0:00:18 > 0:00:22For centuries Jews have lamented the destruction of their holy city
0:00:22 > 0:00:27of Jerusalem and their temple by the Romans, which they
0:00:27 > 0:00:32believed was the beginning of their long 2,000 years of exile
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Exile is not only a religious Jewish belief.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04For millions of Jews and non Jews alike, it is a historical fact
0:01:04 > 0:01:08So, that's one of the most dramatic points that you can really touch the
0:01:08 > 0:01:12end of Jerusalem and not only the end of Jerusalem
0:01:12 > 0:01:18but the end of the existence of ongoing life of Jews in this country.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30But what has been considered as fact for centuries is now being
0:01:30 > 0:01:34challenged by archaeological evidence unearthed across Israel.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Here, in the ancient town of Sepphoris,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43just 70 miles from Jerusalem,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47evidence points not to a people driven into exile but on the
0:01:47 > 0:01:53contrary, to a population that not only survived but flourished.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59So why has exile been seen as a reality for thousands of years
0:01:59 > 0:02:02And if it did not take place exactly as told,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06then what accounts for the millions of Jews who over the centuries
0:02:06 > 0:02:08have settled around the world?
0:02:23 > 0:02:26And perhaps the inevitable question - what happened to the
0:02:26 > 0:02:31inhabitants of places like Sepphoris, who were never exiled?
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Until 1948, a predominantly Muslim Palestinian village
0:02:41 > 0:02:44stood on the ruins of Sepphoris
0:02:45 > 0:02:49The village was destroyed and its inhabitants barred from returning.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Is it possible that some of the Palestinian
0:02:59 > 0:03:04refugees are descendants of ancient Jews who were never exiled?
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Every day thousands of tourists flock to Jerusalem to
0:03:47 > 0:03:50experience the story of the exile of the Jews
0:03:50 > 0:03:54and hear again the version of history they grew up on.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56The Jewish rebellion against Rome,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00which led to the destruction of the temple and the city.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03The centre of an ancient Judaism.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08We're just reaching now, one of the focal place for any Jew,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10worldwide, at a time
0:04:10 > 0:04:14when the temple still existing up on top of the mountain, here
0:04:14 > 0:04:16The largest man-made complex on earth,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19that could accommodate a quarter of a million people.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21And the need to accommodate so many is
0:04:21 > 0:04:26because three times a year Jews would gather here in the
0:04:26 > 0:04:30high holidays at the most sacred place, the meeting place,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32the place to say, "I am a Jew!
0:04:34 > 0:04:38The story of exile begins in places like this visitor centre
0:04:38 > 0:04:42where versions of the Jewish temple are recreated in all
0:04:42 > 0:04:43their former glory.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51The temple used to hold Judaism's most sacred objects.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Symbols of the nation's covenant with God.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56The Ark of the Covenant
0:04:56 > 0:05:00and the candle holder with its seven branches - the Menorah.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12But the temple was not only a religious centre.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14It was also an economic powerhouse,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18with donations pouring in from the four corners of the empire
0:05:18 > 0:05:21as well as income from hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30The city was highly inflated, it was very overblown.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It had a huge population of people who
0:05:33 > 0:05:36derived their livelihood from the temple and the pilgrimage trade
0:05:39 > 0:05:42And it was also a city which was founded on Jewish piety.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Jewish piety was the currency,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47was the cultural capital of the city.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55We have to think of something like the Vatican City,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57when we think about Jerusalem.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01The Vatican City, you know, it's embedded in Rome
0:06:01 > 0:06:04but it feels quite different from the city that it's embedded in
0:06:04 > 0:06:08It has a distinctive internal culture.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13And the things that are important in the Vatican City are often
0:06:13 > 0:06:17not very important immediately beyond its boundaries.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20And I think the same thing could be said for Jerusalem
0:06:20 > 0:06:22in the first century.
0:06:22 > 0:06:29We are looking at now, the nuclear, the beginning of the Jewish people.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Think about all those people..
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Jerusalem was ruled by its religious authorities, the temple priests
0:06:39 > 0:06:43An elite body that was far removed from the spiritual piety
0:06:43 > 0:06:45they were supposed to represent
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Under the houses of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54there are remains of a whole neighbourhood - a quarter
0:06:54 > 0:07:00of the priest class of Jerusalem from the time of the temple.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Here those priests, who served this temple, used to live.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08And when you look around you can see those houses kept quite a high
0:07:08 > 0:07:10standard of living.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15With mosaic floors, and with murals on the walls,
0:07:15 > 0:07:17beautiful furniture
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and here we have the people who are supposed to be the spiritual leader,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24living in beautiful houses, a good life,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27while there was so much poverty around.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Jerusalem and the tiny region of Judea were only a small part
0:07:41 > 0:07:46of a far larger territory, created by previous military expansion
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Forcing the conquered population to convert to Judaism.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Jerusalem, despite today's common belief,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56did not represent the entire Jewish nation.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02So, the Jewish world has expanded tremendously.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04There were more of them.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09They were also in closer connection with each other. They were divided.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13And they were divided...there were all these profound divisions.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16So, you know, there's this complicated business that they're
0:08:16 > 0:08:20all in some sense part of one group but by the same token,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22they're often at each other's throats.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28It is the main road of the city that was here.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31This city that was then the pearl of the east,
0:08:31 > 0:08:33if I'm quoting the Roman historian...
0:08:33 > 0:08:37The complex causes of the rebellion have been simplified over
0:08:37 > 0:08:39time into a single story.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42A Jewish nation which refused to accept
0:08:42 > 0:08:45the authority of a pagan Roman Caesar.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51So, it was a way to say, "We're unique, we're independent ..
0:08:51 > 0:08:55"You can rule us but still we are independent."
0:08:55 > 0:08:58And that would be hard for an Emperor to tolerate.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09There is one man who single handedly succeeded in shaping
0:09:09 > 0:09:10the narrative of the rebellion
0:09:10 > 0:09:16His name was Josephus Flavius, a son of Jerusalem's priestly elite.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23His book, The Jewish War,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28is the important historical record of the time and has, for centuries,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32shaped the perception of the rebellion as a national uprising.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42The family of which I'm derived is not an ignoble one
0:09:42 > 0:09:44but has descended, all along, from the priests.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49So, with us, to be of the sacerdotal dignity is
0:09:49 > 0:09:52an indication of the splendour of the family.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01For Josephus, the rebellion was the uprising of the ethnos
0:10:01 > 0:10:04of the nation of the Jews against the Romans.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Josephus reflects this Jerusalemite perspective,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10he sees things from that angle
0:10:10 > 0:10:13He thinks that Jerusalemites are in control of the entire country.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16You know, that the priesthood is in control of the entire country
0:10:16 > 0:10:20and that everyone is equally loyal to the priesthood and the temple.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23And that any time a Jerusalemite shows up
0:10:23 > 0:10:27anywhere in the countryside, people will automatically fall at his feet.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39Josephus began his career as a military commander, sent by the
0:10:39 > 0:10:42rebel leadership, in Jerusalem to the north,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45to bring the Galilee into the fold of the rebellion.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Josephus failed to recruit the Galilee's biggest
0:10:56 > 0:10:57cities to the rebellion.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Jerusalem nationalist aspiration suffered their
0:11:02 > 0:11:04first set back in Sepphoris.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11But the inhabitants of this city,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15having determined to continue their allegiance to the Romans
0:11:15 > 0:11:19sent to the Roman Governor and desired him to come to them
0:11:19 > 0:11:22immediately and take possession of their city.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Sepphoris' decision not to join the rebellion intrigued Israeli
0:11:33 > 0:11:36archaeologist, Zeev Weiss.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41His findings shed new light on new light on why Sepphoris
0:11:41 > 0:11:44and much of the Galilee chose not to rebel.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Zeev's findings span a period of hundreds of years.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28They help us imagine a society which Josephus barely mentioned
0:12:28 > 0:12:30and chose not to focus on.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Zeev's discovery of the existence of a pagan temple,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09from a later period, dating to the time when Sepphoris became
0:13:09 > 0:13:13a Jewish theological centre, was nothing short of sensational.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26Around the time of the rebellion, Sepphoris also had a Roman theatre.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35In later periods it had bath houses
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and mosaic floors depicting human figures.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44All forbidden and unheard of in the religion practised in Jerusalem
0:13:44 > 0:13:45and tiny Judea.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55Sepphoris and Jerusalem seemed to symbolise a deep cultural
0:13:55 > 0:14:01and political divide, rather than the unity of a national uprising.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Josephus had come to the Galilee alone,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45expecting to recruit locals to his troops.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57Rejected by Sepphoris and forced to camp outside the city,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01he watched helplessly as his army disbanded.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10The sense that you get is that Josephus is desperate to
0:15:10 > 0:15:14impose his authority but it's dawning on him,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18not very gradually, that he doesn't have any authority to impose.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24And he's left with small groups of people who follow him,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26largely because he's paid them
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Jerusalem had intended to mobilise for a national war.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Yet, the majority of the Galilee didn't seem to have any
0:15:37 > 0:15:38interest in a fight.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42Josephus found himself holed up with a small
0:15:42 > 0:15:45group of followers in one of the few towns
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and villages that did end up fighting the Romans, Jotapata.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Archaeologist, Moti Aviam has found evidence of the rebellion there
0:16:38 > 0:16:41We know that that Josephus likes to really write up these episodes
0:16:41 > 0:16:43which is quite interesting.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46It plays into the rest of his account that this is,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48you know, this was a heroic rebellion.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54When push came to shove, the Jewish nation offered heroic
0:16:54 > 0:16:59resistance to the Romans, as is shown by the siege of Jotapata
0:17:10 > 0:17:18Jotapata fell on July the 20th 7AD, after 47 days of siege.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Its inhabitants slaughtered.
0:17:22 > 0:17:23The Romans went on for three years,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27brutally erasing every rebellious community around the country.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34Towns and villages that did not rebel were spared
0:17:34 > 0:17:36and in the Galilee, they were the majority.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48But Josephus did not die with the people of Jotapata.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50His life was spared by General Vespasian.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Josephus became the general's personal slave,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00taking as Roman custom dictates Vespasian's last name, Flavius
0:18:02 > 0:18:06Vespasian now embraces Josephus frees him from chains,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08makes him part of his entourage
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Eventually brings him to Rome, settles him in a house
0:18:12 > 0:18:14and has Josephus write these accounts of the Jewish
0:18:14 > 0:18:16rebellion against the Romans.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Suddenly Josephus' version of the reality gained an unexpected ally.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Having come to power by force and aspiring to establish his own
0:18:41 > 0:18:46dynasty, Vespasian was a new Emperor, in search of legitimacy.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55The only key to legitimacy in this sort of environment,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59if you don't have it through descent, is...you know,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03it's called in Latin, the 'Ius Gladii', the law of the sword.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11That is, substantial military victory can make you
0:19:11 > 0:19:14a legitimate ruler.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18What this means, is that it was in Vespasian's interests to have
0:19:18 > 0:19:22this war portrayed exactly as Josephus wanted to portray it.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26A great all-out war between two mighty nations.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58Three years after he was captured,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Josephus returned to Jerusalem not as a Jewish militant fighting
0:20:02 > 0:20:07Rome but as a chronicler, embedded in the Roman army,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10invited to witness the fall of his home town.
0:20:15 > 0:20:21This city was completely destroyed and disappeared
0:20:21 > 0:20:25and part of these very dramatic last moments of the city could be traced,
0:20:25 > 0:20:30over here, when the Jerusalemites tried to escape and save their life,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33when the Romans slaughtered everybody.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Here we are...
0:20:42 > 0:20:46And you can see the hole here and many other holes all along
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Those holes were dug by the Romans themselves,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54the Roman soldiers on the very last day of Jerusalem, when people
0:20:54 > 0:21:02tried to use the underground drainage canal here to escape out.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06This was seen by the Roman. How do we know about that?
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Josephus Flavius speaks about it.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Everybody one by one was pulled out and had been killed
0:21:27 > 0:21:31To celebrate his victory over the Jews, Emperor Vespasian
0:21:31 > 0:21:36and his son, Titus, held a victory parade, exhibiting what was
0:21:36 > 0:21:40probably the most cherished loot of the war, the Jewish Menorah
0:21:40 > 0:21:45A proud symbol of a monotheistic religion, he thought was vanquished.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03The very centre of the Roman Empire, is the Roman Forum,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07the Capitoline Hill on one end and the Coliseum on anther end
0:22:07 > 0:22:13is altered, in order to celebrate the Flavian victory over the Jews.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15And I think that it makes a lot of sense to see
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Josephus' Jewish War as part of that.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Among the forum's monuments, there is this triumphal Arch of Titus
0:22:45 > 0:22:48celebrating the destruction of Jerusalem.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Its stone carvings depict Roman soldiers carrying the temple's
0:22:55 > 0:22:58loot and the sacred Menorah.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04Josephus' desire,
0:23:04 > 0:23:09retrospectively to have the Jews unify as a single group,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12as a mighty nation and rise up and fight the Romans,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16which was essentially a kind of Jewish national aspiration,
0:23:16 > 0:23:21which never happened, resonated perfectly with the Flavian dynasty's
0:23:21 > 0:23:25need to have experienced a great victory over a great nation.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40But what happened after the destruction of Jerusalem?
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Nowhere in his writings does Josephus mention the forced
0:23:48 > 0:23:51expulsion of the Jews from either Jerusalem or
0:23:51 > 0:23:53the rest of the Roman province
0:23:55 > 0:24:00So, why is it that exile has been historically perceived as a fact
0:24:00 > 0:24:03and the destruction of Jerusalem as the evidence?
0:25:27 > 0:25:31The destruction of Jerusalem did not bring about the exile of the Jews.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37In reality, not only did the Jewish community survive,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41it instigated a second rebellion 62 years later.
0:25:50 > 0:25:57Where does the population supply come from for the second revolt
0:25:57 > 0:26:03if we lost so many of the population to the first revolt
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Well, first of all, two generations passed, 60 years and more. OK...OK.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11That gave enough time to regain more and more people
0:26:11 > 0:26:15and I would say that it was much more of a rural population
0:26:15 > 0:26:20revolt than the urban one of Jerusalem and the cities around
0:26:20 > 0:26:26Demographically speaking, it's by far the end of everything over here.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31So, what we'll do now is leaving the cultivated green area towards
0:26:31 > 0:26:34the desert, reaching the area where the people escaped to.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47In 1961, an archaeological expedition
0:26:47 > 0:26:50led by Professor Yigael Yadin,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54set out on these desert roads to look for the remains
0:26:54 > 0:26:58of Bar Kochba, the legendary messianic rebel leader
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and his fighters and for evidence for what he believed was
0:27:01 > 0:27:05the last sign of independent Jewish life in the country.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Yigael Yadin, who led the excavation,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36was no ordinary archaeologist.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40He was famous in Israel for serving as the army's
0:27:40 > 0:27:45chief of staff during the crucial War of Independence in 1948.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08Today's programme is a conversation with Yigael Yadin
0:28:08 > 0:28:10Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University...
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Funded by the army and the government,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16Yadin's was no ordinary expedition.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19It was an attempt to find the archaeological evidence that
0:28:19 > 0:28:23would confirm the legitimacy of the Israeli state.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26You see, this search for the Bar Kochba documents which you
0:28:26 > 0:28:30refer to, was one of the most fascinating, I would say,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34expedition I had the privilege to take part.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Yadin, who was a great archaeologist, was very much involved,
0:28:48 > 0:28:50even emotionally with the finds here,
0:28:50 > 0:28:56as was all of this generation of the big archaeologists.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00At the time that was just a continuation of establishing
0:29:00 > 0:29:06the state and search for roots and coming back to the country
0:29:06 > 0:29:13and epos like the one of Bar Kochba or Masada were very, very strong.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19It was here that Yadin hoped to find evidence of the last
0:29:19 > 0:29:21stand of Bar Kochba's men.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29So, here we are just above this huge canyon of Nahal Hever,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31running to the Dead Sea,
0:29:31 > 0:29:36it has huge sheer cliffs going all the way down
0:29:36 > 0:29:39and just to have some scale, if you look over there,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43you see the opening of the cave where the refugees found shelter.
0:29:43 > 0:29:49The distance from the top of the cliff to the cave is 350 feet.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55The caves are right in the middle of the canyon, some 300 feet
0:29:55 > 0:29:59from the top and 900 feet from the bottom in a steep slope.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03The people who found shelter there could not leave the place
0:30:03 > 0:30:07The Romans made sure that nobody would be able to escape
0:30:53 > 0:30:57And then only we came into the cave where we saw for the first time
0:30:57 > 0:31:00the first green sight of the last moment
0:31:00 > 0:31:03of this desperate war, a heroic war,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05of Bar Kochva against the Romans.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12The findings were indeed extraordinary.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Rich evidence of daily life
0:31:16 > 0:31:19of refugees who had hidden in the caves.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Skeletons, personal documents
0:31:24 > 0:31:28and even letters signed by Bar Kochva himself.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Yadin believed he had found what he was looking for.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37The archaeological evidence of the last moments of the Jewish nation.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40This was really, I would say, the last phase
0:31:40 > 0:31:44of the struggle against the Romans there.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49And that was the last time really that the Jews... In Jewish history,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52that there was a revolt that attempted to reconstitute... Yes.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55This is the last revolt, we call it the second revolt
0:31:55 > 0:31:57and actually 1,800 years have passed
0:31:57 > 0:32:00since the Jewish state was established here.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Yadin was articulating the official Israeli line.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Exile had indeed begun with the final loss of Jewish independence.
0:32:32 > 0:32:3422 years after his discoveries
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin
0:32:37 > 0:32:42flew with a group of politicians and dignitaries to the canyon.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47The skeletal remains unearthed by Yadin
0:32:47 > 0:32:50were given a full military state funeral.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54MAN SPEAKS IN NATIVE TONGUE
0:33:34 > 0:33:35GUNSHOT
0:33:43 > 0:33:45Both rebellions were used at different times
0:33:45 > 0:33:48to mark the beginning of the Jewish exile.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53Yet these claims cannot be supported
0:33:53 > 0:33:58by the archaeological evidence at places like Sepphoris.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00So when, and how was the idea
0:34:00 > 0:34:05of an universal exile of the Jews from their homeland born?
0:34:05 > 0:34:08For answers, we need to go back to the Galilee
0:34:08 > 0:34:11in the decades after Bar Kochva's rebellion.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Sepphoris flourished.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39But without Jerusalem,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42the centre of Jewish worship and religious ritual,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44rabbis looked for ways to fill the gap
0:35:44 > 0:35:47left by the destruction of their temple.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54SINGING
0:36:15 > 0:36:18A family sits down to celebrate the Seder,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21the traditional Passover meal.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Before the destruction of the temple,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27Jews were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
0:36:27 > 0:36:28to offer sacrifices in the temple.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04But this emerging Jewish tradition was being challenged
0:37:04 > 0:37:06by another group of people
0:37:06 > 0:37:09who also sat around the table on Passover Eve.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Today, they would be called Christians
0:37:14 > 0:37:18but they thought of themselves as Jews who followed Jesus.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22They, too, were trying to rethink their theology
0:37:22 > 0:37:24after the destruction of the temple.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29But while Jews tried to emphasise continuity of doctrine
0:37:29 > 0:37:31after the fall of Jerusalem,
0:37:31 > 0:37:33for Jesus' followers,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36the destruction was a divine signal.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47And it seems that from this belief grew the story of exile.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22Now, in these circumstances, the defeat of the revolt
0:38:22 > 0:38:27and the destruction of the temple begins to be seen as a divine sign.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31A divine sign that God has pronounced
0:38:31 > 0:38:34a judgment against Israel.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23In fact, long before the destruction,
0:39:23 > 0:39:28the majority of the Jewish people were already living in the Diaspora.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31The number of Jews who lived in Judea and Galilee
0:39:31 > 0:39:34is really a minority
0:39:34 > 0:39:37of the total population of Judaism in the Roman world.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39We know for instance that in the city of Alexandria,
0:39:39 > 0:39:45where we have some reasonable demographic information,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47that there may have been as many as a million,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49that may be an exaggeration,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53but there may have been a million Jews living in Alexandria and Egypt.
0:39:53 > 0:39:54Now, that's a huge number
0:39:54 > 0:39:58and way more than the number of Jews who lived in Judea and Galilee
0:40:14 > 0:40:21CHANTING IN BACKGROUND
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Observant Roman Jews lamenting
0:40:25 > 0:40:28like any other Jewish community worldwide,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32the destruction of Jerusalem and of their exile.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Despite the fact that Jews lived here
0:40:34 > 0:40:37long before the destruction of Jerusalem.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Over centuries, Jews have spread throughout the world.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48But why if exile began as a Christian theological concept
0:40:48 > 0:40:49did Roman Jewry embrace it too
0:40:49 > 0:40:54like Jews around the world, as the central tenet of their religion?
0:41:27 > 0:41:29According to the Bible,
0:41:29 > 0:41:34the Jews migrated to Egypt as one family and returned a nation.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40The Torah and Jewish laws were handed down in the desert,
0:41:40 > 0:41:42not in the Holy Land.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45That land, according to the Bible, had to be conquered
0:41:45 > 0:41:47in a cruel and violent campaign
0:42:17 > 0:42:19TAPE WHIRRS
0:42:19 > 0:42:25SILENT MOVIE PIANO MUSIC
0:42:30 > 0:42:36The Wandering Jew, an early 20th century silent film, depicting
0:42:36 > 0:42:40a centuries-old myth of Jews condemned to roam the earth forever.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45This is how a Christian theological concept about exile
0:42:45 > 0:42:48as a punishment was transformed
0:42:48 > 0:42:52after the Christianisation of Europe, into an anti-Semitic myth.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59CROWD CHANTS
0:43:37 > 0:43:42CONTINUED CHANTING
0:43:46 > 0:43:53HORN SOUNDS REPEATEDLY
0:43:56 > 0:44:04HORN BLARES ONE CONTINUOUS NOTE
0:44:06 > 0:44:10BIRDS SQUAWK
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Centuries of persecution and later genocide,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20all associated with the punishment of exile,
0:44:20 > 0:44:25transformed the messianic dream of returning to a political project.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32SIREN WAILS IN BACKGROUND
0:44:32 > 0:44:35In November 1947,
0:44:35 > 0:44:40buoyed up by the United Nations vote to establish a Jewish state,
0:44:40 > 0:44:45some Roman Jews chose to celebrate the event in front of Titus Gate.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49An enduring symbol of the destruction of Jerusalem
0:44:49 > 0:44:51and the beginning of exile.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59A Jewish national dream had been reawakened.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03It was first defeated in Jerusalem in 70 AD,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06and in the Bar Kokhba rebellion
0:45:06 > 0:45:10A dream that was first articulated by Josephus
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and was picked up 1800 years later by Jewish nationalists.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23But to understand what happened when the dream met reality,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25we have to go back to the Galilee.
0:45:46 > 0:45:52MURMURED CONVERSATION
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Suleiman Abu Ali is returning to his village.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03He was 14 years old when he left it, 63 years ago.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09CAR DOOR SLAMS
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Suleiman is accompanied by a young relative whose family
0:46:14 > 0:46:15was born in the village.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Suleiman's village, Safuri, does not exist any more.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11It was destroyed in the war of 948.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Safuri, the Palestinian village
0:47:20 > 0:47:24was built on the ruins of the ancient Jewish Safuris.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30This picture was taken by the archaeological team
0:47:30 > 0:47:33that came here in the summer of 1931.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35Three years before Suleiman's birth.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42Leroy Waterman, a professor from the University of Michigan
0:47:42 > 0:47:47led the first archaeological expedition to unearth the ancient Jewish city.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Like so many archaeologists who came before him,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Leroy was a devout Christian.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06He felt he was a traveller in a biblical landscape.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15He imagined Safuri as the city on the hill from Jesus' sermons
0:48:16 > 0:48:19For him, Safuri was barely visible.
0:48:23 > 0:48:29VILLAGERS CHATTER IN BACKGROUND
0:48:31 > 0:48:33HORSES HOOVES CLIP-CLOP
0:48:33 > 0:48:37DOGS BARK
0:48:37 > 0:48:41METAL TOOLS CLANK
0:48:41 > 0:48:46The ancient Jewish town of Safuris that Leroy Waterman began to unearth
0:48:46 > 0:48:50had evolved since the 7th Century into a bustling,
0:48:50 > 0:48:52primarily Muslim village
0:48:52 > 0:48:55with a population of more than 5,000 people.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Slowly the ancient city was coming to life.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10And soon it would devour the present-day Safuri.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18LOUD BANGS
0:49:18 > 0:49:22SOUND OF GUNFIRE
0:49:24 > 0:49:27EXPLOSIVE BANG
0:49:27 > 0:49:31The village was occupied on July 16th 1948,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34as part of the last phase of what Israel calls
0:49:34 > 0:49:36its War of Independence.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42The Palestinian villagers fled
0:49:43 > 0:49:47Their village was destroyed and they were barred from returning.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16The ruins are now part of a national park.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20The village's history
0:50:20 > 0:50:21and its Muslim past
0:50:21 > 0:50:24are barely mentioned in the Park's Museum
0:50:24 > 0:50:27formerly one of Safuri's schools,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30on whose yard LeRoy Waterman began his dig.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50This village cemetery escaped destruction
0:51:50 > 0:51:52only after a long, legal battle
0:51:54 > 0:51:58To Muslims it has historical significance as the resting place
0:51:58 > 0:52:01of some of the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02There are many missing pieces in the story of this village
0:53:02 > 0:53:04of both Jewish and Arab heritage.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08But the only clear evidence of an actual exile
0:53:08 > 0:53:13is that of Suleiman and the 5,0 0 other Palestinians in 1948.
0:53:21 > 0:53:26Is it possible that some of these refugees are distant descendants
0:53:26 > 0:53:31of the Jewish population of Sepphoris who were never exiled
0:54:19 > 0:54:23Evidence of the multiethnic history of the region can be found
0:54:23 > 0:54:25everywhere in the Galilee.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42In a town only a few kilometres from Sepphoris a local
0:54:42 > 0:54:47journalist takes visitors to an ancient grave of a Jewish rabbi
0:54:47 > 0:54:51who has been revered for over a millennia by the mostly
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Muslim population.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04Local women still hang these rags seeking a blessing from the rabbi.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57For centuries the peasants of Safuri preserved this grave
0:55:57 > 0:56:01believed by some to be that of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Sepphoris' most important scholar.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10The rabbi helped transform Sepphoris into one of the most
0:56:10 > 0:56:14important spiritual centres of Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33The job of historians
0:56:33 > 0:56:36isn't to crush memory,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38it's not to destroy it.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41It's actually to hold it up
0:56:41 > 0:56:45and pull it apart without necessarily standing in the way
0:56:45 > 0:56:48of those people who want to put it back together afterwards.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59I think that it's the job of historians to remind people
0:56:59 > 0:57:01what's at stake in their shared memories.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04That is what the effects of those shared memories are
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and what use they can be put to
0:57:17 > 0:57:22But I think that there is actually, you know, some moral urgency,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25seriously, in what historians do
0:57:25 > 0:57:28in taking these things
0:57:28 > 0:57:30and analysing them
0:57:30 > 0:57:35and showing how far they can be from ascertainable,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39er... historical realities of the past.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42You know, go on believing your myths,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45but at least understand what you re doing by doing that.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06What is being unearthed in the ruins of Sepphoris
0:58:06 > 0:58:10and Safuri is a message of hope
0:58:10 > 0:58:11and a warning.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19The promise of hope from a town that survived for hundreds of years
0:58:19 > 0:58:24because of its capacity to embrace many cultures and traditions.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27DOG BARKS, STREET SOUNDS
0:58:27 > 0:58:30And a warning written in the destruction
0:58:30 > 0:58:33brought about by adopting a single narrative of history
0:58:33 > 0:58:36at the expense of others.
0:59:07 > 0:59:10Subtitles by Red Bee Media Limited.