 4 BCE as a steadfast ally of Rome. A Life of Herod was composed in Greek by the prolific philosopher, scholar, and historian Nicolaus of Damascus (born around 64 BCE): now lost, it is widely believed that this Life was the major source for the account of Herod’s reign set out by the Jewish priest-historian Josephus in his Antiquities books 15–17 (Wacholder 1962). It is also clear that Josephus mined the very extensive writings of Nicolaus to find information on the Jews in Hasmonean and earlier periods as well. Josephus himself is celebrated for his account of the First Jewish War against Rome (66–73 CE), which he published around 75 CE, and for his Anqtiquities of the Jews (published around 95 CE), which tells the story of Israel in 20 books from the creation of the world until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, using as sources the books of the Hebrew Bible, and non-canonical Jewish texts like Maccabees. Josephus’s works, therefore, cover the whole of Herod’s reign, the fortunes of Herod’s family, and the rule of the Roman governors in Palestine until the outbreak of war, relying on sources no longer available to us. Although not conspicuous for his loyalty to his own people during the war of 66–70, and sometimes presenting events in which he was directly involved in a less than dispassionate manner, Josephus is the only writer to have left us a connected narrative of the history of the Jewish people from pre-Hasmonean times to the fall of the Temple. He wrote in Greek, and was thus able to command a non-Jewish readership which preserved his writing for posterity. Of all the Jewish sources noted in this essay, he is undoubtedly the best known, and certainly the most widely investigated as a source for historical material (Feldman and Hata 1989; Hadas-Lebel 1993; Rajak 2002; Mason 2003a; Sievers and Lembi 2005; see also Chapter 7).

Throughout the first half of the first century CE, relations between Jews and their Roman masters steadily deteriorated, until the Jews of Judaea and the Galilee rose in rebellion against direct Roman rule in 66 CE. Two lengthy writings saw the light of day around this time. The first, called the Book of Biblical Antiquities (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum), incorrectly attributed to Philo of Alexandria, is another example of “Re-written Bible” and represents a highly selective re-working of information found in the biblical books Genesis–1 Samuel. Much additional, non-biblical information is incorporated into a text which is evidently keen to discuss various forms of leadership, and their appropriateness for the Jewish people at times of crisis, while offering insights into the ultimate significance of Israel’s history along with veiled predictions for the future. Scholars are divided over the book’s date, some preferring to place its final form in the years leading up to the First Revolt against Rome, others arguing that it is best understood as a reaction to the Fall of Jerusalem. Few students, however, would dispute its value as a source for Jewish thought and aspiration in the later part of the first century CE. It survives only in a Latin version, which was probably made from a Greek translation of a Hebrew (or Aramaic) original (Jacobson 1996): this is of some interest, given that the other major Jewish source approximately contemporary with it also survives only in a Latin version. This is the apocalyptic text IV Ezra, also known as II Esdras, a remarkable composition which offers a sustained reflection upon, and response to, the political and religious problems consequent upon the destruction of the Jewish Temple and state (Harnisch 1969; Stone 1990). It offers a carefully and deliberately structured theological and philosophical discourse, built around a series of visions experienced by the eponymous author, and his dialogues with the archangel Uriel. The text proceeds by gradually analysing the situation of the Jews before and after the revolt against Rome: in the course of this analysis, there emerges the enduring power of what Israel still possesses as a people, most especially the Torah of Moses and its commandments. These present possessions offer a future for Israel; and the guidance of “the wise among the people,” to whom Ezra is told to commit certain writings not made public (14:46–47), is mentioned at the end of the book as something on which future generations might rely.

Some literary relationship (its precise nature is debated) is apparent between IV Ezra and a later text known as II Baruch, or the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, composed most likely around 135 CE at the end of the Second Revolt against Rome. Predictions of a glorious future for Israel in a Messianic age following her humiliation at the hands of the Gentiles are here set forth as part of a programme determined by God, who will judge the wicked and Israel’s oppressors, and create for His people prosperity and peace (Harnisch 1969; Nir 2003). It is noteworthy that we possess no Jewish source in our period later than II Baruch which deals with future hopes and Messianic expectations in such detail. There is little doubt that hopes for the future fuelled the Second Revolt against Rome, which broke out on 132 CE under the leadership of Simeon ben Kosiba, whose followers called him Bar Kokhba (the Son of the Star) with reference to the messianic prophecy recorded in Numb 24:17. Between 1950 and 1965, documents in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek relating to this revolt came to light: they were discovered in caves located in Nahal Hever (or in the case of some documents possibly in Nahal Se’elim) in the Judaean desert. Whilst these documents, sometimes referred to as the Bar Kokhba Letters, tell us little about the causes and overall progress of the revolt (these still remain matters of considerable debate), they indicate that Bar Kokhba was known to his supporters as “Prince of Israel”; that some non-Jews had joined the revolt (thus supporting some classical accounts of the revolt, indicating that it was no minor affair); and that the Jews were remarkably well-organized militarily, a fact corroborated by archaeological evidence from the same geographical area as the literary discoveries and from other sites (Eck 1999; Yadin e.a. 2002; Zissu e.a. 2011). Also at Nehal Hever were found documents belonging to a Jewish lady, Babatha (“the Babatha archive”), which date from the period c. 93–132 CE and are remarkably informative about the legal systems, both Jewish and Roman in use during this period (Oudshoorn 2007; see also Chapter 11).