The Galileans as Witnesses

When Jonathan and his party heard this, they were afraid they might be in danger of their lives if the Galileans rushed at them out of goodwill toward me, and they thought of running away. But they could not get away, since I asked them to stay, and they stood there downcast at my words. I ordered the crowd to stop its acclamations, posted the most trustworthy of my armed men on the roads as a guard, in case John should fall on us unexpectedly, and urged the Galileans to take up their arms, so that they would not be thrown into confusion if any sudden attack by the enemy were made. Then, first of all, I reminded Jonathan and his party of their letter: how they had written that they were sent by the community of Jerusalem to settle my quarrel with John, and how they had urged me to come to them. As I went through this, I held up the letter in the midst of everyone, so that they could deny nothing, since their own writing convicted them. Then I said, “Now, Jonathan, and you his fellow envoys: if I were on trial against John and, to vouch for my life, I had brought two or three good and honorable men as witnesses, it is plain that you would have had to examine their lives first and then acquit me of the charges. So, that you may know that I have conducted affairs in Galilee well, I consider three witnesses too few for a man who has lived rightly; I give you all these. Ask them how I have lived, and whether I have conducted myself here with all dignity and all virtue. And I put you on oath, Galileans: hide nothing of the truth, but tell these men, as your judges, whether anything I have done was not well done.” [a]

While I was still speaking, a voice went up from them all together, calling me their benefactor and savior. They bore witness to what I had done and urged me to go on in the same way, and all of them swore that their wives had been kept from any outrage and that they had never once been wronged by me in anything. After this I read out to the Galileans two of the letters sent by Jonathan’s party, which the guards I had posted had seized and sent on to me. They were full of slanders and false charges, accusing me of using tyranny rather than command against the people, and much else was written there besides, leaving out no shameless lie. I told the crowd that the men carrying the letters had handed them over willingly, for I did not want my opponents to know about the guards, for fear that they would take alarm and stop writing. [b]

When the crowd heard this, they were furious with Jonathan and the men with him and rushed at them to kill them. They would have done it, too, had I not checked the Galileans’ anger. I told Jonathan’s party that I pardoned what they had already done, if they would change their minds, go home, and tell those who had sent them the truth about my conduct. With that I let them go, though I knew they would do none of the things they had promised. But the crowd was blazing with anger against them and begged me to let them punish men who had dared such things. I tried every means to persuade them to spare the men, for I knew that all civil strife is ruinous to the common good. But the crowd held fast to its anger against them, and they all rushed toward the house where Jonathan’s party was lodging. When I saw that their fury could not be restrained, I leaped onto a horse and ordered the crowds to follow me to the village of Sogane, about two and a half miles from Gabara. By this stratagem I made sure I would not appear to be starting a civil war. [c]

When I came near Sogane, I halted the crowd and urged them not to be carried away so quickly by anger, especially when it came to punishments that could never be undone. Then I ordered a hundred men, already advanced in years and the leading men among them, to get ready to go to the city of Jerusalem and lodge a complaint before the people against those who were stirring up faction in the country. “And if they are moved by what you say,” I told them, “urge the community to write to me ordering me to remain in Galilee, and to order Jonathan’s party to withdraw from it.” When I had given them these instructions and they had quickly made themselves ready, I sent them off on the third day after the assembly, with five hundred armed men to go with them. I also wrote to my friends in Samaria to see that their journey was safe. For Samaria was already under the Romans, and anyone who wanted to travel quickly had to go through it; by that road one can reach Jerusalem from Galilee in three days. I myself escorted the envoys as far as the borders of Galilee and posted guards on the roads, so that no one would easily learn that they had gone. Having done this, I stayed at Japha. [d]

Jonathan and his party, having failed in their attempt against me, sent John back to Gischala and went themselves to the city of Tiberias, expecting to bring it under their control; for Jesus had written to them at this time, promising to persuade the people to receive them when they came and to choose to side with them. So they went off with these hopes. But Silas, whom, as I said, I had left in charge of Tiberias, reported this to me by letter and urged me to hurry. I obeyed him promptly and came, and there I fell into danger of my life, in the following way. Jonathan’s party had been among the people of Tiberias and had persuaded many who were at odds with me to break away from me. But when they heard I had come, they were afraid for themselves and came to me. They greeted me and told me how fortunate I was to have conducted myself so well in Galilee, and they congratulated me on the honor in which I was held. My glory, they said, was an ornament to them, since they had been my teachers and were my fellow citizens; and my friendship had a juster claim on them than John’s. They were eager to go home, they said, but were waiting until they could deliver John into my hands. As they said this, they swore the most dreadful oaths we have, which I thought it unlawful to disbelieve. Then they asked me to lodge somewhere else, because the next day was the Sabbath, and they said the city of Tiberias ought not to be put to trouble by them. [e]

Suspecting nothing, I went off to Tarichaeae. Still, I left people in the city to find out what was being said about us, and I posted many men all along the road from Tarichaeae to Tiberias, so that they could pass on to me, one to another, whatever they learned from those I had left in the city. On the next day they all gathered in the prayer house, a very large building able to hold a great crowd. Jonathan went in, and though he did not dare speak openly of revolt, he said that their city needed a better general. But Jesus, the chief magistrate, held nothing back and said openly, “Citizens, it is better for us to obey four men than one, men of brilliant birth and not without a name for understanding.” And he pointed to Jonathan’s party. When Jesus had said this, Justus came forward and praised him, and won over some of the people as well. But the crowd was not pleased with what was said, and they would certainly have broken into a riot had not the sixth hour arrived and broken up the meeting, the hour at which our custom is to take the midday meal on the Sabbath. So Jonathan’s party put off the deliberation to the next day and went away having achieved nothing. [f]

As soon as this was reported to me, I decided to go to the city of Tiberias early in the morning. The next day, about the first hour, I arrived from Tarichaeae and found the crowd already gathering in the prayer house, though those who were assembling did not know what the meeting was for. When Jonathan’s party unexpectedly saw me there, they were thrown into confusion. Then they hit on the idea of spreading a report that Roman horsemen had been seen on the border, nearly four miles from the city, at a place called Homonoia. When this planted report was brought in, Jonathan’s party urged me not to stand by while their land was plundered by the enemy. They said this intending to get me out of the way on the pretext of urgent help, while they themselves turned the city against me.

Although I knew what they were scheming, I obeyed all the same, so as not to give the people of Tiberias the impression that I had no care for their safety. So I went out. When I reached the place and found not a trace of the enemy, I hurried back at full speed and found the whole council assembled together with the common people, and Jonathan’s party making many accusations against me, saying that I neglected to lighten the burden of the war for them and spent my time in luxury. As they said this, they produced four letters, supposedly written to them by people on the border of Galilee, begging them to come to their help, because a Roman force of horse and foot was going to plunder their country on the third day; they asked them to hurry and not to abandon them. When the people of Tiberias heard this, they thought it was true and raised an outcry against me, saying that I ought not to sit still but go and help their countrymen. To this I replied, for I understood what Jonathan’s party intended, that I would readily obey, and I promised to set out for the war without delay. But I advised them, since the letters indicated that the Romans would attack in four places, to divide the force into five parts and put Jonathan and his companions in command of each; for it was fitting that good men should not only give advice but, when need pressed, lead and give help themselves. I myself, I said, could lead no more than one division. My advice pleased the crowd greatly, and so they compelled those men to go out to the war. Their plans were thrown into no small confusion, since they had not accomplished what they intended, and I had outgeneraled them in their schemes.

One of them, named Ananias, a wicked and mischievous man, proposed to the crowds that a public fast to God be held the next day by the whole people, and he directed them to come at the same hour to the same place without arms, to make it plain before God that unless they had his help they counted every weapon useless. He said this not out of piety, but to catch me and my men unarmed. I was forced to comply, so as not to seem to despise a proposal made in the name of piety. As soon as we had gone home, Jonathan’s party wrote to John telling him to come to them at dawn with as many soldiers as he could, since they would easily get me into their hands and do what he had long wished. When he received the letter, he meant to comply. But on the next day I ordered two of my bodyguards, the most proven in courage and the most steadfast in loyalty, to hide short swords under their clothes and come with me, so that we could defend ourselves if our enemies made any attack. I myself put on a breastplate and girded on a sword, as inconspicuously as I could, and came into the prayer house. [i]