Rabbinic Judaism and Roman Rule

TIMELINE 4A

Rabbinic Judaism and Roman Rule

135 to 500

After Bar Kokhba, Jewish life gathers around the sages. The Mishnah and the Talmuds are written, and in the fourth century Roman rule becomes Byzantine Christian rule.

TURNING POINTS

135 Hadrian bars the Jews from Jerusalem. After the Bar Kokhba revolt fails, Jerusalem becomes Aelia Capitolina and Judea is renamed Syria Palaestina.

c. 200 The Mishnah is compiled. Rabbi Judah the Prince writes down the oral law in the Galilee.

313 Rome tolerates Christianity. Constantine ends the persecution of Christians. Jerusalem soon becomes a center of Christian pilgrimage.

351 The revolt against Gallus. Jews in the Galilee rise against Roman rule. Sepphoris, Tiberias and Lod are damaged as it is put down.

363 Julian plans to rebuild the Temple. The emperor allows work to begin in Jerusalem. It stops within weeks, after a fire, an earthquake and his death in battle.

c. 400 The Jerusalem Talmud is completed. It is finished in the Galilee and builds on the Mishnah.

c. 425 The patriarchate ends. Rome stops recognizing the Jewish patriarch in Tiberias, the head of the Jews for centuries.

c. 500 The Babylonian Talmud is completed. The sages of Babylonia finish the work that becomes the core of Jewish law.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

c. 220 Beth Shearim becomes the burial place of Rabbi Judah the Prince and the sages.

324 Constantine takes the eastern empire, and the land comes under a Christian emperor.

c. 335 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.

c. 359 Hillel II publishes a fixed Hebrew calendar, according to tradition.

438 Empress Eudocia allows Jews to pray at the Temple Mount on the festivals.