Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
By Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Contents
PREFACE
BOOK I.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
CHAPTER 12.
CHAPTER 13.
CHAPTER 14.
CHAPTER 15.
CHAPTER 16.
CHAPTER 17.
CHAPTER 18.
CHAPTER 19.
CHAPTER 20.
CHAPTER 21.
CHAPTER 22.
CHAPTER 23.
CHAPTER 24.
CHAPTER 25.
CHAPTER 26.
CHAPTER 27.
CHAPTER 28.
CHAPTER 29.
CHAPTER 30.
CHAPTER 31.
CHAPTER 32.
CHAPTER 33.
BOOK 2.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
CHAPTER 12.
CHAPTER 13.
CHAPTER 14.
CHAPTER 15.
CHAPTER 16.
CHAPTER 17.
CHAPTER 18.
CHAPTER 19.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 21.
CHAPTER 22.
BOOK III.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
BOOK V.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
CHAPTER 12.
CHAPTER 13.
BOOK VI.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
BOOK VII.
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
PREFACE
1. 1 Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the
greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a
manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities
have fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some men
who were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten together
vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down
after a sophistical manner; and while those that were there present
have given false accounts of things, and this either out of a humor of
flattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and while their
writings contain sometimes accusations, and sometimes encomiums, but no
where the accurate truth of the facts; I have proposed to myself,
for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to
translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed
in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians; 2
Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one
who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be
present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].
2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the
affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also
who were for innovations, then arose when the times were disturbed; they
were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch
that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some
hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the
Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would
have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the
neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin were
not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero. And the
opportunity now offered induced many to aim at the royal power; and the
soldiery affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. I thought
it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of
such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those
Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these
things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians,
and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation
beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both
whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what
manner it ended.
3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their accounts
histories; wherein yet they seem to me to fail of their own purpose,
as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For they have a mind to
demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and
lessen the actions of the Jews, as not discerning how it cannot be that
those must appear to be great who have only conquered those that were
little. Nor are they ashamed to overlook the length of the war, the
multitude of the Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or the
might of the commanders, whose great labors about Jerusalem will be
deemed inglorious, if what they achieved be reckoned but a small matter.
4. However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition to
those men who extol the Romans nor will I determine to raise the actions
of my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both
parties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am
under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some
lamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that it
was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were
the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who
unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple,
Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the
entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and
did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to
the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance.
But if any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak so
passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the
misfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections herein, though
it be contrary to the rules for writing history; because it had so
come to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree of
felicity than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at last
fell into the sorest of calamities again. Accordingly, it appears to
me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if
they be compared to these of the Jews 3 are not so considerable as they
were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This makes
it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But if any one be
inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves
to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only.
5. However, I may justly blame the learned men among the Greeks, who,
when such great actions have been done in their own times, which, upon
the comparison, quite eclipse the old wars, do yet sit as judges of
those affairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors of the best
writers of antiquity; which moderns, although they may be superior
to the old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior to them in
the execution of what they intended to do. While these also write new
histories about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers had
not described their affairs as they ought to have done; although these
be as far inferior to them in abilities as they are different in their
notions from them. For of old every one took upon them to write what
happened in his own time; where their immediate concern in the actions
made their promises of value; and where it must be reproachful to write
lies, when they must be known by the readers to be such. But then,
an undertaking to preserve the memory Of what hath not been before
recorded, and to represent the affairs of one's own time to those that
come afterwards, is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he is
to be esteemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no more
than change the disposition and order of other men's works, but he
who not only relates what had not been related before, but composes an
entire body of history of his own: accordingly, I have been at great
charges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], though
I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of great
actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But for some of our
own principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosed
presently, for gain and law-suits, but quite muzzled up when they are
to write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts together
with a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histories
to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions of
princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred by
us, how much soever it be neglected among the Greek historians.
6. To write concerning the Antiquities of the Jews, who they were
[originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and what country
they traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward,
and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fit
opportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this because
many Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors very
exactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translated
our histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the
truth in their histories. But then, where the writers of these affairs
and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin my
history. Now as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time,
I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able;
but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly.
7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes,
took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and
was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after
that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought
upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of
Antipater, dissolved their government, and brought Sosins upon them; as
also how our people made a sedition upon Herod's death, while Augustus
was the Roman emperor, and Quintilius Varus was in that country; and
how the war broke out in the twelfth year of Nero, with what happened to
Cestius; and what places the Jews assaulted in a hostile manner in the
first sallies of the war.
8. As also [I shall relate] how they built walls about the neighboring
cities; and how Nero, upon Cestius's defeat, was in fear of the entire
event of the war, and thereupon made Vespasian general in this war; and
how this Vespasian, with the elder of his sons 4 made an expedition into
the country of Judea; what was the number of the Roman army that he made
use of; and how many of his auxiliaries were cut off in all Galilee;
and how he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, and others
of them by treaty, and on terms. Now, when I am come so far, I shall
describe the good order of the Romans in war, and the discipline of
their legions; the amplitude of both the Galilees, with its nature, and
the limits of Judea. And, besides this, I shall particularly go over
what is peculiar to the country, the lakes and fountains that are in
them, and what miseries happened to every city as they were taken; and
all this with accuracy, as I saw the things done, or suffered in them.
For I shall not conceal any of the calamities I myself endured, since I
shall relate them to such as know the truth of them.
9. After this, [I shall relate] how, When the Jews' affairs were
become very bad, Nero died, and Vespasian, when he was going to attack
Jerusalem, was called back to take the government upon him; what signs
happened to him relating to his gaining that government, and what
mutations of government then happened at Rome, and how he was
unwillingly made emperor by his soldiers; and how, upon his departure to
Egypt, to take upon him the government of the empire, the affairs of
the Jews became very tumultuous; as also how the tyrants rose up against
them, and fell into dissensions among themselves.
10. Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus marched out of Egypt into Judea
the second time; as also how, and where, and how many forces he got
together; and in what state the city was, by the means of the seditious,
at his coming; what attacks he made, and how many ramparts he cast up;
of the three walls that encompassed the city, and of their measures;
of the strength of the city, and the structure of the temple and holy
house; and besides, the measures of those edifices, and of the altar,
and all accurately determined. A description also of certain of
their festivals, and seven purifications of purity, 5 and the sacred
ministrations of the priests, with the garments of the priests, and
of the high priests; and of the nature of the most holy place of the
temple; without concealing any thing, or adding any thing to the known
truth of things.
11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of the tyrants towards the
people of their own nation, as well as the indulgence of the Romans in
sparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out of his desire to preserve
the city and the temple, invited the seditious to come to terms of
accommodation. I shall also distinguish the sufferings of the people,
and their calamities; how far they were afflicted by the sedition, and
how far by the famine, and at length were taken. Nor shall I omit to
mention the misfortunes of the deserters, nor the punishments inflicted
on the captives; as also how the temple was burnt, against the consent
of Caesar; and how many sacred things that had been laid up in the
temple were snatched out of the fire; the destruction also of the entire
city, with the signs and wonders that went before it; and the taking the
tyrants captives, and the multitude of those that were made slaves,
and into what different misfortunes they were every one distributed.
Moreover, what the Romans did to the remains of the wall; and how they
demolished the strong holds that were in the country; and how Titus
went over the whole country, and settled its affairs; together with his
return into Italy, and his triumph.
12. I have comprehended all these things in seven books, and have left
no occasion for complaint or accusation to such as have been acquainted
with this war; and I have written it down for the sake of those that
love truth, but not for those that please themselves [with fictitious
relations]. And I will begin my account of these things with what I call
my First Chapter.
WAR PREFACE FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ I have already observed more than once, that this History
of the Jewish War was Josephus's first work, and published about A.D.
75, when he was but thirty-eight years of age; and that when he wrote
it, he was not thoroughly acquainted with several circumstances of
history from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, with which it begins, till
near his own times, contained in the first and former part of the
second book, and so committed many involuntary errors therein. That he
published his Antiquities eighteen years afterward, in the thirteenth
year of Domitian, A.D. 93, when he was much more completely acquainted
with those ancient times, and after he had perused those most authentic
histories, the First Book of Maccabees, and the Chronicles of the
Priesthood of John Hyrcanus, etc. That accordingly he then reviewed
those parts of this work, and gave the public a more faithful, complete,
and accurate account of the facts therein related; and honestly
corrected the errors he had before run into.]
2 (return) [ Who these Upper Barbarians, remote from the sea, were,
Josephus himself will inform us, sect. 2, viz. the Parthians and
Babylonians, and remotest Arabians [of the Jews among them]; besides the
Jews beyond Euphrates, and the Adiabeni, or Assyrians. Whence we also
learn that these Parthians, Babylonians, the remotest Arabians, [or at
least the Jews among them,] as also the Jews beyond Euphrates, and
the Adiabeni, or Assyrians, understood Josephus's Hebrew, or rather
Chaldaic, books of The Jewish War, before they were put into the Greek
language.]
3 (return) [ That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Savior's
murderers, were to be the greatest that had ever been since the beginning
of the world, our Savior had directly foretold, Matthew 24:21; Mark
13:19; Luke 21:23, 24; and that they proved to be such accordingly,
Josephus is here a most authentic witness.]
4 (return) [ Titus.]
5 (return) [ These seven, or rather five, degrees of purity, or
purification, are enumerated hereafter, B. V. ch. 5. sect. 6. The
Rabbins make ten degrees of them, as Reland there informs us.]
BOOK I.
Containing The Interval Of One Hundred And Sixty-Seven
Years.
From The Taking Of Jerusalem By Antiochus Epiphanes,
To The Death Of Herod The Great.
CHAPTER 1.
How The City Jerusalem Was Taken, And The Temple Pillaged
[By Antiochus Epiphanes]. As Also Concerning The Actions Of
The Maccabees, Matthias And Judas; And Concerning The Death
Of Judas.
1. At the same time that Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, had a
quarrel with the sixth Ptolemy about his right to the whole country of
Syria, a great sedition fell among the men of power in Judea, and they
had a contention about obtaining the government; while each of those
that were of dignity could not endure to be subject to their equals.
However, Onias, one of the high priests, got the better, and cast the
sons of Tobias out of the city; who fled to Antiochus, and besought
him to make use of them for his leaders, and to make an expedition into
Judea. The king being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them,
and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force,
and slew a great multitude of those that favored Ptolemy, and sent out
his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple,
and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice
of expiation for three years and six months. But Onias, the high
priest, fled to Ptolemy, and received a place from him in the Nomus of
Heliopolis, where he built a city resembling Jerusalem, and a temple
that was like its temple 1 concerning which we shall speak more in its
proper place hereafter.
2. Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking
the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made
there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering
what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve
the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised,
and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar; against which they all
opposed themselves, and the most approved among them were put to death.
Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wicked
commands, joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of the
extremest wickedness, and tormented the worthiest of the inhabitants,
man by man, and threatened their city every day with open destruction,
till at length he provoked the poor sufferers by the extremity of his
wicked doings to avenge themselves.
3. Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who
lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his
own family, which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with
daggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of the
enemy], he fled to the mountains; and so many of the people followed
him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to give
battle to Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of
Judea. So he came to the government by this his success, and became
the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died,
leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.
4. Now Judas, supposing that Antiochus would not lie still, gathered an
army out of his own countrymen, and was the first that made a league of
friendship with the Romans, and drove Epiphanes out of the country when
he had made a second expedition into it, and this by giving him a great
defeat there; and when he was warmed by this great success, he made an
assault upon the garrison that was in the city, for it had not been cut
off hitherto; so he ejected them out of the upper city, and drove the
soldiers into the lower, which part of the city was called the Citadel.
He then got the temple under his power, and cleansed the whole
place, and walled it round about, and made new vessels for sacred
ministrations, and brought them into the temple, because the former
vessels had been profaned. He also built another altar, and began to
offer the sacrifices; and when the city had already received its sacred
constitution again, Antiochus died; whose son Antiochus succeeded him in
the kingdom, and in his hatred to the Jews also.
5. So this Antiochus got together fifty thousand footmen, and five
thousand horsemen, and fourscore elephants, and marched through Judea
into the mountainous parts. He then took Bethsura, which was a small
city; but at a place called Bethzacharis, where the passage was narrow,
Judas met him with his army. However, before the forces joined battle,
Judas's brother Eleazar, seeing the very highest of the elephants
adorned with a large tower, and with military trappings of gold to guard
him, and supposing that Antiochus himself was upon him, he ran a great
way before his own army, and cutting his way through the enemy's troops,
he got up to the elephant; yet could he not reach him who seemed to be
the king, by reason of his being so high; but still he ran his weapon
into the belly of the beast, and brought him down upon himself, and was
crushed to death, having done no more than attempted great things, and
showed that he preferred glory before life. Now he that governed the
elephant was but a private man; and had he proved to be Antiochus,
Eleazar had performed nothing more by this bold stroke than that it
might appear he chose to die, when he had the bare hope of thereby
doing a glorious action; nay, this disappointment proved an omen to his
brother [Judas] how the entire battle would end. It is true that the
Jews fought it out bravely for a long time, but the king's forces,
being superior in number, and having fortune on their side, obtained
the victory. And when a great many of his men were slain, Judas took the
rest with him, and fled to the toparchy of Gophna. So Antiochus went to
Jerusalem, and staid there but a few days, for he wanted provisions,
and so he went his way. He left indeed a garrison behind him, such as he
thought sufficient to keep the place, but drew the rest of his army off,
to take their winter-quarters in Syria.
6. Now, after the king was departed, Judas was not idle; for as many of
his own nation came to him, so did he gather those that had escaped out
of the battle together, and gave battle again to Antiochus's generals
at a village called Adasa; and being too hard for his enemies in the
battle, and killing a great number of them, he was at last himself slain
also. Nor was it many days afterward that his brother John had a plot
laid against him by Antiochus's party, and was slain by them.