This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[334]
And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of barely killing
men, so they had the impudence of setting up fictitious tribunals and judicatures
for that purpose; and as they intended to have Zacharias 1
the son of Baruch, one of the most eminent of the citizens, slain, - so
what provoked them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and love
of liberty which were so eminent in him: he was also a rich man, so that
by taking him off, they did not only hope to seize his effects, but also
to get rid of a mall that had great power to destroy them. So they called
together, by a public proclamation, seventy of the principal men of the
populace, for a show, as if they were real judges, while they had no proper
authority. Before these was Zacharias accused of a design to betray their
polity to the Romans, and having traitorously sent to Vespasian for that
purpose. Now there appeared no proof or sign of what he was accused; but
they affirmed themselves that they were well persuaded that so it was,
and desired that such their affirmation might he taken for sufficient evidence.
Now when Zacharias clearly saw that there was no way remaining for his
escape from them, as having been treacherously called before them, and
then put in prison, but not with any intention of a legal trial, he took
great liberty of speech in that despair of his life he was under. Accordingly
he stood up, and laughed at their pretended accusation, and in a few words
confuted the crimes laid to his charge; after which he turned his speech
to his accusers, and went over distinctly all their transgressions of the
law, and made heavy lamentation upon the confusion they had brought public
affairs to: in the mean time, the zealots grew tumultuous, and had much
ado to abstain from drawing their swords, although they designed to preserve
the appearance and show of judicature to the end. They were also desirous,
on other accounts, to try the judges, whether they would be mindful of
what was just at their own peril. Now the seventy judges brought in their
verdict that the person accused was not guilty, as choosing rather to die
themselves with him, than to have his death laid at their doors; hereupon
there arose a great clamor of the zealots upon his acquittal, and they
all had indignation at the judges for not understanding that the authority
that was given them was but in jest. So two of the boldest of them fell
upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple, and slew him; and as he fell
down dead, they bantered him, and said, "Thou hast also our verdict,
and this will prove a more sure acquittal to thee than the other."
They also threw him down from the temple immediately into the valley beneath
it. Moreover, they struck the judges with the backs of their swords, by
way of abuse, and thrust them out of the court of the temple, and spared
their lives with no other design than that, when they were dispersed among
the people in the city, they might become their messengers, to let them
know they were no better than slaves.
1 Some commentators are ready to suppose that this" Zacharias, the son of Baruch," here most unjustly slain by the Jews in the temple, was the very same person with "Zacharias, the son of Barachias," whom our Savior says the Jews "slew between the temple and the altar," Matthew 23:35. This is a somewhat strange exposition; since Zechariah the prophet was really "the son of Barachiah," and "grandson of Iddo, Zechariah 1:1; and how he died, we have no other account than that before us in St. Matthew: while this "Zacharias" was "the son of Baruch." Since the slaughter was past when our Savior spake these words, the Jews had then already slain him; whereas this slaughter of "Zacharias, the son of Baruch," in Josephus, was then about thirty-four years future. And since the slaughter was "between the temple and the altar," in the court of the priests, one of the most sacred and remote parts of the whole temple; while this was, in Josephus's own words, in the middle of the temple, and much the most probably in the court of Israel only (for we have had no intimation that the zealots had at this time profaned the court of the priests. See B. V. ch. 1. sect. 2). Nor do I believe that our Josephus, who always insists on the peculiar sacredness of the inmost court, and of the holy house that was in it, would have omitted so material an aggravation of this barbarous murder, as perpetrated in. a place so very holy, had that been the true place of it. See Antiq. B. XI. ch. 7. sect. 1, and the note here on B. V. ch. 1. sect. 2.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.