This summer I’m reading through Josephus’ The Jewish War (Penguin Classics, 1970) as
though it were a novel. I’m struck anew at the level of violence assumed and tolerated. For example, Herod the Great’s early career was one long series of battles and retreats. He campaigned against nearby Arab kingdoms and fought the Parthians and dealt with treachery from all sides and intrigue within. He also battled repeated claims to his throne by the former Jewish leaders from the Hasmonean dynasty, including Antigonus, the son of the last Hasmonean king Aristobulus. After being declared King of the Jews by the Roman Senate, Herod returned to Judea, defeated Antigonus and his siege of Masada, took back Jerusalem, and expelled Antigonus’ garrisons in Galilee. Herod marched to Sepphoris, endured a blizzard, and took on Antigonus’ supporters holed up in caves within the cliffs of Arbel. I climbed down these cliffs on a sunny summer day; I can’t imagine trying to wage war on the sheer cliff face.
lowering soldiers in baskets to the mouth of these caves. The soldiers then
slaughtered the resisters by sword, or threw firebrands into the caves. In
gruesome detail Josephus tells of one father who refused Herod’s offer of
clemency for his family, preferring instead to kill each of his seven children
and his wife then throw their bodies and himself off the cliffs (1.309-314).
Link: http://www.koinoniablog.net/2010/07/lady-liberty-patrick-henry-and-herod-the-great-by-lynn-h-cohick.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FpQHu+%28Koinonia%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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