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1. When Masada was thus taken, the general left a garrison in the
fortress to keep it, and he himself went away to Cesarea; for
there were now no enemies left in the country, but it was all
overthrown by so long a war. Yet did this war afford disturbances
and dangerous disorders even in places very far remote from
Judea; for still it came to pass that many Jews were slain at
Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the Sicarii as were able to
fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, were not content
to have saved themselves, but must needs be undertaking to make
new disturbances, and persuaded many of those that entertained
them to assert their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no
better than themselves, and to look upon God as their only Lord
and Master. But when part of the Jews of reputation opposed them,
they slew some of them, and with the others they were very
pressing in their exhortations to revolt from the Romans; but
when the principal men of the senate saw what madness they were
come to, they thought it no longer safe for themselves to
overlook them. So they got all the Jews together to an assembly,
and accused the madness of the Sicarii, and demonstrated that
they had been the authors of all the evils that had come upon
them. They said also that "these men, now they were run away from
Judea, having no sure hope of escaping, because as soon as ever
they shall be known, they will be soon destroyed by the Romans,
they come hither and fill us full of those calamities which
belong to them, while we have not been partakers with them in any
of their sins." Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude to have
a care, lest they should be brought to destruction by their
means, and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been
done, by delivering these men up to them; who being thus apprized
of the greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what
was proposed, and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and
seized upon them; and indeed six hundred of them were caught
immediately: but as to all those that fled into Egypt and to
the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they were caught also,
and brought back, whose courage, or whether we ought to call it
madness, or hardiness in their opinions, every body was amazed
at. For when all sorts of torments and vexations of their bodies
that could be devised were made use of to them, they could not
get any one of them to comply so far as to confess, or seem to
confess, that Caesar was their lord; but they preserved their own
opinion, in spite of all the distress they were brought to, as if
they received these torments and the fire itself with bodies
insensible of pain, and with a soul that in a manner rejoiced
under them. But what was most of all astonishing to the beholders
was the courage of the children; for not one of these children
was so far overcome by these torments, as to name Caesar for
their lord. So far does the strength of the courage [of the soul]
prevail over the weakness of the body.
2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, who presently sent
Caesar word of this commotion; who having in suspicion the
restless temper of the Jews for innovation, and being afraid lest
they should get together again, and persuade some others to join
with them, gave orders to Lupus to demolish that Jewish temple
which was in the region called Onion, and was in Egypt,
which was built and had its denomination from the occasion
following: Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high
priests fled from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he made war
with the Jews, and came to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received
him very kindly, on account of hatred to Antiochus, he assured
him, that if he would comply with his proposal, he would bring
all the Jews to his assistance; and when the king agreed to do it
so far as he was able, he desired him to give him leave to build
a temple some where in Egypt, and to worship God according to the
customs of his own
country; for that the Jews would then be so much readier to
fight against Antiochus who had laid waste the temple at
Jerusalem, and that they would then come to him with
greater good-will; and that, by granting them liberty of
conscience, very many of them would come over to him.
3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, and gave him a place
one hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. That
Nomos was called the Nomos of Hellopolls, where Onias built a
fortress and a temple, not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as
resembled a tower. He built it of large stones to the height of
sixty cubits; he made the structure of the altar in imitation of
that in our own country, and in like manner adorned with gifts,
excepting the make of the candlestick, for he did not make a
candlestick, but had a [single] lamp hammered out of a piece of
gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which he
hung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple was encompassed
with a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The
king also gave him a large country for a revenue in money, that
both the priests might have a plentiful provision made for them,
and that God might have great abundance of what things were
necessary for his worship. Yet did not Onias do this out of a
sober disposition, but he had a mind to contend with the Jews at
Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he had for being
banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that by building this
temple he should draw away a great number from them to himself.
There had been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a
prophet] whose name was Isaiah, about six hundred years before,
that this temple should be built by a man that was a Jew in
Egypt. And this is the history of the building of that temple.
4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of
Caesar's letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some
of the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple
itself. And as Lupus died a little afterward, Paulinns succeeded
him. This man left none of those donations there, and threatened
the priests severely if they did not bring them all out; nor did
he permit any who were desirous of worshipping God there so much
as to come near the whole sacred place; but when he had shut up
the gates, he made it entirely inaccessible, insomuch that there
remained no longer the least footsteps of any Divine worship that
had been in that place. Now the duration of the time from the
building of this temple till it was shut up again was three
hundred and forty-three years.
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