Jerusalem, caught between the Persians and the Byzantines

Continuing with excerpts from a manuscript:

But if Christians seemed to be triumphant in the land of Christ’s birth, their triumph would be short-lived. By the seventh century, the Byzantine Empire had weakened itself to the point of seeming feebleness by endless theological disputes and by the kind of political infighting and treachery that has come to be described in modern times, no matter where it occurs, as “Byzantine intrigue.” It presented an inviting target to ambitious and greedy neighbors—a fact that wasn’t lost on the Sasanian Persian Empire.

At the beginning of the seventh century, the Persians set out on a series of conquests in the Near East. They invaded Palestine in 611 A.D. and their approach ignited a messianic fire among the persecuted Jews of the Holy Land. (From the Jewish per­spective, rule by Zoroastrians could hardly be any worse than the reign of Christians.) The Jews rose enthusiastically to assist the non-Christian invaders, who took the city of Jerusalem in 614. As a reward, when the Persians conquered Jerusalem they turned it over to Jewish control. This didn’t last, however, for when the Per­sian Empire made peace with the Byzantines, the Jews didn’t. The Persians were therefore obliged to fight against their erstwhile allies, and many Jews died. It seemed that they just couldn’t win.

In the meantime, the Persians had carried off the “True Cross” of the crucifixion from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusa­lem. This was one of the holiest relics of Christendom—discovered by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, after strenuous torture of the local rabbis—and its theft as a Persian trophy virtually guaran­teed a Byzantine response, peace treaty or no peace treaty. Sure enough, a new Byzantine emperor by the name of Heraclius soon embarked upon a military buildup with the intention of renewing war against the Persians. In the spring of 622, he launched a new campaign to retake the territory that had been lost. He was largely successful, and in 629 A.D. he reentered the holy city of Jerusalem. The Persians had by now surrendered to Heraclius the remnants of the “True Cross,” and the high point of the Emperor’s visit to Jerusalem was to be the ceremonial restoration of those relics to their original rest­ing place. The Jews, terrified at the possibility of retribution for their collaboration with the Persians, begged Heraclius for mercy. To his credit, he granted it. To their eternal shame, however, the local Christian clergy demanded that Heraclius punish the Jews, and, when he protested that he had promised mercy, they told him that perjury in cases like this was no sin. Indeed, the priests assumed responsi­bility for any sin that might be involved and declared a special fast to atone for it in advance.[1] On the advice of the clergy, therefore, the emperor ordered the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem and its surrounding areas. Many Jews were executed, and others fled to the desert or into the territory of the relatively tolerant Persians. A cam­paign was even launched to convert the Jews by force to the religion of Jesus.

[1] Compare Matthew 27:25, where the Jews, seeking the death of Jesus, cry out, “His blood be on us.” The Coptic church of Egypt continued to celebrate this fast for several centuries afterward.