SEDITION OF THE JEWS AGAINST PONTIUS PILATE. CONCERNING CHRIST, AND WHAT BEFELL PAULINA AND THE JEWS AT ROME, FJAJ 18.17
1. BUT now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the army from Cesarea
to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish
the Jewish laws
So he introduced Caesar's effigies, which were upon the
ensigns, and brought them into the city; whereas our law forbids us the
very making of images; on which account the former procurators were wont
to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments.
Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them
up there; which was done without the knowledge of the people, because it
was done in the night time; but as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes
to Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days that he would remove the
images; and when he would not grant their requests, because it would tend
to the injury of Caesar, while yet they persevered in their request, on
the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately,
while he came and sat upon his judgment-seat, which seat was so prepared
in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready
to oppress them; and when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal
to the soldiers to encompass them routed, and threatened that their punishment
should be no less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturbing
him, and go their ways home
But they threw themselves upon the ground,
and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly,
rather than the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed; upon which
Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws
inviolable, and presently commanded the images to be carried back from
Jerusalem to Cesarea. FJAJ 18.18
2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and
did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream from
the distance of two hundred furlongs
However, the Jews (8)(8) These Jews, as they are here called,
whose blood Pilate shed on this occasion, may very well be those very Galilean
Jews, "whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices,"
Luke 13:1, 2; these tumults being usually excited at some of the Jews'
great festivals, when they slew abundance of sacrifices, and the Galileans
being commonly much more busy in such tumults than those of Judea and Jerusalem,
as we learn from the history of Archelaus, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 9. sect.
3 and ch. 10. sect. 2, 9; though, indeed, Josephus's present copies say
not one word of "those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell,
and slew them," which the 4th verse of the same 13th chapter of St.
Luke informs us of. But since our gospel teaches us, Luke 23:6, 7, that
"when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether Jesus were a Galilean.
And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent
him to Herod ;" and ver. 12, "The same day Pilate and Herod were
made friends together for before they had been at enmity between themselves;"
take the very probable key of this matter in the words of the learned Noldius,
de Herod. No. 219: "The cause of the enmity between Herod and Pilate
(says he) seems to have been this, that Pilate had intermeddled with the
tetrarch's jurisdiction, and had slain some of his Galilean subjects, Luke
13:1; and, as he was willing to correct that error, he sent Christ to Herod
at this time."
were not pleased with what had been done about this water; and many ten
thousands of the people got together, and made a clamor against him, and
insisted that he should leave off that design
Some of them also used reproaches,
and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do
So he habited
a great number of his soldiers in their habit, who carried daggers under
their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them.
So he bid the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches
upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed
on; who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them,
and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not;
nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people were unarmed,
and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a
great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded.
And thus an end was put to this sedition. FJAJ 18.19
3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful
to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with pleasure
He drew over to him both many of
the Jews and many of the Gentiles
He was [the] Christ
And when Pilate,
at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to
the cross, (9)(9) A.D. 33, April 3.
those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared
to them alive again the third day; (10)(10) April 5.
as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful
things concerning him
And the tribe of Christians, so named from him,
are not extinct at this day. FJAJ 18.20
4. About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder,
and certain shameful practices happened about the temple of Isis that was
at Rome
I will now first take notice of the wicked attempt about the temple
of Isis, and will then give an account of the Jewish affairs
There was
at Rome a woman whose name was Paulina; one who, on account of the dignity
of her ancestors, and by the regular conduct of a virtuous life, had a
great reputation: she was also very rich; and although she was of a beautiful
countenance, and in that flower of her age wherein women are the most gay,
yet did she lead a life of great modesty
She was married to Saturninus,
one that was every way answerable to her in an excellent character
Decius
Mundus fell in love with this woman, who was a man very high in the equestrian
order; and as she was of too great dignity to be caught by presents, and
had already rejected them, though they had been sent in great abundance,
he was still more inflamed with love to her, insomuch that he promised
to give her two hundred thousand Attic drachmae for one night's lodging;
and when this would not prevail upon her, and he was not able to bear this
misfortune in his amours, he thought it the best way to famish himself
to death for want of food, on account of Paulina's sad refusal; and he
determined with himself to die after such a manner, and he went on with
his purpose accordingly
Now Mundus had a freed-woman, who had been made
free by his father, whose name was Ide, one skillful in all sorts of mischief.
This woman was very much grieved at the young man's resolution to kill
himself, (for he did not conceal his intentions to destroy himself from
others,) and came to him, and encouraged him by her discourse, and made
him to hope, by some promises she gave him, that he might obtain a night's
lodging with Paulina; and when he joyfully hearkened to her entreaty, she
said she wanted no more than fifty thousand drachmae for the entrapping
of the woman
So when she had encouraged the young man, and gotten as much
money as she required, she did not take the same methods as had been taken
before, because she perceived that the woman was by no means to be tempted
by money; but as she knew that she was very much given to the worship of
the goddess Isis, she devised the following stratagem: She went to some
of Isis's priests, and upon the strongest assurances [of concealment],
she persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer of money, of twenty-five
thousand drachmae in hand, and as much more when the thing had taken effect;
and told them the passion of the young man, and persuaded them to use all
means possible to beguile the woman
So they were drawn in to promise so
to do, by that large sum of gold they were to have
Accordingly, the oldest
of them went immediately to Paulina; and upon his admittance, he desired
to speak with her by herself
When that was granted him, he told her that
he was sent by the god Anubis, who was fallen in love with her, and enjoined
her to come to him
Upon this she took the message very kindly, and valued
herself greatly upon this condescension of Anubis, and told her husband
that she had a message sent her, and was to sup and lie with Anubis; so
he agreed to her acceptance of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity
of his wife
Accordingly, she went to the temple, and after she had supped
there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the doors of
the temple, when, in the holy part of it, the lights were also put out.
Then did Mundus leap out, (for he was hidden therein,) and did not fail
of enjoying her, who was at his service all the night long, as supposing
he was the god; and when he was gone away, which was before those priests
who knew nothing of this stratagem were stirring, Paulina came early to
her husband, and told him how the god Anubis had appeared to her
Among
her friends, also, she declared how great a value she put upon this favor,
who partly disbelieved the thing, when they reflected on its nature, and
partly were amazed at it, as having no pretense for not believing it, when
they considered the modesty and the dignity of the person
But now, on
the third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina, and said, "Nay,
Paulina, thou hast saved me two hundred thousand drachmae, which sum thou
sightest have added to thy own family; yet hast thou not failed to be at
my service in the manner I invited thee
As for the reproaches thou hast
laid upon Mundus, I value not the business of names; but I rejoice in the
pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took to myself the name of Anubis."
When he had said this, he went his way
But now she began to come to the
sense of the grossness of what she had done, and rent her garments, and
told her husband of the horrid nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed
him not to neglect to assist her in this case
So he discovered the fact
to the emperor; whereupon Tiberius inquired into the matter thoroughly
by examining the priests about it, and ordered them to be crucified, as
well as Ide, who was the occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived
the whole matter, which was so injurious to the woman
He also demolished
the temple of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown into
the river Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did no more to him,
because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of the
passion of love
And these were the circumstances which concerned the temple
of Isis, and the injuries occasioned by her priests
I now return to the
relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I formerly
told you I would. FJAJ 18.21
5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had been driven away from his
own country by an accusation laid against him for transgressing their laws,
and by the fear he was under of punishment for the same; but in all respects
a wicked man
He, then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the
wisdom of the laws of Moses
He procured also three other men, entirely
of the same character with himself, to be his partners
These men persuaded
Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that had embraced the Jewish
religion, to send purple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem; and when
they had gotten them, they employed them for their own uses, and spent
the money themselves, on which account it was that they at first required
it of her
Whereupon Tiberius, who had been informed of the thing by Saturninus,
the husband of Fulvia, who desired inquiry might be made about it, ordered
all the Jews to be banished out of Rome; at which time the consuls listed
four thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia; but
punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers,
on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers. FJAJ 18.22