Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

7235

Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 5.362-5.414

Οὗτος περιιὼν τὸ τεῖχος καὶ πειρώμενος ἔξω τε βέλους εἶναι καὶ ἐν ἐπηκόῳ, πολλὰ κατηντιβόλει φείσασθαι μὲν αὑτῶν καὶ τοῦ δήμου, φείσασθαι δὲ τῆς πατρίδος καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ μηδὲ γενέσθαι πρὸς ταῦτα τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἀπαθεστέρους.

3. So Josephus went round about the wall, and tried to find a place that was out of the reach of their darts, and yet within their hearing, and besought them, in many words, to spare themselves, to spare their country and their temple, and not to be more obdurate in these cases than foreigners themselves;

̔Ρωμαίους μέν γε τοὺς μὴ μετέχοντας ἐντρέπεσθαι τὰ τῶν πολεμίων ἅγια καὶ μέχρι νῦν τὰς χεῖρας ἐπέχειν, τοὺς δ' ἐντραφέντας αὐτοῖς κἂν περισωθῇ μόνους ἕξοντας ὡρμῆσθαι πρὸς ἀπώλειαν αὐτῶν.

for that the Romans, who had no relation to those things, had a reverence for their sacred rites and places, although they belonged to their enemies, and had till now kept their hands off from meddling with them; while such as were brought up under them, and, if they be preserved, will be the only people that will reap the benefit of them, hurry on to have them destroyed.

ἦ μὴν τὰ καρτερώτερα μὲν αὐτῶν ὁρᾶν τείχη πεπτωκότα, λειπόμενον δὲ τὸ τῶν ἑαλωκότων ἀσθενέστερον: γινώσκειν δὲ τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ἰσχὺν ἀνυπόστατον καὶ τὸ δουλεύειν τούτοις οὐκ ἀπείρατον αὐτοῖς.

That certainly they have seen their strongest walls demolished, and that the wall still remaining was weaker than those that were already taken. That they must know the Roman power was invincible, and that they had been used to serve them;

εἰ γὰρ δὴ καὶ πολεμεῖν ὑπὲρ ἐλευθερίας καλόν, χρῆναι τὸ πρῶτον: τὸ δ' ἅπαξ ὑποπεσόντας καὶ μακροῖς εἴξαντας χρόνοις ἔπειτα ἀποσείεσθαι τὸν ζυγὸν δυσθανατούντων, οὐ φιλελευθέρων εἶναι.

for, that in case it be allowed a right thing to fight for liberty, that ought to have been done at first; but for them that have once fallen under the power of the Romans, and have now submitted to them for so many long years, to pretend to shake off that yoke afterward, was the work of such as had a mind to die miserably, not of such as were lovers of liberty.

δεῖν μέντοι καὶ δεσπότας ἀδοξεῖν ταπεινοτέρους, οὐχ οἷς ὑποχείρια τὰ πάντα. τί γὰρ ̔Ρωμαίους διαπεφευγέναι, πλὴν εἰ μή τι διὰ θάλπος ἢ κρύος ἄχρηστον;

Besides, men may well enough grudge at the dishonor of owning ignoble masters over them, but ought not to do so to those who have all things under their command; for what part of the world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold?

μεταβῆναι γὰρ πρὸς αὐτοὺς πάντοθεν τὴν τύχην, καὶ κατὰ ἔθνος τὸν θεὸν ἐμπεριάγοντα τὴν ἀρχὴν νῦν ἐπὶ τῆς ̓Ιταλίας εἶναι. νόμον γε μὴν ὡρίσθαι καὶ παρὰ θηρσὶν ἰσχυρότατον καὶ παρὰ ἀνθρώποις, εἴκειν τοῖς δυνατωτέροις καὶ τὸ κρατεῖν παρ' οἷς ἀκμὴ τῶν ὅπλων εἶναι.

And evident it is that fortune is on all hands gone over to them; and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy. That, moreover, it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them; and to suffer those to have dominion who are too hard

διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τοὺς προγόνους αὐτῶν καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς καὶ τοῖς σώμασιν ἔτι δὲ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἀφορμαῖς ἀμείνους ὄντας εἶξαι ̔Ρωμαίοις, οὐκ ἂν εἰ μὴ τὸν θεὸν ᾔδεσαν σὺν αὐτοῖς τοῦθ' ὑπομείναντας.

for the rest in war; for which reason it was that their forefathers, who were far superior to them, both in their souls and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans, which they would not have suffered, had they not known that God was with them.

αὐτοὺς δὲ τίνι καὶ πεποιθότας ἀντέχειν, ἑαλωκυίας μὲν ἐκ πλείστου τῆς πόλεως μέρους, τῶν δ' ἔνδον, εἰ καὶ τὰ τείχη παρέμενεν, ἁλώσεως χεῖρον διακειμένων;

As for themselves, what can they depend on in this their opposition, when the greatest part of their city is already taken? and when those that are within it are under greater miseries than if they were taken, although their walls be still standing?

nan	For that the Romans are not unacquainted with that famine which is in the city, whereby the people are already consumed, and the fighting men will in a little time be so too;

εἰ γὰρ δὴ καὶ παύσαιντο ̔Ρωμαῖοι τῆς πολιορκίας μηδ' ἐπιπίπτοιεν τῇ πόλει ξιφήρεις, αὐτοῖς γε τὸν ἄμαχον πόλεμον ἔνδον παρακαθῆσθαι καθ' ἑκάστην ὥραν τρεφόμενον, εἰ μὴ καὶ πρὸς τὸν λιμὸν ἆραι τὰ ὅπλα καὶ μάχεσθαι δύνανται μόνοι τε καὶ παθῶν ἐπικρατεῖν.

for although the Romans should leave off the siege, and not fall upon the city with their swords in their hands, yet was there an insuperable war that beset them within, and was augmented every hour, unless they were able to wage war with famine, and fight against it, or could alone conquer their natural appetites.

προσετίθει δὲ ὡς καλὸν πρὸ ἀνηκέστου συμφορᾶς μεταβαλέσθαι καὶ πρὸς τὸ σωτήριον ἕως ἔξεστι ῥέψαι: καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ μνησικακήσειν αὐτοῖς ̔Ρωμαίους τῶν γεγενημένων, εἰ μὴ μέχρι τέλους ἀπαυθαδίσαιντο: φύσει τε γὰρ ἐν τῷ κρατεῖν ἡμέρους εἶναι καὶ πρὸ τῶν θυμῶν θήσεσθαι τὸ συμφέρον.

He added this further, how right a thing it was to change their conduct before their calamities were become incurable, and to have recourse to such advice as might preserve them, while opportunity was offered them for so doing; for that the Romans would not be mindful of their past actions to their disadvantage, unless they persevered in their insolent behavior to the end; because they were naturally mild in their conquests, and preferred what was profitable, before what their passions dictated to them;

τοῦτο δ' εἶναι μήτε τὴν πόλιν ἀνδρῶν κενὴν μήτε τὴν χώραν ἔρημον ἔχειν. διὸ καὶ νῦν Καίσαρα βούλεσθαι δεξιὰν αὐτοῖς παρασχεῖν: οὐ γὰρ ἂν σῶσαί τινα βίᾳ λαβόντα τὴν πόλιν, καὶ μάλιστα μηδ' ἐν ἐσχάταις συμφοραῖς ὑπακουσάντων παρακαλοῦντι.

which profit of theirs lay not in leaving the city empty of inhabitants, nor the country a desert; on which account Caesar did now offer them his right hand for their security. Whereas, if he took the city by force, he would not save anyone of them, and this especially, if they rejected his offers in these their utmost distresses;

τοῦ γε μὴν ταχέως τὸ τρίτον τεῖχος ἁλώσεσθαι τὰ προεαλωκότα πίστιν εἶναι: κἂν ἄρρηκτον δὲ ᾖ τὸ ἔρυμα, τὸν λιμὸν ὑπὲρ ̔Ρωμαίων αὐτοῖς μαχεῖσθαι.

for the walls that were already taken could not but assure them that the third wall would quickly be taken also. And though their fortifications should prove too strong for the Romans to break through them, yet would the famine fight for the Romans against them.

Ταῦτα τὸν ̓Ιώσηπον παραινοῦντα πολλοὶ μὲν ἔσκωπτον ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους, πολλοὶ δ' ἐβλασφήμουν, ἔνιοι δ' ἔβαλλον. ὁ δ' ὡς ταῖς φανεραῖς οὐκ ἔπειθε συμβουλίαις, ἐπὶ τὰς ὁμοφύλους μετέβαινεν ἱστορίας “ἆ δειλοί

4. While Josephus was making this exhortation to the Jews, many of them jested upon him from the wall, and many reproached him; nay, some threw their darts at him: but when he could not himself persuade them by such open good advice, he betook himself to the histories belonging to their own nation

βοῶν, καὶ τῶν ἰδίων ἀμνήμονες συμμάχων, ὅπλοις καὶ χερσὶ πολεμεῖτε ̔Ρωμαίοις; τίνα γὰρ ἄλλον οὕτως ἐνικήσαμεν;

and cried out aloud, “O miserable creatures! are you so unmindful of those that used to assist you, that you will fight by your weapons and by your hands against the Romans? When did we ever conquer any other nation by such means?

πότε δ' οὐ θεὸς ὁ κτίσας ἂν ἀδικῶνται ̓Ιουδαίων ἔκδικος; οὐκ ἐπιστραφέντες ὄψεσθε πόθεν ὁρμώμενοι μάχεσθε καὶ πηλίκον ἐμιάνατε σύμμαχον; οὐκ ἀναμνήσεσθε πατέρων ἔργα δαιμόνια, καὶ τὸν ἅγιον τόνδε χῶρον ἡλίκους ἡμῖν πάλαι πολέμους καθεῖλεν;

and when was it that God, who is the Creator of the Jewish people, did not avenge them when they had been injured? Will not you turn again, and look back, and consider whence it is that you fight with such violence, and how great a Supporter you have profanely abused? Will not you recall to mind the prodigious things done for your forefathers and this holy place, and how great enemies of yours were by him subdued under you?

ἐγὼ μὲν φρίττω τὰ ἔργα τοῦ θεοῦ λέγων εἰς ἀναξίους ἀκοάς: ἀκούετε δ' ὅμως, ἵνα γνῶτε μὴ μόνον ̔Ρωμαίοις πολεμοῦντες ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ θεῷ.

I even tremble myself in declaring the works of God before your ears, that are unworthy to hear them; however, hearken to me, that you may be informed how you fight not only against the Romans, but against God himself.

βασιλεὺς ὁ τότε Νεχαὼς Αἰγυπτίων, ὁ δ' αὐτὸς ἐκαλεῖτο καὶ Φαραώ, μυρίᾳ χειρὶ καταβὰς ἥρπασε Σάρραν βασιλίδα, τὴν μητέρα τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν.

In old times there was one Necao, king of Egypt, who was also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodigious army of soldiers, and seized queen Sarah, the mother of our nation.

nan

What did Abraham our progenitor then do? Did he defend himself from this injurious person by war, although he had three hundred and eighteen captains under him, and an immense army under each of them? Indeed he deemed them to be no number at all without God’s assistance, and only spread out his hands towards this holy place, which you have now polluted, and reckoned upon him as upon his invincible supporter, instead of his own army.

οὐ μετὰ μίαν ἑσπέραν ἄχραντος μὲν ἡ βασίλισσα ἀνεπέμφθη πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα, προσκυνῶν δὲ τὸν ὑφ' ὑμῶν αἱμαχθέντα χῶρον ὁμοφύλῳ φόνῳ καὶ τρέμων ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν νυκτὶ φαντασμάτων ἔφευγεν ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, ἀργύρῳ δὲ καὶ χρυσῷ τοὺς θεοφιλεῖς ̔Εβραίους ἐδωρεῖτο;

Was not our queen sent back, without any defilement, to her husband, the very next evening?—while the king of Egypt fled away, adoring this place which you have defiled by shedding thereon the blood of your own countrymen; and he also trembled at those visions which he saw in the night season, and bestowed both silver and gold on the Hebrews, as on a people beloved by God.

εἴπω τὴν εἰς Αἴγυπτον μετοικίαν τῶν πατέρων; οὐ τυραννούμενοι καὶ βασιλεῦσιν ἀλλοφύλοις ὑποπεπτωκότες τετρακοσίοις ἔτεσι παρὸν ὅπλοις ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ χερσὶ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπέτρεψαν τῷ θεῷ;

Shall I say nothing, or shall I mention the removal of our fathers into Egypt, who, when they were used tyrannically, and were fallen under the power of foreign kings for four hundred years together, and might have defended themselves by war and by fighting, did yet do nothing but commit themselves to God?

τίς οὐκ οἶδεν τὴν παντὸς θηρίου καταπλησθεῖσαν Αἴγυπτον καὶ πάσῃ φθαρεῖσαν νόσῳ, τὴν ἄκαρπον [γῆν], τὸν ἐπιλείποντα Νεῖλον, τὰς ἐπαλλήλους δέκα πληγάς, τοὺς διὰ ταῦτα μετὰ φρουρᾶς προπεμπομένους πατέρας ἡμῶν ἀναιμάκτους ἀκινδύνους, οὓς ὁ θεὸς αὑτῷ νεωκόρους ἦγεν;

Who is there that does not know that Egypt was overrun with all sorts of wild beasts, and consumed by all sorts of distempers? how their land did not bring forth its fruit? how the Nile failed of water? how the ten plagues of Egypt followed one upon another? and how by those means our fathers were sent away under a guard, without any bloodshed, and without running any dangers, because God conducted them as his peculiar servants?

ἀλλὰ τὴν ὑπὸ Σύρων ἁρπαγεῖσαν ἁγίαν ἡμῖν λάρνακα οὐκ ἐστέναξε μὲν ἡ Παλαιστίνη καὶ Δαγὼν τὸ ξόανον, ἐστέναξε δὲ πᾶν τὸ τῶν ἁρπασαμένων ἔθνος

Moreover, did not Palestine groan under the ravage the Assyrians made, when they carried away our sacred ark? asdid their idol Dagon, and as also did that entire nation of those that carried it away

σηπόμενοι δὲ τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σώματος καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τὰ σπλάγχνα μετὰ τῶν σιτίων καταφέροντες, χερσὶ ταῖς λῃσαμέναις ἀνεκόμισαν κυμβάλων καὶ τυμπάνων ἤχῳ καὶ πᾶσι μειλικτηρίοις ἱλασκόμενοι τὸ ἅγιον;

how they were smitten with a loathsome distemper in the secret parts of their bodies, when their very bowels came down together with what they had eaten, till those hands that stole it away were obliged to bring it back again, and that with the sound of cymbals and timbrels, and other oblations, in order to appease the anger of God for their violation of his holy ark.

θεὸς ἦν ὁ ταῦτα πατράσιν ἡμετέροις στρατηγῶν, ὅτι τὰς χεῖρας καὶ τὰ ὅπλα παρέντες αὐτῷ κρῖναι τὸ ἔργον ἐπέτρεψαν.

It was God who then became our General, and accomplished these great things for our fathers, and this because they did not meddle with war and fighting, but committed it to him to judge about their affairs.

βασιλεὺς ̓Ασσυρίων Σενναχηρεὶμ ὅτε πᾶσαν τὴν ̓Ασίαν ἐπισυρόμενος τήνδε περιεστρατοπεδεύσατο τὴν πόλιν, ἆρα χερσὶν ἀνθρωπίναις ἔπεσεν;

When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, brought along with him all Asia, and encompassed this city round with his army, did he fall by the hands of men?

οὐχ αἱ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ὅπλων ἠρεμοῦσαι ἐν προσευχαῖς ἦσαν, ἄγγελος δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ μιᾷ νυκτὶ τὴν ἄπειρον στρατιὰν ἐλυμήνατο, καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν ἀναστὰς ὁ ̓Ασσύριος ὀκτωκαίδεκα μυριάδας ἐπὶ πεντακισχιλίοις νεκρῶν εὗρε, μετὰ δὲ τῶν καταλειπομένων ἀνόπλους καὶ μὴ διώκοντας ̔Εβραίους ἔφυγεν;

were not those hands lifted up to God in prayers, without meddling with their arms, when an angel of God destroyed that prodigious army in one night? when the Assyrian king, as he rose the next day, found a hundred fourscore and five thousand dead bodies, and when he, with the remainder of his army, fled away from the Hebrews, though they were unarmed, and did not pursue them.

ἴστε καὶ τὴν ἐν Βαβυλῶνι δουλείαν, ἔνθα μετανάστης ὁ λαὸς ὢν ἔτεσιν ἑβδομήκοντα οὐ πρότερον εἰς ἐλευθερίαν ἀνεχαίτισεν ἢ Κῦρον τοῦτο χαρίσασθαι τῷ θεῷ: προυπέμφθησαν γοῦν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάλιν τὸν αὑτῶν σύμμαχον ἐνεωκόρουν.

You are also acquainted with the slavery we were under at Babylon, where the people were captives for seventy years; yet were they not delivered into freedom again before God made Cyrus his gracious instrument in bringing it about; accordingly they were set free by him, and did again restore the worship of their Deliverer at his temple.

nan	And, to speak in general, we can produce no example wherein our fathers got any success by war, or failed of success when without war they committed themselves to God. When they staid at home, they conquered, as pleased their Judge; but when they went out to fight, they were always disappointed:

τοῦτο μέν, ἡνίκα βασιλεὺς Βαβυλωνίων ἐπολιόρκει ταύτην τὴν πόλιν, συμβαλὼν Σεδεκίας ὁ ἡμέτερος βασιλεὺς παρὰ τὰς ̔Ιερεμίου προφητείας αὐτός τε ἑάλω καὶ τὸ ἄστυ μετὰ τοῦ ναοῦ κατασκαπτόμενον εἶδε: καίτοι πόσῳ μετριώτερος ὁ μὲν βασιλεὺς ἐκεῖνος τῶν ὑμετέρων ἡγεμόνων ἦν, ὁ δ' ὑπ' αὐτῷ λαὸς ὑμῶν.

for example, when the king of Babylon besieged this very city, and our king Zedekiah fought against him, contrary to what predictions were made to him by Jeremiah the prophet, he was at once taken prisoner, and saw the city and the temple demolished. Yet how much greater was the moderation of that king, than is that of your present governors, and that of the people then under him, than is that of you at this time!

βοῶντα γοῦν τὸν ̔Ιερεμίαν, ὡς ἀπέχθοιντο μὲν τῷ θεῷ διὰ τὰς εἰς αὐτὸν πλημμελείας, ἁλώσοιντο δ' εἰ μὴ παραδοῖεν τὴν πόλιν, οὔθ' ὁ βασιλεὺς οὔθ' ὁ δῆμος ἀνεῖλεν.

for when Jeremiah cried out aloud, how very angry God was at them, because of their transgressions, and told them that they should be taken prisoners, unless they would surrender up their city, neither did the king nor the people put him to death;

ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς, ἵν' ἐάσω τἄνδον, οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἑρμηνεῦσαι δυναίμην τὰς παρανομίας ὑμῶν ἀξίως, ἐμὲ τὸν παρακαλοῦντα πρὸς σωτηρίαν ὑμᾶς βλασφημεῖτε καὶ βάλλετε, παροξυνόμενοι πρὸς τὰς ὑπομνήσεις τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ μηδὲ τοὺς λόγους φέροντες ὧν τἆργα δρᾶτε καθ' ἡμέραν.

but for you (to pass over what you have done within the city, which I am not able to describe as your wickedness deserves) you abuse me, and throw darts at me, who only exhort you to save yourselves, as being provoked when you are put in mind of your sins, and cannot bear the very mention of those crimes which you every day perpetrate.

τοῦτο δ', ἡνίκα ̓Αντιόχου τοῦ κληθέντος ̓Επιφανοῦς προσκαθεζομένου τῇ πόλει πολλὰ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἐξυβρικότος, οἱ πρόγονοι μετὰ τῶν ὅπλων προῆλθον, αὐτοὶ μὲν ἀπεσφάγησαν ἐν τῇ μάχῃ, διηρπάγη δὲ τὸ ἄστυ τοῖς πολεμίοις, ἠρημώθη δ' ἔτη τρία καὶ μῆνας ἓξ τὸ ἅγιον. καὶ τί δεῖ τἆλλα λέγειν;

For another example, when Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, lay before this city, and had been guilty of many indignities against God, and our forefathers met him in arms, they then were slain in the battle, this city was plundered by our enemies, and our sanctuary made desolate for three years and six months. And what need I bring any more examples?

ἀλλὰ ̔Ρωμαίους τίς ἐστρατολόγησε κατὰ τοῦ ἔθνους; οὐχ ἡ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων ἀσέβεια; πόθεν δ' ἠρξάμεθα δουλείας;

Indeed what can it be that hath stirred up an army of the Romans against our nation? Is it not the impiety of the inhabitants? Whence did our servitude commence?

ἆρ' οὐχὶ ἐκ στάσεως τῶν προγόνων, ὅτε ἡ ̓Αριστοβούλου καὶ ̔Υρκανοῦ μανία καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἔρις Πομπήιον ἐπήγαγεν τῇ πόλει καὶ ̔Ρωμαίοις ὑπέταξεν ὁ θεὸς τοὺς οὐκ ἀξίους ἐλευθερίας;

Was it not derived from the seditions that were among our forefathers, when the madness of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and our mutual quarrels, brought Pompey upon this city, and when God reduced those under subjection to the Romans who were unworthy of the liberty they had enjoyed?

τρισὶ γοῦν μησὶ πολιορκηθέντες ἑαυτοὺς παρέδοσαν, οὔθ' ἁμαρτόντες εἰς τὰ ἅγια καὶ τοὺς νόμους ἡλίκα ὑμεῖς καὶ πολὺ μείζοσιν ἀφορμαῖς πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον χρώμενοι.

After a siege, therefore, of three months, they were forced to surrender themselves, although they had not been guilty of such offenses, with regard to our sanctuary and our laws, as you have; and this while they had much greater advantages to go to war than you have.

τὸ δ' ̓Αντιγόνου τέλος τοῦ ̓Αριστοβούλου παιδὸς οὐκ ἴσμεν, οὗ βασιλεύοντος ὁ θεὸς ἁλώσει πάλιν τὸν λαὸν ἤλαυνε πλημμελοῦντα, καὶ ̔Ηρώδης μὲν ὁ ̓Αντιπάτρου Σόσσιον, Σόσσιος δὲ ̔Ρωμαίων στρατιὰν ἤγαγεν, περισχεθέντες δ' ἐπὶ μῆνας ἓξ ἐπολιορκοῦντο, μέχρι δίκας τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν δόντες ἑάλωσαν καὶ διηρπάγη τοῖς πολεμίοις ἡ πόλις;

Do not we know what end Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came to, under whose reign God provided that this city should be taken again upon account of the people’s offenses? When Herod, the son of Antipater, brought upon us Sosius, and Sosius brought upon us the Roman army, they were then encompassed and besieged for six months, till, as a punishment for their sins, they were taken, and the city was plundered by the enemy.

οὕτως οὐδέποτε τῷ ἔθνει τὰ ὅπλα δέδοται, τῷ δὲ πολεμεῖσθαι καὶ τὸ ἁλώσεσθαι πάντως πρόσεστι.

Thus it appears that arms were never given to our nation, but that we are always given up to be fought against, and to be taken;

nan	for I suppose that such as inhabit this holy place ought to commit the disposal of all things to God, and then only to disregard the assistance of men when they resign themselves up to their Arbitrator, who is above.

ὑμῖν δὲ τί τῶν εὐλογηθέντων ὑπὸ τοῦ νομοθέτου πέπρακται; τί δὲ τῶν ὑπ' ἐκείνου κατηραμένων παραλέλειπται; πόσῳ δ' ἐστὲ τῶν τάχιον ἁλόντων ἀσεβέστεροι;

As for you, what have you done of those things that are recommended by our legislator? and what have you not done of those things that he hath condemned? How much more impious are you than those who were so quickly taken!

οὐ τὰ κρυπτὰ μὲν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἠδοξήκατε, κλοπὰς λέγω καὶ ἐνέδρας καὶ μοιχείας, ἁρπαγαῖς δ' ἐρίζετε καὶ φόνοις καὶ ξένας καινοτομεῖτε κακίας ὁδούς, ἐκδοχεῖον δὲ πάντων τὸ ἱερὸν γέγονεν καὶ χερσὶν ἐμφυλίοις ὁ θεῖος μεμίανται χῶρος, ὃν καὶ ̔Ρωμαῖοι πόρρωθεν προσεκύνουν, πολλὰ τῶν ἰδίων ἐθῶν εἰς τὸν ὑμέτερον παραλύοντες νόμον.

You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usually done in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous plots against men, and adulteries. You are quarreling about rapines and murders, and invent strange ways of wickedness. Nay, the temple itself is become the receptacle of all, and this Divine place is polluted by the hands of those of our own country; which place hath yet been reverenced by the Romans when it was at a distance from them, when they have suffered many of their own customs to give place to our law.

εἶτ' ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν ἀσεβηθέντα σύμμαχον προσδοκᾶτε; πάνυ γοῦν ἐστὲ δίκαιοι ἱκέται καὶ χερσὶ καθαραῖς τὸν βοηθὸν ὑμῶν παρακαλεῖτε.

And, after all this, do you expect Him whom you have so impiously abused to be your supporter? To be sure then you have a right to be petitioners, and to call upon Him to assist you, so pure are your hands!

τοιαύταις ὁ βασιλεὺς ἡμῶν ἱκέτευσεν ἐπὶ τὸν ̓Ασσύριον, ὅτε τὸν μέγαν ἐκεῖνον στρατὸν μιᾷ νυκτὶ κατέστρωσεν ὁ θεός; ὅμοια δὲ τῷ ̓Ασσυρίῳ ̔Ρωμαῖοι δρῶσιν, ἵνα καὶ ἄμυναν ὑμεῖς ὁμοίαν ἐλπίσητε;

Did your king [Hezekiah] lift up such hands in prayer to God against the king of Assyria, when he destroyed that great army in one night? And do the Romans commit such wickedness as did the king of Assyria, that you may have reason to hope for the like vengeance upon them?

οὐχ ὁ μὲν χρήματα παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἡμῶν λαβὼν ἐφ' ᾧ μὴ πορθήσει τὴν πόλιν κατέβη παρὰ τοὺς ὅρκους ἐμπρῆσαι τὸν ναόν, ̔Ρωμαῖοι δὲ τὸν συνήθη δασμὸν αἰτοῦσιν, ὃν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν τοῖς ἐκείνων πατράσι παρέσχον;

Did not that king accept of money from our king on this condition, that he should not destroy the city, and yet, contrary to the oath he had taken, he came down to burn the temple? while the Romans do demand no more than that accustomed tribute which our fathers paid to their fathers;

καὶ τούτου τυχόντες οὔτε πορθοῦσι τὴν πόλιν οὔτε ψαύουσι τῶν ἁγίων, διδόασι δὲ ὑμῖν τὰ ἄλλα, γενεάς τ' ἐλευθέρας καὶ κτήσεις τὰς ἑαυτῶν νέμεσθαι καὶ τοὺς ἱεροὺς νόμους σώζουσι.

and if they may but once obtain that, they neither aim to destroy this city, nor to touch this sanctuary; nay, they will grant you besides, that your posterity shall be free, and your possessions secured to you, and will preserve your holy laws inviolate to you.

μανία δὴ τὸν θεὸν προσδοκᾶν ἐπὶ δικαίοις οἷος ἐπ' ἀδίκοις ἐφάνη. καὶ παραχρῆμα δὲ ἀμύνειν οἶδεν ὅταν δέῃ: τοὺς γοῦν ̓Ασσυρίους κατὰ νύκτα τὴν πρώτην παραστρατοπεδευσαμένους ἔκλασεν:

And it is plain madness to expect that God should appear as well disposed towards the wicked as towards the righteous, since he knows when it is proper to punish men for their sins immediately; accordingly he brake the power of the Assyrians the very first night that they pitched their camp.

ὥστ' εἰ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν γενεὰν ἐλευθερίας ἢ ̔Ρωμαίους κολάσεως ἀξίους ἔκρινε, κἂν παραχρῆμα καθάπερ τοῖς ̓Ασσυρίοις ἐνέσκηψεν, ὅτε τοῦ ἔθνους ἥπτετο Πομπήιος, ὅτε μετ' αὐτὸν ἀνῄει Σόσσιος, ὅτε Οὐεσπασιανὸς ἐπόρθει τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, τὰ τελευταῖα νῦν, ὅτε ἤγγιζε Τίτος τῇ πόλει.

Wherefore, had he judged that our nation was worthy of freedom, or the Romans of punishment, he had immediately inflicted punishment upon those Romans, as he did upon the Assyrians, when Pompey began to meddle with our nation, or when after him Sosius came up against us, or when Vespasian laid waste Galilee, or, lastly, when Titus came first of all near to the city;

καίτοι Μάγνος μὲν καὶ Σόσσιος πρὸς τῷ μηδὲν παθεῖν καὶ ἀνὰ κράτος ἔλαβον τὴν πόλιν, Οὐεσπασιανὸς δ' ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς πολέμου καὶ βασιλείας ἤρξατο: Τίτῳ μὲν γὰρ καὶ πηγαὶ πλουσιώτεραι ῥέουσιν αἱ ξηρανθεῖσαι πρότερον ὑμῖν:

although Magnus and Sosius did not only suffer nothing, but took the city by force; as did Vespasian go from the war he made against you to receive the empire; and as for Titus, those springs that were formerly almost dried up when they were under your power since he is come, run more plentifully than they did before;

nan

accordingly, you know that Siloam, as well as all the other springs that were without the city, did so far fail, that water was sold by distinct measures; whereas they now have such a great quantity of water for your enemies, as is sufficient not only for drink both for themselves and their cattle, but for watering their gardens also.

τό γε μὴν τέρας τοῦτο πεπείραται καὶ πρότερον ἐφ' ἁλώσει τῆς πόλεως γεγενημένον, ὅτε ὁ προειρημένος Βαβυλώνιος ἐπεστράτευσεν, ὃς τήν τε πόλιν ἑλὼν ἐνέπρησε καὶ τὸν ναόν, οὐδὲν οἶμαι τῶν τότε ἠσεβηκότων τηλικοῦτον ἡλίκα ὑμεῖς:

The same wonderful sign you had also experience of formerly, when the forementioned king of Babylon made war against us, and when he took the city, and burnt the temple; while yet I believe the Jews of that age were not so impious as you are.

ὥστε ἐγὼ πεφευγέναι μὲν ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων οἶμαι τὸ θεῖον, ἑστάναι δὲ παρ' οἷς πολεμεῖτε νῦν.

Wherefore I cannot but suppose that God is fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those against whom you fight.

ἀλλ' ἀνὴρ μὲν ἀγαθὸς οἰκίαν ἀσελγῆ φεύξεται καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ στυγήσει, τὸν δὲ θεὸν ἔτι πείθεσθε τοῖς οἰκείοις κακοῖς παραμένειν, ὃς τά τε κρυπτὰ πάντα ἐφορᾷ καὶ τῶν σιγωμένων ἀκούει;

Now, even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly from an impure house, and will hate those that are in it; and do you persuade yourselves that God will abide with you in your iniquities, who sees all secret things, and hears what is kept most private?

τί δὲ σιγᾶται παρ' ὑμῖν ἢ τί κρύπτεται; τί δ' οὐχὶ καὶ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς φανερὸν γέγονε; πομπεύετε γὰρ παρανομοῦντες καὶ καθ' ἡμέραν ἐρίζετε, τίς χείρων γένηται, τῆς ἀδικίας ὥσπερ ἀρετῆς ἐπίδειξιν ποιούμενοι.

Now, what crime is there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you, or is concealed by you? nay, what is there that is not open to your very enemies? for you show your transgressions after a pompous manner, and contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another; and you make a public demonstration of your injustice, as if it were virtue.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

10 results

1. Hebrew Bible, 1 Kings, 21 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

2. Hebrew Bible, 2 Kings, 19.35 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

19.35. וַיְהִי בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא וַיֵּצֵא מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה וַיַּךְ בְּמַחֲנֵה אַשּׁוּר מֵאָה שְׁמוֹנִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה אָלֶף וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ בַבֹּקֶר וְהִנֵּה כֻלָּם פְּגָרִים מֵתִים׃

19.35. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

3. Hebrew Bible, Isaiah, 37.36 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

37.36. וַיֵּצֵא מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה וַיַּכֶּה בְּמַחֲנֵה אַשּׁוּר מֵאָה וּשְׁמֹנִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה אָלֶף וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ בַבֹּקֶר וְהִנֵּה כֻלָּם פְּגָרִים מֵתִים׃

37.36. And the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

4. Hesiod, Works And Days, 619-623, 658, 618 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)

618. At harvest-season when the sun makes dry

5. Hebrew Bible, Daniel, 2.23-2.24, 2.45 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

2.23. לָךְ אֱלָהּ אֲבָהָתִי מְהוֹדֵא וּמְשַׁבַּח אֲנָה דִּי חָכְמְתָא וּגְבוּרְתָא יְהַבְתְּ לִי וּכְעַן הוֹדַעְתַּנִי דִּי־בְעֵינָא מִנָּךְ דִּי־מִלַּת מַלְכָּא הוֹדַעְתֶּנָא׃ 2.24. כָּל־קֳבֵל דְּנָה דָּנִיֵּאל עַל עַל־אַרְיוֹךְ דִּי מַנִּי מַלְכָּא לְהוֹבָדָה לְחַכִּימֵי בָבֶל אֲזַל וְכֵן אֲמַר־לֵהּ לְחַכִּימֵי בָבֶל אַל־תְּהוֹבֵד הַעֵלְנִי קֳדָם מַלְכָּא וּפִשְׁרָא לְמַלְכָּא אֲחַוֵּא׃ 2.45. כָּל־קֳבֵל דִּי־חֲזַיְתָ דִּי מִטּוּרָא אִתְגְּזֶרֶת אֶבֶן דִּי־לָא בִידַיִן וְהַדֶּקֶת פַּרְזְלָא נְחָשָׁא חַסְפָּא כַּסְפָּא וְדַהֲבָא אֱלָהּ רַב הוֹדַע לְמַלְכָּא מָה דִּי לֶהֱוֵא אַחֲרֵי דְנָה וְיַצִּיב חֶלְמָא וּמְהֵימַן פִּשְׁרֵהּ׃

2.23. I thank Thee, and praise Thee, O Thou God of my fathers, w Who hast given me wisdom and might, And hast now made known unto me what we desired of Thee; For Thou hast made known unto us the king’s matter." 2.24. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus unto him: ‘Destroy not the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will declare unto the king the interpretation.’" 2.45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.’"

6. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 10.206-10.207, 10.210, 10.266-10.281, 18.159-18.160, 18.259, 19.276-19.277, 20.100 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

10.206. Thou seemedst to see a great image standing before thee, the head of which proved to be of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass, but the legs and the feet of iron; 10.207. after which thou sawest a stone broken off from a mountain, which fell upon the image, and threw it down, and brake it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it to remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, became smaller than meal, which, upon the blast of a violent wind, was by force carried away, and scattered abroad, but the stone did increase to such a degree, that the whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled therewith. 10.266. But it is fit to give an account of what this man did, which is most admirable to hear, for he was so happy as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to one of the greatest of the prophets, insomuch, that while he was alive he had the esteem and applause both of the kings and of the multitude; and now he is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never fail 10.267. for the several books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by us till this time; and from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophesy of future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time of their accomplishment. 10.268. And while prophets used to foretell misfortunes, and on that account were disagreeable both to the kings and to the multitude, Daniel was to them a prophet of good things, and this to such a degree, that by the agreeable nature of his predictions, he procured the goodwill of all men; and by the accomplishment of them, he procured the belief of their truth, and the opinion of [a sort of] divinity for himself, among the multitude. 10.269. He also wrote and left behind him what made manifest the accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions; for he saith, that when he was in Susa, the metropolis of Persia, and went out into the field with his companions, there was, on the sudden, a motion and concussion of the earth, and that he was left alone by himself, his friends fleeing away from him, and that he was disturbed, and fell on his face, and on his two hands, and that a certain person touched him, and, at the same time, bid him rise, and see what would befall his countrymen after many generations. 10.271. that afterward he saw a very great horn growing out of the head of the he-goat, and that when it was broken off, four horns grew up that were exposed to each of the four winds, and he wrote that out of them arose another lesser horn, which, as he said, waxed great; and that God showed to him that it should fight against his nation, and take their city by force, and bring the temple worship to confusion, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered for one thousand two hundred and ninety-six days. 10.272. Daniel wrote that he saw these visions in the Plain of Susa; and he hath informed us that God interpreted the appearance of this vision after the following manner: He said that the ram signified the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians, and the horns those kings that were to reign in them; and that the last horn signified the last king, and that he should exceed all the kings in riches and glory: 10.273. that the he-goat signified that one should come and reign from the Greeks, who should twice fight with the Persian, and overcome him in battle, and should receive his entire dominion: 10.274. that by the great horn which sprang out of the forehead of the he-goat was meant the first king; and that the springing up of four horns upon its falling off, and the conversion of every one of them to the four quarters of the earth, signified the successors that should arise after the death of the first king, and the partition of the kingdom among them, and that they should be neither his children, nor of his kindred, that should reign over the habitable earth for many years; 10.275. and that from among them there should arise a certain king that should overcome our nation and their laws, and should take away their political government, and should spoil the temple, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered for three years’ time. 10.276. And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel’s vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them. 10.277. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an error 10.278. who cast Providence out of human life, and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator; 10.279. which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned; so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a Providence, and so perish, and come to nought. 10.281. Now as to myself, I have so described these matters as I have found them and read them; but if any one is inclined to another opinion about them, let him enjoy his different sentiments without any blame from me. 18.159. He then pretended that he would do as he bid him; but when night came on, he cut his cables, and went off, and sailed to Alexandria, where he desired Alexander the alabarch to lend him two hundred thousand drachmae; but he said he would not lend it to him, but would not refuse it to Cypros, as greatly astonished at her affection to her husband, and at the other instances of her virtue; 18.259. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Caius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; 19.276. he also took away from Antiochus that kingdom which he was possessed of, but gave him a certain part of Cilicia and Commagena: he also set Alexander Lysimachus, the alabarch, at liberty, who had been his old friend, and steward to his mother Antonia, but had been imprisoned by Caius, whose son [Marcus] married Bernice, the daughter of Agrippa. 19.277. But when Marcus, Alexander’s son, was dead, who had married her when she was a virgin, Agrippa gave her in marriage to his brother Herod, and begged for him of Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis.

7. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 2.164-2.166, 2.345-2.401, 2.409-2.417, 3.354, 3.374, 4.39, 4.318, 4.386-4.388, 4.449-4.486, 4.495-4.501, 4.503, 4.506, 4.508, 4.616-4.618, 4.620, 4.656, 5.45-5.46, 5.205, 5.306-5.330, 5.335, 5.343, 5.350, 5.361, 5.363-5.420, 5.510, 5.541-5.547, 6.94-6.110, 6.118, 6.124-6.127, 6.129, 6.236-6.243, 7.259-7.274 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.164. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; 2.165. and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men’s own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. 2.166. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for the public; but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews. 2.345. 4. “Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. 2.346. But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought it proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. 2.347. And let not anyone be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say does not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. 2.348. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom you must fight,—I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; 2.349. for if you aim at avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaints against your particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. 2.351. but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. 2.352. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. 2.353. Now it is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one: to do so with such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain: 2.354. nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue forever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. 2.355. However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; 2.356. but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. 2.357. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and [strong] bodies, and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans. 2.358. While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia as the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. 2.359. Those Lacedemonians also who got the great victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. 2.361. Moreover, ten thousand other nations there are who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? 2.362. Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? 2.363. nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. 2.364. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? 2.365. Perhaps it will be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. 2.366. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Heniochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis 2.367. who formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? 2.368. How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days’ journey, and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? 2.369. Are not the Illyrians, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Dacians. And for the 2.371. Moreover, if great advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the west by the ocean. 2.372. Now, although these Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; 2.373. and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities; 2.374. nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. 2.375. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. 2.376. Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives everywhere; 2.377. yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in a rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. 2.378. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, and subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than [the continent of] this habitable earth; and four legions are a sufficient guard to so large an island: 2.379. And why should I speak much more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them. 2.381. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridae, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. 2.382. And as for the third part of the habitable earth [Africa], whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. 2.383. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides among them. 2.384. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? 2.385. This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven million five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large 2.386. its length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; 2.387. yet have none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. 2.388. Where then are those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance 2.389. (but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do); for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covets between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. 2.391. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your zealous observation of your religious customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for God’s assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? 2.392. and if you do observe the custom of the Sabbath days, and will not be prevailed on to do anything thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. 2.393. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; 2.394. and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now, all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. 2.395. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. 2.396. But it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without foreseeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. 2.397. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by an agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. 2.398. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them 2.399. whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake only of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. 2.401. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back anything that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge your passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from.” 2.409. At the same time Eleazar, the son of Aias the high priest, a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of the temple, persuaded those that officiated in the Divine service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans; for they rejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account; 2.411. 3. Hereupon the men of power got together, and conferred with the high priests, as did also the principal of the Pharisees; and thinking all was at stake, and that their calamities were becoming incurable, took counsel what was to be done. Accordingly, they determined to try what they could do with the seditious by words, and assembled the people before the brazen gate, which was the gate of the inner temple [court of the priests] which looked towards the sunrising. 2.412. And, in the first place, they showed the great indignation they had at this attempt for a revolt, and for their bringing so great a war upon their country; after which they confuted their pretense as unjustifiable, and told them that their forefathers had adorned their temple in great part with donations bestowed on them by foreigners, and had always received what had been presented to them from foreign nations; 2.413. and that they had been so far from rejecting any person’s sacrifice (which would be the highest instance of impiety), that they had themselves placed those donations about the temple which were still visible, and had remained there so long a time; 2.414. that they did now irritate the Romans to take up arms against them, and invited them to make war upon them, and brought up novel rules of a strange Divine worship, and determined to run the hazard of having their city condemned for impiety, while they would not allow any foreigner, but Jews only, either to sacrifice or to worship therein. 2.415. And if such a law should ever be introduced in the case of a single private person only, he would have indignation at it, as an instance of inhumanity determined against him; while they have no regard to the Romans or to Caesar, and forbade even their oblations to be received also; 2.416. that however they cannot but fear, lest, by thus rejecting their sacrifices, they shall not be allowed to offer their own; and that this city will lose its principality, unless they grow wiser quickly, and restore the sacrifices as formerly, and indeed amend the injury [they have offered to foreigners] before the report of it comes to the ears of those that have been injured. 2.417. 4. And as they said these things, they produced those priests that were skillful in the customs of their country, who made the report that all their forefathers had received the sacrifices from foreign nations. But still not one of the innovators would hearken to what was said; nay, those that ministered about the temple would not attend their Divine service, but were preparing matters for beginning the war. 3.354. and said, “Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune is gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee.” 3.374. Do not you know that those who depart out of this life, according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was received from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back again, enjoy eternal fame? that their houses and their posterity are sure, that their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most holy place in heaven, from whence, in the revolution of ages, they are again sent into pure bodies; 4.39. 6. And now Vespasian comforted his army, which was much dejected by reflecting on their ill success, and because they had never before fallen into such a calamity, and besides this, because they were greatly ashamed that they had left their general alone in great dangers. 4.39. This was brought about by his still disagreeing with the opinions of others, and giving out injunctions of his own, in a very imperious manner; so that it was evident he was setting up a monarchical power. 4.318. I should not mistake if I said that the death of Aus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of their city. 4.386. These men, therefore, trampled upon all the laws of men, and laughed at the laws of God; and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them as the tricks of jugglers; 4.387. yet did these prophets foretell many things concerning [the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] vice, which when these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophecies belonging to their own country: 4.388. for there was a certain ancient oracle of those men, that the city should then be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God. Now, while these zealots did not [quite] disbelieve these predictions, they made themselves the instruments of their accomplishment. 4.449. while he, with the rest of his forces, returned to Emmaus, whence he came down through the country of Samaria, and hard by the city, by others called Neapolis (or Sichem), but by the people of that country Mabortha, to Corea, where he pitched his camp, on the second day of the month Daesius [Sivan]; 4.451. 2. Hereupon a great multitude prevented their approach, and came out of Jericho, and fled to those mountainous parts that lay over against Jerusalem, while that part which was left behind was in a great measure destroyed; 4.452. they also found the city desolate. It is situated in a plain; but a naked and barren mountain, of a very great length, hangs over it 4.453. which extends itself to the land about Scythopolis northward, but as far as the country of Sodom, and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltitis, southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, by reason of its barrenness: 4.454. there is an opposite mountain that is situated over against it, on the other side of Jordan; this last begins at Julias, and the northern quarters, and extends itself southward as far as Somorrhon, which is the bounds of Petra, in Arabia. In this ridge of mountains there is one called the Iron Mountain, that runs in length as far as Moab. 4.455. Now the region that lies in the middle between these ridges of mountains is called the Great Plain; it reaches from the village Ginnabris, as far as the lake Asphaltitis; 4.456. its length is two hundred and thirty furlongs, and its breadth a hundred and twenty, and it is divided in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in it, that of Asphaltitis, and that of Tiberias, whose natures are opposite to each other; for the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of Tiberias is sweet and fruitful. 4.457. This plain is much burnt up in summertime, and, by reason of the extraordinary heat, contains a very unwholesome air; 4.458. it is all destitute of water excepting the river Jordan, which water of Jordan is the occasion why those plantations of palm trees that are near its banks are more flourishing, and much more fruitful, as are those that are remote from it not so flourishing, or fruitful. 4.459. 3. Notwithstanding which, there is a fountain by Jericho, that runs plentifully, and is very fit for watering the ground; it arises near the old city, which Joshua, the son of Nun, the general of the Hebrews, took the first of all the cities of the land of Canaan, by right of war. 4.461. who, when he once was the guest of the people at Jericho, and the men of the place had treated him very kindly, he both made them amends as well as the country, by a lasting favor; 4.462. for he went out of the city to this fountain, and threw into the current an earthen vessel full of salt; after which he stretched out his righteous hand unto heaven, and, pouring out a mild drink-offering, he made this supplication,—That the current might be mollified, and that the veins of fresh water might be opened; 4.463. that God also would bring into the place a more temperate and fertile air for the current, and would bestow upon the people of that country plenty of the fruits of the earth, and a succession of children; and that this prolific water might never fail them, while they continued to be righteous. 4.464. To these prayers Elisha joined proper operations of his hands, after a skillful manner, and changed the fountain; and that water, which had been the occasion of barrenness and famine before, from that time did supply a numerous posterity, and afforded great abundance to the country. 4.465. Accordingly, the power of it is so great in watering the ground, that if it does but once touch a country, it affords a sweeter nourishment than other waters do, when they lie so long upon them, till they are satiated with them. 4.466. For which reason, the advantage gained from other waters, when they flow in great plenty, is but small, while that of this water is great when it flows even in little quantities. 4.467. Accordingly, it waters a larger space of ground than any other waters do, and passes along a plain of seventy furlongs long, and twenty broad; wherein it affords nourishment to those most excellent gardens that are thick set with trees. 4.468. There are in it many sorts of palm trees that are watered by it, different from each other in taste and name; the better sort of them, when they are pressed, yield an excellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness to other honey. 4.469. This country withal produces honey from bees; it also bears that balsam which is the most precious of all the fruits in that place, cypress trees also, and those that bear myrobalanum; so that he who should pronounce this place to be divine would not be mistaken, wherein is such plenty of trees produced as are very rare, and of the most excellent sort. 4.471. the cause of which seems to me to be the warmth of the air, and the fertility of the waters; the warmth calling forth the sprouts, and making them spread, and the moisture making every one of them take root firmly, and supplying that virtue which it stands in need of in summertime. Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares to come at it; 4.472. and if the water be drawn up before sunrising, and after that exposed to the air, it becomes exceeding cold, and becomes of a nature quite contrary to the ambient air; 4.473. as in winter again it becomes warm; and if you go into it, it appears very gentle. The ambient air is here also of so good a temperature, that the people of the country are clothed in linen-only, even when snow covers the rest of Judea. 4.474. This place is one hundred and fifty furlongs from Jerusalem, and sixty from Jordan. The country, as far as Jerusalem, is desert and stony; but that as far as Jordan and the lake Asphaltitis lies lower indeed, though it be equally desert and barren. 4.475. But so much shall suffice to have been said about Jericho, and of the great happiness of its situation. 4.476. 4. The nature of the lake Asphaltitis is also worth describing. It is, as I have said already, bitter and unfruitful. It is so light [or thick] that it bears up the heaviest things that are thrown into it; nor is it easy for anyone to make things sink therein to the bottom, if he had a mind so to do. 4.477. Accordingly, when Vespasian went to see it, he commanded that some who could not swim should have their hands tied behind them, and be thrown into the deep, when it so happened that they all swam as if a wind had forced them upwards. 4.478. Moreover, the change of the color of this lake is wonderful, for it changes its appearance thrice every day; and as the rays of the sun fall differently upon it, the light is variously reflected. 4.479. However, it casts up black clods of bitumen in many parts of it; these swim at the top of the water, and resemble both in shape and bigness headless bulls; 4.481. This bitumen is not only useful for the caulking of ships, but for the cure of men’s bodies; accordingly, it is mixed in a great many medicines. 4.482. The length of this lake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, where it is extended as far as Zoar in Arabia; and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. 4.483. The country of Sodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. 4.484. It is related how, for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that Divine fire, and the traces [or shadows] of the five cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in their fruits; which fruits have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes. 4.485. And thus what is related of this land of Sodom hath these marks of credibility which our very sight affords us. 4.486. 1. And now Vespasian had fortified all the places round about Jerusalem, and erected citadels at Jericho and Adida, and placed garrisons in them both, partly out of his own Romans, and partly out of the body of his auxiliaries. 4.501. but Titus, by a Divine impulse, sailed back from Greece to Syria, and came in great haste to Caesarea, to his father. 4.503. 3. And now there arose another war at Jerusalem. There was a son of Giora, one Simon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so cunning indeed as John [of Gischala], who had already seized upon the city 4.506. However, his manner so well agreed with theirs, and he seemed so trusty a man, that he went out with them, and ravaged and destroyed the country with them about Masada; 4.508. but he affecting to tyrannize, and being fond of greatness, when he had heard of the death of Aus, he left them, and went into the mountainous part of the country. So he proclaimed liberty to those in slavery, and a reward to those already free, and got together a set of wicked men from all quarters. 4.616. 6. Justly, therefore, did Vespasian desire to obtain that government, in order to corroborate his attempts upon the whole empire; so he immediately sent to Tiberius Alexander, who was then governor of Egypt and of Alexandria, and informed him what the army had put upon him, and how he, being forced to accept of the burden of the government, was desirous to have him for his confederate and supporter. 4.617. Now as soon as ever Alexander had read this letter, he readily obliged the legions and the multitude to take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian, both which willingly complied with him, as already acquainted with the courage of the man, from that his conduct in their neighborhood. 4.618. Accordingly Vespasian, looking upon himself as already intrusted with the government, got all things ready for his journey [to Rome]. Now fame carried this news abroad more suddenly than one could have thought, that he was emperor over the east, upon which every city kept festivals, and celebrated sacrifices and oblations for such good news; 4.656. 5. And now, as Vespasian was come to Alexandria, this good news came from Rome, and at the same time came embassies from all his own habitable earth, to congratulate him upon his advancement; and though this Alexandria was the greatest of all cities next to Rome, it proved too narrow to contain the multitude that then came to it. 5.45. as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who was a friend of his, most valuable, both for his goodwill to him, and for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of Alexandria 5.45. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as guarded them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. 5.46. but was now thought worthy to be general of the army [under Titus]. The reason of this was, that he had been the first who encouraged Vespasian very lately to accept this his new dominion, and joined himself to him with great fidelity, when things were uncertain, and fortune had not yet declared for him. He also followed Titus as a counselor, very useful to him in this war, both by his age and skill in such affairs. 5.46. 3. In the meantime Antiochus Epiphanes came to the city, having with him a considerable number of other armed men, and a band called the Macedonian band about him, all of the same age, tall, and just past their childhood, armed, and instructed after the Macedonian manner, whence it was that they took that name. Yet were many of them unworthy of so famous a nation; 5.205. for its height was fifty cubits; and its doors were forty cubits; and it was adorned after a most costly manner, as having much richer and thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than the other. These nine gates had that silver and gold poured upon them by Alexander, the father of Tiberius. 5.317. 4. And now Titus brought one of his engines to the middle tower of the north part of the wall, in which a certain crafty Jew, whose name was Castor, lay in ambush, with ten others like himself, the rest being fled away by reason of the archers. 5.318. These men lay still for a while, as in great fear, under their breastplates; but when the tower was shaken, they arose, and Castor did then stretch out his hand, as a petitioner, and called for Caesar, and by his voice moved his compassion, and begged of him to have mercy upon them; 5.319. and Titus, in the innocency of his heart, believing him to be in earnest, and hoping that the Jews did now repent, stopped the working of the batteringram, and forbade them to shoot at the petitioners, and bid Castor say what he had a mind to say to him. 5.321. Now five of the ten dissembled with him, and pretended to beg for mercy, while the rest cried out aloud that they would never be slaves to the Romans, while it was in their power to die in a state of freedom. 5.322. Now while these men were quarreling for a long while, the attack was delayed; Castor also sent to Simon, and told him that they might take some time for consultation about what was to be done, because he would elude the power of the Romans for a considerable time. And at the same time that he sent thus to him, he appeared openly to exhort those that were obstinate to accept of Titus’s hand for their security; 5.323. but they seemed very angry at it, and brandished their naked swords upon the breastworks, and struck themselves upon their breast, and fell down as if they had been slain. 5.324. Hereupon Titus, and those with him, were amazed at the courage of the men; and as they were not able to see exactly what was done, they admired at their great fortitude, and pitied their calamity. 5.325. During this interval, a certain person shot a dart at Castor, and wounded him in his nose; whereupon he presently pulled out the dart, and showed it to Titus, and complained that this was unfair treatment; so Caesar reproved him that shot the dart, and sent Josephus, who then stood by him, to give his right hand to Castor. 5.326. But Josephus said that he would not go to him, because these pretended petitioners meant nothing that was good; he also restrained those friends of his who were zealous to go to him. But still there was one Aeneas, a deserter, who said he would go to him. 5.327. Castor also called to them, that somebody should come and receive the money which he had with him; this made Aeneas the more earnestly to run to him with his bosom open. 5.328. Then did Castor take up a great stone, and threw it at him, which missed him, because he guarded himself against it; but still it wounded another soldier that was coming to him. 5.329. When Caesar understood that this was a delusion, he perceived that mercy in war is a pernicious thing, because such cunning tricks have less place under the exercise of greater severity. So he caused the engine to work more strongly than before, on account of his anger at the deceit put upon him. 5.335. As to the people, he had them of a long time ready to comply with his proposals; but as to the fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness, and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was not able to take the rest of the city. 5.343. For God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of, nor could they see how much greater forces the Romans had than those that were now expelled, no more than they could discern how a famine was creeping upon them; 5.361. o he mixed good counsel with his works for the siege. And being sensible that exhortations are frequently more effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender the city, now in a manner already taken, and thereby to save themselves, and sent Josephus to speak to them in their own language; for he imagined they might yield to the persuasion of a countryman of their own. 5.363. for that the Romans, who had no relation to those things, had a reverence for their sacred rites and places, although they belonged to their enemies, and had till now kept their hands off from meddling with them; while such as were brought up under them, and, if they be preserved, will be the only people that will reap the benefit of them, hurry on to have them destroyed. 5.364. That certainly they have seen their strongest walls demolished, and that the wall still remaining was weaker than those that were already taken. That they must know the Roman power was invincible, and that they had been used to serve them; 5.365. for, that in case it be allowed a right thing to fight for liberty, that ought to have been done at first; but for them that have once fallen under the power of the Romans, and have now submitted to them for so many long years, to pretend to shake off that yoke afterward, was the work of such as had a mind to die miserably, not of such as were lovers of liberty. 5.366. Besides, men may well enough grudge at the dishonor of owning ignoble masters over them, but ought not to do so to those who have all things under their command; for what part of the world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? 5.367. And evident it is that fortune is on all hands gone over to them; and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy. That, moreover, it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them; and to suffer those to have dominion who are too hard 5.368. for the rest in war; for which reason it was that their forefathers, who were far superior to them, both in their souls and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans, which they would not have suffered, had they not known that God was with them. 5.369. As for themselves, what can they depend on in this their opposition, when the greatest part of their city is already taken? and when those that are within it are under greater miseries than if they were taken, although their walls be still standing? 5.371. for although the Romans should leave off the siege, and not fall upon the city with their swords in their hands, yet was there an insuperable war that beset them within, and was augmented every hour, unless they were able to wage war with famine, and fight against it, or could alone conquer their natural appetites. 5.372. He added this further, how right a thing it was to change their conduct before their calamities were become incurable, and to have recourse to such advice as might preserve them, while opportunity was offered them for so doing; for that the Romans would not be mindful of their past actions to their disadvantage, unless they persevered in their insolent behavior to the end; because they were naturally mild in their conquests, and preferred what was profitable, before what their passions dictated to them; 5.373. which profit of theirs lay not in leaving the city empty of inhabitants, nor the country a desert; on which account Caesar did now offer them his right hand for their security. Whereas, if he took the city by force, he would not save anyone of them, and this especially, if they rejected his offers in these their utmost distresses; 5.374. for the walls that were already taken could not but assure them that the third wall would quickly be taken also. And though their fortifications should prove too strong for the Romans to break through them, yet would the famine fight for the Romans against them. 5.375. 4. While Josephus was making this exhortation to the Jews, many of them jested upon him from the wall, and many reproached him; nay, some threw their darts at him: but when he could not himself persuade them by such open good advice, he betook himself to the histories belonging to their own nation 5.376. and cried out aloud, “O miserable creatures! are you so unmindful of those that used to assist you, that you will fight by your weapons and by your hands against the Romans? When did we ever conquer any other nation by such means? 5.377. and when was it that God, who is the Creator of the Jewish people, did not avenge them when they had been injured? Will not you turn again, and look back, and consider whence it is that you fight with such violence, and how great a Supporter you have profanely abused? Will not you recall to mind the prodigious things done for your forefathers and this holy place, and how great enemies of yours were by him subdued under you? 5.378. I even tremble myself in declaring the works of God before your ears, that are unworthy to hear them; however, hearken to me, that you may be informed how you fight not only against the Romans, but against God himself. 5.379. In old times there was one Necao, king of Egypt, who was also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodigious army of soldiers, and seized queen Sarah, the mother of our nation. 5.381. Was not our queen sent back, without any defilement, to her husband, the very next evening?—while the king of Egypt fled away, adoring this place which you have defiled by shedding thereon the blood of your own countrymen; and he also trembled at those visions which he saw in the night season, and bestowed both silver and gold on the Hebrews, as on a people beloved by God. 5.382. Shall I say nothing, or shall I mention the removal of our fathers into Egypt, who, when they were used tyrannically, and were fallen under the power of foreign kings for four hundred years together, and might have defended themselves by war and by fighting, did yet do nothing but commit themselves to God? 5.383. Who is there that does not know that Egypt was overrun with all sorts of wild beasts, and consumed by all sorts of distempers? how their land did not bring forth its fruit? how the Nile failed of water? how the ten plagues of Egypt followed one upon another? and how by those means our fathers were sent away under a guard, without any bloodshed, and without running any dangers, because God conducted them as his peculiar servants? 5.384. Moreover, did not Palestine groan under the ravage the Assyrians made, when they carried away our sacred ark? asdid their idol Dagon, and as also did that entire nation of those that carried it away 5.385. how they were smitten with a loathsome distemper in the secret parts of their bodies, when their very bowels came down together with what they had eaten, till those hands that stole it away were obliged to bring it back again, and that with the sound of cymbals and timbrels, and other oblations, in order to appease the anger of God for their violation of his holy ark. 5.386. It was God who then became our General, and accomplished these great things for our fathers, and this because they did not meddle with war and fighting, but committed it to him to judge about their affairs. 5.387. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, brought along with him all Asia, and encompassed this city round with his army, did he fall by the hands of men? 5.388. were not those hands lifted up to God in prayers, without meddling with their arms, when an angel of God destroyed that prodigious army in one night? when the Assyrian king, as he rose the next day, found a hundred fourscore and five thousand dead bodies, and when he, with the remainder of his army, fled away from the Hebrews, though they were unarmed, and did not pursue them. 5.389. You are also acquainted with the slavery we were under at Babylon, where the people were captives for seventy years; yet were they not delivered into freedom again before God made Cyrus his gracious instrument in bringing it about; accordingly they were set free by him, and did again restore the worship of their Deliverer at his temple. 5.391. for example, when the king of Babylon besieged this very city, and our king Zedekiah fought against him, contrary to what predictions were made to him by Jeremiah the prophet, he was at once taken prisoner, and saw the city and the temple demolished. Yet how much greater was the moderation of that king, than is that of your present governors, and that of the people then under him, than is that of you at this time! 5.392. for when Jeremiah cried out aloud, how very angry God was at them, because of their transgressions, and told them that they should be taken prisoners, unless they would surrender up their city, neither did the king nor the people put him to death; 5.393. but for you (to pass over what you have done within the city, which I am not able to describe as your wickedness deserves) you abuse me, and throw darts at me, who only exhort you to save yourselves, as being provoked when you are put in mind of your sins, and cannot bear the very mention of those crimes which you every day perpetrate. 5.394. For another example, when Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, lay before this city, and had been guilty of many indignities against God, and our forefathers met him in arms, they then were slain in the battle, this city was plundered by our enemies, and our sanctuary made desolate for three years and six months. And what need I bring any more examples? 5.395. Indeed what can it be that hath stirred up an army of the Romans against our nation? Is it not the impiety of the inhabitants? Whence did our servitude commence? 5.396. Was it not derived from the seditions that were among our forefathers, when the madness of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and our mutual quarrels, brought Pompey upon this city, and when God reduced those under subjection to the Romans who were unworthy of the liberty they had enjoyed? 5.397. After a siege, therefore, of three months, they were forced to surrender themselves, although they had not been guilty of such offenses, with regard to our sanctuary and our laws, as you have; and this while they had much greater advantages to go to war than you have. 5.398. Do not we know what end Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came to, under whose reign God provided that this city should be taken again upon account of the people’s offenses? When Herod, the son of Antipater, brought upon us Sosius, and Sosius brought upon us the Roman army, they were then encompassed and besieged for six months, till, as a punishment for their sins, they were taken, and the city was plundered by the enemy. 5.399. Thus it appears that arms were never given to our nation, but that we are always given up to be fought against, and to be taken; 5.401. As for you, what have you done of those things that are recommended by our legislator? and what have you not done of those things that he hath condemned? How much more impious are you than those who were so quickly taken! 5.402. You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usually done in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous plots against men, and adulteries. You are quarreling about rapines and murders, and invent strange ways of wickedness. Nay, the temple itself is become the receptacle of all, and this Divine place is polluted by the hands of those of our own country; which place hath yet been reverenced by the Romans when it was at a distance from them, when they have suffered many of their own customs to give place to our law. 5.403. And, after all this, do you expect Him whom you have so impiously abused to be your supporter? To be sure then you have a right to be petitioners, and to call upon Him to assist you, so pure are your hands! 5.404. Did your king [Hezekiah] lift up such hands in prayer to God against the king of Assyria, when he destroyed that great army in one night? And do the Romans commit such wickedness as did the king of Assyria, that you may have reason to hope for the like vengeance upon them? 5.405. Did not that king accept of money from our king on this condition, that he should not destroy the city, and yet, contrary to the oath he had taken, he came down to burn the temple? while the Romans do demand no more than that accustomed tribute which our fathers paid to their fathers; 5.406. and if they may but once obtain that, they neither aim to destroy this city, nor to touch this sanctuary; nay, they will grant you besides, that your posterity shall be free, and your possessions secured to you, and will preserve your holy laws inviolate to you. 5.407. And it is plain madness to expect that God should appear as well disposed towards the wicked as towards the righteous, since he knows when it is proper to punish men for their sins immediately; accordingly he brake the power of the Assyrians the very first night that they pitched their camp. 5.408. Wherefore, had he judged that our nation was worthy of freedom, or the Romans of punishment, he had immediately inflicted punishment upon those Romans, as he did upon the Assyrians, when Pompey began to meddle with our nation, or when after him Sosius came up against us, or when Vespasian laid waste Galilee, or, lastly, when Titus came first of all near to the city; 5.409. although Magnus and Sosius did not only suffer nothing, but took the city by force; as did Vespasian go from the war he made against you to receive the empire; and as for Titus, those springs that were formerly almost dried up when they were under your power since he is come, run more plentifully than they did before; 5.411. The same wonderful sign you had also experience of formerly, when the forementioned king of Babylon made war against us, and when he took the city, and burnt the temple; while yet I believe the Jews of that age were not so impious as you are. 5.412. Wherefore I cannot but suppose that God is fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those against whom you fight. 5.413. Now, even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly from an impure house, and will hate those that are in it; and do you persuade yourselves that God will abide with you in your iniquities, who sees all secret things, and hears what is kept most private? 5.414. Now, what crime is there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you, or is concealed by you? nay, what is there that is not open to your very enemies? for you show your transgressions after a pompous manner, and contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another; and you make a public demonstration of your injustice, as if it were virtue. 5.415. However, there is a place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it; and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults, and repent of them. 5.416. O hard-hearted wretches as you are! cast away all your arms, and take pity of your country already going to ruin; return from your wicked ways, and have regard to the excellency of that city which you are going to betray, to that excellent temple with the donations of so many countries in it. 5.417. Who could bear to be the first that should set that temple on fire? who could be willing that these things should be no more? and what is there that can better deserve to be preserved? O insensible creatures, and more stupid than are the stones themselves! 5.418. And if you cannot look at these things with discerning eyes, yet, however, have pity upon your families, and set before every one of your eyes your children, and wives, and parents, who will be gradually consumed either by famine or by war. 5.419. I am sensible that this danger will extend to my mother, and wife, and to that family of mine who have been by no means ignoble, and indeed to one that hath been very eminent in old time; and perhaps you may imagine that it is on their account only that I give you this advice; if that be all, kill them; nay, take my own blood as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation; for I am ready to die, in case you will but return to a sound mind after my death.” 5.541. 3. In the meantime, Josephus, as he was going round the city, had his head wounded by a stone that was thrown at him; upon which he fell down as giddy. Upon which fall of his the Jews made a sally, and he had been hurried away into the city, if Caesar had not sent men to protect him immediately; 5.542. and as these men were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though he heard little of what was done. So the seditious supposed they had now slain that man whom they were the most desirous of killing, and made thereupon a great noise, in way of rejoicing. 5.543. This accident was told in the city, and the multitude that remained became very disconsolate at the news, as being persuaded that he was really dead, on whose account alone they could venture to desert to the Romans. 5.544. But when Josephus’s mother heard in prison that her son was dead, she said to those that watched about her, That she had always been of opinion, since the siege of Jotapata, [that he would be slain,] and she should never enjoy him alive any more. 5.545. She also made great lamentation privately to the maidservants that were about her, and said, That this was all the advantage she had of bringing so extraordinary a person as this son into the world; that she should not be able even to bury that son of hers, by whom she expected to have been buried herself. 5.546. However, this false report did not put his mother to pain, nor afford merriment to the robbers, long; for Josephus soon recovered of his wound, and came out, and cried out aloud, That it would not be long ere they should be punished for this wound they had given him. He also made a fresh exhortation to the people to come out upon the security that would be given them. 5.547. This sight of Josephus encouraged the people greatly, and brought a great consternation upon the seditious. 6.94. while he himself had Josephus brought to him (for he had been informed that on that very day, which was the seventeenth day of Panemus, [Tamuz,] the sacrifice called “the Daily Sacrifice” had failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of men to offer it, and that the people were grievously troubled at it) 6.95. and commanded him to say the same things to John that he had said before, that if he had any malicious inclination for fighting, he might come out with as many of his men as he pleased, in order to fight, without the danger of destroying either his city or temple; but that he desired he would not defile the temple, nor thereby offend against God. That he might, if he pleased, offer the sacrifices which were now discontinued by any of the Jews whom he should pitch upon. 6.96. Upon this Josephus stood in such a place where he might be heard, not by John only, but by many more, and then declared to them what Caesar had given him in charge, and this in the Hebrew language. 6.97. So he earnestly prayed them to spare their own city, and to prevent that fire which was just ready to seize upon the temple, and to offer their usual sacrifices to God therein. 6.98. At these words of his a great sadness and silence were observed among the people. But the tyrant himself cast many reproaches upon Josephus, with imprecations besides; and at last added this withal, that he did never fear the taking of the city, because it was God’s own city. 6.99. In answer to which, Josephus said thus, with a loud voice:—“To be sure, thou hast kept this city wonderfully pure for God’s sake; the temple also continues entirely unpolluted! Nor hast thou been guilty of any impiety against him, for whose assistance thou hopest! He still receives his accustomed sacrifices! 6.101. and thou imputest those sins to the Romans, who to this very time take care to have our laws observed, and almost compel these sacrifices to be still offered to God, which have by thy means been intermitted! 6.102. Who is there that can avoid groans and lamentations at the amazing change that is made in this city? since very foreigners and enemies do now correct that impiety which thou hast occasioned; while thou, who art a Jew, and wast educated in our laws, art become a greater enemy to them than the others. 6.103. But still, John, it is never dishonorable to repent, and amend what hath been done amiss, even at the last extremity. Thou hast an instance before thee in Jechoniah, the king of the Jews, if thou hast a mind to save the city 6.104. who, when the king of Babylon made war against him, did of his own accord go out of this city before it was taken, and did undergo a voluntary captivity with his family, that the sanctuary might not be delivered up to the enemy, and that he might not see the house of God set on fire; 6.105. on which account he is celebrated among all the Jews, in their sacred memorials, and his memory is become immortal, and will be conveyed fresh down to our posterity through all ages. 6.106. This, John, is an excellent example in such a time of danger, and I dare venture to promise that the Romans shall still forgive thee. 6.107. And take notice that I, who make this exhortation to thee, am one of thine own nation; I, who am a Jew, do make this promise to thee. And it will become thee to consider who I am that give thee this counsel, and whence I am derived; for while I am alive I shall never be in such slavery, as to forego my own kindred, or forget the laws of our forefathers. 6.108. Thou hast indignation at me again, and makest a clamor at me, and reproachest me; indeed, I cannot deny that I am worthy of worse treatment than all this amounts to, because, in opposition to fate, I make this kind invitation to thee, and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God hath condemned. 6.109. And who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them,—and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. 6.118. 3. However, when Titus had recalled those men from Gophna, he gave orders that they should go round the wall, together with Josephus, and show themselves to the people; upon which a great many fled to the Romans. 6.124. 4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things, and reproached John and his party, and said to them, “Have not you, vile wretches that you are, by our permission, put up this partition-wall before your sanctuary? 6.125. Have not you been allowed to put up the pillars thereto belonging, at due distances, and on it to engrave in Greek, and in your own letters, this prohibition, that no foreigner should go beyond that wall. 6.126. Have not we given you leave to kill such as go beyond it, though he were a Roman? And what do you do now, you pernicious villains? Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple? and why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreigners and Jews themselves? 6.127. I appeal to the gods of my own country, and to every god that ever had any regard to this place (for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by any of them); I also appeal to my own army, and to those Jews that are now with me, and even to you yourselves, that I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary; 6.129. 5. As Josephus explained these things from the mouth of Caesar, both the robbers and the tyrant thought that these exhortations proceeded from Titus’s fear, and not from his goodwill to them, and grew insolent upon it. 6.236. 3. But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army to quench the fire, and to make a road for the more easy marching up of the legions, while he himself gathered the commanders together. 6.237. of those there were assembled the six principal persons: Tiberius Alexander, the commander [under the general] of the whole army; with Sextus Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion; and Larcius Lepidus, the commander of the tenth legion; and Titus Frigius, the commander of the fifteenth legion: 6.238. there was also with them Eternius, the leader of the two legions that came from Alexandria; and Marcus Antonius Julianus, procurator of Judea: after these came together all the rest of the procurators and tribunes. Titus proposed to these that they should give him their advice what should be done about the holy house. 6.239. Now, some of these thought it would be the best way to act according to the rules of war, [and demolish it,] because the Jews would never leave off rebelling while that house was standing; at which house it was that they used to get all together. 6.241. But Titus said, that “although the Jews should get upon that holy house, and fight us thence, yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are iimate, instead of the men themselves;” and that he was not in any case for burning down so vast a work as that was, because this would be a mischief to the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to their government while it continued. 6.242. So Fronto, and Alexander, and Cerealis grew bold upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. 6.243. Then was this assembly dissolved, when Titus had given orders to the commanders that the rest of their forces should lie still; but that they should make use of such as were most courageous in this attack. So he commanded that the chosen men that were taken out of the cohorts should make their way through the ruins, and quench the fire. 7.259. And indeed that was a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch that no kind of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could anyone so much as devise any bad thing that was new 7.261. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing over others, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plundering such as were richer than themselves. 7.262. They were the Sicarii who first began these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those allied to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of perdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their contrivances affected. 7.263. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all such as gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire country with ten thousand instances of wickedness, such as a man who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety towards God would naturally do; 7.264. for the food was unlawful that was set upon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of his country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, who was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules of gentleness and common affection towards men. 7.265. Again, therefore, what mischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or what kind of abuses did he abstain from as to those very free-men who had set him up for a tyrant? 7.266. What friendship or kindred were there that did not make him more bold in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doing of mischief to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, but thought their barbarity towards their nearest relations would be a glorious demonstration thereof. 7.267. The Idumeans also strove with these men who should be guilty of the greatest madness! for they [all], vile wretches as they were, cut the throats of the high priests, that so no part of a religious regard to God might be preserved; they thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of a political government 7.268. and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity in all instances that were practicable; under which scene that sort of people that were called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded to the name; 7.269. for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memory suggested any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoid zealously to pursue the same; 7.271. Accordingly, they all met with such ends as God deservedly brought upon them in way of punishment; 7.272. for all such miseries have been sent upon them as man’s nature is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period of their lives, and till death came upon them in various ways of torment; 7.273. yet might one say justly that they suffered less than they had done, because it was impossible they could be punished according to their deserving. 7.274. But to make a lamentation according to the deserts of those who fell under these men’s barbarity, this is not a proper place for it;—I therefore now return again to the remaining part of the present narration.

8. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 2.218 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.218. but every good man hath his own conscience bearing witness to himself, and by virtue of our legislator’s prophetic spirit, and of the firm security God himself affords such a one, he believes that God hath made this grant to those that observe these laws, even though they be obliged readily to die for them, that they shall come into being again, and at a certain revolution of things shall receive a better life than they had enjoyed before.

9. Josephus Flavius, Life, 18, 415, 422-423, 17 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

10. New Testament, Acts, 7.2-7.53 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

7.2. He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran 7.3. and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.' 7.4. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living. 7.5. He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child. 7.6. God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7.7. 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.' 7.8. He gave him the covet of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. 7.9. The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him 7.10. and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 7.11. Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. 7.12. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 7.13. On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh. 7.14. Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. 7.15. Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers 7.16. and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor of Shechem. 7.17. But as the time of the promise came close which God swore to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 7.18. until there arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph. 7.19. The same dealt slyly with our race, and mistreated our fathers, that they should throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive. 7.20. At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house. 7.21. When he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son. 7.22. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. 7.23. But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 7.24. Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. 7.25. He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn't understand. 7.26. The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one to another?' 7.27. But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 7.28. Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 7.29. Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 7.30. When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai , in a flame of fire in a bush. 7.31. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him 7.32. 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look. 7.33. The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 7.34. I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt , and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.' 7.35. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' -- God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 7.36. This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 7.37. This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel , 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet to you from among your brothers, like me.' 7.38. This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us 7.39. to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt 7.40. saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt , we don't know what has become of him.' 7.41. They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. 7.42. But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel ? 7.43. You took up the tent of Moloch, The star of your god Rephan, The figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.' 7.44. Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses appointed, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen; 7.45. which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David 7.46. who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 7.47. But Solomon built him a house. 7.48. However, the Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says 7.49. 'heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'Or what is the place of my rest? 7.50. Didn't my hand make all these things?' 7.51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. 7.52. Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 7.53. You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
agrippa ii	Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals (2011) 181
alexander, gaius julius (the alabarch)	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
alexander, tiberius julius	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
alexandria, citizenship in	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
alexandria	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
angel	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
assyrians	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
chrysostom, john	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
destruction of\n, rome	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
divine plan/βουλή	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
dreams	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
elijah, prophet	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
elisha, prophet	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
emotion\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
faith	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
flavius josephus\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
fortune, τύχη/fortuna	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102
four- (or five‐) kingdom paradigm	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
general	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
god, as creator	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
health & healing	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
hellenistic world	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
herod, agrippa ii	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102, 286
hezekiah, king	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
individual eschatology	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102
irony	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
isaiah, prophet	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
jeremiah, prophet	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
jerusalem, conquest by titus	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
jerusalem	Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals (2011) 181; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
jerusalem\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
jewish war	Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals (2011) 181
josephus, as character	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
josephus, on alexander the alabarch	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
joshua	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
judaea\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
judaean (or jewish) war\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
luke/acts\n, audience of	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
lysimachus	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
messianic woes	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
odyssey\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
of jesus	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
opponents, of god, θεομάχοι	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199
periodisation of history	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102, 286
philo of alexandria	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
prayer	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
priest	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
prophecy	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
religion, cult	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
repentance	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 286
rome, romans	Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals (2011) 181
rome	Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
rome\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
sacrifice'	JonquiÃ¨re, Prayer in Josephus Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2007) 210
saeculum festival	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102
sennacherib	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
storm\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
stubbornness (jewish)	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
thirst	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
titus	Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals (2011) 181
travel, dangers of travel	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
vespasian	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 102; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 260
vespasian\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
vitellius\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
worship	Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (2022) 226
year of the four emperors\u2002	Luther Hartog and Wilde, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences: 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE (2024) 168
„rule of the stronger	Crabb, Luke/Acts and the End of History (2020) 199, 286