Josephus' Account of the Jewish War
A list of passages from Josephus’ THE JEWISH WAR possibly related to Biblical prophecy
(Note: THE JEWISH WAR is organized by Books, Chapters, Sections, and Verses; the citations listed below are from JOSEPHUS: THE JEWISH WAR “Newly translated with extensive commentary and archaeological background illustrations,” with Gaalya Cornfeld as General Editor, Benjamin Mazar and Paul L. Maier as Consulting Editors, published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1982, 526 pp.)
It was the worst calamity ever. – Book I, Chapter 1, Section #4 (verses 11-12)
Jerusalem had extensive sea commerce. – Book II, 3, #5, (51-56) (re. Revelation 18:1-20)
Emperor Caligula attempts to put a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple in 40 AD. – II, 10, #1, (184ff)
In 54 AD, Zealot Sicarii (assassins) kill the high priest. False prophets and false messiahs are also mentioned (Theudas is also mentioned in Josephus’ Antiquities XX:97). – II, 13, #3-5, (254-261)
The Roman procurator Florus (64-66 AD) steals from the Temple treasury and quells a potential revolt by killing 3600 Jews. – II, 14, #6-9, (293-305)
In the summer of 66 AD Jewish revolutionaries conquer the Masada fortress; traditional Temple sacrifices on behalf of the Roman civil authorities are stopped; rebellion begins. – II, 17, #1 (408ff)
Open revolt and civil war rages in Jerusalem; the high priest is assassinated; the Roman garrison in Jerusalem is massacred. – II, 17, #5ff, (422ff)
In retaliation, thousands of Jews are massacred at Caesarea, and in Syria and Alexandria. – 11, 18, #1-8, (457-498)
A Roman army under Cestius Gallus briefly besieges Jerusalem in October, 66 AD, then inexplicably withdraws, suffering disastrous losses in the ensuing retreat. –II, 19, #5-9, (533-555)
There are massacres of Jews in Damascus in retaliation. (late in 66 AD) – II, 20, #2, (559)
Omens of doom are mentioned. – II, 22, #1, (650ff) and described later in VI, 5, #3
Vespasian’s military campaign systematically destroys Galilee. – Books XII & IV (Chapters 1-2)
Bandit gangs from the countryside enter Jerusalem and further terrorize the citizens. –Book IV, 3, #2, (131ff)
Zealots enter the Holy Place of the Temple; they mockingly choose their own high priest; an army of citizens fights them. – IV, 3, #7, (151ff)
There is Civil War in Jerusalem – (201); “their blood alone defiled the sanctuary” – (204ff); there is fighting in the Temple outer courts, Zealots send an appeal to the Idumaeans for help. – IV, 3, #12, (196ff)
During a violent storm and earthquake, the Idumaeans enter the city to help the Zealots. – IV, 4, #5, (286-287)
Zealots and Idumaeans join to slaughter citizens; the outer courts of Temple were deluged with blood, 8500 are killed. – IV, 5, #1, (313)
The high priest is killed, Idumaeans plunder and kill throughout the city, there are no proper burials; (323) – “I suppose God had condemned the polluted city to destruction, and meant to purge the sanctuary by fire”. – IV, 5, #2, (314ff)
The aristocracy is tortured and 12,000 are annihilated. – IV, 5, #3, (326ff)
A mock trial is held in the Temple; murder in the Temple. – IV, 5, #4, (334ff)
A city leader calls down God’s wrath by Rome on the Zealots. – IV, 6, #1, (361ff)
Zealots kill those trying to escape from the city – (380); Zealots don’t allow burials, “dead bodies were heaped up high along all the main roads” – (302); “add pollution of the Deity to their outrages against humanity” – (386); “every law of man was trampled underfoot, every dictate of religion ridiculed by their persecutors who scoffed at the oracles of the prophets” – (308); “there was an ancient saying of inspired men that the city would be taken and the sanctuary burnt to the ground by right of war whenever it should be visited by sedition, and Jewish hands would be first to defile God’s sacred precincts”. – IV, 6, #3, (378ff)
Bandit gangs roam throughout Judea. –IV, 7, #2, (406-409)
The Jews are “like wild beasts”. –IV, 7, #4, (424)
15,000 Jews are killed by the Romans along the Jordan River. – IV, 7, #5, (435)
The Jordan River is choked with corpses; the Dead Sea is also filled with dead bodies. – IV, 7, #6, (437)
Jerusalem is surrounded by Vespasian’s army (summer, 68 AD). – IV, 9, #1, (489)
Nero dies in June, 68 AD – (492-495); brief description of the ensuing civil war over who will become emperor now – (497ff); Vespasian postpones his campaign against Jerusalem until this civil war can be settled. – IV, 9, #2, (491ff)
A peasant army is formed by Simon to attack the Zealots controlling Jerusalem; they plunder the countryside. – IV, 9, #4, (509-513)
Civil war rages in the Roman Empire as candidates vie to become Emperor in the “Year of the Four Emperors;” June, 69AD – Vespasian is pushed by his troops to become Emperor, and he leaves for Rome; his son Titus resumes the campaign against Judea. – IV, 9, #9, (545-549)
The Zealots ravage Jerusalem with murder, rape, and looting, and the city is “polluted” by homosexual acts; Simon outside the city restricts any chance of escape from Jerusalem; (566ff) – the Idumaeans fight with the Zealots in Jerusalem, so the Idumaeans allow Simon’s army into Jerusalem to help them. – IV, 9, #10, (559-564)
Simon’s force besieges the Zealots in the Temple. (April, 69AD) – IV, 9, #12, (577ff)
Emperor Vitellius’ troops from Germany ransack Rome – (588ff); but Vespasian’s troops proclaim him as Emperor – (622ff); Josephus is freed by Vespasian due to his seeming prophetic abilities. – IV, 10, #1-7, (585ff)
Three factions fight in Jerusalem; the Zealots are described as “a raving beast driven by lack of other food at last to devour its own flesh”. – Book V, 1, #1, (1-4)
There is a split among the Zealots, with one faction led by Eleazar in the inner Temple, another led by John of Gischala in the outer Temple courts, and another led by Simon in the city – (7); weapons are placed above the holy gates – (8); they ate consecrated food and used consecrated articles from the Temple – (10); “The Temple was defiled with carnage at every corner”. – V, 1, #2, (5-10)
Catapult stones from Simon’s group fall on the altar and sanctuary, and on both priests and those bringing sacrifices, so the altar is splattered with their blood – (18); blood from the corpses of natives, aliens, priests, and laymen is mingled in pools in the Temple courts – (19); Josephus laments these abominations as the desecration of the Temple. – V, 1, #3, (16ff)
Fire destroys much of the city, almost all the food is burned up or eaten, paving the way for famine. – V, 1. #4, (21-25)
The miseries of the people of Jerusalem are recounted. (36-30) John uses supporting timbers of the Temple area for siege towers. – V, 1, #5 (27-38)
Worse evils were done before the Romans came by Jewish factions fighting against each other. – V, 6, #1, (256—257)
Defenders refer to the Roman siege catapult stones with the warning “The stone/son is coming” (there is a linguistic similarity in Hebrew of stone/son). – V, 6, #3, (270-274)
Josephus concludes that fate ordains the ruin of both innocent and guilty of the entire city. – V, 9, #1, (355)
Famine consumes the city. – V, 9, #3, (369-370)
Josephus notes that “the Sanctuary was desolate for 3 years and 6 months” under Antiochus Epiphanies – (402); “the Temple has become a sink for the nation’s dregs, and native hands have polluted the hallowed spot” – V, 9, #4, (394ff)
Horrors caused by the famine are described –(442); “no other city ever endured such miseries” – V, 10, #3, (429-442)
Deadly famine and unburied bodies in Jerusalem. – V, 12, #3, (512-518)
Deserters from the city are disemboweled for their hidden money. – V, 12 #4, (548ff)
The Temple is plundered, sacred vessels are melted down, sacred wine and oils are used, and offerings are stolen. – V, 12, #6, (562-566)
The daily sacrifices in the Temple are ended (August, 70 AD) – (109-110). Josephus proclaims God’s judgment upon the city for their defilement – “Behold it is God, therefore, and no other, who, together with the Romans, is bringing His fire to cleanse the sanctuary and to destroy the city that is filled with such great pollution.” – Book VI, 2, #1, (93-110)
The Temple is destroyed on the anniversary of its previous destruction and burning by the Babylonians (August/September, 70 AD). – VI, 4, #8, (267-269)
The remainder of the Temple precincts are burned, many are killed. – VI, 5, #2, (281-284)
Josephus recounts many supernatural/prophetic signs in Jerusalem immediately prior to the war (April/May of 65 or 66 AD) – (289); “a star that looked like a sword stood over the city and a comet continued for a whole year” – (290); before the war, at Passover, a bright light shone around the altar for one half hour during one night –(292); a sacrificial cow gives birth to a lamb in the Temple courts – (293); the east gate of the inner sanctuary mysteriously opens by itself (an event also mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus and a Jewish source) – (295); this is interpreted “as a portent of coming desolation” – (296-298); “chariots were seen in the air over the whole country, and armed battalions speeding through the clouds and encircling the cities” – (299); at Pentecost, priests in the inner courts of the Temple hear “a violent commotion and din, then of a voice as of a host crying, ‘We are departing hence’” – (300-309); in 62AD, at the Feast of Tabernacles, a man named Jesus son of Ananias began to proclaim a message of “Woe, woe to Jerusalem” and continued this lament day and night for 7 years and 6 months until killed by a siege stone during the final Roman siege of the city. – VI, 5, #3, (288-315)
The Jews, in demolishing the Roman Antonia fortress, “reduced the Temple area to a tetragon, though their oracles warned them that when the Temple would become four squares, the city and Temple would fall;” Josephus also recounts another oracle “announcing that at that time a man from their country would become ruler of the world”. – VI, 5, #4, (311-312)
The Romans bring their imperial standards into the Temple and sacrifice to them there. For a Jew, such an act was “an abomination of desolation,” no less than Antiochus’ desecration of the Temple) – (321-322); the Romans execute the remaining priests. – VI, 6, #1, (316-322)
There is indiscriminate massacre by the conquering Romans; Jerusalem is in flames. – VI, 8, #5, (404ff)
11,000 Jewish prisoners die of starvation. – VI, 9, #2, (419)
Josephus’ summary of the entire war: 97,000 prisoners taken captive during the war; 1.1 million die during the long siege – (426-434); the search for concealed persons finds 2000 more bodies; the remainder of the city is set on fire and the walls are razed to the ground. – VI, 9, #3, (420-434)
The whole city, with the exception of 3 towers, is destroyed, and the Temple is razed to the ground. – Book VII, 1, #1, (1-3)
Every city in Syria exterminated its Jews; 60,000 Jews are killed in Egypt. – VII, 8, #7, (367-369)
The mass suicide of Jews at Masada in 73 AD ends all Jewish opposition to the Romans. – VII, 9