The State of Jerusalem in the Spring of AD 70
During the winter of AD 69-70, the three factions of zealots in Jerusalem terrorized both each other and the civilian population as a whole. Eleazar ben-Simon and his group of zealots held the temple itself and the court of the priests—he was helped by Judas ben-Chelcias, Simon ben-Ezron, Hezekiah ben-Chobar. John of Gischala and his faction occupied the outer courts of the temple as well as a portion of the lower city. Simon ben-Gioras and his forces retained control over the entire upper city, as well as a portion of the lower city as well.
Despite the fact that the temple was considered the holiest site in all of Judaism, that did not stop John and his men from continuously hurling arrows into the inner courts as an attempt to destroy Eleazar’s faction and eventually occupy the entire temple complex. The bloody result of such attacks was that many of the priests at the great altar were killed as they attempted to continue the offering of sacrifices. Thus, the altar became sprinkled with the very blood of the priests.
And still, John’s men continued to profane the temple courts with their attacks. When describing these atrocities, Josephus, in his grief over the desecration of both Jerusalem and the temple itself, writes the following:
“O most wretched city, what misery so great as this did you suffer from Romans, when they came to purify you from your intestine hatred! For you could no longer be a place fit for God, nor could you any longer continue to even exist, after having been a sepulcher for the bodies of your own people and having made the holy house itself a burying-place in your civil war! Yet, still, maybe you will again grow better, but only if you will, from this time forth, appease the anger of God, who is the author of your destruction!”
Indeed, in their struggle against each other, the three factions purposely burned down large sections around the temple, so that the entire temple complex became a desolation. And in that destruction, the factions ended up even destroying the vast storehouses of grain and corn that was stored around the temple area. This was tantamount to national suicide, for the food in those storehouses would have allowed them to withstand any Roman siege for years. Instead, they hastened their own end by bringing famine upon the city.
The people were tormented by all three factions on a continual basis. The old men and women longed for the Romans to come and wage war against the city, if for no other reason than to deliver them from the demons who has taken control of the holy city. Indeed, the entire city was shrouded in silence. No one dared to give voice to their grief and sorrow, for fear of inviting even more wrath from either Eleazar, John, or Simon. The streets were thick with silent groans and deafening grief. It got to a point that even when zealot bands would prowl about the city, executing random people without mercy, and tormenting others for sport, that even then hardly a scream or anguished cry escaped the lips of the dying.
In addition to shooting at the priests and turning the temple complex into a desolation, John of Gischala managed to also do yet another sacrilege: he took the sacred timber that was reserved for work in the temple and used it to start constructing towers and other engines for war. As it turned out, Titus’ legions would arrive at Jerusalem before John would be able to finish construction.
Titus Arrives at Jerusalem
In the spring of AD 70, Titus marched out from Caesarea with the twelfth legion. It was to meet up with outside of Jerusalem with the fifth legion who was marching to Jerusalem by way of Emmaus, as well as the tenth legion who was making their way up from Jericho.
After initially setting camp at Gabaothsaul, about three and a half miles from Jerusalem, Titus took 600 horsemen to take a view of the city. He had been informed that the citizens of Jerusalem were essentially imprisoned within the city by the zealot factions and were anxious for Rome to come and liberate them. Perhaps, thought Titus, after letting the zealots tear each other apart for the better part of two years, the taking of Jerusalem would be easy.
Titus, though, did not yet fully understand just how savage the zealots in Jerusalem were. For as soon as Titus and his men had gotten close to the “Women’s Towers,” they found themselves ambushed by some of the zealots. Amazingly, Titus and his men were able to fight through the ambush and make their way to Mount Scopus, north of the city, where Titus had two of his legions make camp. The tenth legion encamped on the Mount of Olives, which lay on the east side of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley.
A Temporary Union of Zealots Quickly Dissolves
With the coming of Titus, the three zealot factions banded together to make a daring attack against the Romans as they were setting up camp. They rushed out of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, in a surprise attack, so much so that many of the Roman soldiers were on the brink of fleeing. When Titus saw the zealots rushing across the Kidron Valley, though, he quickly led reinforcements to the battle. Yet as soon after that, another wave of zealots rushed out of Jerusalem to counter Titus’ reinforcements. After a long, hard battle, Titus’ legions beat back the zealots, who retreated and went back into the city.
Once back in the city, that brief union of the zealot factions quickly dissolved, and they were at each other’s throats once again. It happened in April of that year, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that (ironically) remembered the freedom of the Jews from Egypt during the Exodus.
In an attempt to foster unity among the factions and instill some hope in the population of Jerusalem, Eleazar opened the gates to the inner court of the temple so they could come and celebrate and worship. Yet John of Gischala chose to use the celebration of Passover to make their move against Eleazar and his men. They snuck in among the crowds and concealed their weapons under their garments, and once inside, they attacked Eleazar’s men and the crowds alike, and a great slaughter commenced within the inner court of the temple during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Many of Eleazar’s men, when they saw that John’s men had begun their attack, fled to underground caverns beneath the temple, instead of trying to protect the worshippers. After John’s men had butchered much of the worshipping crowds, they allowed the surviving zealots of Eleazar’s faction to come out of the caverns and leave the temple area. And thus, there were only two zealot factions left: John’s men gained control of the entire temple mount, and John then set his sights on Simon and his men.
Titus Prepares the Siege
Outside the city walls, Titus was busy preparing to besiege Jerusalem. The first thing he did was order that then entire plain outside of Jerusalem be leveled: all hedges, gardens and groves were cut down, and every wall was torn down—from Scopus to Herod’s monuments. Devastation and desolation surrounded Jerusalem’s walls on every side.
At this point early on in the siege, Simon’s zealots hatched a plan to trick some of the Roman soldiers. Some of the zealots went outside of the city to the Women’s Towers and pretended that they had been kicked out of the city by the citizenry of Jerusalem. Then, some other zealots pretended to be innocent civilians and called out from the city walls to the Roman soldiers that if they would come up to the gate, they would open it for them and grant them access to the city, so they could make a surprise attack on the zealots. They even threw rocks at the zealots outside the city walls in an attempt to trick the Roman soldiers.
When this was reported to Titus, he suspected treachery and ordered his men to stay back. But before his message was relayed, some Roman soldiers decided to take their weapons and push forward anyway—if nothing else, to attack the zealots who were outside the walls. Sure enough, though, as soon as the company of soldiers got close to the city walls, they were ambushed by both the zealots outside as well as the zealots on the walls who proceeded to throw stones and shoot arrows at them. The result was a humiliated defeat for Rome, and many Roman soldiers were killed. Those who had escaped and fled back to the Roman camp were taunted and jeered by the jubilant zealots on the city walls.
The survivors were brought to Titus, who was prepared to execute them for not waiting for or obeying his orders. Yet the rest of the soldiers implored Titus to show mercy on the soldiers, and so he chose to spare them. It became apparent that although the city was obviously already suffering from famine, that the zealots were never going to surrender.
Jerusalem was going to fall. The siege would be successful. But in the meantime, it was going to be a very hellish and brutal summer.
