With the Idumeans now in the city, they and the zealots began to unleash a reign of terror in Jerusalem. The first order of business for the Idumeans was to go directly to the temple, slaughter the temple guards, and free the zealots who had been holed up in the temple. The fighting was vicious, and by the morning there were 8,500 dead bodies strewn about the temple courts, which were now stained with the blood of the victims.
The Death of Ananias and Jesus
After their work in the temple, the Idumeans then proceeded to plunder the houses throughout the city, killing the inhabitants and taking any and all supplies they wanted. In addition, they purposely searched for Ananias and Jesus, the two priests who headed the resistance to the zealots. When they found them, the Idumeans sarcastically thanked Ananias for his hospitality, and Jesus for his wonderful speech on the wall, and then killed them both.
It is at this point, it is necessary to actually quote Josephus’ take on this:
“The death of Ananias was the beginning of the destruction of the city. From this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they say their high priest, the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of the city.”
“I cannot but think that it was because God doomed this city to destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these, their great defenders and well-wishers, while those that a little before had worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship, and had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts.”
The rest of the noblemen of the city were bound and put in prison, and when they refused to swear their allegiance to the zealots, they were brutally tortured and killed. Upon seeing these horrors, the mass of the citizens retreated to their houses, mourned in secret, and avoided going outside at all costs. The city soon became like a ghost town.
That did not detour the zealots, though. With the Idumeans looking on, in an attempt to give their slaughters a ring of legitimacy, the zealots forced 70 respected men in the city to be the jury in fake tribunals. They then brought in front of this tribunal a man named Zacharias ben-Baruch, put him on trial and accused him of betraying the city and having sent for Vespasian. When Zacharias was ordered to publicly answer the charges, he instead openly laughed at the accusation. And then, instead of giving a defense, he proceeded to bring his own accusations against the zealots and Idumeans, detailing the numerous atrocities and sins they had committed in the city.
The verdict came back: not guilty. The 70 respected men refused to be complicit in the charade. The zealots, though, were enraged at being shown up, and so, in disregard of the verdict, they descended upon Zacharias and slew him in front of the tribunal in the temple itself. They then seized the 70 men, severely beat them, and then sent them back to their homes in order to send a message to the rest of the citizens of Jerusalem that the same thing would happen to them if they crossed the zealots.
The Idumeans’ About-Face
By this time, upon seeing the zealots complete disregard for the sanctity of the temple and the clear farce of the fake tribunals, the Idumeans began to realize that Ananias and Jesus were actually telling the truth about the zealots, and that they had actually come to the city and freed truly wicked and evil men. And so, the Idumeans repented of what they had done and abruptly left the city. Before they left, though, they freed their 2,000 Jewish prisoners, and those 2,000 fled the city and went out to Simon ben-Giora, the Jewish revolutionary who had led the counter-attack against Cestius, for help.
Although the Idumeans’ departure surprised everyone, it actually emboldened the zealots even further to commit more atrocities. They proceeded to hunt down every leading man in the city they could find.
Vespasian Plays the Waiting Game
Meanwhile, while all this was happening in Jerusalem, Vespasian and his forces sat tight in Galilee. Some of his generals urged him to march into Judea and take Jerusalem immediately, but he refused, telling them that if they were to advance to Jerusalem at that point, that chances were that the warring factions of the revolutionaries would unite against them. But instead, if the Romans held back, they would be able to simply let the warring factions tear each other apart.
And so, Vespasian continued to let the zealots wreck their own destruction.
The State of Jerusalem
Unfortunately, although Vespasian’s decision certainly made sense, it certainly was not good news for the masses of people in Jerusalem who were essentially being held hostage by the zealots. Day after day, Jews were attempting to escape from the city, but the zealots had posted guards at every passage out of the city. Although some Jews did manage to escape (some of the wealthier Jews were able to bribe the guards to let them escape), most were killed by the zealots, who simply dragged the dead bodies to line the roads outside the city.
It is at this point that a direct quote by Josephus is again in order:
“These men trampled upon all the laws of men and laughed at the laws of God. And as for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them as the tricks of a juggler.”
“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.”
[My Personal Note]: I find this last quote interesting. What prophecy was Josephus talking about? I do know, though, as we read in the Olivet Discourse in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21, that Jesus did prophesy that the temple would be destroyed in language rather similar to this.
Hey Joel, I had a question about something I didn’t understand about the whole Temple rebuilding thing. Apparently, the Temple was rebuilt following the return of the exiles by the Achaemenid empire. But I’ve also read that Herod the Great rebuilt the Temple. For example, in Everett Fergusons’ Backgrounds of Early Christianity on pg. 527, I read;
What’s going on? If the exiles rebuilt the Temple, then why did Herod have to rebuild anything?
Well, the Temple was rebuilt by the returning exiles, having been completed in 516 BC. But it was by no means as “glorious” as Solomon’s Temple. What Herod the Great did was a massive renovation of the Temple, to the point that it was considered to be one of the most glorious buildings in the ancient world at the time in the first century. So, he wasn’t “rebuilding” something that had been destroyed. He was renovating and upgrading the rather shabby temple that had been around for 500 years.
Ah, I see. Thanks!