Sure thing! Essentially, Messianic theology of the Second Temple period was often very explicitly physical - that there would be a messiah who would be a literal and political king, and bring forth a renewed worldly kingdom of Israel, redeeming the Jews in God’s eyes and some other theological stuff I’m less familiar with. The thing is, that necessarily implies (and encourages) attempts to free what was then Roman Iudea from Roman rule, war and all.
The three Jewish-Roman Wars were so devastating that by the end of the 2nd century AD, mainstream Judaism had abandoned the idea of an immediate and political messiah in favor of a more vague and spiritual interpretation of a coming messianic age which did not necessarily include a literal king or even an actual kingdom of Israel, much less any idea of starting a war over it.
There’s a lot more tied up in this - the destruction of the Second Temple alone by Roman forces caused major changes in Judaism’s practices and thinking - but that’s the gist of it.
This sounds interesting, could you give me some backstory?
Sure thing! Essentially, Messianic theology of the Second Temple period was often very explicitly physical - that there would be a messiah who would be a literal and political king, and bring forth a renewed worldly kingdom of Israel, redeeming the Jews in God’s eyes and some other theological stuff I’m less familiar with. The thing is, that necessarily implies (and encourages) attempts to free what was then Roman Iudea from Roman rule, war and all.
The three Jewish-Roman Wars were so devastating that by the end of the 2nd century AD, mainstream Judaism had abandoned the idea of an immediate and political messiah in favor of a more vague and spiritual interpretation of a coming messianic age which did not necessarily include a literal king or even an actual kingdom of Israel, much less any idea of starting a war over it.
There’s a lot more tied up in this - the destruction of the Second Temple alone by Roman forces caused major changes in Judaism’s practices and thinking - but that’s the gist of it.