Herod’s remodelling of the Jerusalem Temple into one of the most magnificent religious buildings in the ancient world in his time was understood in the Jewish tradition as an act of piety by a king who needed to atone for his sins.
The lecture will discuss the impact on Herod’s rule of political upheavals in the Roman world at the time when he undertook the rebuilding and suggest other possible motivations for his commitment to this ambitious project.
Martin Goodman is Professor of Jewish Studies and a Fellow of Wolfson College in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He has written many books on Jewish and Roman history, including Rome and Jerusalem (2007) and A History of Judaism (2017).
JW3 is delighted to host this series showcasing the Fellows of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish studies
