The Importance of Emperor Julian

Last week, I wrote about how some of the Judeans were forced to find sacred space elsewhere from Jerusalem. To quickly add onto last week’s blog, in class we discussed yet another example of Jews finding new ways to cope with losing their sacred space. Jews took elements of their culture and worship that could be practiced without access to their Temple in Jerusalem. They started to believe that as long as ten male rabbis were present during worship, God would be present despite not having a dedicated temple. 

    In this week, through class discussions and the chapters assigned for this week, titled "Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths" by Karen Armstrong, we delved into another phase of Jerusalem's history dominated primarily by Christians. Once Emperor Constantine made Christianity the main religion of Rome, it started growing rapidly and it seemed as if the Jews were out of luck, until Emperor Julian had arrived.    

    One might wonder, “Does the growth of one religion necessarily need to lead to the destruction of another?” Unfortunately during this time, it was seemingly impossible for multiple thriving religions to live in peace under one rule. Before Emperor Julian, Constantine had effectively turned the Jews into objects of ridicule and reduced them to insignificance. Even once Constantine had passed away, “his successors introduced new legislation forbidding intermarriage between Jews and Chrisitans” (Armstrong 192). This was one example of the imposed laws which sought to destroy all Jewish structure. Fortunately for the Jews, only thirty years after Constantine, a new pagan emperor named Julian arrived. Although Julian was not a Jew himself, his pagan beliefs disagreed with Christian beliefs, prompting Julian to “restore the ancient faith of their fathers” (Armstrong 192). So how did Julian bring power and prosperity back to the desperate Jews? Julian promised to the Jewish community that he would make the holy city a Jewish city once again. The Jews were finally allowed to ponder the streets of Jerusalem and the building of the third temple commenced. Enthusiasm, hope, joy resonated throughout the Jewish community, all stemming from Julian. Despite Julian’s attempt to bring back Judaism to Jerusalem went south, when the unfinished third temple set on fire. Shortly after Julian was heard to have died in war. The Jewish community only had two years of prosperity under Emperor Julian, but what was proven to them was how ownership and power over Jerusalem can shift in an instant.