The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation (3)

The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation

The Destruction of the Temple

Earlier, we read about Jesus, the founder of Christianity. The Romans put Jesus to death, because they were afraid that the Jewish people would follow Jesus and obey him, instead of obeying the rulers of Rome. They were always worried that the countries Rome ruled would rebel against the “First Citizen,” who was now known as imperator, or “emperor.” And the Jews hated Roman rule. They wanted to be free again!

The Jews had been ruled by other countries for many years. Do you remember who was the father of the Jewish people? Abraham left Haran and went to Canaan. There, he had a son named Isaac and Isaac had a son named Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons. And each one of Jacob’s sons had a family of their own. Now Abraham’s family was as big as a whole nation! And they were called “Israelites” or “Jews.”

Jacob loved his son Joseph more than his other sons. The other eleven brothers were jealous, and they sold Joseph as a slave. Joseph was taken to Egypt, and soon the rest of the Israelites came down to join him, because a famine had wiped out all their crops—and there was only grain in Egypt.

The Israelites lived in Egypt for a long time. But the pharaoh made them into slaves, until Moses came along and led them out of Egypt, back up to Canaan. The Israelites lived in Canaan until the Assyrians came along, captured them, and took them away, back to Assyria. The Assyrians were then conquered by the Babylonians—who took the Israelites from Assyria and moved them to Babylon. Then the good king of Persia and Babylon, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission

to move back to their own land—back to Canaan.

The Jews had been moved around the ancient world for hundreds of years. After Cyrus allowed them to go home, they hoped that they would finally get to stay in their own country and live in peace.

But now they were being ruled by Rome. The Romans were telling them what to do. The Romans were forcing them to pay high taxes.

Finally, the Jews refused to obey any longer. They set fire to the house of the Roman ruler of Judea. Armed groups of Jewish men attacked Roman soldiers. Fighting between the Jews and the Romans in Jerusalem grew worse and worse.

When the emperor in Rome heard what was happening, he sent more Roman soldiers with orders to destroy Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews.

Jerusalem was an important city to the Jews. Inside the city was the Temple, the place where they worshipped God. But when the Roman soldiers attacked, they burned down the Temple. Inside the temple were many beautiful decorations made of gold and silver. One ancient historian writes that, when the Temple burned down, the gold and silver melted and ran into the cracks between the huge stones of the Temple’s foundation. The Roman soldiers, anxious to get at this wealth, pried the stones apart with crowbars. This completely destroyed the Temple, all the way down to its foundation. And then the Romans drove the Jewish people away from Jerusalem. Now the Jews had no Temple to worship God in, no capital city, and no country of their own. They were scattered throughout all the countries of the ancient world. The Jews didn’t return to the land of Canaan until just a few years ago.

Multiple Choice

When Joseph lived in Egypt, the Israelites joined him there because ______________.

• a. they missed Joseph so much

• b. they thought they could become rich in Egypt

• c. a famine had destroyed all their crops

• d. they wanted to worship the Egyptian gods

Multiple Choice

Why didn’t the Jews like the Romans?

• a. The Romans forced them to pay high taxes.

• b. The Romans would not let them stay in their own country.

• c. The Romans wouldn’t let them worship God.

• d. The Romans made them their slaves.

Multiple Choice

The Jews worshipped God in the Temple in the city of ________.

• a. Rome

• b. Jerusalem

• c. Bethlehem

• d. Nazareth

Multiple Choice

What did the Jews do when they rebelled against Rome?

• a. They set fire to the house of the Roman ruler of Judea.

• b. Armed groups of Jewish men attacked Roman soldiers.

• c. They killed the emperor.

• d. a and b

Multiple Choice

What did the Romans do when the Jews rebelled?

• a. They killed all of the Jews.

• b. They ignored the Jews and let them have their country.

• c. They burned down the Temple.

• d. a and b

Multiple Choice

What happened to all of the gold and silver decorations inside the Temple?

• a. The Jews hid them from the Romans.

• b. They melted into the cracks between the stones of the Temple’s foundations.

• c. The Jews sold them to help pay for their fight against the Romans.

• d. The Jews gave them to the Romans.

Multiple Choice

What happened to the Jews?

• a. They were scattered throughout all the countries of the ancient world.

• b. They remained in Canaan, but were never again a strong nation.

• c. They conquered the Romans.

• d. They were all killed.

Multiple Choice

Other countries ruled the Jews for many years.

• true

• false

Multiple Choice

The Romans never worried about countries rebelling against them.

• true

• false

Multiple Choice

The Temple was destroyed, all the way down to its foundation.

• true

• false

Multiple Choice

The Jews have never returned to the land of Canaan.

• true

• false