GOD’S PEREFECTNESS
God, in his perfectness, used many leaders and nations to prepare the way for Jesus, and Cleopatra VII of Egypt was one. Specifically, when Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s proclamation to kill all male children, two years old and under, the young family wisely escaped to Egypt. At that time, Egypt’s Jewish communities were thriving and could prove a safe haven for Israelites who escaped King Herod’s tyrannical and vicious rule. The following historical account explains why Egypt was the safest place for them.
EGYPT – 305 BCE to 30 BCE
During the Bible’s silent years, God was preparing the land of Egypt to safeguard the life of his son, Jesus of Nazareth. The Ptolemaic Kingdom or Ptolemaic Empire was an Ancient Greek state based in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. Cleopatra VII continued the policy of her Ptolemaic forerunners by extending royal support and protection to Jewish proseuchai (places of prayer); the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Of the many Cleopatra queens, Cleopatra VII is the most famous.
Her political life touched on many regions, including Israel and Rome. She was a real woman, who played a pivotal and powerful role in Middle Eastern politics. During her reign, she maintained an important relationship with the land of Israel and ancient Jews and allowed Egypt’s Jewish populations to flourish.
CIVIL WAR AND JEWISH ALLIES
Cleopatra VII was born into the Macedonian Greek family that ruled Egypt in 69 BCE. She spoke many languages, including Egyptian; she was of Greek heritage. At the young age of 18 she became queen of Egypt. She co-reigned with her brother Ptolemy XIII, whom she later married. At the onset of her reign, Egypt was financially ruined from ongoing civil wars and a corrupt political arena. As queen, she allied with Rome.
Cleopatra engaged Egypt in Rome’s civil wars as she joined forces with Roman dictator Julius Caesar against his enemy Pompey. It is assumed that due to her alliance with Rome, in 48 BCE, Cleopatra’s brother exiled her. To regain her throne, she formed a military alliance with Julius Caesar. He helped restore her to Egypt’s throne. History also records that she and Julius Caesar had a romantic relationship as well as one with Mark Atony.
During those years, Egypt had a flourishing Jewish community, and many of Cleopatra VII’s supporters were Egyptian Jews. Historian Stacy Schiff, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her masterful biography Cleopatra: A Life (Little Brown and Company, New York: 2010) notes that in First Century BCE Egypt, Jews “were river guards, police officers, army commanders, and high-ranking officials” and ardent supporters of Cleopatra’s line of succession. Egyptian Jews “numbered among Cleopatra’s supporters in the desert in 48. And they had fought for her during the Alexandrian War (in 47 BCE), at the end of which Caesar had granted them citizenship.”
HOPING TO RULE OVER THE NATION OF ISRAEL
In 47 BCE, Julius Caesar left three Roman legions in the Egyptian city of Alexandria to help ensure Cleopatra’s security on the throne. He then returned to Rome. Historian Dr. Joann Fletcher notes that at the time relations with the region’s Jewish communities were uppermost in Caesar’s mind.
“Sailing out of Alexandria’s Great Harbour past the palaces, the Pharos and the colossus of Isis,” Dr. Fletcher describes; “Caesar did not go straight back to Rome. Needing to shore up Jewish support for his forthcoming struggles against Pompeius’ sons, he sailed along the coast to Acre (in present day Israel’s north) to reward Pompeius’ former supporters Antipatros and Hyrcanus for their valuable help… As Rome’s representative, he confirmed their regime, excused them all tribute, allowed them to rebuild Jerusalem and gave them the port of Joppa (Jaffa) which Cleopatra had wanted herself as part of her plans to regain the Ptolemies’ former territories.” (Quoted in Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend by Dr.Joann Fletcher, Harper Collins, New York: 2008).
CLEOPATRA, JULIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY AND KING HEROD
Cleopatra was with Julius Caesar in Rome when he was murdered on March 15, 44 BCE, by a group of senators who objected to his tyrannical rule. The Roman General Mark Antony competed for power, and reigned alongside Octavian (who replaced Julius Caesar) as part of Rome’s Second Triumvirate for a time, until he broke with Octavian and in 31 BCE he started a civil war. Needing financial support for the war, Antony turned to Cleopatra – they formed an alliance as well as a rumored romance together. They journeyed to Egypt and joined to fight Octavian’s forces in Rome. During this period Cleopatra used to dress like the Egyptian goddess Isis, and Antony dressed as the Greek god Dionysus. The image of these two monarchs haunts western literature and imagination: “Eternity was in our lips and eyes,” Cleopatra famously utters in Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra. The pair was a larger-than-life couple.
JEWISH LIFE IN EGYPT – SECURE, OPEN AND FREE
They were actual rulers, and their actions had consequences for real people – including the sizable Jewish community in Egypt at the time. “The Jews linked Cleopatra’s rule with a golden age,” notes historian Stacy Schiff. The Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv, a museum dedicated to Jewish Diaspora communities, estimates that in the First Century of the Common Era – almost a hundred years after Cleopatra’s Rule – up to a million Jews lived in Egypt; it was one of the largest concentrations of Jewish life in the world, and one that was relatively secure, open and free.
CLEOPATRA AND KING HEROD
In the year 39 BCE, Cleopatra VII hosted one of the Roman Tetrarchs, or governors, of the province of Judea – present day Israel – named Herod. Three years later, Herod became King of Judea by the Roman Empire, and terrorized his Jewish subjects. A paranoid, brutal ruler, he murdered many leading Jewish religious figures and rabbis of the day.
During his reign, Nomadic Parthian fighters had entered the land of Israel, hounding Herod and his allies. Herod escaped Jerusalem and fled with his family to the fortress he’d built on top of a mountain called Masada, which still stands today. With few friends, Herod had no place to go nearby, and travelled to Egypt; he became a refugee fleeing for his life. Cleopatra was his host; a fellow client ruler of the Roman Empire.
According to historian Stacy Schiff, at first, Cleopatra saw Herod as an entertaining companion. Cleopatra asked Herod to take part in an invasion of Ethiopia with her, but the Roman Tetrarch declined. After a lengthy visit, Cleopatra evidently asked Herod to leave, and gave him a galley ship to take him back to Judea. It was winter, however, and the Mediterranean seas were rough. Herod shipwrecked off the coast of Cyprus, arriving back in Judea at a much later date.
QUEEN CLEOPATRA FLEES THE WRATH OF KING HEROD
In the year 36 BCE, Cleopatra was at the height of her power. She travelled through modern day Syria, south into present day Lebanon, then into the land of Israel to visit King Herod, her friend and ally. Herod was now the Roman Empire’s client “King” of Judea, and was letting his bloodthirsty nature have free reign. Cleopatra barely escaped with her life.
Her territory extended all the way to the Israeli city of Jericho, where Mark Antony had succeeded in seizing territory for her. Cleopatra now owned lush groves of balsam trees, which once had belonged to Herod. She leased the land back to him for an annual rent of 200 talents. Now, on her visit, she collected cuttings, ordering them to be taken back to Egypt and planted there, so that she could have her own supply of incense with which to supply Egypt’s pagan sun-worshipping temples.
Taking the cuttings aroused Herod’s anger, but it was Cleopatra’s open alliance with Herod’s brother-in-law that truly enraged the brutal king. Herod was born into an Idumean Arab family: he wanted to serve as the Cohen Gadol, or Jewish High Priest, in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, but was not able to do so because of his non-Jewish birth. Cleopatra called for Herod to appoint his brother-in-law Aristobulus, a descendent of the Jewish Hasmonean royal family, as High Priest instead.
This enraged Herod who had effectively ended the Hasmonean bloodline and to ensure his own continuation as King of Judea by killing his wife and children. Fearing that Cleopatra would take over his empire, he planned to murder her. Cleopatra heard of Herod’s plan to kill her and fled back to Egypt with her entourage.
CLEOPATRA’S LEGACY AND DEATH
In 31 BCE, Cleopatra and Mark Antony joined forces to engage Octavian’s navy in a sea battle at Actium, off the coast of Greece. Cleopatra’s and Mark Antony’s ships were defeated, and the royal couple retreated to Egypt. Octavian followed them, waging war on them in Egypt. Octavian conquered Alexandria in the year 30 BCE and turned Egypt into a province in Rome’s vast Empire. She died in Egypt and as legend records at the bite of a venomous snake.
Cleopatra was an Eastern potentate, mysterious and sensual; a remarkable woman who lived in a consequential, and complicated era. She was the product of her times and played a vital role in the ancient Middle East. She engaged with Jewish communities and ensured that Egypt’s Jewish population became one of the ancient world’s most free and secure. This alliance allowed Joseph and Mary to flee to a safe haven to save their young son from death at the hands of King Herod’s military.
RESOURCE: Cleopatra and the Jews – Aish.com
Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Dr. Alt Miller lives with her family in Chicago and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her latest book Portraits of Valor: Heroic Jewish Women You Should Know describes the lives of 40 remarkable women who inhabited different eras and lands, giving a sense of the vast diversity of Jewish experience. It’s been praised as inspirational, fascinating, fun and educational.