He would have been assisted by various officials and a body of scribes, but there is no evidence that a popular assembly existed, and he would have had little discretion over his core duties. Alongside the High Priest was the Persian governor, apparently usually a local, charged primarily with keeping order and seeing that tribute was paid. The practical result was that after c.500 BCE Yehud became in practice a theocracy, ruled by a line of hereditary High Priests. But by the mid-5th century BCE the prophets and Davidic kings had disappeared, leaving only the High Priest. The second and third pillars of the early period of Persian rule in Yehud were the institutions of High Priest and Prophet, preserved in the Hebrew Bible in the histories of Ezra–Nehemiah and the Books of Chronicles as well as the books of the prophets Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi. This hypothesis-that Zerubbabel and his immediate successors represented a restoration of the Davidic kingdom under Persian overlordship-cannot be verified, but it would be in keeping with Persian policy in other parts of the Persian Empire, such as Phoenicia. Sheshbazzar, the governor of Yehud appointed by Cyrus in 538, was of Davidic origin, as was his successor (and probable nephew) Zerubbabel Zerubbabel in turn was succeeded by his second son and then by his son-in-law, all of them hereditary Davidic governors of Yehud, a state of affairs that ended only around 500 BCE. The Persians may have experimented at first with ruling Yehud as a client kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin, who had kept his royal status even in captivity. The position of Jerusalem before the administration moved back from Mizpah is not clear, but from 445 BCE onwards it was once more the main city of Yehud, with walls, a temple (the Second Temple) and other facilities needed to function as a provincial capital, including, from 420 BCE, a local mint striking silver coins. Mizpah continued as the provincial capital for over a century. Social strata also encompassed different religious outlooks, each with its different emphasis: some reliant on the Temple priests, while the majority were led by traditional non-priestly families, emphasizing the world of Torah study and the development of law over the formal hierarchy established in the Temple.ĭuring the Babylonian period the centre of Judah had shifted northward to Benjamin this region, once a part of the kingdom of Israel, was far more densely populated than Judah itself, and now held both the administrative capital, Mizpah, and the major religious centre at Bethel. There existed in the city, for example, a clear distinction between a rich and cosmopolitan elite and the wider population wishing less influence in the nation's ways from the outside world. The city's population was characterized by social stratification, both economic and religious, which grew more pronounced over the years. The physical development of the city was greatly affected by the changing characteristics of each era, while at the same time influencing these periods themselves. The 600 years of the Second Temple period can be divided into several periods, each with its own distinct political and social characteristics. It was also in Jerusalem during the later stages of this period that Christianity was born. The Pharisees of Second Temple Judaism developed into the Tannaim and Judaism's post-Exilic religious identity as it continues today, and the Hebrew Bible was perhaps canonized, although exactly when this occurred remains disputed. It was the center of religious life for all Jews even those who lived in the diaspora prayed towards Jerusalem on a daily basis and made pilgrimages during religious festivals. Jerusalem during the Second Temple period describes the history of the city from the return to Zion under Cyrus the Great to the 70 CE siege of Jerusalem by Titus during the First Jewish–Roman War, which saw both region and city change hands several times. Looking west, with the Susa gate in the foreground wall in front of the Temple. Holyland Model of Jerusalem at the Israel Museum, depicts the city of Jerusalem, circa early first century CE.
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