numbers gave them great confidence, supported as they were by the stalwarts of the revolutionary party; but the determining influence was their high opinion of their captain Eleazar.
Thereupon the men of weight assembled with the chief priests and the notable Pharisees and, in the belief that they were now involved in irreparable calamities, deliberated on the state of public affairs. Deciding to try the effect of persuasion on the revolutionaries, they called the people together before the brazen gate which opened into the inner Temple and faced eastward. And, first, they expressed severe indignation at the audacity of this revolt and at the men who were bringing upon their country so serious a war. They then proceeded to expose the absurdity of the alleged pretext. Their forefathers, they said, had adorned the sanctuary mainly from the contributions of foreigners and had always accepted the gifts of external nations; not only had they never taken the sacrilegious step of forbidding any one to offer sacrifice, but they had set up around the Temple the dedicatory offerings which were still to be seen and had remained there for so long a time. But those who were now provoking the arms of the Romans and courting war with such antagonists were introducing some novel and strange religion,[1] and, in addition to the danger incurred, would lay the city open to the charge of impiety, if Jews alone were to allow no alien the right of sacrifice or worship. Should such a law be introduced in the case of any private individual, they would be indignant as at an act of deliberate inhumanity; yet they made light of putting the Romans and Cæsar outside the pale. It was to be feared, however, that, once they rejected the sacrifices for the Romans, they might
- ↑ Or, possibly, "were making an innovation in the worship of foreigners."
