The Mock Funeral at Tiberias

Jesus, the chief magistrate, ordered all who came with me to be shut out, for he was standing at the doors himself, and he let only me and my friends go in. We were already performing the customary rites and had turned to prayer when Jesus stood up and asked me about the vessels of uncoined silver that had been taken from the burning of the royal palace: in whose keeping were they? He said this to pass the time until John arrived. I said that Capellus and the ten leading men of Tiberias had all of them. “Question them yourself,” I said. “I am not lying.” When they said that the things were in their keeping, he said, “And the twenty gold pieces you received for selling a certain weight of uncoined metal: what has become of them?” I said that I had given these too to their own envoys as travel money, when they were sent to Jerusalem. At this Jonathan’s party said that I had not done right in paying the envoys out of the public funds. The crowd was angered by this, for they saw the men’s malice, and I realized that a riot was about to flare up. Wanting to stir the people still further against the men, I said, “If I did not do rightly in paying your envoys out of the public funds, stop being angry. I will repay the twenty gold pieces myself.” [a]

When I said this, Jonathan’s party fell silent, but the people were still more provoked against them, since they were openly showing their unjust hostility toward me. Seeing the change in the people, Jesus ordered them to withdraw, but asked the council to stay, for they could not, he said, examine matters of this kind in an uproar. The people were shouting that they would not leave me alone with those men, when someone came and told Jesus and his friends secretly that John was approaching with his armed men. Then Jonathan’s party could no longer contain themselves; and perhaps God was also providing for my safety, for had this not happened, I would surely have been killed by John. Jonathan said, “People of Tiberias, stop this inquiry about twenty gold pieces. Josephus does not deserve to die for those, but because he wanted to be a tyrant and seized the command for himself by deceiving the crowds of Galileans with his speeches.” As he said this, they at once laid hands on me and tried to kill me. But when the men with me saw what was happening, they drew their swords and threatened to strike if anyone used force; and the people picked up stones and rushed to throw them at Jonathan. So they snatched me out of the violence of my enemies.

When I had gone a little way, I was about to run into John coming up with his armed men. Afraid of him, I turned aside, got through a narrow lane to the lake, seized a boat, went aboard and crossed over to Tarichaeae. So, against all expectation, I escaped the danger. At once I sent for the leading men of the Galileans and told them how, in breach of sworn faith, I had come close to being killed by Jonathan’s party and the people of Tiberias. The crowd of Galileans was enraged at this and urged me to put off the war against them no longer, but to let them go against John and wipe him out completely, together with Jonathan’s party. Still, though they were so angry, I held them back, telling them to wait until we learned what report the men they had sent to the city of Jerusalem would bring back; for they would act, I said, with the agreement of the people there. With these words I persuaded them. At that point John too, since his ambush had come to nothing, withdrew to Gischala.

A few days later the men we had sent came back and reported that the people were very angry with Ananus and Simon son of Gamaliel and their friends, because without any decision of the community they had sent to Galilee and arranged to have me thrown out of it. The envoys said that the people had even rushed to set fire to their houses. They also brought letters in which the leading men of Jerusalem, at the urgent request of the people, confirmed me in the command of Galilee and ordered Jonathan’s party to return home quickly. When I had read the letters, I came to the village of Arbela. There I called an assembly of the Galileans and had the envoys tell them of the anger and the hatred of wickedness that Jonathan’s doings had aroused, and how the people had confirmed me in the leadership of their country, and what had been written to Jonathan’s party ordering them to leave. I at once sent the letter on to those men, and told the man who carried it to find out what they meant to do. [c]

When they received the letter, they were thrown into no small alarm. They sent for John, for members of the council of Tiberias and for the leading men of Gabara, and laid the matter before them, asking them to consider what they ought to do. The people of Tiberias thought the envoys should rather hold on to affairs. They ought not, they said, to abandon their city now that it had once attached itself to them; besides, I would not keep my hands off them, for they falsely claimed that I had threatened this. John not only agreed with them, but advised that two of the envoys should go and accuse me before the people of not managing the affairs of Galilee properly. They would easily persuade them, he said, because of their rank and because every crowd is easily swayed. John’s opinion seemed the best, so they decided that two of them, Jonathan and Ananias, should go to the people of Jerusalem, and that the other two should be left behind in Tiberias. They also took along a hundred armed men to guard themselves. [d]

The people of Tiberias saw to it that their walls were secured, ordered the inhabitants to take up arms, and sent for a good number of soldiers from John to fight on their side against me if need arose. John was at Gischala. Jonathan and his party set out from Tiberias, and when they reached Dabaritta, a village in the farthest part of Galilee, in the great plain, they fell about midnight into the hands of my guards, who ordered them to lay down their arms and kept them in chains on the spot, as I had instructed them. Levi, to whom I had entrusted that guard post, wrote to tell me so. I let two days go by, and pretending to know nothing, sent to the people of Tiberias advising them to lay down their arms and let the men go home. But they believed that Jonathan’s party had already reached Jerusalem, and they sent back abusive answers. I was not alarmed by this, but planned how to outgeneral them. I did not think it right before God to kindle a war against my fellow citizens; but wanting to draw those men away from Tiberias, I picked out ten thousand of my best armed men, divided them into three bodies, and ordered them to wait hidden in ambush in the villages. I led a thousand more into another village, which was likewise in the hills but only about half a mile from Tiberias, and ordered them to come down at once when they received my signal. I myself went out in front of the village and sat down in full view. When the people of Tiberias saw me, they kept running out of the city and heaping mockery on me. Their folly went so far that they got a funeral bier ready, set it out, and stood around it mourning me with jokes and laughter. As for me, I was in good spirits watching their foolishness. [f]

Wanting to take Simon by a trick, and Jozar with him, I sent to them and invited them to come a little way out of the city with many friends to guard them, saying that I wished to come down, make a treaty with them, and share the leadership of Galilee with them. Simon, because of his youth and his hope of gain, was deceived and did not hesitate to come; but Jozar suspected an ambush and stayed behind. When Simon came up with the friends who were guarding him, I met him, greeted him warmly, and said how grateful I was that he had come. Soon after, I walked around with him as though I wanted to say something to him privately, and when I had drawn him some way off from his friends, I lifted him up by the waist and handed him to my friends to take into the village. Then I ordered the armed men to come down, and with them I attacked Tiberias. A fierce battle broke out on both sides, and the people of Tiberias were all but winning, for our armed men had fled. Seeing what was happening, I rallied the men with me and pursued the Tiberians, though they were already winning, into the city. I also sent another force in by way of the lake, with orders to set fire to the first house they took. When this was done, the people of Tiberias thought their city had been taken by storm. In their fear they threw down their arms and, with their wives and children, begged me to spare their city. I was moved by their pleas and checked the soldiers in their onslaught. Since evening had come on, I returned from the siege with my armed men and saw to my body’s needs. I invited Simon to dinner, consoled him about what had happened, and promised to send him and those with him to Jerusalem in complete safety, with provisions for the journey. [g]

The next day I came to Tiberias with ten thousand armed men. I summoned the leading men of the people to the stadium and ordered them to tell me who were responsible for the revolt. When they pointed out the men, I sent them in chains to the city of Jotapata. Jonathan and Ananias I released from their chains, gave them provisions for the journey, and sent them to Jerusalem together with Simon and Jozar and five hundred armed men to guard them. The people of Tiberias came to me again and begged me to forgive them for what they had done, saying they would make up for their wrongs by their loyalty to me from then on; and they asked me to save what was left of the plunder for those who had lost it. So I ordered those who had it to bring it all out into the open. When they held out for a long time, and I saw one of the soldiers around me wearing a garment finer than usual, I asked him where he had got it. When he said it was from the plunder of the city, I had him flogged, and I threatened all the others with a heavier punishment unless they brought out publicly everything they had plundered. A great deal was brought together, and I gave back to each of the people of Tiberias whatever he recognized as his own. [h]