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

Synopsis:




Continuing our discussion from part twelve, as we have seen, General Titus' army is now on the march, and is approaching the doomed city of Jerusalem from various different places and locations. Within the city itself, a dark spirit abodes as fear, violence and turmoil rule everywhere. It's now one Jew against another, and one seditionist against another. To make matters even worse, the food supply is dwindling due to their own foolish infighting. As we begin Book 5 Chapter 2, Titus has arrived within about four miles of Jerusalem, and has led a contingent of six hundred horsemen to spy on the Jerusalemites.

Josephus then explains how they were ambushed by the Jews so that Titus was forced to retreat in haste, thus dampening his spirit. After that, once another legion had joined him from Emmaus, Titus encamped his army on Mount Scopus. As you may recall from parts three and four of this series, it was also known as Mount Lookout or Lookout Mountain, and offered a view of Jerusalem. Furthermore, it was in that same place where Cestius Gallus had likewise encamped his entire army, before suffering an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Jews.

Josephus next describes how Titus established three camps at short distances from Jerusalem. Meanwhile, within the city itself, as we learned in earlier parts of this series, upon observing how the Romans were establishing camps on the high mountains which surrounded Jerusalem, the seditionists came to their senses and realized that their infighting was only weakening them. Thus, they came to a fragile peace in order that they might unite against the Romans. Furthermore, they realized that while the Romans moved freely outside of the city walls as they established their camps, the Jews were trapped inside and could do nothing to stop their progress.

Thus, it was at that point that the seditionists decided to go outside of the city walls and attack the Romans. This was followed by several skirmishes in which both sides suffered loss. Even Titus' life was put in danger. Eventually, Titus was able to hold back the Jewish rebels while his army went about fortifying their camps. With this brief lull in the fighting, Josephus again turns his attention to the violent rebels inside the city who had formerly agreed upon a truce in order to fight against their common enemy, that being the Romans.

However, the truce did not last long, and Josephus again recounts how John of Giscala devised a sly plan to take control of the inner temple from Eleazar and his band of men. To refresh your memory, being as it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- Nisan 14 -- Eleazar opened the gates of the inner court of the temple so that the worshippers could enter and offer their sacrifices. And so, John of Giscala took advantage of the situation by having his men mix in with the worshippers, all the while having weapons hidden underneath their cloaks. Once inside the inner court, the conspiracy was revealed as they not only attacked Eleazar's men, but they even attacked and killed innocent worshippers as well. Thus, Josephus writes as follows:

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"As now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedition within was revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, it being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan] when it is believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the gates of this [inmost court of the] temple, and admitted such of the people as were desirous to worship God into it. But John made use of this festival as a cloak for his treacherous designs, and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greater part of which were not purified, with weapons concealed under their garments, and sent them with great zeal into the temple, in order to seize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their garments away, and presently appeared in their armour. Upon which there was a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house; while the people, who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this assault was made against all without distinction; as the Zealots thought it was made against themselves only. So these left off guarding the gates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before they came to an engagement, and fled away into the subterranean caverns of the temple; while the people that stood trembling at the altar, and about the holy house, were rolled on heaps together, and trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron weapons without mercy.

These followers of John also did now seize upon this inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon. And thus that sedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two."

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As we already knew, the end result was that Eleazar and his small band of men were killed, and John and his men in fact took over the inner court of the temple. While all of this information may seem to be a bit repetitive, let me remind you that in part eight of this series, the short account of these same events was NOT written by Josephus, but rather by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus in Chapter 12 of Book 5 of his "Histories". In a word, what I have been doing as we have proceeded book by book, chapter by chapter, and part by part in this series, is to slowly bring us to a point of confluence between the writings of Flavius Josephus and Publius Tacitus.

Not only are we gaining additional details and new insights, but we are seeing how two very different men, from two very different backgrounds, confirm what is stated in the Bible, albeit in a more ambiguous prophetic form. One was a man who dearly loved his nation and who bravely fought for Israel, until he was forced to surrender, and join the other side. He was a religious man who came to see God's hand in all of these tragic events. The other was a citizen of Rome who did not believe in the "superstitions" of the Jews, and who in fact hated the Jews. Yet despite these profound differences, they both describe the very same events to give us a fuller picture of exactly what happened not quite 2,000 years ago.

At this point in our story, Josephus then returns to the activities of General Titus. He informs us that in order to gain a clear, unimpeded view of the city, Titus ordered that all structures and vegetation between their three camps and the walls of Jerusalem be destroyed and thrown down, leaving a barren battlefield in front of them for several miles. And so, Josephus writes as follows:

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"But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city than Scopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thought sufficient, opposite to the Jews, to prevent their sallying out upon them, while he gave orders for the whole army to level the distance, as far as the wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit-trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool."

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Following the clearing of the land, the sly Jews deceived the Romans and pulled a trick on them by convincing some of the Roman soldiers -- but not Titus himself -- that they desired peace. This resulted in a rather embarrassing retreat for the Romans. This development so angered General Titus that he was ready to execute some of his men due to their rashness and not following orders. However, he was dissuaded from taking action against them by some of the other soldiers. This event is discussed in Book 5 Chapter 3.

As we begin Chapter 4, Josephus provides us with an in-depth description of Jerusalem and the topography upon which it was built. This includes a description of the various hills and valleys -- such as the Kidron Valley to the east, and the Hinnom Valley to the south which made invasion extremely difficult -- as well as the three walls that protected the vulnerable parts of the city. While this information is very important if we want to gain a clearer visual understanding of how everything was laid out, and thus how each battle was carried out, I'll be sparing you this extraneous info, being as this series has already grown rather long -- and no doubt challenging for some of my readers -- and we still have a lot of ground to cover.

In Chapter 5, Josephus continues by providing his readers with an in-depth description of the temple itself. Again, I will be skipping over this description for brevity's sake. However, if you wish to read these two chapters in your own time, you will "The Wars of the Jews" in PDF format in the "Non-BBB Articles" area of the BBB Bible website. You will find a link for this area in the links table that is found at the bottom of every page on my website.

Moving into Book 5 Chapter 6, Josephus again mentions the fact that despite the Roman threat which exists just outside the city walls, the fragile truce which had been temporarily made between Simon of Gioras and John of Giscala has ended, and they are back to the same old infighting. Josephus also describes the strength of each of the two sides. To refresh your memory, Simon held the upper city, and the great wall as far as the Cedron -- or Kidron -- Valley, that separated the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. As for his part, John controlled the temple itself -- which he had taken from Eleazar and his men -- as well as Ophla and also the Kidron Valley itself.

As we have seen in earlier parts of this series, Josephus was absolutely convinced that the blame for the destruction of the city, and the death of so many Jews, should be placed directly on the seditionists themselves. After all, had they simply yielded to the Romans' peace overtures, and had not resisted and provoked the Romans, this sad story might have ended very differently. However, as I've made clear several times now, God had already set His own plan in motion, and that plan ended with the terrible chastisement of the Jews, as the wrath of God fell upon them due to their terrible sin of both rejecting and murdering the Son of God four decades earlier. Thus, Josephus writes as follows:

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". . . for this internal sedition did not cease even when the Romans were encamped near their very walls. But although they had grown wiser at the first onset the Romans made upon them, this lasted but a while; for they returned to their former madness, and separated one from another, and fought it out, and did everything that the besiegers could desire them for to do; they never suffered anything that was worse from the Romans, than they made each other suffer: nor was there any misery endured by the city after these men's actions, that could be esteemed new. But it was most of all unhappy before it was overthrown, while those that took it, did it a greater kindness; for I venture to affirm, that THE SEDITION DESTROYED THE CITY, and THE ROMANS DESTROYED THE SEDITION, which it was a much harder thing to do, than to destroy the walls; so that WE MAY JUSTLY ASCRIBE OUR MISFORTUNES TO OUR OWN PEOPLE, and the just vengeance taken on them to the Romans; as to which matter let every one determine by the actions on both sides."

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What I find interesting about this is the fact that today there are some people -- particularly the Jews themselves, as well as some Christians -- who criticize and ridicule Josephus, who accuse him of being a traitor, and who also reject his writings as being just pure myth. But what is the actual reason why they do this? The previous excerpt is one clear example of why this is their attitude. Stated plainly, Flavius Josephus dared to speak an unpopular truth. He was not afraid to place the blame where it truly belonged. That is, with the stubborn Jews themselves.

As some of my readers will already know, in the Bible we see the very same thing happening with John the Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets of the Old Testament as well. They were ridiculed, maligned, persecuted and killed. Some of them -- such as the Prophet Jeremiah -- were likewise accused of being traitors to their own country, because they dared to speak God's truth to a rebellious, stiff-necked people. So in that regard, despite his own personal flaws, Josephus was in good company.

Continuing in Book 5 Chapter 6, Josephus then relates one particular incident which occurred while Titus was surveying the walls of Jerusalem in order to determine which place would be the easiest and best point of entry into the city. While doing this, his friend Nicanor was injured on his left shoulder by a dart which had been shot by the Jews. This of course enraged Titus, and made him realize that the stubborn Jews would not make peace with or submit to the Romans. Thus, he was even more motivated to continue with the siege. Thus, Josephus writes as follows:

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"Now, when affairs within the city were in this posture, Titus went round the city on the outside with some chosen horsemen and looked about for a proper place where he might make an impression upon the walls; but as he was in doubt where he could possibly make an attack on any side, (for the place was no way accessible where the valleys were, and on the other side the first wall appeared too strong to be shaken by the engines;) he thereupon thought it best to make his assault upon the monument of John the high priest; for there it was that the first fortification was lower, and the second was not joined to it, the builders neglecting to build the wall strong where the new city was not much inhabited; here also was an easy passage to the third wall, through which he thought to take the Upper city, and, through the tower of Antonia, the temple itself. But at this time, as he was going round about the city, one of his friends, whose name was Nicanor, was wounded with a dart on his left shoulder, as he approached, together with Josephus, too near the wall, and attempted to discourse to those that were upon the wall, about terms of peace; for he was a person known by them. On this account it was that Caesar, as soon as he knew their vehemence, that they would not bear even such as approached them to persuade them to what tended to their own preservation, was provoked to press on the siege."

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At this point in our story, we again see a confluence between the writings of Josephus, and the writings of Tacitus. As we see in the following excerpt taken from Book 5 Chapter 6, by this time, being as Titus was more determined than ever to defeat the Jerusalemites, he ordered that banks -- or raised timber and earthen siege ramps -- be built, and that engines of war be brought in. The engines were catapult-like devices which shot javelins, arrows and rocks. Josephus describes it in the following manner:

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"He also at the same time gave his soldiers leave to set the suburbs on fire, and ordered that they should bring timber together, and raise the banks against the city; and when he had parted his army in three parts in order to set about those works, he placed those that shot darts, and the archers in the midst of the banks that were then raising; before whom he placed those engines that threw javelins, and darts, and stones, that he might prevent the enemy from sallying out upon their works, and might hinder those that were upon the wall from being able to obstruct them. So the trees were now cut down immediately, and the suburbs left naked."

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Turning to Book 5 Chapter 13 of Tacitus' "The Histories", we see that just as Josephus had mentioned, Tacitus also writes that Titus saw the difficulty of trying to conquer the city quickly. So he ordered his legions to prepare for the coming battle by building raised platforms made of rock, soil and timber called "earthworks". As we saw a minute ago, Josephus referred to these structures as "banks". This is just another word for siege ramps. Upon these banks or ramps, the Romans would then construct towers, and place engines of war, which included battering rams and catapults, which Josephus said were made from the trees which grew for miles around the city of Jerusalem.

These "earthworks" were raised to a sufficient height so that the battering rams were level with the walls of Jerusalem. Tacitus likewise mentions that he had heard that there were 600,000 inhabitants trapped within the walls of Jerusalem at that particular time, due to the influx of pilgrims arriving for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Thus, he writes as follows:

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"I have heard that the total number of the besieged, of every age and both sexes, amounted to six hundred thousand . . . and Titus Caesar, seeing that the position forbad an assault or any of the more rapid operations of war, determined to proceed by earthworks and covered approaches. The legions had their respective duties assigned to them, and there was a cessation from fighting, till all the inventions, used in ancient warfare, or devised by modern ingenuity for the reduction of cities, were constructed."

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While Tacitus doesn't specifically mention it in "Histories" -- although it's possible that it was meant to be understood in the word "earthworks" -- as I discuss in "Abomination of Desolation: Explained!", it is also known that Titus had a great siege wall raised around the city of Jerusalem. Known as a circumvallation wall, this wall was about five miles in length. Being a common tactic which was often used in those ancient times, a siege wall guaranteed that no one could get in or out of a besieged city, unless they were permitted to do so. But that is not all. Neither could anything else, such as food, water, military supplies, etc.

According to the information I read in one source, this siege wall was so wide on top, that a Roman chariot could run along the course of the wall. Furthermore, being as the siege wall surrounded Jerusalem, it probably made the "overspreading of abominations" -- meaning the Roman eagle standard -- all that easier. The historical record indicates that many thousands of Jews were crucified on the wall when they tried to escape from Jerusalem during the course of the siege. While Tacitus does not specifically mention this siege wall, as you'll see later on, Josephus does in fact describe its construction in Book 5 Chapter 12.

As I point out in other articles such as "The Woman in the Wilderness and the 144,000" and "He That Shall Endure unto the End", it has been been estimated that somewhere between six hundred thousand and one million plus Jews died during the Jerusalem siege. This was either a direct result of the actual fighting, or due to other causes including the gross and painful Roman practice of crucifixion, slow starvation, disease, betrayal and even infighting amongst the very Jews themselves. Concerning these different manners of death, as I've mentioned before, I am convinced that this was a direct fulfillment of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as we read in the following verses in the Book of Revelation:

"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."


As I mentioned earlier, in Book 6 of "The Wars of the Jews", Josephus explains that the dire situation that existed within the city was aggravated by the fact that the siege and fall of Jerusalem occurred precisely during the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover, when multitudes of Jews from all around the Mediterranean region made pilgrimages to and filled up Jerusalem just as occurred in Acts chapter two. Thus, Titus being the shrewd tactician that he obviously was, when he began the siege, he would not allow the worshippers to leave again.

In this way, during the four months that the city was under siege, the pressure within Jerusalem greatly skyrocketed as the food supply began to dwindle, food prices began to rise, inter-factional squabbles began to occur, and starvation, famine and disease set in, exactly as we see described with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the previous verses.

In Book 6, Josephus also states that 97,000 Jews were taken prisoner during the war, and carried away as slaves to other Roman provinces. This was in fact the beginning of the Third Diaspora, the first two having been the Assyrian diaspora, followed by the Babylonian diaspora. Furthermore, Josephus specifically states that 1,100,000 people perished during the Jerusalem siege. Following are some quotes from Chapter nine of Book 6:

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"And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest live. But, together with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm; but for those that were in their flourishing age, and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple, and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women; over which Caesar set one of his freed men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends, which last was to determine every one's fate, according to his merits. So this Fronto slew all those that had been SEDITIOUS, and ROBBERS, who were impeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; and as for the rest of the multitude that were about seventeen years old, he put them into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces, as a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon the theatres, by the sword, and by the wild beasts; but those that were under seventeen years of age were old for slaves. Now during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there perished for want of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not taste any food, through the hatred their guards bore to them, and others would not take any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance.

Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those who perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, [with the citizens of Jerusalem,] but not belonging to the city itself: for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterwards such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly.

Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, but the entire nation was now shut up by fate, as in prison, and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly the multitude of those that therein perished, exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world; for, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for under ground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with."

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Please notice carefully that Josephus very specifically says "the multitude of those that therein perished, exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world". Do those words perhaps sound familiar to you? If not, then consider what the Lord prophesied in the Gospel of Matthew four decades earlier:

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened."


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

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