While admitting that:
The information provided by Josephus and the Gospels, along with the rereading of Tacitus’ passage, constitutes admittedly just a small set of scattered pieces of evidence that does not indicate a generalized revolutionary behavior, but all the reports in concert indicate that the period under the prefects was not as idyllically quiet and peaceful as scholars claim and would have us believe. Bermejo-Rubio goes on to detail various types of resistance to Roman occupation.
Understanding Resistance: Introductory Remarks
Resistance is a transversal and debated topic in scholarship, having received attention in disciplines such as anthropology, history, cultural studies, and political science. Since the term has been used to describe a wide variety of behaviors at all levels of human social life (individual, collective, and institutional) and in a number of different settings, it is surrounded by a certain conceptual fuzziness. It is thus advisable to make clear some basic elements of our understanding of the term. Beyond the disagreements as to which behaviors should be referred to as resistance and the lack of consensus on the definition of the term, there seems to be virtual unanimity in conceptualizing resistance as a phenomenon that involves oppositional action of some kind.12 On the one hand, resistance is understood as some sort of action: it is accordingly not a quality of an actor or a state of being, but involves some active behavior, whether verbal (words), cognitive (thoughts), or physical (deeds). Action is here broadly conceived, including the decision to remain silent or inactive on some occasions. This aspect should be highlighted, as the widespread phrase passive resistance might be misleading: it should not be misunderstood as implying mere passivity, since it can be thought of as an active, but nonviolent, mode of struggle. On the other hand, the term denotes a sense of opposition: the action carried out has a subversive, challenging, questioning, or disruptive character of existing structures and dominant power relations.
Bermejo-Rubio, Fernando. They Suffered under Pontius Pilate: Jewish Anti-Roman Resistance and the Crosses at Golgotha (p. 140). Lexington Books. Kindle Edition.
Even if anti-Roman sentiment was widespread among various strata of the Jewish population, going back generations before the First War started, one can readily concede that, until things went worse and significant numbers of Jews considered their situation extreme enough to face the Romans—something that did not happen until the eve of the Jewish Revolt—only a minority would have been ready to engage in open resistance against foreign rule.
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I share the skepticism of some specialists who have set forth resolutely realistic approaches based on the assumption that self-preservation plays an essential role for human beings and that people usually fear the destructive potential of armed conflict or open resistance. In a predominantly agrarian society, which had endured for centuries the rule of several foreign masters, many people would have had no reason to endanger their lives and those of their families; both compliance and rational restraints would have been at work to prevent most Jews from adopting an anti-Roman stance.19 This is why I assume that open resistance must have been for a long time a phenomenon restricted to a very limited number. At the same time, to deny the existence of resistance asserting that “Jews had no reason in real life to hate Romans”20 might be, as we will see, an unwarranted oversimplification and an example of counterintuitive hypercriticism.
Bermejo-Rubio, Fernando. They Suffered under Pontius Pilate: Jewish Anti-Roman Resistance and the Crosses at Golgotha (pp. 144-145). Lexington Books. Kindle Edition.
The former remarks suggest that the few traces of active resistance to Rome in the prefects’ period not only make sense in their historical context, but could be the remnants of a more substantive reality. The political, social, and economic situation was perhaps not unbearable for most Jews in the twenties and the thirties of the first century CE, but it was not idyllic at all, and at least a vocal minority must have perceived it as unacceptable. One can concur with Steve Mason in rejecting as overstated the idea that Jews were uniquely intolerant of Roman rule or the image of a Judaea seething with anti-Roman fervor in the first half of the first century CE,34 but this does not amount to denial that there existed some kind of actual antagonism between some Jewish trends and the Empire, and that this antagonism was sometimes actively carried out. Just as there are common aspects to the several kinds of passive resistance on the one hand, and to the active forms of resistance on the other, there are also commonalities among all of them. An obvious common denominator is, to begin with, a passionate nationalistic feeling. While some people were ready to kill opponents but others not, all of them were ready to die on behalf of God and the Law. Obviously, those prone to engage in fighting with the pagan enemies willingly risked their lives for the cause, and they would suffer terrible casualties. Therefore, readiness to die was not exclusive to the passive resistance option.35 And this means, in turn, that there existed a close kinship between the proponents of both forms of resistance.
Bermejo-Rubio, Fernando. They Suffered under Pontius Pilate: Jewish Anti-Roman Resistance and the Crosses at Golgotha (p. 155). Lexington Books. Kindle Edition.
As we have seen, there were several motives for some inhabitants of Palestine to oppose Rome in the early Principate. Some of them might not seem reasonable to modern observers, but must have been reasonable enough for those who resorted to them. Be that as it may, there is no reason at all to think that the uneasiness and discomfort underlying those motives subsided in some minds and groups, or that apocalyptic hopes vanished, as if by magic, in the prefects’ period. At least in some circles, the ideas of the Fourth Philosophy showed remarkable resilience: they seem to have enjoyed good health along the first century and have had a long-lasting impact.
Bermejo-Rubio, Fernando. They Suffered under Pontius Pilate: Jewish Anti-Roman Resistance and the Crosses at Golgotha (p. 172). Lexington Books. Kindle Edition.
What sort of historical Jesus can Bermejo-Rubio produce once a rebellion, sedition, under Tiberius is not warranted (re Tacitus) ? Passive resistance, the odd skirmish ? While these are possible ways to demonstrate resistance are they really enough to warrant a seditious Jesus under Pilate and Tiberius ? Since there is no record of Roman legions marching on Judaea during the time of Tiberius, the only type of rebel Jesus that Bermejo-Rubio can produce is hardly a game changer. However hard Bermejo-Rubio has tried - particularly with Judas the Galilean and the Fourth Philosophy - it is not rebellious action that continued - but the evidence is that
''an ideology of active resistance was already at work within the prefects’ period''. An ideology that remembered, during the time of Tiberius and Pilate, it's prior history, it's rebels against Rome, in story and allegory. Hasmonean/Jewish history from the time of Roman occupation in 63 b.c.
''remnants of a more substantive reality.''
Irish history of British occupation has much to offer. Rebellion and periods of quite - periods of pause in the ongoing struggle to end the occupation.
List of Irish uprisings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_uprisings
1798 Irish Rebellion
The Irish put their history into songs. The Jews have put their history into stories, into allegories.
Can't forget that Anglo Irish poet:
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
(From Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats)
