WI-the II Temple in Jerusalem wasn't burned down

The title says most of it. According to Josefus Flavious, there was a great argument in the Roman command about what to do with the Jewish Temple. What would happen if the Romans will decide to remain it standing?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
TBH it would probably have been turned into a pagan temple.
That was the plan.
Plus it doesn't look terribly different from all those phoenician temples and eastern hellenic temples they already had, although there were a few differences in internal layout due to religious conceptions of the divine even between those two groups of temples.
 
I'm not sure about a rededication. The temple cult would probably look massdively differntly, but considering how lenient the Romans were with the Jewish tradition (compared to the druidic one, which they genuinely tried to exterminate) it's telling that most Gallic and British sanctuaries remained dedicated to their old deities. Rome believed in tradoition. Hadrian was planning to build a temple of Jove because the old one was gone, as far as he was concerned.

Of course, preserving the temple solves absolutely no problem. The Romans would still force a lot of people out of Judaea, and they might close Jerusalem down as per OTL. They would need to install some kind of temple service, and the old sadducee families (or what's left of them) recommend themselves. Many of them hadn't collaborated with the insurgents. But their legitimacy would be dramatically reduced. You'd still see a development akin to rabbinic Judaism, but there would be a competing claim which would weaken the disapora schools. And of course, the hardliners still hate the Romans, and now, instead of a sense of utter defeat, have a temple to retake and cleanse and another Makkabi to find.

Bad idea.
 
with the temple intact there would be no discontinuity of the sacerdotal class and the rabbis would not get the position they have today. even if the diaspora does happen, the temple (and its clergy) would remain a focus for jews abroad.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
Come Constantine the Temple will be converted into a church if not a cathedral.

It's debatable; Constantine only converted on his deathbed, and without weakened judaism christianity may well have trouble getting kickstarted as anything but a minor jewish sect.
 

NothingNow

Banned
It's debatable; Constantine only converted on his deathbed, and without weakened judaism christianity may well have trouble getting kickstarted as anything but a minor jewish sect.
And if anything, Jesus might eventually just be "downgraded" to being a Prophet.
 
Come Constantine the Temple will be converted into a church if not a cathedral.

Like all the synagogues in the Empire? I doubt it. Of course you can't ever be sure with Christians in positions of power, but the dpominant theological position of OTL says not to.

Mind, there'll be no Constantine, and quite possibly no Christianity.
 
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