HOW JONATHAN WAS SLAIN BY TREACHERY; AND HOW THEREUPON THE JEWS MADE SIMON THEIR GENERAL AND HIGH PRIEST: WHAT COURAGEOUS ACTIONS HE ALSO PERFORMED ESPECIALLY AGAINST TRYPHO. FJAJ 13.43
1. NOW when Trypho knew what had befallen Demetrius, he was no longer
firm to Antiochus, but contrived by subtlety to kill him, and then take
possession of his kingdom; but the fear that he was in of Jonathan was
an obstacle to this his design, for Jonathan was a friend to Antiochus,
for which cause he resolved first to take Jonathan out of the way, and
then to set about his design relating to Antiochus; but he judging it best
to take him off by deceit and treachery, came from Antioch to Bethshan,
which by the Greeks is called Scythopolis, at which place Jonathan met
him with forty thousand chosen men, for he thought that he came to fight
him; but when he perceived that Jonathan was ready to fight, he attempted
to gain him by presents and kind treatment, and gave order to his captains
to obey him, and by these means was desirous to give assurance of his good-will,
and to take away all suspicions out of his mind, that so he might make
him careless and inconsiderate, and might take him when he was unguarded.
He also advised him to dismiss his army, because there was no occasion
for bringing it with him when there was no war, but all was in peace
However,
he desired him to retain a few about him, and go with him to Ptolemais,
for that he would deliver the city up to him, and would bring all the fortresses
that were in the country under his dominion; and he told him that he came
with those very designs. FJAJ 13.44
2. Yet did not Jonathan suspect any thing at all by this his management,
but believed that Trypho gave him this advice out of kindness, and with
a sincere design
Accordingly, he dismissed his army, and retained no more
than three thousand of them with him, and left two thousand in Galilee;
and he himself, with one thousand, came with Trypho to Ptolemais
But when
the people of Ptolemais had shut their gates, as it had been commanded
by Trypho to do, he took Jonathan alive, and slew all that were with him.
He also sent soldiers against those two thousand that were left in Galilee,
in order to destroy them; but those men having heard the report of what
had happened to Jonathan, they prevented the execution; and before those
that were sent by Trypho came, they covered themselves with their armor,
and went away out of the country
Now when those that were sent against
them saw that they were ready to fight for their lives, they gave them
no disturbance, but returned back to Trypho. FJAJ 13.45
3. But when the people of Jerusalem heard that Jonathan was taken, and
that the soldiers who were with him were destroyed, they deplored his sad
fate; and there was earnest inquiry made about him by every body, and a
great and just fear fell upon them, and made them sad, lest, now they were
deprived of the courage and conduct of Jonathan, the nations about them
should bear them ill-will; and as they were before quiet on account of
Jonathan they should now rise up against them, and by making war with them,
should force them into the utmost dangers
And indeed what they suspected
really befell them; for when those nations heard of the death of Jonathan,
they began to make war with the Jews as now destitute of a governor and
Trypho himself got an army together, and had intention to go up to Judea,
and make war against its inhabitants
But when Simon saw that the people
of Jerusalem were terrified at the circumstances they were in, he desired
to make a speech to them, and thereby to render them more resolute in opposing
Trypho when he should come against them
He then called the people together
into the temple, and thence began thus to encourage them: "O my countrymen,
you are not ignorant that our father, myself, and my brethren, have ventured
to hazard our lives, and that willingly, for the recovery of your liberty;
since I have therefore such plenty of examples before me, and we of our
family have determined with ourselves to die for our laws, and our Divine
worship, there shall no terror be so great as to banish this resolution
from our souls, nor to introduce in its place a love of life, and a contempt
of glory
Do you therefore follow me with alacrity whithersoever I shall
lead you, as not destitute of such a captain as is willing to suffer, and
to do the greatest things for you; for neither am I better than my brethren
that I should be sparing of my own life, nor so far worse than they as
to avoid and refuse what they thought the most honorable of all things,
- I mean, to undergo death for your laws, and for that worship of God which
is peculiar to you; I will therefore give such proper demonstrations as
will show that I am their own brother; and I am so bold as to expect that
I shall avenge their blood upon our enemies, and deliver you all with your
wives and children from the injuries they intend against you, and, with
God's assistance, to preserve your temple from destruction by them; for
I see that these nations have you in contempt, as being without a governor,
and that they thence are encouraged to make war against you." FJAJ 13.46
4. By this speech of Simon he inspired the multitude with courage; and
as they had been before dispirited through fear, they were now raised to
a good hope of better things, insomuch that the whole multitude of the
people cried out all at once that Simon should be their leader; and that
instead of Judas and Jonathan his brethren, he should have the government
over them; and they promised that they would readily obey him in whatsoever
he should command them
So he got together immediately all his own soldiers
that were fit for war, and made haste in rebuilding the walls of the city,
and strengthening them by very high and strong towers, and sent a friend
of his, one Jonathan, the son of Absalom, to Joppa, and gave him order
to eject the inhabitants out of the city, for he was afraid lest they should
deliver up the city to Trypho; but he himself staid to secure Jerusalem. FJAJ 13.47
5. But Trypho removed from Ptoeinais with a great army, and came into
Judea, and brought Jonathan with him in bonds
Simon also met him with
his army at the city Adida, which is upon a hill, and beneath it lie the
plains of Judea
And when Trypho knew that Simon was by the Jews made their
governor, he sent to him, and would have imposed upon him by deceit and
trencher, and desired, if he would have his brother Jonathan released,
that he would send him a hundred talents of silver, and two of Jonathan's
sons as hostages, that when he shall be released, he may not make Judea
revolt from the king; for that at present he was kept in bonds on account
of the money he had borrowed of the king, and now owed it to him
But Simon
was aware of the craft of Trypho; and although he knew that if he gave
him the money he should lose it, and that Trypho would not set his brother
free and withal should deliver the sons of Jonathan to the enemy, yet because
he was afraid that he should have a calumny raised against him among the
multitude as the cause of his brother's death, if he neither gave the money,
nor sent Jonathan's sons, he gathered his army together, and told them
what offers Trypho had made; and added this, that the offers were ensnaring
and treacherous, and yet that it was more eligible to send the money and
Jonathan's sons, than to be liable to the imputation of not complying with
Trypho's offers, and thereby refusing to save his brother
Accordingly,
Simon sent the sons of Jonathan and the money; but when Trypho had received
them, he did not keep his promise, nor set Jonathan free, but took his
army, and went about all the country, and resolved to go afterward to Jerusalem
by the way of Idumea, while Simon went over against him with his army,
and all along pitched his own camp over against his. FJAJ 13.48
6. But when those that were in the citadel had sent to Trypho, and besought
him to make haste and come to them, and to send them provisions, he prepared
his cavalry as though he would be at Jerusalem that very night; but so
great a quantity of snow fell in the night, that it covered the roads,
and made them so deep, that there was no passing, especially for the cavalry.
This hindered him from coming to Jerusalem; whereupon Trypho removed thence,
and came into Celesyria, and falling vehemently upon the land of Gilead,
he slew Jonathan there; and when he had given order for his burial, he
returned himself to Antioch
However, Simon sent some to the city Basca
to bring away his brother's bones, and buried them in their own city Modin;
and all the people made great lamentation over him
Simon also erected
a very large monument for his father and his brethren, of white and polished
stone, and raised it a great height, and so as to be seen a long way off,
and made cloisters about it, and set up pillars, which were of one stone
apiece; a work it was wonderful to see
Moreover, he built seven pyramids
also for his parents and his brethren, one for each of them, which were
made very surprising, both for their largeness and beauty, and which have
been preserved to this day; and we know that it was Simon who bestowed
so much zeal about the burial of Jonathan, and the building of these monuments
for his relations
Now Jonathan died when he had been high priest four
years (13)
There is some error in the copies here, when no more than four years are
ascribed to the high priesthood of Jonathan. We know by Josephus's last
Jewish chronology, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., that there was an interval of
seven years between the death of Alcimus, or Jacimus, the last high priest,
and the real high priesthood of Jonathan, to whom yet those seven years
seem here to be ascribed, as a part of them were to Judas before, Antiq.
B. XII. ch. 10. sect. 6. Now since, besides these seven years interregnum
in the pontificate, we are told, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., that Jonathan's
real high priesthood lasted seven years more, these two seven years will
make up fourteen years, which I suppose was Josephus's own number in this
place, instead of the four in our present copies.
and had been also the governor of his nation
And these were the circumstances
that concerned his death. FJAJ 13.49
7. But Simon, who was made high priest by the multitude, on the very
first year of his high priesthood set his people free from their slavery
under the Macedonians, and permitted them to pay tribute to them no longer;
which liberty and freedom from tribute they obtained after a hundred and
seventy years (14)
There is some error in the copies here, when no more than four years are
ascribed to the high priesthood of Jonathan. We know by Josephus's last
Jewish chronology, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., that there was an interval of
seven years between the death of Alcimus, or Jacimus, the last high priest,
and the real high priesthood of Jonathan, to whom yet those seven years
seem here to be ascribed, as a part of them were to Judas before, Antiq.
B. XII. ch. 10. sect. 6. Now since, besides these seven years interregnum
in the pontificate, we are told, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., that Jonathan's
real high priesthood lasted seven years more, these two seven years will
make up fourteen years, which I suppose was Josephus's own number in this
place, instead of the four in our present copies.
of the kingdom of the Assyrians, which was after Seleucus, who was called
Nicator, got the dominion over Syria
Now the affection of the multitude
towards Simon was so great, that in their contracts one with another, and
in their public records, they wrote, "in the first year of Simon the
benefactor and ethnarch of the Jews;" for under him they were very
happy, and overcame the enemies that were round about them; for Simon overthrew
the city Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamhis
He also took the citadel of Jerusalem
by siege, and cast it down to the ground, that it might not be any more
a place of refuge to their enemies when they took it, to do them a mischief,
as it had been till now
And when he had done this, he thought it their
best way, and most for their advantage, to level the very mountain itself
upon which the citadel happened to stand, that so the temple might be higher
than it
And indeed, when he had called the multitude to an assembly, he
persuaded them to have it so demolished, and this by putting them in mind
what miseries they had suffered by its garrison and the Jewish deserters,
and what miseries they might hereafter suffer in case any foreigner should
obtain the kingdom, and put a garrison into that citadel
This speech induced
the multitude to a compliance, because he exhorted them to do nothing but
what was for their own good: so they all set themselves to the work, and
leveled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night without
any intermission, which cost them three whole years before it was removed,
and brought to an entire level with the plain of the rest of the city.
After which the temple was the highest of all the buildings, now the citadel,
as well as the mountain whereon it stood, were demolished
And these actions
were thus performed under Simon. FJAJ 13.50