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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Jun. 14, 2025
Update	: Jun. 14, 2025
Parts	: 25

Synopsis:




Continuing our discussion from part one, so the planned clash which occurred between the Jews and the Greeks in Caesarea was the first incident where governor Florus intentionally tried to provoke a war between the Jews and the Romans in 66 AD. The second incident was even more serious, and would have even greater and more tragic repercussions for the people of Israel. Being an extremely greedy man who not only wanted the temple treasures for himself, but who in fact wanted to gain control of the city of Jerusalem, governor Florus next tried to provoke the war by doing something even more drastic and offensive to the Jews. That was when he sent certain men to basically steal seventeen talents out of the sacred treasury which was located in the temple in Jerusalem. Worse yet, he lied about it and claimed that Caesar wanted it, as we see by the following quote taken from Book 2 Chapter 14 of "The Wars of the Jews":

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"Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus acted herein as if he had been hired, and BLEW UP THE WAR INTO A FLAME, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and pretended that Caesar wanted them. At this the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamours, and called upon Caesar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny of Florus. Some also of THE SEDITIOUS cried out upon Florus, and cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was not he made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of coming to Caesarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching THE FLAME OF WAR WHICH WAS BEGINNING THENCE, and so taking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was that he had received a reward [of eight talents,] he marched hastily with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he might gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might by his terror, and by his threatenings, bring the city into subjection."

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So you see, even though governor Florus knew that returning to Caesarea and quenching the flames of war which he had in fact provoked there was the right thing to do, instead, he marched towards Jerusalem with an army. The man was clearly on a mission, which sadly, he would indeed fulfill. Please notice again that with each historical event that I share with you, the seditionists -- meaning the Zealots/Sicarii and other discontents -- are involved. They in fact inflame the fire of war at every turn, just as they had been doing since the time that Jesus walked the earth, and even before that.

As a result of governor Florus' attempt to take talents from the temple treasury, the people in Jerusalem endeavored to bring reproach upon him and even mocked him. In response, he called a tribunal, before which the high priests and the city fathers were required to appear. Florus told them that unless they revealed who had mocked him, they would suffer the same fate as the guilty parties. However, they refused to reveal any names, and instead said that it was difficult to know who were the guilty parties, and who were innocent, in so great a crowd of people. They also begged for forgiveness for those who had been guilty of mocking Florus.

Tragically, this only angered the governor even more. Thus, he ordered his soldiers to plunder The Upper Market Place, and to kill anyone they encountered along the way. The end result was that about 3,600 Jerusalemites -- including men, women and children -- were killed that day, and some of the people were also crucified. This was the third event that was instigated by governor Gessius Florus which led to the First Jewish-Roman War.

Josephus notes that "what made this calamity the heavier, was this new method of Roman barbarity: for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding." In other words, they were Roman citizens, similar to the Apostle Paul. Thus, what Florus was doing was even wrong by Roman standards. All of these events conclude Chapter 14 of Book 2 of "The Wars of the Jews".

In Chapter 15, Josephus relates how upon coming to Jerusalem to perform a vow, Queen Bernice witnessed the savagery and the slaughters of Jews being conducted by Florus' soldiers. Thus, she repeatedly made entreaties to the governor to stop the killings. However, Florus totally disregarded her royal status, felt no guilt because of the thousands of Jews who had already been slain, and only considered how much he was going to financially profit from all of the plundering and killing. Josephus also notes that the soldiers were filled with so much bloodlust, that had Bernice not fled to the palace, and remained under her guards' protection, Florus' soldiers would have killed her as well. This may be viewed as the fourth incident which had been instigated by Florus. He couldn't even honor emperor-appointed Jewish royalty.

Following the aforementioned slaughter of 3,600 souls, the Jews returned to the Upper Market Place to wail for those who had died. Their lamentations were so loud, that we are told that the city fathers and high priests were concerned that the uproar might raise Florus' anger yet again. Thus, they persuaded the people to discontinue their uproar. Yet ironically, this was the exact opposite of what Florus had wanted them to do. In other words, he wanted the Jews to give him a justifiable reason to continue pushing for war. Thus, in Chapter 15, Josephus writes as follows:

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"So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over, and endeavoured to KINDLE THAT FLAME AGAIN, and sent for the high priests, with the other eminent persons, and said. The only demonstration that the people would not make any other INNOVATIONS [meaning seditions] should be this, that they must go out and meet the soldiers that were ascending from Caesarea, whence two cohorts were coming; and while these men were exhorting the multitude so to do, he sent beforehand, and gave directions to the centurions of the cohorts, that they should give notice to those that were under them, not to return the Jews' salutations, and that if they made any reply to his disadvantage, THEY SHOULD MAKE USE OF THEIR WEAPONS. Now the high priests assembled the multitude in the temple, and desired them to go and meet the Romans and to salute the cohorts very civilly, before their miserable case should become incurable. Now the SEDITIOUS PART would not comply with these persuasions, but the consideration of those that had been destroyed made them incline to those that were the boldest for action."

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In other words, Florus was setting yet another trap for the Jews, in the hope that he could provoke them to violence. To the Jews, he was telling them that in order to prove to him that they were not going to cause any more trouble, they had to go out and peacefully meet with the two cohorts which were arriving from Caesarea. This was in fact the message that the high priest and city fathers delivered to the Jerusalemites. They explained to the multitude that only in this manner of meeting the cohorts peacefully, could they neutralize Florus and his evil intentions, as we see by the following excerpt from Chapter 15:

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". . . what amendment of your affairs will it bring you, if you do not now go out to meet them? and that if they saluted them civilly, ALL HANDLE WOULD BE CUT OFF FROM FLORUS TO BEGIN A WAR; that they should thereby gain their country, and freedom from all farther sufferings; and that, besides, it would be a sign of great want of command of themselves, if they should yield to a few SEDITIOUS PERSONS, while it was fitter for them, who were so great a people, to force the others to act soberly."

"By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude, and to THE SEDITIOUS, they restrained some by threatenings, and others by the reverence that was paid them."

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However, behind the backs of the high priest, city fathers and common people, Florus was telling his soldiers to fire away if the Jews gave any sign of violent intentions. Sadly, while the seditionists seemed to be in agreement with their leaders, the situation did NOT turn out as had been intended by the priests and the city fathers. This was because just as Florus had ordered them to do, the soldiers refused to return the Jews' salute. This resulted in the seditionists breaking rank, upon which the soldiers began to viciously attack the people, as we see by the following quote, which is also found in Chapter 15 of Book 2 of "The Wars of the Jews":

----- Begin Quote -----

After this they led them out, and they met the soldiers quietly, and after a composed manner, and when they were come up with them, they saluted them, but when they made no answer, THE SEDITIOUS exclaimed against Florus, which was the signal given for falling upon them. The soldiers therefore encompassed them presently, and struck them with their clubs, and as they fled away, the horsemen trampled them down, so that a great many fell down dead by the strokes of the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing one another. Now there was a terrible crowding about the gates, and while everybody was making haste to get before another, the flight of them all was retarded, and a terrible destruction there was among those that fell down, for they were suffocated, and broken to pieces by the multitude of those that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished by his relations in order to the care of his funeral; the soldiers also who beat them, fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them any mercy, and thrust the multitude through the place called Bezetha, as they forced their way in order to get it and seize upon the temple, and the tower Antonia.

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The previously-described slaughter can thus be viewed as the fifth incident of violence which had been instigated by the governor, in his endeavors to begin a major war between the Romans and the Jews. How many more incidents would it require before Emperor Nero would send in General Vespasian to quell the Jewish rebellion, and get Florus under control?

So as you are probably now pretty much aware, we have a very powerful three-way dynamic going on here between Florus and his soldiers; the city fathers, high priests and the people; and lastly, a mixture of seditionists comprised of Zealots, Sicarii and other rabble-rousers. Florus and the Romans want war, because they are filled with uncontrollable bloodlust. But that is not the only reason. Both Florus and his soldiers want more power and Jerusalem's wealth, most of which lies in the interior of the temple compound.

In contrast, the high priest, city fathers and common Jewish people want all of the death and suffering to stop so that they can live their lives in relative peace. Lastly, there are the seditionists who also want war, because their end goal is to defeat the Romans once and for all, as has been their objective for decades. Thus, it was a powder keg just waiting to explode.

As we saw a minute ago, during that last terrible slaughter, the Roman soldiers "forced their way in order to get it and seize upon the temple, and the tower Antonia." Josephus then adds the following to reveal that they were motivated by the governor's own intentions to take the citadel -- meaning the Fortress Antonia, or Tower Antonia, which was situated right above the temple compound -- followed by taking control of the temple itself as well, where all of the wealth was kept:

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"Florus also being desirous to get those places into his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king's palace, and would have compelled them to get as far as the citadel [Antonia;] but his attempt failed, for the people immediately turned back upon him, and stopped the violence of his attempt,"

But for THE SEDITIOUS, they were afraid lest Florus should come again, and get possession of the temple, through Antonia; so they got immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined to Antonia, and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of Florus, for whereas he was eager to obtain the treasures of God [in the temple,] and on that account was desirous of getting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters were broken down, he left off his attempt;

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But as we've already seen, governor Florus was just one mad, bloodthirsty, power-hungry guy, and he was not about to give up starting his dirty war. Thus, we learn in the opening of Book 2 Chapter 16 that he returned to Caesarea where he then communicated with Cestius Gallus -- the president of Syria, who was his superior -- and accused the Jews of being the real guilty party in all of the disturbances which had been occurring in Jerusalem. However, please notice in the quote that follows, that the governors of Jerusalem, as well as Queen Bernice -- a.k.a. Berenice -- ALSO wrote to Cestius and informed him of what an absolute tyrant Gessius Florus had been:

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"However, Florus contrived another way to OBLIGE THE JEWS TO BEGIN THE WAR, and sent to Cestius, and accused the Jews falsely of revolting [from the Roman government,] and imputed the beginning of the former fight to them, and pretended they had been the authors of that disturbance, wherein they were only the sufferers. Yet were not the governors of Jerusalem silent upon this occasion, but did themselves write to Cestius, as did Bernice also, about the illegal practices of which Florus had been guilty against the city; who, upon reading both accounts, consulted with his captains [what he should do.] Now some of them thought it best for Cestius to go up with his army, either to punish the revolt, if it was real, or to settle the Roman affairs on a surer foundation, if the Jews continued quiet under them:"

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This then is the sixth attempt by Gessius Florus to start a war between Rome and the Jews. After contemplating what to do, Gallus decided to send his close friend -- a tribune by the name of Neopolitanus -- who met King Herod Agrippa II as he was returning to Israel from Alexandria, Egypt. Once king Herod arrived in Israel, the high priests and city fathers told him all of the evils which had befallen them via the wicked machinations of Gessius Florus. Agrippa was obviously quite angered. Then the common people also came out to meet the king, and likewise informed him and Neopolitanus of all the wicked things which Florus had done to them.

Furthermore, the Jerusalemites showed Agrippa and Neopolitanus the destruction which had been done to the Upper Market Place and the houses by Florus' soldiers. Last of all, they invited Neopolitanus to walk about Jerusalem, so that he could witness for himself that the Jews were peaceful people who submitted to Roman authority, and that it was only with Florus that they had a major problem. Neopolitanus was in fact impressed, and he told them so in a speech given at the temple compound.

However, despite all of this, the Jews still weren't content. Thus they informed King Agrippa and the high priests of their intentions to send ambassadors to Emperor Nero, so that they could lay accusations against Gessius Florus. Their concern was that if they did not take such measures, it would appear as if they truly were the instigators of the great slaughter which had occurred, and that they disposed to revolt against Rome. At the same time, they made it clear that they wouldn't be silent until justice had been served. Thus, Josephus says the following in Book 2 Chapter 16:

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"But as for the multitude of the Jews, they addressed themselves to the king, and to the high priests, and desired they might have leave to send ambassadors to Nero against Florus, and not by their silence afford a suspicion that they had been the occasions of such great slaughter, as had been made, and were disposed to revolt, alleging, that they should seem to have been the first beginners of the war, if they did not prevent the report by showing who it was that began it; and it appeared openly that they would not be quiet, if anybody should hinder them from sending such an embassage."

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For his part, while the king pitied the Jews, at the same time, he also realized what a very foolish endeavor it would be to accuse Florus before the emperor. Furthermore, he knew that he could not just ignore the Jews, because clearly, they were in fact prepared to go to war against the Romans. It is at this point that Herod Agrippa delivers what is indeed a very eloquent and wise speech, which even left me impressed. Herod realized that he had to cool down the temperature for several reasons. For one thing, he knew that the Jews did not stand a chance against the Romans in battle. It would be a bloodbath. Second, the king had his own personal welfare and self-preservation to consider. As a king appointed by Rome, there was no way that he could allow a full-scale rebellion to break out in Jerusalem.

So, in his speech, he pointed out the negatives of going to war against such a powerful, superior enemy, including the awful miseries that such wars create, and the fact that it was a foolish illusion to believe that they could regain their freedom. Agrippa likewise informed them that provoking Rome would only result in even greater retribution against them which would lay their land waste. The king likewise told them that going against the entire Roman Empire due to the guilt of one man was absurd. Rather than go to war, he told them to simply remain patient, and wait until a new governor would be appointed, because once a war is started, it is not so easy to end.

Due to the length of King Herod Agrippa's speech, I will not be sharing it with you in its entirety here. However, I do want to share the part where he poses a series of questions to his audience. This is found in Book 2 Chapter 16:

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You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas, and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighbouring nations? while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth; nay, rather, they seek for somewhat still beyond that, for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north, and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth, beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to?"

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After that, the king offers a long list of all of the lands and nations both great and small which have eventually been forced to submit to the power of Rome. Herod's speech is so magnificent -- and his advice so true -- that I'm compelled to share the conclusion of it with you too. In this part, the king directly informs the Jews that they shouldn't even expect God's assistance, because they have broken His laws. In fact, he tells them that God is on the side of Rome, as evidenced by the Romans' own might, and that by choosing to even go to war against Rome, they're choosing their very own destruction.

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What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans: for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God's providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your zealous observation of your religious customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you do observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will not be prevailed on to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on divine, or on human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes, for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without foreseeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration.] But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war, will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed the danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them who dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned: but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves: for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back any thing that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge your passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from."

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Upon reading Herod Agrippa's speech for the very first time after having the complete works of Flavius Josephus on my hard drive for fifteen years -- always with the intention of eventually getting around to reading them -- I have to say that I was very surprised by the contents of the speech. In fact, Josephus adds that after delivering his speech, both the king and his sister, Bernice/Berenice wept, which moved the people and suppressed part of their violent attitude. He honestly delivered his soul to those stubborn Jews.

You see, up until now, I had always been under the impression that being as Herod Agrippa II was a puppet king of Rome just like his predecessors, the reason why he joined forces with Titus in the war against the Jews, was because he was both a traitor and a coward. However, I am now beginning to form the opinion, based on this speech, that he was simply taking the pragmatic approach, because he knew that there was simply no way for the Jews to defeat Rome.

Tragically, despite such an emotional, truth-filled speech, even after Agrippa had delivered his message, the Jews still insisted that "they would not fight against the Romans, but against Florus, on account of what they had suffered by his means." Upon hearing their response, Agrippa told them that through the things they had already done, they had in fact already declared war on the Romans. He then offered them the following advice so that they could try to repair the breach with the Romans:

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". . . for you have not paid the tribute which is due to Caesar; and you have cut off the cloisters [of the temple] from joining to the tower Antonia. You will therefore prevent any occasion of revolt if you will but join these together again, and if you will but pay your tribute; for the citadel does not now belong to Florus, nor are you to pay the tribute money to Florus."

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Please go to part three for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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