robbers went up with the greatest security at the festival after this time, and having weapons concealed in like manner as before, and mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of their own enemies, and were subser vient to other men for money, and slew others, not only in remote parts of the city, but in the temple itself also; for they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the impiety of which they were guilty. And this seems to me to have been the reason why God, out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected our city, and, as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it suffi ciently pure for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and threw a fire upon the city to purge it, and brought upon us, our wives, and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities. 6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all sorts of impiety. And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God. And many that were prevailed on by them suffered the punishments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then punished them. Moreover, there came out of Egypt about this time to Jerusalem, one that said he was a prophet, and advised the multitude of the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay over against the city, and at the distance of five fur longs. He said farther, that he would show them from hence, how, at his com mand, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised them, that be would procure them an entrance into the city through those walls, when they were fallen down. Now, when Felix was informed of these things, he ordered his soldiers to take their weapons, and came against them with a great number of Borsemen and footmen from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian, and the people that were with him. He also slew four hundred of them, and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more. And again the robbers stirred up the people to make war with the Ro mans, and said, they ought not to obey them at all; and when any persons would not comply with them, they set fire to their villages, and plundered them. 7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that inhabited Cesarea and the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews claimed the preeminence, because Herod their king was the builder of Cesarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alleged about Herod; but they said, that Cesarea was formerly called Strato's Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish inhabitant. When the presidents of that country heard of these disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented them with stripes, 1. Ananelus. 2. Aristobulus. 3. Jesus, the son of Fabus. 4. Simon, the son of Boethus. 5. Matthias, the son of Theophilus. 6. Joazar, the son of Boethus. 7. Eleazar, the son of Boethus. 8. Jesus, the son of Sie. 9. [Annas, or] Ananus, the son of Seth. 10. Ismael, the son of Fabus. 11. Eleazar, the son of Ananus. 12. Simon. the son of Camithus. 13. Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in-law to Ananus. 14. Jonathan, the son of Ananus. 15. Theophilus, his brother, and son of Anauns. 16. Simon, the son of Boethus. 17. Matthias, the brother of Jonathan, ano son o Ananus. 18. Alioneus. 19. Josephus, the son of Camydus. 20. Ananias, the son of Nebedeus. 21. Jonathas. 22. Ismael, the son of Fabi. 23. Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon. As for Ananus and Joseph Caiaphas, here mentioned about the middle of this ca'alogue, they are no >ther than those Annas and Caiaphas, so often mentioned in the four gospels; and that Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, was that high priest before whom St. Paul pleaded his own cause, Acts, xxiv. * Of these Jewish impostors and false prophets, with many other circumstances and miseries of the Jews, till their utter destruction, foretold by our Saviour, see Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 58-75. + Of this Egyptian impostor, and the number of his followers in Josephus, see Acts, xxi. 38. and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a time. But the Jewish citi. zens, depending on their wealth, and on that account despising the Syrians, re proached them again, and hoped to provoke them by such reproaches. However, the Syrians, though they were inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were either of Cesarea or of Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language to the Jews also; and thus it was, till at length they came to throwing stones at one another, and several were wounded, and fell on both sides, though the Jews were still the conquerors. But when Felix saw that this quarrel was become a kind of war, he came upon them on the sudden, and desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused so to do, he armed his soldiers, and sent themA out upon them, and slew many of them, and took more of them alive, and per. mitted his soldiers to plunder some of the houses of the citizens, which were full of riches. Now those Jews that were more moderate, and of principal dignity among them, were afraid of themselves, and desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his soldiers, and spare them for the future, and afford them room for repentance, for what they had done; and Felix was prevailed upon to do so. 8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ismael, who was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition between the high priests and the prin. cipal men of the multitude of Jerusalem; each of which got them a company of the boldest sort of men, and of those that loved innovations, about them, and be came leaders to them; and when they struggled together, they did it by casting reproachful words against one another, and by throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove them, but these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the im. pudence* and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the har. diness to send their servants into the threshing-floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests; insomuch that it so fell out, that the poorer sort of the priests died for want. To this degree did the violence of the seditious prevail over all right and justice! 9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix, by Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cesarea went up to Rome to accuse Felix; and he had certainly been brought to punishment, unless Nero had yielded to the importunate solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was at that time had in the greatest honour by him. Two of the principal Syrians in Cesarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero's tutor, and secretary for his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to disannul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which they hitherto enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained leave of the emperor, that an epistle should be written to that purpose. epistle became the occasion of the following miseries that befell our nation; for when the Jews of Cesarea were informed of the contents of this epistle to the Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, till a war was kindled. This 10. Upon Festus's coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire, and plundered by them. And then it was that the Sicarii, as they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use of small swords, and much different in length from the Persian acinaca, but somewhat crooked, and like the Roman sice [or sickles,] as they were called; and from those weapons these robbers got their denomina tion; and with those weapons they slew a great many for they mingled them. selves among the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently upon the villages be longing to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered them, and set them * The wickedness here was very peculiar and extraordinary, that the high priests should so oppress their brethren the priests, as to starve the poorest of them to death. See the like presently, ch. ix. sect. 2 Such fatal crimes are covetousness and tyranny in the clergy, as well as in the laity, in all ages. on fire. So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen, to fall upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had deluded them, and those that were his followers also. 11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very large dining-room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this palace had been erected of old by the children of Asamoneus, and was situated upon an elevation, and afforded a most delightful prospect to those that had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the king; and there he could lie down, and eat, and thence observe what was done in the temple; which thing when the chief men of Jerusalem saw, they were very much displeased at it; for it was not agreeable to the institutions of our country or law, that what was done in the temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall upon the uppermost building which belonged to the inner court of the temple towards the west which wall when it was built, did not only intercept the prospect of the dining-room in the palace, but also of the western cloisters that belonged to the outer court of the temple also, where it was that the Romans kept guards for the temple at the festivals. At these doings both king Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were much displeased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again but the Jews petitioned him to give them leave to send an embassage about this matter to Nero; for they said they could not endure to live if any part of the temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them leave so to do, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ismael the high priest, and Hel. cias the keeper of the sacred treasure. And when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not only forgave them* what they had already done, but also gave them leave to let the wall they had built stand. This was granted them in order to gratify Poppea, Nero's wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested these favours of Nero, and who gave orders to the ten ambassadors to go their way home; but retained Helcias and Ismael as hostages with herself. As soon as the king heard this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was called Cabi, the son of Simeon, formerly high priest. : CHAP. IX Concerning Albinus, under whose Procuratorship James was slain; as also what Edifices were built by Agrippa. §1. AND now Cæsar, upon hearing of the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also him. self called Ananus. Now the report goes, that this eldest Ananus proved a most fortunate man; for he had five sons, who had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests. But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent: he was also of the sect of the Sadducees,† * We have here one eminent example of Nero's mildness and goodness in his government towards the Jews, during the first five years of his reign, so famous in antiquity; we have perhaps another in Josephus's own Life, sect. 3; and a third, though of a very different nature here, in sect. 9, just before. However, both the generous acts of kindness were obtained of Nero by his queen Poppea, who was a seligious lady, and perhaps privately a Jewish proselyte, and so were not owing entirely to Nero's own goodness. + It hence evidently appears, that Sadducees might be high priests in the days of Josephus, and that VOL. II. 16 who are very rigid in judging offenders above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when therefore Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority.] Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James; and some others [or some of his companions.] And when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned but as for those who seemned the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa,] desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified: nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him, that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without his consent.* Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to punishment for what he had done; on which account king Agrippa took the high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest. 2. Now as soon as Albinus was come to the city of Jerusalem, he used all his endeavours and care that the country might be kept in peace, and this by destroying many of the Sicarii. But as for the high priest Ananias,† he increased in glory every day, and this to a great degree, and had obtained the favour and esteem of the citizens in a signal manner, for he was a great hoarder up of money; he therefore cultivated the friendship of Albinus, and of the high priest [Jesus,] by making them presents; he had also servants who were very wicked. who joined themselves to the boldest sort of the people, and went to the threshing-floors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the like manner, as did those his servants, without any one's being able to prohibit them; so that [some of the] priests, that of old were wont to be supported with those tithes, died for want of food. 3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by night, just before the festival, which was now at hand, and took the scribe belonging to the governor of the temple, whose name was Eleazar, who was the son of Ananus [Ananias] the high priest, and bound him, and carried him away with them; after which they sent to Ananias, and said, that they would send the scribe to him, if he would persuade Albinus to release ten of those prisoners which he had caught of their party; so Ananias was plainly forced to persuade Albinus, and gained his request of him. This was the beginning of greater calamities, for the robbers perpe. tually contrived to catch some of Ananias's servants, and when they had taken them alive, they would not let them go, till they thereby recovered some of their these Sadducees were usually very severe and inexorable judges, while the Pharisees were much milder, and more merciful, as appears by Reland's instances in his note on this place, and on Josephus's Life, sect. 34; and those taken from the New Testament, from Josephus himself, and from the rabbins; not do we meet with any Sadducees later than this high priest in all Josephus. * Of this condemnation of James the Just, and its causes, as also that he did not die till long after wards, see Prim. Christ. Revived, vol. iii. ch. 43-46. The sanhedrim condemned our Saviour, but could not put him to death without the approbation of the Roman procurator; nor could therefore Ana. nias and his sanhedrim do more here, since they never had Albinus's approbation for the putting this Janies to death. This Ananias was not the son of Nebedeus, as 1 take it, but he who was called Annas, or Ananus the elder, the 9th in the catalogue, and who had been esteemed high priest for a long time, and, besides Caiaphas his son-in-law, had five of his own sons high priests after him, which were those of numbers 11. 14, 15, 17, 24, in the foregoing catalogue. Nor ought we to pass slightly over what Josephus here says of this Annas or Ananias, that he was high priest a long time before his children were so; he was the sor of Seth, and is set down first for high priest in the foregoing catalogue, under number 9. He was made by Quirinus, and continued till Ismael, the 10th in number, for about twenty-three years, which long duration of high priesthood, joined to the succession of his son-in-law, and five children of his own, made him a sort of perpetual high priest, and was perhaps the occasion that former high priests kept their titles ever afterwards; for I believe it is hardly met with before him, own Sicari. And as they were again become no small number, they grew bold, and were a great affliction to the whole county. 4. About this time it was that king Agrippa built Cesarea Philippi larger than it was before, and, in honour of Nero, named it Neronias. And when he had built a theatre at Berytus, with vast expenses, he bestowed on them shows, to be exhibited every year, and spent therein many ten thousand [drachmæ :] he also gave the people a largess of corn, and distributed oil among them, and adorned the entire city with statues of bis own donation, and with original images made by ancient hands; nay, he almost transferred all that was most ornamental in his own kingdom thither. This made him more than ordinarily hated by his subjects; because he took those things away that belonged to them, to adorn a foreign city. And now Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, became the successor of Jesus, the son of Damneus, in the high priesthood, which the king had taken from the other; on which account a sedition arose between the high priests, with regard to one another; for they got together bodies of the boldest sort of the people, and frequently came from reproaches to throwing of stones at each other. But Ananias was too hard for the rest by his riches, which enabled him to gair. those that were most ready to receive. Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the royal family; and so they obtained favour among them, because of their kindred to Agrippa: but still they used violence with the people, and were very ready to plunder those that were weaker than themselves. And from that time it principally came to pass, that our city was greatly disordered, and that all things grew worse and worse among us. 5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was coming to succeed him, he was desirous to appear to do somewhat that might be grateful to the people of Jerusalem; so he brought out all those prisoners who seemed to him to be the most plainly worthy of death, and ordered them to be put to death accordingly. But as to those who had been put into prison on some trifling occasions, he took money of them, and dismissed them; by which means the prisons were indeed emptied, but the country was filled with robbers. 6. Now as many of the Levites,* which is a tribe of ours, as were singers of hymns, persuaded the king to assemble a sanhedrim, and to give them leave to wear linen garments, as well as the priests; for they said, that this would be a work worthy the times of his government, that he might have a memorial of such a novelty, as being his doing. Nor did they fail of obtaining their desire; for the king, with the suffrages of those that came into the sanhedrim, granted the singers of hymns this privilege, that they might lay aside their former garments, and wear such a linen one as they desired; and as a part of this tribe ministered in the temple, he also permitted them to learn those hymns as they had besought him for. Now all this was contrary to the laws of our country, which whenever they have been transgressed, we have never been able to avoid the punishment of such transgressions. 7. And now it was that the templet was finished. So when the people saw that the workmen were unemployed, who were above eighteen thousand, and that they, receiving no wages, were in want, because they had earned their bread by their labours about the temple; and while they were unwilling to keep by them the treasures that were there deposited, out of fear of [their being carried away by] the Romans; and while they had a regard to the making provision for the workmen, they had a mind to expend those treasures upon them; for if any one of them did but labour for a single hour, he received his pay immediately; so they This insolent petition of some of the Levites, to wear the sarcerdotal garments when they sung hymns to God in the temple, was very probably owing to the great depression and contempt the haughty high priest had now brought their brethren the priests into; of which see ch. viii. sect. 8; and ch. ix. sect. 2. Of this finishing, not of the Naos, or holy-house, but of the spor, or courts, about it, called in general the temple, see the note on B. xvii. ch. x. sect. 2. |