Emperor Julian and the Restoration of Judaism

Statue of Emperor Julian, who ruled from 361 to 363 A.D.

    During the time of the Roman empire, pontifex maximus (or the chief high priest) Emperor Julian played an important role in an attempt to reimplement Judaism in the empire. However, a large part of his motivation stemmed from his dislike of the Christian religion, which was the religion of the previous few emperors and his own as a child. Armstrong writes "To replace the newfangled religion of Christ, he wished to see sacrifices offered in all the imperial domains to the One God... Zeus, Helios, or God Most High, as he was sometimes called in the Jewish Scriptures." (Armstrong 268). Instead of implementing a singular religion like his Christian predecessors, Emperor Julian wished to allow sacrifices from different religions inside the Holy City, which was not allowed at the time. In order to accomplish this goal, Julian decreed "Towns which had never adopted Christianity were given special privileges, and Christians were being gradually removed from public office," (Armstrong 269). By doing this, Julian wanted to halt the growth of Christianity in the empire and ensure that Christians did not hold positions of power that could interfere with his plans.

    Once the Jewish community heard of this, they "...turned viciously on the Christians, who had lorded it over them for so long. Crowds of Jews began to arrive in Jerusalem, thronging its streets for the first time in over two hundred years." (Armstrong 271). Some Jews even believed that the Messiah would arrive. However, when Emperor Julian marched into Persia and the community began to rebuild the Temple, an earthquake hit the city and "Fire broke out in the vaults underneath the platform, as gases, which had been gathering in the underground chambers, exploded, setting fire to the building materials stored there." (Armstrong 272). This effectively ground restoration to a halt, and with Emperor Julian far away in Persia they could not communicate with him. A few weeks after this, Emperor Julian was killed in battle and a new, Christian emperor was elected in his place. The Christians took these events as a sign from God that they were the rightful people, and Julian's attempt to restore Judaism to the city and rebuild the Temple was ultimately a failure.