to neither of us, because they had chosen to be in subjec tion to the Romans, they did not comply with his proposal; and for those of Tiberias, they did not indeed so far comply as to make a revolt from under me, but they agreed to be his friends, while the inhabitants of Gabara did go over to John; and it was Simon that persuaded them so to do, one who was both the principal man in the city, and a particular friend and companion of John. It is true these did not openly own the making a revolt, because they were in great fear of the Galileans, and had frequent experience of the good-will they bore to me; yet did they privately watch for a proper opportunity to lay snares for me; and indeed I thereby came into the greatest danger, on the occasion following: 26. There were some bold young men of the village Dasbaritta, who observed that the wife of Ptolemy, the king's procurator, was to make a progress over the great plain with a mighty attendance, and with some horsemen that followied, as a guard to them, and this out of a country that was subject to the king and queen, into the jurisdiction of the Romans; and fell upon them on the sudden, and obliged -the wife of Ptolemy to fly away, and plundered all the carriages. They also came to me at Taricheae, with four mules, loading of garments, and other furniture; and the eweight of the silver they brought was not small, and there were five hundred pieces of gold also. Now I had a mind to preserve these spoils for Ptolemy, who was my countryman; and it is prohibited * us by our laws even to spoil our enemies; so I said to those that brought these spoils, that they ought to be kept, in order to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem with them, when they came to be sold. But the How Josephus could say here that the Jewish laws forbade them to spoil even their enemies, while yet, a little before his time, our Saviour had mentioned it as then a current maxim with them," Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy,” Matt. v. 43. is worth our inquiry. I take it, that Josephus, having been now for many years an Ebionite Christian, had learned this interpretation of the law of Moses from Christ, whom he owned for the true Messiah, as it follows in the succeeding verses, which, though he might not read in St. Matthew's gospel, yet might he have read much the same exposition in their own Ebionite or Nazarene gospel itself; of which improvements made by Josephus, after he was become a Christian, we have already had several examples in this his life, S. 13. 15. 19. 21. 23. and shall have many more therein before its conclusion, as well as we have then elsewhere in all his later writings. young men took it very ill that they did not receive a part of those spoils for themselves, as they expected to have done; so they went among the villages, in the neighbourhood of Tiberias, and told the people that I was going to betray their country to the Romans, and that I used deceitful language to them, when I said, that what had been thus gotten by rapine should be kept for the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem ; although I had resolved to restore these spoils again to their former owner. And, indeed, they were herein not mistaken as to my intentions: for when I had gotten clear of them, I sent for two of the principal men, Dassien and Janneus, the sons of Levi, persons that were among the chief friends of the king, and commanded them to take the furniture that had been plundered, and to send it to him; and I threatened that I would order them to be put to death by way of punishment, if they discovered this my command to any other person. 27. Now when all Galilee was filled with this rumour, that their country was about to be betrayed by me to the Romans, and when all men were exasperated against me, and ready to bring me to punishment, the inhabitants of Tiracheae did also themselves suppose that what the young men said was true, and persuaded my guards and armed men to leave me when I was asleep, and to come presently to the hippodrome, in order there to take counsel against me, their commander. And when they had prevailed with them, and they were gotten together, they found there a great company assembled already, who all joined in one clamour to bring the man who was so wicked to them as to betray them, to his due punishment; and it was Jesus, the son of Sapphias, who principally set them on. He was ruler in Tiberias, a wicked man, and naturally disposed to make disturbances in matters of consequence; a seditious person he was indeed, and an innovator beyond every body else. He then took the laws of Moses into his hands, and came into the midst of the people, and said, "O my fellow-citizens, if you are not disposed to hate Josephus on your own account, have regard however to these laws of your country, which your commander in chief is going to betray; hate him, therefore, on both these accounts, and bring the man who hath acted thus insolently to his deserved punishment." 28. When he had said this, and the multitude had open ly applauded him for what he had said, he took some of the armed men, and made haste away to the house in which I lodged, as if he would kill me immediately, while I was wholly insensible of all till this disturbance happened; and, by reason of the pains I had been taking, was fallen fast asleep. But Simon, who was the person intrusted with my body, and was the only person who stayed with me, and saw the violent incursion the citizens made upon nie, he awaked me, and told me of the danger I was in, and desired me to let him kill me, that I might die bravely and like a general, before my enemies came in, and forced me [to kill myself,] or killed me themselves. Thus did he discourse to me; but I committed the care of my life to God, and made haste to go out to the multitude. Accordingly, I put on a black garment, and hung my sword at my neck, and went by such a different way to the hippodrome, wherein I thought none of my enemies would meet me; so I appeared among them on a sudden, and fell down flat on the earth, and bedewed the ground with my tears; then I seemed to them all an object of compassion. And when I perceived the change that was made in the multitude, I tried to divide their opinions, before the armed men should return from my house; so I granted them, that I had been as wicked as they supposed me to be; but still I entreated them, to let me first inform them for what use I had kept that money which arose from the plunder, and that they might then kill me if they pleased: and upon the multitude's ordering me to speak, the armed men came upon me; and when they saw me, they ran to kill me; but when the multitude bid them hold their hands, they complied, and expected that as soon as I should own to them that I kept the money for the king, it would be looked on as a confession of my treason, and they should then be allowed to kill me. 29. When, therefore, silence was made by the whole multitude, I spake thus to them: "O my countrymen, I refuse not to die, if justice so require. However, I am desirous to tell you the truth of this matter before I die; for, as I know this city of yours, [Taricheae] was a city of great hospitality, and filled with abundance of such men as have left their own countries, and are come hither to be partakers of your fortune, whatever it be, I had a mind to build walls about it, out of this money, for which you are so angry with me, while yet it was to be expended in building your the people of Tiberias, continued in their wrath ne, insomuch that there arose a tumult among them, me threatened to kill me, and some bid me not to hem; but when I promised them that I would build alls at Tiberias, and at other cities that wanted hey gave credit to what I promised, and returned e to his own home. So I escaped the foremenlanger, beyond all my hopes, and returned to my se, accompanied with my friends, and twenty armalso. However, those robbers, and other authors of this who were afraid on their own account, lest I should them for what they had done, took six hundred arm, and came to the house where I abode, in order to a fire. When this their insult was told me, I thought ent for me to run away, and I resolved to expose mylanger, and to act with some boldness: so I gave orders the doors, and went up into an upper-room, and desirthey would send some of their men in to receive the [from the spoils :] for I told them they would then o occasion to be angry with me; and when they had one of the boldest men of them all, I had him whipverely, and I commanded that one of his hands should off, and hung about his neck; and in this case was he t to those that sent him. At which procedure of mine vere greatly affrighted, and in no small consternation, ere afraid that they should themselves be served in anner if they stayed there; for they supposed that n the house more armed men than they had themselves, y ran away immediately, while I, by the use of this gem, escaped this their second treacherous design st me. But there was still some that irritated the multitude st me, and said that those great men that belonged to ing ought not to be suffered to live, if they would not ge their religion to the religion of those to whom they or safety: they spake reproachfully of them also, and that they were wizards, and such as called in the Ros upon them. So the multitude was soon deluded by plausible pretences as were agreeable to their own in clinations, and were prevailed on by them. But when I was informed of this, I instructed the multitude again, that those that fled to them for refuge ought not to be persecuted : I also laughed at the allegation about witchcraft,* and told them that the Romans would not maintain so many ten thousand soldiers, if they could overcome their enemies by wizards. Upon my saying this, the people assented for a while; but they returned again afterward as irritated by some ill people, against the great men; nay, they once made an assault upon the house in which they dwelt at Taricheae, in order to kill them; which, when I was informed of, I was afraid lest so horrid a crime should take effect, and nobody else would make that city their refuge any more. I therefore came myself, and some other with me, to the house where these great men lived, and locked the doors, and had a trench for a ship, and embarked therein with them, and sailed to the confines of Hippos: I also paid them the value of their horses, nor in such a flight could I have their horses brought to them. I then dismissed them, and begged of them earnestly that they would courageously bear this distress which befell them. I was also myself greatly displeased that I was compelled to expose those that had fled to me to go again into an enemy's country; yet did I think it more eligible that they should perish among the Romans, if it should so happen, than in the country that was under my jurisdiction. However, they escaped at length, and king Agrippa forgave them their offences. And this was the conclusion of what concerned these men. 32. But as for the inhabitants of the city of Tiberias, they wrote to the king, and desired him to send them forces sufficient to be a guard to their country; for that they were desirous to come over to him: this was what they wrote to him. But when I came to them, they desired me to build their walls, as I had promised them to do; for they had heard that the walls of Taricheae were already built: I agreed to the proposal accordingly. And when I had made preparation for the entire building, I gave order to the architects to go to work; but on the third day, when I was gone to Taricheae, which was thirty furlongs distant from Tiberias, it so fell out, that some Roman horsemen were discovered on their march, not far from the city, which made it * Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notion of witchcraft ; but that our Josephus was too wise to give any countenance to it. |