Matthew 24:6 And you will hear of wars and
rumors of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all these things must
come to pass, but the end is not yet.
This transpired in the late 30's
approx. 8 years after Christ was crucified.
Wars of the Jews
Book II
CHAPTER 10
CAIUS (Caligula) COMMANDS THAT HIS
STATUE SHOULD BE SET UP IN THE TEMPLE ITSELF; AND WHAT PETRONIUS DID
THEREUPON.
1. NOW Caius (Caligula) Caesar did so grossly
abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and
to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest
nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the
Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem, to place
his statues in the temple, and commanded him that, in case the Jews
would not admit of them, he should slay those that opposed it, and carry
all the rest of the nation into captivity: but God concerned himself
with these his commands. However, Petronius marched out of Antioch into
Judea, with three legions, and many Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the
Jews, some of them could not believe the stories that spake of a war;
but those that did believe them were in the utmost distress how to
defend themselves, and the terror diffused itself presently through them
all; for the army was already come to Ptolemais.
2. This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee,
built in the great plain. It is encompassed with mountains: that on the
east side, sixty furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the south
belongs to Carmel, which is distant from it a hundred and twenty
furlongs; and that on the north is the highest of them all, and is
called by the people of the country, The Ladder of the Tyrians, which is
at the distance of a hundred furlongs. The very small river Belus runs
by it, at the distance of two furlongs; near which there is Menmon's
monument, and hath near it a place no larger than a hundred cubits,
which deserves admiration; for the place is round and hollow, and
affords such sand as glass is made of; which place, when it hath been
emptied by the many ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds,
which bring into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote,
and was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently turns
it into glassy sand. And what is to me still more wonderful, that glassy
sand which is superfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes
bare common sand again. And this is the nature of the place we are
speaking of.
3. But now the Jews got together in great
numbers with their wives and children into that plain that was by
Ptolemais, and made supplication to Petronius, first for their laws,
and, in the next place, for themselves. So he was prevailed upon by the
multitude of the supplicants, and by their supplications, and left his
army and the statues at Ptolemais, and then went forward into Galilee,
and called together the multitude and all the men of note to Tiberias,
and showed them the power of the Romans, and the threatenings of Caesar;
and, besides this, proved that their petition was unreasonable, because
while all the nations in subjection to them had placed the images of
Caesar in their several cities, among the rest of their gods, for them
alone to oppose it, was almost like the behavior of revolters, and was
injurious to Caesar.
4. And when they insisted on their law, and the
custom of their country, and how it was not only not permitted them to
make either an image of God, or indeed of a man, and to put it in any
despicable part of their country, much less in the temple itself,
Petronius replied, "And am not I also," said he, "bound to keep the law
of my own lord? For if I transgress it, and spare you, it is but just
that I perish; while he that sent me, and not I, will commence a war
against you; for I am under command as well as you." Hereupon the whole
multitude cried out that they were ready to suffer for their law.
Petronius then quieted them, and said to them, "Will you then make war
against Caesar?" The Jews said, "We offer sacrifices twice every day for
Caesar, and for the Roman people;" but that if he would place the images
among them, he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that
they were ready to expose themselves, together with their children and
wives, to be slain. At this Petronius was astonished, and pitied them,
on account of the inexpressible sense of religion the men were under,
and that courage of theirs which made them ready to die for it; so they
were dismissed without success.
5. But on the following days he got together the
men of power privately, and the multitude publicly, and sometimes he
used persuasions to them, and sometimes he gave them his advice; but he
chiefly made use of threatenings to them, and insisted upon the power of
the Romans, and the anger of Caius; and besides, upon the necessity he
was himself under [to do as he was enjoined]. But as they could be no
way prevailed upon, and he saw that the country was in danger of lying
without tillage; (for it was about seed time that the multitude
continued for fifty days together idle;) so he at last got them
together, and told them that it was best for him to run some hazard
himself; "for either, by the Divine assistance, I shall prevail with
Caesar, and shall myself escape the danger as well as you, which will he
matter of joy to us both; or, in case Caesar continue in his rage, I
will be ready to expose my own life for such a great number as you are."
Whereupon he dismissed the multitude, who prayed greatly for his
prosperity; and he took the army out of Ptolemais, and returned to
Antioch; from whence he presently sent an epistle to Caesar, and
informed him of the irruption he had made into Judea, and of the
supplications of the nation; and that unless he had a mind to lose both
the country and the men in it, he must permit them to keep their law,
and must countermand his former injunction. Caius answered that epistle
in a violent-way, and threatened to have Petronius put to death for his
being so tardy in the execution of what he had commanded. But it
happened that those who brought Caius's epistle were tossed by a storm,
and were detained on the sea for three months, while others that brought
the news of Caius's death had a good voyage. Accordingly, Petronins
received the epistle concerning Caius seven and twenty days before he
received that which was against himself.
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