War in Galilee
Slaughter in Damasek (Cheshvan, 66 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 2:559-561/XX.2
The gospel took deep root in Damascus early in the Apostolic Era. Paul of Tarsus had spent several years proclaiming "Yeshua in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'" (Acts 9:20). When he fled from Damascus, he left behind a strong school of disciples. In his absence, the good news continued to grow. Under the influence of the believers in nearby Syrian Antioch, a large believing community of Jewish and Gentile disciples flourished in Damascus.
When news about the defeat of the twelfth legion came to Damascus, the citizens in that city followed the example of other cities in Syria. They rounded up the Jewish community and cooped them together in the gymna-sium. They made no distinction between disciples of Yeshua and other Jews.
Josephus says, "They distrusted their wives because almost all of them were addicted to the Jewish religion." Those God-fearing Gentile women, many of whom must have been believers, protested the mistreatment of the Jewish community and tried to intervene on their behalf but to no avail. In the dark of night, armed men entered the gymnasium and cut the throats of their captives: men, women, and children.
Similar atrocities befell the Jewish people in almost all the cities of Syria and elsewhere in the Roman Empire:
Those who dwelt in the neighboring cities of Syria seized upon such Jews that dwelt among them, with their wives and children, and slew them, even though they did not have a single legitimate complaint against them. Neither did the Jews attempt any sedition or revolt from the Romans, nor had they given any indications of hatred or treacherous designs toward the Syrians. (Josephus, Life 1:25/i.6)
There was not any one Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants. They bore a more bitter enmity toward us than the Romans themselves. (Josephus, Jewish War 7:367)
The violent slaughter in Damascus and the cities of Syria explains the rupture that took place at the heart of the believing communities. In those days, most Gentile believers were still adjunct participants in the larger Jewish community. Josephus describes God-fearers all over the Diaspora keeping the Sabbath, the holidays, the fast days, and even some of the dietary laws—a phenomenon fueled by the rapid spread of the gospel among non-Jews:
For a long time, a multitude of humanity has demonstrated a great inclination to follow our religious observances. There is no city of the Greeks, nor of the barbarians, nor any nation anywhere, where our custom of resting on the seventh day has not come to be practiced, and where our fast days, our kindling of lamps, and many of our dietary prohibitions are not observed. These [Gentiles] also try to imitate our social unity with one another, our charitable distribution of our goods, our competence in our trades, and our endurance under trials we face on account of our laws. The most amazing aspect of this is that our Law has no incentive of pleasure that would allure men. It prevails by its own force, and just as God pervades the whole world, so has our Law passed through the whole world as well. (Josephus, Against Apion 2:282-284/xlix)
Those God-fearers most loyal to the Jewish people and Jewish practice fell under the same suspicion, and in many cases, the same fate as the Jewish populations of those cities. The ruthless massacres motivated the Gentile believers to quickly distance themselves from the tell-tale signs of Jewish practice. Fear motivated them to demonstrate that they were not Jews and that their religion was not the religion of the Jews.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Against the Christians of Antioch
Josephus, Jewish War 7:41-53/iii.3
The gospel had a stronghold in Antioch, the capital of Syria, where apostles like Peter, Paul, and Barnabas labored for many years. "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" (Acts II:26). The cities of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria were the centers of the Yeshua movement.
As the Jewish Revolt broke out, an influential Jewish apostate from Judaism named Antiochus rose up and falsely accused several visiting Judeans of plotting to burn the city down. The people of Antioch burned the visitors alive —men who may well have been apostles bringing news from Pella to the local believers. As Nero had done in Rome, it appears that Antiochus accused Christians of arson. He instructed the Antiochians: "If a suspected man refuses to worship our gods, he is among the arsonists."
Josephus records, "When the people of Antioch tried the experiment, a few complied [by sacrificing], but those who refused were slain." Josephus does not state it explicitly, but the test appears aimed specifically at Gentile disciples of Yeshua. It could not have been used on the Jewish members of the community. It was well-known that all Jews would refuse idol worship. The Jewish people enjoyed imperial protection from being compelled to do so. Neither was the test targeting God-fearing Gentiles who were not also Yeshua-followers. A God-fearer was free to worship other gods (in addition to the Jewish one), and most of them did. The test seems to have deliberately targeted suspected believers. Later Roman policy required suspected Gentile Christians to offer sacrifices and worship Caesar's image to prove their innocence. The test in Antioch seems to have anticipated that devel-opment. It probably included Nero's image to determine loyalty to Caesar. Those who refused to worship "the image of the beast" were put to death.
Antiochus the apostate also introduced legislation that made it illegal to rest on the seventh day. It is difficult to imagine how this law might have been applied to the Jewish people in Antioch. The Roman world understood that Jews could not be compelled to violate their Sabbath, and several imperial edicts protected their right to keep the Sabbath. More likely, this legislation applied to non-Jews— specifically the Gentile disciples. Sabbath-keeping became a crime. The law spread to other cities in Syria. Josephus says, "The rest of the seventh day was abolished, not only at Antioch, but the same thing which first began there was also done in other cities, in like manner."
These events help explain how it is possible that, only a generation later, the bishop of Antioch (Ignatius) could have such a low view of the Sabbath and Judaism. The persecution and new laws compelled the God-fearing Gentile believers to find justification for disassociating from Jewish practice. Believers could point to the teachings of the Apostle Paul and, with very little effort, interpret them to provide the necessary theological justification for abandoning Jewish practices and separating from the Jewish people. By the time Ignatius became the bishop of Antioch, those interpretations had become institutional.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Preparations for War (Winter, 66-67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 2:562-653/xx.5-xxii.2
The leaders of Jerusalem convened a council in the Temple's courts. Annas the son of Annas, the high priest responsible for the death of James, exerted his power and influence to secure the high priesthood for himself. Joseph the son of Gurion (a brother or relative of Nicodemus), worked closely with him, and together the two powerful men took charge over the city's affairs. Their first task was to complete the city walls that King Agrippa had left unfinished. The Talmud says that the three wealthiest men of Jerusalem personally financed preparations to withstand siege:
There were three men of great wealth residing in Jerusalem: Nakdimon [Nicodemus] ben Gurion, Ben Kalba Shavua, and Ben Tzizit Hakeset ... One of these said to the people of Jerusalem, "I will keep them in wheat and barley." A second said, "I will keep them in wine, oil, and salt." The third said, "I will keep them in wood." The rabbis considered the offer of wood the most generous ... for Rabbi Chisda used to say, "One storehouse of wheat requires sixty storehouses of wood for fuel." Those men were wealthy enough to sustain the city for twenty-one years. (b.Gittin 56a)
They appointed the talented young priest, Yosef ben Mattityahu (Jose-phus) to take charge over both Upper and Lower Galilee and the Lower Golan. Josephus began his preparations for war by establishing an administration over the Galilee. He supervised a massive fortification project, ordering the construction of defensive walls around all the major, strategic cities in the Galilee. He organized his fighting force, appointed officers modeled on the Roman system, and began training his troops for combat. The Galileans laid up provisions of stores, dug out tunnel systems, and laid up arms and weapons.
Despite the preparations, Josephus had little hope for a happy outcome. He had only just recently returned from a visit to Rome, and he knew the power of the highly trained and disciplined imperial military. He did not see how his untrained men could hope to stand against that professional war machine.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Vespasian Arrives (Spring, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 3:29-34/ii.4; 3:59-69/iv.1-2
News of the revolt and the defeat of the twelfth legion arrived in Rome. Publicly, Nero laughed it off, but inwardly, the matter alarmed him. He chose Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasian Augustus to head up the military response. Vespasian had attained a reputation as one of Rome's best military leaders. He was an old war hero, famous for his campaigns in the west, in Germany, and in Britain. Vespasian and Nero had little in common. Vespasian was a hardened warrior, a simple, conservative Roman of equestrian rank who did not go for all that aristocratic nonsense, wasteful spending, and self-indulgence. He dressed like a common soldier, ate the same rations as his soldiers, and lived an austere life of strict military discipline. He had been in the army most of his life and had never acclimated to the softness of Roman excess. He distrusted philosophers (unmanly complainers) and poets, but he valued men of letters and rhetoricians. The son of a debt-collector, he was financially frugal and a fiscal conservative. It is difficult to imagine a Roman more opposite to Nero.
Nero appointed Vespasian as head of the legions in Syria. The new commander arrived in Antioch. He found King Agrippa 11 already awaiting his arrival with his whole army. Agrippa pledged his loyalty to Vespasian and Rome.
In the spring of 67 CE, Vespasian set out for Galilee at the head of the fifteenth legion. The forces of King Agrippa and other participating client kings strengthened the force. They marched south to Ptolemais (Akko). His son, Titus, arrived from Alexandria with the fifth and tenth legions. Cohorts from Caesarea and Syria joined the muster. The enormous army camped in the plains around Ptolemais, ready to overrun the Galilee. Josephus says, "The whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as well as horsemen and footmen, when joined together, numbered sixty thousand, not counting the servants who followed in vast numbers."
The city of Sepphoris surrendered immediately. Josephus responded to the surrender of Sepphoris by leading his army in an attempt to recapture the city. The Roman forces repelled the attempt and forced the rebel army to retreat. Then the Romans retaliated against the rebels by ravaging the surrounding countryside. "Galilee from end to end became a scene of fire and blood." The Roman raiding parties may have pillaged the nearby village of Nazareth at that time.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Yodfat
Josephus, Jewish War 3:110-144/vi.1-vii.4
The Jewish revolutionaries based their operations in Lower Galilee from the strong city of Jotapata. The city is located about thirteen miles southeast of Ptolemais and eight miles north of Nazareth. Jotapata sat atop an isolated hill, hidden between two high peaks and surrounded on three sides by deep ravines. It could be accessed only from the north. These features made the city highly defensible. Josephus further fortified the city with high walls.
Jewish believers and relatives of the Master lived in the nearby villages. Jotapata sat on a hill only a few miles from Cochaba, a village in which the Desposyni (i.e., relatives of the Master) resided. A few miles to the north, more disciples lived in the village of Sogane (Sachnin, Sekaniah), the hometown of Jacob of Kefar Sekaniah. The Talmud mentions Jacob of Kefar Sekaniah as a healer and disciple of Yeshua. He may have been James the Less. The village of Cana-the hometown of Nathanael Bartholomew where the Master performed healings and turned the water to wine—sat only a few miles to the southeast.
As the Romans prepared to advance on the area, the people from the surrounding villages fled to the safety of Jotapata's walls. The geography of the location indicates that many of the residents of Jotapata must have been believers and kinsmen of the Master. Families from Cochaba, Sogane, and Cana sought the safety of Jotapata's walls.
A small Roman force assaulted Jotapata. The Jewish rebels easily repulsed the assault. "They fought the Romans fiercely when they least expected it, being both great in number and prepared for a fight, and of great eagerness, considering their country, their wives, and their children. They easily put the Romans to flight and wounded many of them."
Vespasian advanced the main army into the Galilee. The rebels fled. The enormous war machine rolled over the city of Gabara. They burned the city and the surrounding countryside, slew young and old, and took a host into captivity as slaves. "The Romans have no mercy on any age, and this was done because of the hatred they bore toward the nation."
After Gabara, the general turned his attention to Jotapata. He sent a road crew ahead of the legions to level and widen the mountainous, rocky ascent to the city for the convenience of the advancing army. A deserter informed Vespasian that Josephus, the general of the Galilean forces, was in command of the city. Vespasian decided to bring all three legions up against Jotapata.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Siege of Yodfat (Iyyar-Tammuz, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 3:145-339/iii.4-vii. 36
An initial assault against the walls failed, and Jewish defenders conducted daily hit-and-run attacks on Roman forces. They inflicted damage through surprise attacks, quickly retreating to safety behind the walls.
Vespasian responded by ordering the construction of a siege ramp. Roman soldiers stripped nearby hills for lumber, hauled stones, and transported soil. Jewish defenders tried to disrupt the construction with arrows and catapult stones, but the Romans deployed ibo siege engines to counter them. Despite courageous nighttime raids by the Jewish rebels to dismantle the ramp and burn timbers, construction continued rapidly.
Josephus directed his men to heighten the northern battlements, protecting workers with fresh ox-skin canopies. Inside the city, water supplies dwindled; Jotapata lacked natural springs and relied on stored rainwater. Josephus rationed water carefully while deceptively pouring some over the walls to suggest abundance to the Romans.
Upon completing the ramp, Vespasian brought forward a massive battering ram, its iron head shaped like the head of a ram, enclosed to protect operators from arrows. Its initial blow shook the city walls, eliciting despairing cries from the residents. Josephus tried countering by hanging chaff-filled sacks to soften impacts, but the Romans quickly removed these defenses.
In desperation, defenders launched an aggressive attack against the ram, successfully breaking off its iron head. A heroically wounded Jewish soldier retrieved and displayed this severed piece atop the wall before dying. Despite their bravery, the Romans resumed their relentless bombardment, causing heavy casualties. Josephus witnessed horrific deaths, including a decapitation by a catapult stone.
Before dawn, the ram breached the walls. Vespasian planned a morning assault. Josephus instructed his men to shield themselves from the expected hail of arrows and then charge through the breach when it ceased.
The men of Jotapata waited in tense silence as the Romans organized their assault. Suddenly the trumpets sounded and a terrible, roaring shout rose from sixty thousand men. The sky instantly turned dark as a whistling cloud of arrows descended on the city. Josephus' men crouched under their shields until the terrible precipitation stopped. Then they leaped forward, sallying out through the breach in the wall to intercept the besiegers. At the same time the attackers raised ladders against the walls and soldiers began to ascend. As the Romans pressed in around the walls, the defenders poured out scalding oil that ran under the armor of the soldiers, blistering their flesh. The oil sent them stumbling backwards, but more soldiers pressed in to replace the burned. They received the same treatment. The Jewish defenders fought boldly, continually repulsing the attackers. By nightfall, Vespasian called off the assault.
Frustrated by his failure, Vespasian decided to build the ramp higher and to erect three, fifty-foot towers on the banks in which he could station archers above the wall line.
Inside the city, the defenders and population of the city despaired. They knew that they could not hope to survive much longer. They grimly determined to resist to the death. For his part, Josephus attempted to leave the city, telling his men that he would go and seek reinforcements. They knew better. They realized their general only hoped to escape with his life, so they refused to let him leave.
On the first day of Tammuz (late July), on the forty-seventh day since the siege began, a heavy morning fog cloaked the city. In utter silence, the Roman army crept over the wall undetected. Vespasian's son Titus led the assault. They found the sentries asleep and cut their throats. The defenders awoke to find the city already taken. A sorry battle ensued. The Roman army made short work of the people of Jotapata while they themselves lost only a single man. The first day they killed all those they discovered in the open. The next day they began the laborious task of searching out cellars, cisterns, caves, and secret hiding places. Josephus numbered the dead at forty thousand. Vespasian took twelve hundred women and infants captive for the slave market. He put the rest to death. How many disciples and extended family of Yeshua fell in the Siege of Jotapata? More than a few must have been swept up in the carnage of the city.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Suicide and Prophecy (Tammuz 4, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 3:340-408/viii.1-9
When the Romans entered the city, Josephus and forty others hid themselves in an underground den. On the third day, the Romans discovered the hiding spot. The men hiding below insisted that the only honorable thing to do, now that the Romans had discovered them, was to commit suicide.
Josephus argued for surrender. He considered himself gifted with proph-ecy, and he foresaw himself being taken alive by the Romans. He claims to have offered a long, eloquent speech about the value of life and the wickedness of suicide. In any case, his companions were not convinced. If he would not kill himself, they offered to do it for him. Reluctantly, Josephus agreed to a suicide pact. Two-by-two, the forty men cast lots. The man with the first lot bared his throat, the man with the second lot used his blade as if he was slaughtering an animal. Josephus apparently manipulated the lots until only he and one man remained alive. He cryptically hints, "We cannot say whether it happened so by chance, or whether by the providence of God."
Surrounded by the corpses of the others, Josephus persuaded the last survivor to join him in surrendering to the Romans.
The soldiers led the captive Jewish general to their general. All his officers crowded around to see the trophy. Vespasian ordered his men to place Josephus under careful custody and prepare to send him to Nero as a prisoner of war. Josephus said to the general, "There is something I need to tell you alone."
Vespasian ordered his men to withdraw. Only his son Titus and two trusted friends remained with him and the prisoner. Josephus played his Jewish-prophet card and uttered a prophecy over Vespasian:
You, O Vespasian, do not suppose that you have taken Josephus captive. I come to you as a messenger of greater tidings. I have been sent to you by God ... do you send me to Nero? Why? Will Nero's successors still survive to come to you? You, O Vespasian, are Caesar and emperor-you, and this your son. Bind me now even more securely, and keep me for yourself. For you, O Caesar, are not only lord over me, but you are lord over the land and the sea and all mankind. Keep me in close custody and punish me yourself if I am rashly speaking in God's name.
Vespasian discounted the prophecy as a mere ploy.
One of Vespasian's friends laughed cynically, "If you are a prophet, why didn't you foretell the fall of the city to the people of Jotapata or foresee your own imprisonment, unless you are simply lying to avoid the fate you deserve."
Josephus replied coolly, "I did predict to the people of Jotapata that the city would fall to the Romans on the forty-seventh day of the siege and that I would be taken alive."
Vespasian said, "That is an easy matter to verify." He interrogated several captives and found that the thing was true and that all had happened just as Josephus had predicted. Vespasian did not know what to make of this, but he decided to keep the "prophet" in his custody until he could see how things played out. He gave Josephus special treatment in his captivity. The captive became one of the general's advisors, translators, and liaisons to the Jews, by all measures a traitor to the Jewish Revolt. As the news about Josephus the traitor spread, the people who had once looked to him for leadership cursed his name. In Jerusalem, they called him a coward and a deserter, and they heaped reproach on him.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Falling in Love (Tammuz-Av, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 3:443-445/ix.7
Vespasian ordered the city of Jotapata demolished. Then the legions marched to Caesarea Maritima. The city of Caesarea welcomed the Roman army with joy and festivity. They felt exuberant over the punishment of the Jews. They jeered at the captive Josephus and called for his execution.
King Agrippa and Queen Bernice opened their lavish palace in Caesarea Philippi to provide hospitality for Vespasian, his son Titus, and their officers. For twenty days the king and queen wined and dined the battle-hardened general and his officers in proper Roman style. They gave them banquets and gladiatorial displays and all the comforts of home. The temples of Caesarea Philippi gave Vespasian the opportunity to offer sacrifices in thanks to the gods for his successes thus far in the campaign.
The Jewish king and queen bestowed handsome financial gifts on their guest of honor. King Agrippa 11 hoped to enlist Vespasian's help in bringing his territory back under control. The Jewish rebels had taken several of his cities, including the important city of Tiberias on the shores of Lake Galilee and the strategic city of Gamala in Golan.
Vespasian's son Titus fell under the spell of Bernice's legendary beauty. She was nearly forty. He was twenty-six. She was Jewish royalty. His family was not aristocratic. She was sophisticated and conducted herself with a majestic bearing. He was a soldier. She exuded an attractive, Jewish whole-someness. He was accustomed only to the sexual debauchery of Neronian Rome. He fell in love.
The queen had never considered the possibility of marriage to a non-Jew, nor had she ever expressed interest in anyone below the station of monarch, but the attention of the handsome, young war hero flattered her. She was around that age at which men and women sometimes seek their lost youth in others and forget themselves. She quickly warmed to the idea of a relationship, and she returned the young soldier's amorous signals.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Tiberias and Magdala (Elul, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 3:446-531/ix.7-x.9
King Agrippa complained to Vespasian about his losses in the revolution. He lamented the revolt of the important cities of Tiberias and Gamala. Since the hot part of the summer had passed, Vespasian thought it reasonable to commence the campaigns.
Tiberias was built by Herod Antipas on the west side of Lake Galilee, not far from Magdala. Vespasian sent a detachment of horsemen to offer the people of Tiberias terms of peace, but Jewish Zealots who had taken control of the city attacked the messengers and even captured a few Roman horses.
The elders of the city and several prominent magistrates fled to the Roman camp and prostrated themselves before Vespasian and King Agrippa. They begged the general to spare their city and the citizens. They explained that they had been overrun by the rebels and unwillingly forced to join the revolt. Vespasian was not inclined to accept the entreaty, but King Agrippa interceded on behalf of his citizens. The rebel forces in Tiberias realized that they had been betrayed. They fled from the city and took refuge within the walls of nearby Magdala (Tarichee). Tiberias opened its gates to Vespasian's army. As a favor to King Agrippa, Vespasian ordered his troops not to rape and pillage. He tore down a section of the wall to allow the army better access in and out of the city and then returned control of the city to the government of King Agrippa.
Vespasian turned his attention to the nearby city of Magdala (presumably the hometown of Mary Magdalene), where the Jewish rebels had amassed a sizable force. In the days of the Master, Magdala boasted one of the larger harbors and docks on Lake Galilee. The disciples must have often tied their boats at the docks there to bring their fish to market. Many disciples of Yeshua surely made their home in Magdala. A large host of Jewish freedom fighters encamped on the plain outside Magdala's walls. Others took to boats and put out on the lake.
Vespasian sent Titus at the head of six hundred cavalry to engage the enemy. Although the rebel force significantly outnumbered the cavalry, Titus led the charge into battle and quickly routed the rebels while Vespasian brought up the slower-moving reinforcements from the encampment.
The rebels fell back to the city walls and rushed into Magdala, but the townsfolk tried to repulse them. The citizens of Magdala had entered the war reluctantly, and now that the army was beaten, they had no desire to die for the cause along with the Zealots who had overrun their city. As Titus and his men drew up close to the city walls, they could hear the shouts of the conflict inside the city. Encouraged by the enemy's discomfiture, Titus mounted his horse and led another charge, this time skirting around the city and riding into the water of the lake. Then coming up into Magdala from the beach, he and his six hundred horsemen entered the city. The rebels fled in a panic. Many died as the horsemen charged into the city. A great number managed to escape in fishing boats and small sailing vessels that they had prepared.
The reinforcements arrived and began constructing rafts. Vespasian loaded the rafts with men and sent them out to engage the rebels in the boats. A great naval battle ensued on the lake. The rebels threw stones and launched arrows at the Roman rafts, but the heavily armored Romans incurred no damage. They relentlessly pursued the overladen boats of freedom fighters, pelted them with spears and arrows, and occasionally leaped on board the vessels with drawn swords in hand. They found it easier to capsize the vessels than to fight with the passengers. Whenever the Jews swimming in the water lifted their hands or heads above the surface, Roman swords descended on them.
Josephus recalled, "One could see the lake all bloody and full of corpses, for not one man escaped. A terrible stench rose and there was a tragic sight in that land over the following days. Shipwrecks and corpses littered the whole shore. The dead bodies swelled and rotted in the sun."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Slaves to the Market
Josephus, Jewish War 3:532-542/x.1-9
Josephus says that 6,500 men died in the Battle of Magdala. After the battle Vespasian set up his tribunal in Magdala to sort the surviving rebels who had come from other parts of Galilee from the citizens of Magdala. The citizens begged him for mercy. He hesitated. He did not want to leave them free to rejoin the revolt, but at the same time, he wanted to appear just before King Agrippa and the conquered people. He told the people that they were free to go as they pleased, but that they must leave the city by the road to Tiberias. The people of Magdala packed their valuables and, laden with baggage, they set out. The legions lined both sides of the road to make sure that none escaped to the left or the right. Vespasian marched the whole population into the stadium in Tiberias. He commanded his men to kill all the old and any others he deemed useless. He sent the strongest of the young men as slaves to Corinth where Nero was attempting to dig a canal through the Isthmus. The rest, a vast multitude, went to the slave market.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Gamala (Rosh Hashanah, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 4:1-16/i.1-3
Vespasian moved his troops to Gamala, a Jewish city that had been a hotbed of revolutionary, Zealot action for most of the century. Gamala sat on top of a steep hill in the southern end of the Golan Heights. The hill resembles the hump of a camel. Gamala is Aramaic for "the camel (X202)." Gamala merely needed a wall along its northern edge. The steep incline of the hillsides made the rest of the city inaccessible. Thanks to its elevation, the people of Gamala enjoyed a view of Lake Galilee despite being several miles inland.
The houses of Gamala cascaded down the hillside, hanging precariously from the steep edges. Josephus said, "Houses are built thick and close to one another. The city hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would collapse on itself, so steep is the slope at the top."
Most of the Master's disciples grew up under the shadow of Gamala. Capernaum and Bethsaida are only a few miles due west. Disciples such as Simon the Zealot might have been natives of Gamala. Our Master would have visited Gamala and taught in the synagogue there during His tours of the Galilee. At the time of the revolt, the town began to mint its own coins. The Gamala coins bear a Hebrew/Aramaic inscription that says: "For the redemption of Jerusalem the H(oly)." The people of Gamala constructed a wall and dug a trench along their vulnerable northern side to help resist siege. They laid up provisions and prepared for war. Civilians from all over the Galilee fled to Gamala for refuge. No doubt, some of those refugees included people along the northern shore of Lake Galilee to whom the Master ministered.
King Agrippa sent his forces to lay siege shortly after the outbreak of the revolt. A portion of his army had already been encamped at Gamala for seven months by the time Vespasian arrived with portions of three legions. The besiegers had made no progress against the seemingly impossible height, but they had succeeded in cutting off supplies to the town. Gamala had its own spring, so water was not a problem, but the crowded city had nearly exhausted its food supplies. The defenders distributed rations only to the fighting men. The people were starving. Vespasian and King Agrippa arrived at the head of the Roman army around Rosh HaShanah of 67. The legions began casting up earthworks, building siege towers, and filling in the ditch. With these preparations underway, King Agrippa came near to the wall and implored the men on the wall. He offered them terms of surrender. They responded with sling stones. One stone struck the king on his elbow. The king's men immediately surrounded him and bore him away from the wall. The incident provoked the Romans. They felt indignant over the affront to royalty, and the impudence of the men on the walls astonished them. Who were these men who dared to attack their own king while he offered them terms of peace?
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Fall of Gamala (Sukkot, 67 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 4:17-83/i.4-10
The Romans brought up the battering ram and began the pounding. The wall shook and, after only a brief assault, the ram opened a breach. The trumpets blared, the legions gave a mighty shout, and they poured in through the breach. They had to make their way up the steep incline. The defenders fell upon the invaders with such ferocity that they broke the ranks. Meanwhile, more soldiers poured in from below. The collision of retreat and advance created a crush in the narrow streets. The defenders used the chaos to their advantage and attacked the boxed-in troops. The Romans found themselves squeezed out of the streets and retreating into the houses that hung closely compacted together on the steep incline. Soldiers trying to escape the narrow streets took to the rooftops of the houses. Under the weight of the soldiers, the roofs began to cave in and then houses began to collapse.
One collapsing house after another slid downhill to pile onto a lower house, which in turn collapsed and started an avalanche effect. Suddenly the entire lower city seemed to be sliding down the hillside. The landslide of stone and debris crushed Vespasian's men. "A great many were ground to powder by these ruins, and a great many of those that escaped from under the ruins lost some of their limbs, but a still greater number suffocated in the dust that rose from the collapse." In the thick dust, the soldiers panicked and attacked one another. The defenders came pouring down the hill, picking up stones from the collapse and hurling them down on the battered enemy.
Vespasian found himself with only his bodyguard around him, alone in the upper city and cut off from his forces below. Surrounded on all sides, Vespasian and his handful of men used their shields to form a turtle shell to ward off the attacks and slowly backed their way down the hillside and out through the breach in the wall.
Vespasian upbraided his dejected troops for their undisciplined zeal in the attack. He encouraged them to avenge their losses. He set the men to work raising higher earthworks, but he did not press a second attack. He knew that starvation and desperation were taking their course in the city. Many of the people scaled down the steep walls of the hill; others escaped through subterranean tunnels that the rebels had dug out beneath the city. Most of them, however, remained to face the foe, still praying fervently for God's deliverance. The Festival of Sukkot came, but the people had no cause for joy.
On Sh'mini Atzeret, the eighth day of the Festival of Sukkot, three Roman soldiers of the fifteenth legion crept into the city in the middle of the night. They silently worked in the dark to undermine a high sentry tower, carefully removing the lower course of block. The sentry in the tower did not notice them at work below. The saboteurs rolled away the last few stones and fled for their lives. The tower fell with a mighty crash. Vespasian sent Titus in through the breach at the head of two hundred picked men. Families fled to the citadel above. Others stood their ground to fight. Their blood flowed down the steep streets. The fighters retreated to the citadel.
Vespasian pressed in with more men, and they surrounded the citadel. The defenders threw down stones and arrows, making it impossible for the Romans to ascend, but then it seemed as if God Himself turned against them. A fierce storm wind descended on them. The direction of the wind bore the Roman arrows against them and repelled their own. The strength of the wind prevented them from defending the precipitous edges of the citadel, and they could no longer see the ascent of their attackers. Surrounded and hopeless, the people of Gamala despaired of escape. They began to leap from the height of the citadel into the valley below. They knew that capture meant death at Roman hands or, far worse, the slave markets where their wives and children would be sold to brothels and other degradations. Some cast their own wives and children over the side before leaping after them. The Romans spurred them on, seizing their children and infants and hurling them over the side of the citadel, one after another.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Galilee of the Gentiles
While Vespasian personally oversaw these conflicts, he sent commanders to conduct other campaigns with smaller forces in other parts of Galilee. Mount Tabor fell. The rebels at Gischala fled in the night and the city sur-rendered. The legions moving across the fertile plains of the Galilee did what legions do best: plundering and pillaging. Smoke from the sack and ruin of cities and villages rose all over the Galilee. The army ravaged vineyards, cut down orchards, and seized harvests. By winter of 67, Vespasian's forces had conquered all of Galilee. Surviving Zealots and freedom fighters fled to Judea and the safety of Jerusalem's walls. Vespasian prepared his armies for the winter and turned his attention to Judea.
The disciples of Yeshua in the Galilee probably had differing political opinions. Some might have supported the war effort as patriots, all the while hoping for the Son of Man's intervention. The disciples had every reason to hate Rome, especially after the Neronian persecution began. Most of the Master's disciples resisted involvement in the war on the basis of Yeshua's teachings and prophetic warnings. They saw it as a lost cause from the outset and refused to participate in the revolt, but that did not insulate them from the trauma of the war.
Our Master had foreseen all these things and urgently tried to avert them. He brought a message of good news: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He taught that, if the generation repented, they could enter the kingdom. He was the King, and He was willing to usher them into it. On the other hand, He brought a message of bad news: If the wicked and adulterous generation did not repent, they would lose their opportunity to enter the kingdom and face a terrible judgment and exile:
This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet [in Isaiah 9:1-2], "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned." From that time Yeshua began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:14-17)
Once, when some Galileans told Yeshua about how the Roman procurator Pilate had cruelly attacked and killed people of Galilee while they were worshiping in the Temple, Yeshua replied, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:2-3).
Many did choose to receive the good news of the kingdom. They turned to follow Yeshua of Nazareth and His message of repentance. They received forgiveness of sins in His name and reconciled their lives to the Torah. Most did not.
Forty years later, the time of wrath our Master had predicted descended on the Galilee where He had ministered:
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you. (Matthew II:21-24)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.