When did the Jews become part of the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

First, Augustus used Herod the Great as an ally - as a tributary king. On his death, Augustus used his power as Herod's executor under his will to split the kingdom into three, giving them to Herod's sons Antigonos, Herod Antipas and Philip not as kings but as petty princes. Antigonos provoked his people who revolted against him, so Augustus deposed and exiled him in 6 BCE, and appointed a Roman knight as procurator to govern Judaea. Herod and Philip remained in control of their territory.

As taxes had been levied by the tributary princeling, it was necessary to assess everyone's property and tax liability under the new Roman administration, which was done by Quirinnius, governor of the Province of Syria of which Judaea was part. This gave rise to the gospel story of the trip to Bethlehem of Joseph and Mary - note the date.

The Jews were always a restive people, stoked by a series of would-be pretenders and messiahs who led revolts, who were put down by the Procurator. One such was Jesus the Annointed, in his several guises as successor to King David, itinerant preacher, and the revolution in Jerusalem in which Jesus bar-Abbas (son of the rabbi) was taken, which resulted in a lot of killings and executions.

Nothing much changed in the succeeding four decades, with eventually a full scale revolt, which was put down with millions killed, enslaved or fleeing overseas, and capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Thereafter all Palestine was under direct Roman rule. There were further revolts of Jewish peoples in the early 2nd Century CE, starting in Africa and Alexandria which had large Jewish populations. It ended with Jerusalem destroyed and rebuilt as a Greek city, with Jews banned. The Jewish people by then was then spread through the Empire in the various cities as a minority, sometimes as in Alexandria, as a large minority, but under Roman rule.

Answer 2

Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the two sons of the Jewish King Yannai (Johanan Hyrcanus, 1st century BCE), got the Romans involved in Judea when they asked them to settle a dispute. At first the Romans became party to a military treaty with Judea (Talmud, Avodah Zara 8b). A couple of decades later, however (in 63 BCE), they unilaterally abrogated the treaty, and placed Roman governors over the land who afflicted the Jews with crushing taxation (Talmud, Yoma 9a).

Answer 3

The Romans made Judea a Roman-controlled country around 60 BCE.

Answer 4

The Romans took over the Judaean kingdom 63 years before the birth of Jesus Christ

Answer 5

157 b.C.