that brought these spoils, that they ought to be kept, in order to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem with them when they came to be sold; but the young men took it very ill that they did not receive a part of these spoils for themselves, as they expected to have done; so they went among the villages in the neighbourhood of Tiberias, and told the people that I was going to betray their country to the Romans, and that I used deceitful language to them, when I said that what had been thus gotten by rapine should be kept for the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem; although I had resolved to restore these spoils again to their former owner; and indeed they were herein not mistaken as to my intentions; for when I had gotten clear of them, I sent for two of the principal men, Dassion, and Janneus the son of Levi, persons that were among the chief friends of the king, and commanded them to take the furniture that had been plundered, and to send it to him; and I threatened that I would order them to be put to death by way of punishment, if they discovered this my command to any other person.
27. NOW, WHEN all Galilee was filled with
this rumour, that their country was about to be
betrayed by me to the Romans, and when all men
were exasperated against me, and ready to bring
me to punishment, the inhabitants of Taricheæ
did also themselves suppose that what the young
men said was true, and persuaded my guards and
armed men to leave me when I was asleep, and to
come presently to the hippodrome, in order there
to take counsel against me their commander; and
when they had prevailed with them, and they
were gotten together, they found there a great
company assembled already, who all joined in
one clamour, to bring the man who
was so wicked to them as to betray
Sedition of
Jews against
Josephus.
them to his due punishment; and
it was Jesus, the son of Sapphias,
who principally set them on. He
was ruler in Tiberias, a wicked man, and naturally
disposed to make disturbances in matters of
consequence; a seditious person he was indeed, and
an innovator beyond everybody else. He then
took the laws of Moses into his hands, and came
into the midst of the people, and said, "O my
fellow-citizens! if you are not disposed to hate
Josephus on your own account, have regard,
however, to these laws of your country, which
your commander-in-chief is going to betray;
hate him, therefore, on both these accounts, and
bring the man who hath acted thus insolently, to
his deserved punishment."
28, WHEN HE had said this, and the multitude had openly applauded him for what he had said, he took some of the armed men, and made haste away to the house in which I lodged, as if he would kill me immediately, while I was wholly insensible of all till this disturbance happened; and, by reason of the pains I had been taking, was fallen fast asleep: but Simon, who was entrusted with the care of my body, and was the only person that stayed with me, and saw the violent incursion the citizens made upon me, awaked me and told me of the danger I was in, and desired me to let him kill me, that I might die bravely and like a general, before my enemies came in, and forced me [to kill myself] or killed me themselves. Thus did he discourse to me; but I committed the care of my life to God, and made haste to go out to the multitude. Accordingly, I put on a black garment, and hung my sword at my neck, and went by such a different way to the hippodrome, Josephus in tho wherein I thought none of my hippodrome, adversaries would meet me; so I appeared among them on the sudden, and fell down flat on the earth, and bedewed the ground with my tears: then I seemed to them all an object of compassion; and when I perceived the change that was made in the multitude, I tried to divide their opinions before the armed men should return from my house; so I granted them that I had been as wicked as they supposed me to be, but still I entreated them to let me first inform them for what use I had kept that money which arose from the plunder; and that they might then kill me, if they pleased: and, upon the multitude's ordering me to speak, the armed men came upon me, and when they saw me, they ran to kill me; but when the multitude bade them hold their hands they complied; and expected that as soon as I should own to them that I kept the money for the king, it would be looked on as a confession of my treason, and they should then be allowed to kill me.
29. WHEN, THEREFORE, silence was
made by the whole multitude, I spake thus to
them:—"O, my countrymen, I refuse not to die,
if Justice so require! However, I am desirous to
tell you the truth of this matter
before I die; for as I know that
His defence
and escape.
this city of yours [Taricheæ] was
a city of great hospitality, and
filled with abundance of such men as have left
their own countries, and are come hither to be
partakers of your fortune, whatever it may be, I
had a mind to build walls about it, out of this
money for which you are so angry with me, while
yet it was to be expended in building your own
walls." Upon my saying this, the people of
Taricheæ and the strangers cried out that "they
gave me thanks; and desired me to be of good
courage," although the Galileans and the people
of Tiberias continued in their wrath against me,
insomuch that there arose a tumult among them,
while some threatened to kill me, and some bid
me not to regard them; but when I promised
them that I would build them walls at Tiberias
many years an Ebionite Christian, had learned this interpretation of the law of Moses from Christ, whom he owned for the true Messiah, as it follows in the succeeding verses, which, though he might not read in St. Matthew's gospel, yet might he have read much the same exposition in their own Ebionite or Nazarene gospel itself; of which improvements made by Josephus, after he was become a Christian, we have already had several examples in this his Life, sect. 3, 13, 13, 19, 21, 33; and shall have many more therein before its conclusion, as well as we have them elsewhere in all his latter writings.
