Daughter of My People: Jesus' Jerusalem destroyed

Chapter Twenty-Six

Galilee

A.D. 68

Meanwhile, Vespasian in the Roman camp is getting wind of what is going on in Jerusalem—chaos in a civil war among the Jews.

Vespasian is preparing the legions in Caesarea for making an assault on the city of Jerusalem. Now that all of Galilee is in the hands of the Roman Empire, what should finish up this war just has to be the fall of Jerusalem.

But it is not to be.

The dissension is good news for the Roman soldiers. The commanders urge attacking Jerusalem immediately. They say to Vespasian, "The providence of God is on our side, by permitting our enemies to fight each other."

Vespasian thinks hard on this. Must he go, or must he not go? Come on, experienced general!

Vespasian has an answer for them: "You are greatly mistaken in what we are supposed to do." Then he explains, "If we now go to attack the city immediately, all we can accomplish is to make our enemies unite together, and their struggle will all be against us. But if we stay a while, we will have fewer enemies to deal with."

Then Vespasian says, "God acts as a better Roman general than I can. The Jews have been given up to us without any of us Romans involved! God is ensuring our army an easy victory."

After a paragraph or two of dialogue, Vespasian has convinced his commanders that he is in the right. "That is a wise opinion you have given," they say in response.

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Some have escaped from the "holy city" with real difficulty. They bring their news to Vespasian. Joseph bar Matthias happens to be there when these Jews arrive with further news about Jerusalem, starting from when the Zealots are locked inside the Temple sanctuary.

And when the Idumaeans[41] arrived at the assistance for the Zealots—and John of Gischala also helped out in this, even as he was pretending to be on the side of Ananus and the moderates—with their 20,000 men, Ananus ben Ananus immediately ordered the gates shut and guards assigned on the walls.

Then Jesus bar Gamala, an old friend of Joseph bar Matthias, tried to persuade the Idumaeans over the wall on their side. He defamed the Zealots. "On my own part, even if I would prefer peace to death, yet having once declared war, I would rather die nobly than live a captive."

Then Jesus tried to turn the Idumaeans over to their side and to get rid of the Zealots, or at least come inside Jerusalem without weapons and act as neutral judges, or do nothing at all, and just leave. "But if none of these proposals seem acceptable to you, do not expect us to open the gates while you have your weapons."

One of the generals of the Idumaeans spoke up so that those behind the walls can hear. He said that the traitors against liberty are really the moderates, calling Ananus a tyrant, a hypocrite! He said the Idumaeans will fight the traitors.

Jesus bar Gamala sadly walked away. The Idumaeans camped out for the night outside Jerusalem's walls. And that night was when an awful thunderstorm broke out. Taking advantage of the situation, the Zealots take the Temple saws to cut the bars of the gates. Despite that noise, the storm and wind were louder.

Meanwhile, Ananus saw the thunderstorm as a sign Alaha was with them, and the Idumaeans took it as a sign Alaha was against them.

While they're deep in thought, the Zealots broke open the Southeast Gate of the Temple Mount. The Idumaeans had just covered their heads with their shields to not get wet. When they saw the gate open, they were alarmed. It must be Ananus ben Ananus and his men, ready to attack them! So those camped got their swords in hand.

Then they saw that some people that opened the gates signal that they could come in. That's when they realized it was the Zealots. With new courage, the Idumaeans got into the city. They attacked the guards around the Temple from without while the rest of the Zealots attacked from within. All this under a storm, also!

When it was daybreak, about 8,500 had died. The Idumaeans weren't done there. They looted houses and killed those they saw. Then they stopped, and said, "It's useless to kill these. Let us seek out the chief priests!"

And that's what they did. Ananus was found.

The man who usurped authority as the high priest and ordered the death of "James the Just"—Ananus ben Ananus was killed by Idumaeans.

Then they found Jesus bar Gamala and killed him too.

The Idumaeans tossed their bloody corpses over the city walls disgracefully. Then they and the Zealots attacked those not on their side. 12,000 are dead.

But then came a mock trial by a mock Sanhedrin for a certain Zechariah, an eminent rich Jew in Jerusalem. But Zechariah in his defense told the judges that so many sins have been committed by the Zealots in their misguided zeal.

The Zealots intended this man to get condemned for being a traitor, but since there was no good evidence, the 70 "judges" proclaimed Zechariah innocent. Provoked, the Zealots expelled the judges and passed the sentence on Zechariah themselves. Two of them plunged their swords on Zechariah as he was in the center of the Temple. Thus died Zechariah.

But then the Idumaeans got alerted by a Zealot that Ananus wasn't really a traitor and that they were misguided by the Zealots. So they left Jerusalem after freeing prisoners. Now unchecked, the Zealots murdered all possible opponents and people of authority.

To secure themselves even further, the Zealots now guard the walls of Jerusalem, refusing to let anyone out, best assuming they are on the side of the Romans. Those they suspected, they murdered at the spot. The bodies get put into heaps. No burial for them.

But some with money bribed the guards, and they passed through.

And now they are here, telling Vespasian of what is going on. They add that despite all this, people in the city say Jerusalem would never be taken, since it is still Alaha's city, and that they who predicted its fall are impostors!

That would include Jesus of Nazareth.

That would include Jeshua, the peasant still exclaiming woe to Jerusalem.

(But how soon the prophecies will come to pass. According to Jesus, Jerusalem has only three years left.)

Now the survivors of that Gehenna tell Vespasian that John of Gischala has taken control of Jerusalem. Joseph bar Matthias sighs. He expected this. John has always wanted power. He tried to take it away from Joseph for a few months! But that was about a year ago.

Now the survivors urge Vespasian to rescue the remaining loyal inhabitants in Jerusalem. But Vespasian doesn't want to get interrupted in a siege against Jerusalem when a nearby city, Gadara, is still unattacked. So he would attack Gadara first.

Then he would start the siege against Jerusalem.

Only then.

[41] These were blood relatives of the Jews. They lived south of Judea.