pakeha wrote:steve43 wrote: [ . . . ]Josephus is not hard to read. More people should take the time to read his Wars and the later books of Antiquities, as well as Josephus' autobiography for real insight into those interesting times.
I agree with you there.
I'll never read Josephus in the original, but the on-line translation I read last weekend of the last book of Wars was an extraordinary read- horrifying, brutal yet utterly riveting.
The scenes of mutual genocide and fighting that occurred between Jewish and gentile populations of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee and areas of lower Syria up to Tyre & Sidon is part of the reason why I have become convinced that this period was the catalyst that caused the synthesis of high christology from the preceding theses that 1) Jesus was the Jewish messiah figure who may have been resurrected after being crucified by the Romans, and that 2) there would be a coming fruitful "kingdom of God" on earth in which gentiles who revered the Judean God could participate. The interracial strife and the utter defeat of the Judean revolutionaries by the Romans made it pretty clear that no earthly kingdom of God was likely to ever occur. The destruction of the Judean cultic center and sacrificial system lent itself to the idea that perhaps God had somehow "demoted" the Judeans and their "Law."
Gentiles who had placed their bets on Jesus as a military messiah could give up on Judaism entirely, but they had already cut all family ties to convert to Judaism, and the war just made that cut even more deep. What they did, it seems, was to refashion Jesus into something that fit into a new and improved "plan of God" for the world.
Go and look at the passages in the gospels where Jesus predicts "brother will hate brother" and "father will hate son" (or vice versa) and "you will be hated by peoples of all nations for my sake" and you can likely find one or more parallel passage in Josephus'
War or his
Life.
Josephus, in Jewish War 2 wrote: 457 Now the people of Caesarea had slain the Jews that were among them on the very same day and hour [when the Roman soldiers who had agreed to surrender the citadel were slain in Jerusalem by the revolutionaries led by the Captain of the Temple, Eleazar], which one would think must have come to pass by the direction of Providence; insomuch that in one hour's time more than twenty thousand Jews were killed, and all Caesarea was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants; for Florus caught such as ran away, and sent them in bonds to the galleys.
458 Upon which stroke that the Jews received at Caesarea, the whole nation was greatly enraged; so they divided themselves into several parties, and laid waste the villages of the Syrians, and their neighbouring cities, Philadelphia, and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, and Pella, and Scythopolis,
459 and after them Gadara, and Hippos; and falling upon Gaulonitis, some cities they destroyed there, and some they set on fire, and then went to Kedasa, belonging to the Tyrians, and to Ptolemais, and to Gaba, and to Caesarea;
460 nor was either Sebaste (Samaria) or Askelon able to oppose the violence with which they were attacked; and when they had burnt these to the ground; they entirely demolished Anthedon and Gaza; many also of the villages that were around everyone of those cities were plundered, and an immense slaughter was made of the men who were caught in them.
461 However, the Syrians were even with the Jews in the multitude of the men whom they slew; for they killed those whom they caught in their cities, and that not only out of the hatred they bare them, as formerly, but to prevent the danger under which they were from them;
462 so that the disorders in all Syria were terrible, and every city was divided into two armies encamped one against another, and the preservation of the one party was in the destruction of the other;
463 so the daytime was spent in shedding of blood, and the night in fear--which was of the two the more terrible; for when the Syrians thought they had ruined the Jews, they had the Judaizers in suspicion also; and as each side did not care to slay those whom they only suspected on the other, so did they greatly fear them when they were mingled with the other, as if they were certainly foreigners.
464 Moreover, greediness of gain was a provocation to kill the opposite party, even to such as had of old appeared very mild and gentle toward them; for they without fear plundered the effects of the slain, and carried off the spoils of those whom they slew to their own houses, as if they had been gained in a set battle; and he was esteemed a man of honour who got the greatest share, as having prevailed over the greatest number of his enemies.
465 It was then common to see cities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of old men, mixed with infants, all dead, and scattered about together; women also lay among them, without any covering for their nakedness: you might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities, while the dread of still more barbarous practices which were threatened, was everywhere greater than what had been already perpetrated.
And the case was worse for those who sided with the other race against those of their own race:
466 And thus far the conflict had been between Jews and foreigners; but when they made excursions to Scythopolis, they found Jews that acted as enemies; for as they stood in battle array with those of Scythopolis, and preferred their own safety before their relation to us, they fought against their own countrymen;
467 nay, their alacrity was so very great, that those of Scythopolis suspected them. These were afraid, therefore, lest they should make an assault upon the city in the night time, and to their great misfortune, should thereby make an apology for themselves to their own people for their revolt from them. So they commanded them, that in case they would confirm their agreement, and demonstrate their fidelity to them, who were of a different nation, they should go out of the city, with their families, to a neighbouring grove:
468 and when they had done as they were commanded, without suspecting anything, the people of Scythopolis lay still for the interval of two days, to tempt them to be secure; but on the third night they watched for their opportunity, and cut all their throats, some as they lay unguarded, and some as they lay asleep. The number that was slain was more than thirteen thousand, and then they plundered them of all that they had.
469 It will deserve our history to relate what befell Simon; he was the son of one Saul, a man of reputation among the Jews. This man was distinguished from the rest by the strength of his body and the boldness of his conduct, although he abused them both to the mischievousness of his countrymen;
470 for he came every day and slew a great many of the Jews of Scythopolis, and he frequently put them to flight, and became himself alone the cause of his army's conquering.
471 But a just punishment overtook him for the murders he had committed upon those of the same nation with him; for when the people of Scythopolis threw their javelins at them in the grove, he drew his sword, but did not attack any of the enemy; for he saw that he could do nothing against such a multitude; but he cried out, after a very moving manner, and said--
472 ``O you people of Scythopolis, I deservedly suffer for what I have done with relation to you, when I gave you such security of my fidelity to you, by slaying so many of those who were related to me. Therefore we very justly experience the perfidiousness of foreigners, while we acted after a most wicked manner against our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted wretch as I am, by mine own hands; for it is not fit I should die by the hand of our enemies;
473 and let the same action be to me both a punishment for my great crimes, and a testimony of my courage to my commendation, that so no one of our enemies may have it to boast of, that he it was that slew me; and no one may glory over me as I fall.''
474 Now when he had said this, he looked around him upon his family with eyes of pity and of rage; (that family consisted of a wife and children, and his aged parents;)
475 so, in the first place, he caught his father by his grey hairs, and ran his sword through him; and after him he did the same to his mother, who willingly received it; and after them he did the like to his wife and children, everyone almost offering themselves to his sword, as desirous to prevent being slain by their enemies;
476 so when he had gone over all his family, he stood upon their bodies to be seen by all, and stretching out his right hand, that his action might be observed by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels. This young man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his body and the courage of his soul; but since he had assured foreigners of his fidelity [against his own countrymen], he suffered deservedly.
If one who even remembers the cases of Bosnia-Hergovina and Rwanda in the 80s and 90s, there were mass pogroms, instances of ethnic cleansing, and the dispatch (executions) of those who remained on friendly terms with the "enemy".
(JOE Jwr 2:477-480) 477 Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the other cities rose up against the Jews that were among them: those of Askelon slew two thousand five hundred, and those of Ptolemais, two thousand, and put not a few into bonds;
478 those of Tyre also put a great number to death, but kept a greater number in prison; moreover, those of Hippos and those of Gadara, did the like, while they put to death the boldest of the Jews, but kept those of whom they were afraid in custody; as did the rest of the cities of Syria, according as everyone either hated them or were afraid of them;
This was not universally the case, though:
479 only the Antiochians, the Sidonians, and Apamians spared those who dwelt with them, and would not endure either to kill any of the Jews or to put them in bonds. And perhaps they spared them, because their own number was so great that they despised their attempts. But I think the greatest part of this favour was owing to their pity of those whom they saw to make no seditions.
480 As for the Gerasens, they did no harm to those who abode with them; and for those who had a mind to go away, they conducted them as far as their borders reached.
Some NT examples:
(RSV Mat 24:9-10) 9
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10
And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another.
(RSV Mat 10:35-36) 35
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36
and a man's foes will be those of his own household.
(RSV Mar 13:12-13) 12
And brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 13
and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
(RSV Luk 6:22) 22 "
Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil ...!
(RSV Luk 14:26) 26 "
If any one comes to me and
does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
