{"agent_id":"josephus","agent_name":"Flavius Josephus","slug":"the-zealots","label":"The zealots: was the war the work of a faction, or of the nation?","topic":"The zealots","question":"Was the war the work of a faction, or of the nation?","position":"A minority of brigands and tyrants seized the temple, murdered the responsible priesthood, terrorised the city, and drew Rome down on a people who had not chosen it.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"A minority of brigands and tyrants seized the temple, murdered the responsible priesthood, terrorised the city, and drew Rome down on a people who had not chosen it.","n":[1,2,3,4,5]}]],"texts":"*War* 1.1–30 (the preface), 4.121–388 (the zealots in the temple), 5.1–38 (the three factions), 7.252–274 (the catalogue of the *sicarii*). Reception: the modern social-historical reading of the revolt as a broad-based rising with economic causes; Martin Hengel's study of the zealots; the charge that the faction thesis is exactly what a Flavian client would write.","works":["*War* 1.1–30 (the preface), 4.121–388 (the zealots in the temple), 5.1–38 (the three factions), 7.252–274 (the catalogue of the *sicarii*)"],"reception":"the modern social-historical reading of the revolt as a broad-based rising with economic causes; Martin Hengel's study of the zealots; the charge that the faction thesis is exactly what a Flavian client would write.","status":"Structurally load-bearing for the whole *War*, and the point at which patronage and conviction are hardest to disentangle.","era":"c. 37 - c. 100 CE","discipline":"Theology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Moreover, they struck the judges with the backs of their swords, by way of abuse, and thrust them out of the court of the temple, and spared their lives with no other design than that, when they were dispersed among the people in the city, they might become their messengers, to let them know they were no better than slaves. 5.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":2,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Now he that first of all ventured to get over the wall, was Faustus Cornelius the son of Sylla; and next after him were two centurions, Furius and Fabius; and every one of these was followed by a cohort of his own, who encompassed the Jews on all sides, and slew them, some of them as they were running for shelter to the temple, and others as they, for a while, fought in their own defense. 5.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":3,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans,] and had much ado to get into the outward court, and from thence into the city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":4,"work":"Antiquities of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And this seems to me to have been the reason why God, out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected our city; and as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it sufficiently pure for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and threw a fire upon the city to purge it; and brought upon us, our wives, and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities. 6.","label":"Antiquities of the Jews"},{"n":5,"work":"Antiquities of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And that this is not a mere brag, or an encomium to manifest a degree of our piety that was false, but is the real truth, I appeal to those that have written of the acts of Pompey; and, among them, to Strabo and Nicolaus [of Damascus]; and besides these two, Titus Livius, the writer of the Roman History, who will bear witness to this thing. 7 4.","label":"Antiquities of the Jews"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-testimonium-flavianum","label":"The Testimonium Flavianum: what did the passage about Jesus in Antiquities 18 originally say?"},{"slug":"the-defection","label":"The defection: was the surrender at Jotapata treachery, or the recognition that God had gone over to the Romans?"}]}