Podcast Summary

Podcast: Call Me Back – with Dan Senor

Episode: 1 A.D. in Jerusalem – with Benjamin Beerley
Date: December 25, 2025
Host: Dan Senor (Ark Media)
Guest: Benjamin Beerley (American Israeli PhD candidate, historical researcher)

Episode Overview

This Christmas Day episode explores what Jewish life in Jerusalem looked like at "Year 1" (1 A.D.), the era into which Jesus was born. Host Dan Senor and historian Benjamin Beerley delve into the deep political, social, and religious divisions within Jewish society at that time—unwrapping the legacies of the Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynasty, the rise of the Roman Empire, and the waves of messianic hopes that shaped the era. Through Jewish and global lenses, the episode frames the factionalism, external pressures, and collective search for meaning that marked the birth of both Christianity and a formative moment in Jewish history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Jerusalem at Year 1

• Jewish But Roman Ruled:
  Jesus was born in “a very Jewish world” (04:23), deeply tied to Jewish traditions, but under Roman imperial oversight. Judea was not a provincial backwater but a geopolitical flashpoint between Rome and the Parthian (Iranian) East.

• Widespread Diaspora:
  The Jewish population extended far beyond Judea, with thriving communities in Babylon (modern Iraq), Alexandria (Egypt), Anatolia, Greece, and tens of thousands in Rome.
  “...hundreds of thousands of Jews in Egypt...Jewish communities throughout what is today Turkey, Greece, Rome…” [04:23]

• Calendar Quirk:
  Modern reckoning of “Year 1” is slightly off; Jesus was likely born several years earlier, as the system was codified centuries after his time.

2. Jewish Political and Religious Factionalism

• The Main Factions in Year 1:
  • Sadducees: Temple elite, controlling the Temple’s vast bureaucracy and economy, sticking rigidly to written Torah.
  • Pharisees: Sages/rabbis, innovators, and populists, focused on Torah interpretation, everyday ethics, and oral tradition.
  • Essenes: Radical, apocalyptic sect, waiting for divine redemption, rejecting both major camps as corrupt.
  • (Beginnings of) Zealots: Proto-revolutionaries ready for armed rebellion against Rome.

Defining the Groups

• Sadducees:
  “There are daily sacrifices. There are thousands of priests. There’s a whole system. There’s a temple bureaucracy…, and that’s where we can really locate the Sadducees, this group of Temple elites.” [11:25]
• Pharisees:
  “...centered around the scribes and they’re more embedded in the everyday life of Jews living in Jerusalem, living throughout Judea.” [11:25]
• On Innovation:
  “Pharisees are the more innovative group or the more progressive group of the two.” [12:50]

3. From Hanukkah to Civil War: The Hasmonean Dynasty’s Legacy

• Hanukkah as Aftermath, Not Solution:
  Though Hanukkah marks a Jewish victory over Hellenism, the post-revolt years led straight into complex power struggles and forced conversions by Hasmonean leaders like John Hyrcanus—who violated Jewish norms by merging priestly and kingly authority.

• Hellenization’s Irony:
  Hasmonean rulers stage a gradual about-face: from anti-Hellenic rebels to Greek-style kings, adopting Greek names and political forms to ensure survival.
  “There’s a big difference between rebellion… and a sustainable state… you can’t rebel from an extreme position of rejectionism… you have to have a sustainable model to rule, and that’s by becoming a Greek king.” [17:14]

• Conservatism Flips:
  What was once “innovative, rebellious” becomes conservative as old revolutionaries settle into power, resisting further change.
  “We can all relate to this idea of what was revolutionary or non-traditional in one generation becomes the conservatives of the next generation.” [20:06]

4. Notable Personalities and Their Roles

• Shlom Tzion/Alexandra (Salome Alexandra):
  Queen, moderating force, bridges Sadducees (her husband’s camp) and Pharisees (her family of origin—her brother Shimon ben Shattach is a key Pharisee figure). After her husband’s (Alexander Jannaeus) death, she rules independently, providing a rare era of compromise and stability.
  “She comes from a Pharisaic family… She comes from a good Pharisee family… and she’s married to this Hasmonean king, Aristobulus…” [21:41]

• Alexander Jannaeus/Alexander Yanai:
  Sadducee king, fierce persecutor of the Pharisees—instigates brutal civil wars.
  “He becomes this famous or infamous persecutor of the Pharisees, his wife’s world.” [23:45]
  “We have some really gruesome details of Alexander crucifying hundreds of rabbis really trying to stamp out the Pharisee opposition…” [23:45]

5. Rome’s Arrival: The End of Independence

• Civil War & Roman Intervention:
  Rival claimants (brothers, sons of Alexandra) embroil Judea in further strife—both appeal to the Roman superpower for arbitration. Rome backs the weaker party and installs its own client rulers.

• Herod the Great's Rise:
  Son of the Idumean Antipater and a Nabataean princess, Herod is Rome’s answer—a king with shaky Jewish credentials who marries into the Hasmonean line for legitimacy, but is remembered as both mass murderer (in Christian and Jewish tradition) and grand builder.
  “Herod…is Jewish enough for the Romans.” [32:29]
  “He sets out on a massive project of renovation, construction, public works projects. He rebuilds the Temple in Jerusalem…” [35:08]
  “The Western Wall is a Herodian retaining wall… Masada, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the Port of Caesarea… these are all Herod’s building projects.” [35:08]

6. Messianism and Social Crisis

• Mood of Hopelessness:
  Despite grand construction and outward prosperity, most Jews feel the system is illegitimate: a foreign power holds sway, the king might not even be really Jewish, and corruption is rife.
  “There’s this feeling that the system is corrupt. The system isn’t what it’s supposed to be. We’re at the end of a very long reign of a king that might not even really be Jewish. So there’s this feeling that the solution… can only come from a dramatic, drastic event, divine intervention, or a type of figure, a messiah, that will shake everything up…” [37:52 & 00:08]

• Messianic Movements:
  The public pins its hopes either on political change (“zealots”), apocalyptic divine rescue (Essenes and others), or charismatic “outcast” preachers from the Galilee—of which Jesus is only the most famous.
  “If we were walking around the streets of Jerusalem or walking between the villages of the Galilee in year one, there would be all of these figures… attracting crowds…” [39:28]

7. Why Did Jesus’ Messianism Endure?

• Among dozens of messianic figures, Jesus’ blend of radical ethics, apocalyptic rhetoric, and outsider status allowed various groups to find resonance in his story, leading to his enduring legacy.
  “He’s using rhetoric…combining different parts of these worlds, and in a way that allows everyone to project what they want to hear onto him.” [43:03]

8. Collapse & Aftermath

• Post-Herod:
  Judea devolves into Roman direct rule, instability, and radicalization. The zealots gain ground—setting the stage for the disastrous Great Revolt (66–70 CE) and the Temple’s destruction.
  “These questions of legitimacy, these questions of power…this wave of messianic expectation and these messianic figures, this is all creating a perfect storm that is going to explode.” [45:21]

• Pharisees (Rabbis) Response:
  Chose to focus on law, learning, and survival—maintaining an “apolitical” posture and ultimately enabling continuity after catastrophe.
  “They are still focused on preserving a Judaism that is based around Torah, Torah learning, and an oral tradition…” [47:20]

9. Big Takeaways & Reflection

• None of This Was Inevitable:
  The episode’s close underlines that Jewish civil war, Roman intervention, loss of sovereignty, and even the rise of Christianity as a world religion were contingent historical processes, not fate.
  “None of this was inevitable. None of this was fate… the division, the civil war, intervention of Rome… none of this was inevitable. So the very Jewish story behind Christmas is a story of a Jew shaped by very Jewish conflicts that you can’t understand without understanding the Jewish conflicts that he was born into.” [48:41]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Opening Snapshot:
  “We have this superpower from the west that is calling the shots. We’re now a part of Rome… the solution… can only come from a dramatic, drastic event, divine intervention, or a type of figure, a messiah…”
  — Benjamin Beerley [00:08; echoed at 37:52]

• On Historical Ironies:
  “Even though the Maccabean revolt was successful, the Jews are still living in a Greek world… Hellenism isn’t something that can be totally rejected. It’s too pervasive, it’s too international, it’s too global.”
  — Benjamin Beerley [17:14]

• On Queen Shlom Tzion/Alexandra:
  “She found herself as a kind of island of moderation and sanity in a sea of a lot of crazy men, causing a lot of problems.”
  — Benjamin Beerley [21:41]

• On Herod’s Reputation:
  “It’s one of the few things that both Christian and Jewish tradition agree on is that Herod is a bad guy… But it is much more complex than that, because…he sets out on a massive project of renovation, construction, public works projects.”
  — Benjamin Beerley [35:08]

• On Jewish Messianism:
  “We would be listening to these different figures today. We can look at them and call them messianic figures. And it’s exactly one of these figures that Jesus would become. And these figures are not institutional figures. ...These are figures that are coming from the smaller villages. These are figures that are coming from the poorer classes of people.”
  — Benjamin Beerley [39:28]

• On Contingency and Hope:
  “None of this was inevitable. None of this was fate.”
  — Benjamin Beerley [48:41]

Timeline of Key Segments (Timestamps)

• Superpower Rome, Factionalism, and Messianism: [00:08]
• Scene setting for Year 1 A.D.: [03:30–07:16]
• Jewish Factions—Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes: [07:34–12:32]
• The Hasmonean Civil Wars and Hellenization: [13:27–21:41]
• Queen Shlom Tzion & Alexander Jannaeus: [21:41–25:58]
• The Role of Rome & Ascendancy of Herod: [28:18–35:08]
• Herod’s Legitimacy, Construction, and Reputation: [35:08–37:38]
• Widespread Messianic Expectation & Jesus’ Context: [37:45–43:03]
• After Herod—Zealots’ Rise, Roman Direct Rule: [45:15–48:36]
• Final Reflections on the Era’s Lessons: [48:41–49:32]

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling, context-rich exploration of the world into which Jesus was born—a Jewish world wracked by civil strife, grappling with foreign dominance, and searching anxiously for meaning and redemption. The divisiveness and political turmoil of the age remain strikingly relevant and familiar. In demythologizing “Year 1 in Jerusalem,” Senor and Beerley reveal how contingent, vulnerable, and vibrant that world was, and how its internal dramas remain essential for understanding both Jewish history and the emergence of Christianity.

For further study:

• Start at [07:34] for deep dives into Jewish factionalism.
• Listen to [21:41] for Shlom Tzion’s story—a rare female ruler and peacemaker.
• [35:08]–[43:03] explores the transition to Herod the Great and the complex roots of Jewish messianism.