After taking the second wall and pushing the zealots back deeper into the upper city and the temple complex, Titus relaxed the siege for a short time, to see if the zealots were willing to finally surrender. Surely, they had to see their days were numbered. And, in order to demoralize the zealots even more, Titus ordered his troops to line up in full battle array to receive their payment in full view of the zealots and Jews on the third wall. For four days, the zealots looked out at a fully-decorated Roman army, receiving their pay and eating in full view of the starving Jews on the other side of the wall.
Josephus’ Appeals
Nevertheless, there was no surrender coming. And so, Titus ordered to recommence the siege and to raise the banks at both the Tower of Antonia and John’s monument. He intended to take the upper city at John’s monument, and the Temple at the Tower of Antonia. In addition, Titus sent Josephus to speak to the Jews on the wall and implore them to surrender. Once Josephus found a spot out of range of any possible projectiles from the wall, he began his appeal:
“My fellow Jews, why do you persist in this madness? You must know that Roman power is invincible! What part of the world haven’t the Romans conquered? And now they’ve already taken most of the city—do you really think you can withstand them much longer? Those of you within the walls are in greater misery than if you would be captured by the Romans! The Romans know all about the severity of the famine in the city! Surrender now, while there is still a chance you’ll live! If you hold out until the bitter end, the Romans will destroy everything and everyone!
“But I am telling you that they do not want to have to do that. Titus offers you his right hand for your security. If he must take the city by force, he will not spare anyone, especially if you now reject his offer. The first two walls have already been taken. It is only a matter of time until the third wall falls. Surrender now, before it is too late. Surely, you have to realize that because of your wickedness and abominations that God has left you and is now settled in Italy!”
Despite his appeals, though, the zealots on the walls continued to hurl insults at Josephus and called him a traitor to his people. In time, their insults became so much more vulgar and belligerent, that Josephus anger boiled over, and his speech became more and more belligerent in return, even as he appealed to their own history in order to convince them to surrender:
“You are all miserable creatures, the whole lot of you! When have we Jews ever been successful in engaging in the sort of things you are now doing? We have been victorious only when we put ourselves in the hands of God! I fear my appeals will only fall on deaf ears, but you must realize that you are fighting, not only against the Romans, but against God Himself! Did our forefathers rise up in rebellion against Pharaoh? No! They appealed to God, and He delivered them. When the Philistines defeated the Israelites in battle and seized the Ark of the LORD, was God powerless in Philstia? No! He toppled their god Dagon and ravaged the Philistines, without the help of Israel! Who saved Jerusalem from Sennacherib? It was the LORD, without need to Jerusalem’s army! The kingdom of Judah was destroyed and sent into exile after we rebelled against Babylon, but once in exile, it was the LORD who worked within the heart of Cyrus and impressed upon him to let the Jew return to Judea! Every time our fathers went to war, they failed! Every time they entrusted themselves to God, they were successful! Yet you persist in these abominations within the city!
“Even now, as I am appealing to you to save your lives, you are hurling stones and shooting arrows at me! As bad and as abominable as Antiochus Epiphanes was when he desolated the sanctuary for three and a half years, what was that compared to the atrocities of the successors of Judas Maccabees, the Hasmonean Dynasty? It was the impiety and violence of men like Aristobulus and Hyrcanus that was the reason why the Roman general Pompey was invited in to begin with—to restore order to here in Judea! It was the cruelty and wickedness of our own people that brought the Romans! And it is your cruelty and wickedness that has brought our people and the holy city to the brink of annihilation! Surrender!
“Yet you, O Simon and John, and all you who follow these men—you all have committed atrocities far worse than any of them! You argue with each other over who gets to rape and murder! You’ve invented horrific methods of torture, and it is you who have defiled and profaned the Holy Temple itself! For the past 100 years, the Romans have made allowances for us to continue to worship the LORD at the Temple! They have supported us in this—and yet you are the ones who have offended God! After committing such sacrilege, do you really expect Him to be your supporter? Please, tell me what crime or wickedness haven’t you committed in full view of everyone? You regard injustice as if it were a virtue! If even now you confess your transgressions and repent of your sins, God will be reconciled Himself to you! Please, throw down your weapons and take pity on your own country that you’ve plunged into so much death and chaos! This is Jerusalem, the holy city of the LORD! Return from your wicked ways so that it may be spared! Repent so that the Temple may be saved! Look at your wives, children, parents, and families! Consider them! Do you really want to see them waste away by famine or consumed in the inevitable fires of this war?”
The Zealot Hell Behind the Walls
Although Josephus’ words cut the Jews who were essentially being held hostage by the zealots to the core, they were powerless to do anything. The people wanted to surrender, but the two factions threatened to kill them if they tried. And so, the people continued to suffer in the growing hell that the zealots were fostering behind the walls.
Some of the people went to great lengths in order to try to escape. They sold what they had and then swallowed the coins so that the robbing zealots wouldn’t find them. Their hope was that if they could then somehow escape to the Romans that they would be able to recover the coins amidst their excrement once they went to stool. Yet Simon and John’s men watched the gates closely and would cut the throats of any civilian whom they even suspected of trying to escape. In addition, as the famine in the city intensified, the zealots accused the rich people in the city of plotting to desert, and then used that as justification to execute them and then confiscate their goods and money.
Zealots would burst in any home they suspected of hiding goods or food, would torture anyone who was found to be hiding things, and would torture anyone who denied hiding anything. And so, the people were reduced to eating the little bread they had in the dark, in inner rooms, constantly in fear of the zealots. But even this aroused even more suspicion among the zealots, and so anytime the zealots noticed a house was shut up, they would burst in because they suspected the people within were hiding food or trying to eat bread. In order to get people to confess where they hid their food, the zealots would invent methods of torture: stopping up their private parts, and sometimes even driving stakes up into their anal cavities.
Such was the state of misery that the zealots inflicted upon the people of Jerusalem during the Roman siege. In The Wars of the Jews, Josephus summarized the sad state of affairs in the following way:
“Never did any other city ever suffer such miseries nor any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this from the beginning of the world. The zealots plunged the Hebrew nation into contempt, to the point where they showed themselves to be even more ungodly and impious than pagan strangers. Indeed, the zealots bore witness to the truth—that they were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation. They overthrew and destroyed the city all by themselves. Their actions were so heinous that they caused even the Romans to be saddened at what was happening.”
And still, the siege dragged on.
Those zealots appear to have a lot in common with ISIS. Has anyone done an investigation of the causes of their similarities in mental attitude?
p.s. I am enjoying your very interesting Jewish War Series.