Peloni: As a follow-up to our publication of excerpts from Joseph Shellim’s “Philistine-To-Palestine”, we are happy to be able to present a series of excerpts from his informative “BEN HUR II – EXILE” [aka “HOLY-WAR: ROME AND THE JEWS“. Below is the first installment.
HOLY WAR – APRIL 70 AD/CE – DAWN.
TEMPLE LOCATION.
Mount Moriah is the name of the elongated north-south stretch of land lying between The Kidron Valley and the “Hagai” Valley, between Mount Zion to the west and the Mount of Olives to the east. [103]
‘Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where [the LORD] appeared unto David his father; for which provision had been made in the place of David, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite’. — [2 Chronicles Chapter 3] [104] “The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.” – Benjamin Disraeli.
Herod’s Refurbished Temple in the Time of Flavius Josephus; 70 CE
The Massive Wide Temple Stairs [Reconstruction model of Jerusalem Temple]
The Temple Fortress.
The 450-acre city-sized fortress, measured from its rear backend, displays the following inner structures:
- The farthermost raised Holy of Holies.
- The Temple.
- Massive gold and bronze Temple door.
- Massive wide stairs leading to the Temple.
- A hundred and sixty Massive pillars measuring 30 feet (10 Meters) circumferences. 6. The Overpass Bridge; a hundred and twenty cubits tall (15 stories).
- The Massive Centre Courts: vast, open courtyards of smoothly surfaced stone slabs, each court the size of 20 football fields.
- The First Wall – nearest the Temple.
- Herod’s Palace.
- The Antonia Towers.
- King David’s Tomb.
- The Second Wall.
- Sloam’s Pool; a Ritual cleansing, massive marble basin of fifty feet length. 14. The Perfume Factory.
- The Rose Gardens.
- The Sheep Pool Market.
- Third [Outermost] Wall.
- Two and three story dwellings tightly woven throughout the alleys and lanes. 19. A series of periodical exits behind each wall signifies a maze of deep, dark tunnels stretching underground across the fortress and beyond.
- The Money Changers’ stalls stand abandoned before Rome’s Legions. 21. A Water Ditch [a man-made lake] appears before the wall; razor sharp blades dot the water surface; wooden buckets of flaming torches and protruding Sicarii daggers warn of underlying entrapments.
Rome’s Legions stand before the outermost third wall of the Jerusalem fortress. Two contestants face each other in this confrontation, one which allows no exit features or compromise for either contestant. Now Rome is a mighty eagle, panting and heaving in quickened breaths, its fiery bloody eyes focused on its prey: Rome is set to destroy one miniscule group of bandits and primitive peasants assuming a right to alter the Roman world’s status quo. Above the highest wall on earth, the faces of Jews line the towers; they gaze at the greatest super power amassed before them. In the distance stands a temple harbouring the core of the Hebrew law of Monotheism; therein is what stirred Mighty Rome, as it did all nations of the divine emperor realm.
Titus, Tiberius and Josephus are stationed on Mount Scopus, a raised northern plateau affording them a grand vista of the 450-acre city-sized fortress. Delegates from the Empire have come to witness this war from safe distant hill tops. The stiff-necked Jews have become an affront to all of Mighty Rome’s divine emperors, and not without immense impact for Rome’s other conquered nations and the right of their own beliefs. That one small province has alone challenged Rome’s Heresy decree, rejecting Rome’s forbiddance of their Hebrew monotheistic belief, made all of Rome’s conquered nations focused on this unusual war, one not of might or terrain, yet one destined to become history’s most impacting; it will become history and humanity’s ultimate game changer. The Holy War syndrome began in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. The Roman Historian Casius Dio writes of the nations’ reactions: “The whole earth, one might say, was being stirred over the matter.”
The legions appear as a swarm of locusts surrounding the tallest structure in the world; they occupy the entire terrain stretching to the distant hills across the Fortress. The outermost front wall of the Fortress casts a shadow covering more than half the Roman armies. The Jews gaze from the wall tops – 120 cubits high, at the unending legions below, arrayed in formidable armoury with their new monster war machines in the midst of each legion. That Rome was more than another brute force is now displayed before all; a dedicated, disciplined, majestically choreographed and fastidiously organized assembly of her power is showcased before a poignant juncture, outside the towering stone walls of the Jerusalem fortress.
Rome’s legions stand in sparkling costumes and armoury, with their ensign banners displaying each legion’s numbered signatures. Each article of Rome’s forces is accounted, every action is measured, and all is rehearsed and ready. Perfectly symmetrical square blocks made of hundred soldiers each stand before the outermost third wall of the Jerusalem fortress; they cover the horizon east to west and extend to the northern hills opposite the fortress.
The Jews have numerously faced such battles before; now they scatter about in preparation of a war with the mightiest force, one that felled all other nations and mighty empires. The Jews tightly fill the entire single and double story dwellings and commercial cavities behind the walls. Armed with war insights derived from their own history, the Jews understand their hopeless stakes and the inevitable conclusion of this war.
That Rome was more than another brute force is now displayed before all; a dedicated, disciplined, majestically choreographed and fastidiously organized assembly of her power is showcased before a poignant juncture, outside the towering stone walls of the Jerusalem fortress. Rome’s legions stand in sparkling costumes and armoury, with their ensign banners displaying each legion’s numbered signatures. Each article of Rome’s forces is accounted, every action is measured, and all is rehearsed and ready. Perfectly symmetrical square blocks made of hundred soldiers each stand before the outermost third wall of the Jerusalem fortress; they cover the horizon east to west and extend to the northern hills opposite the fortress.
The Jews again focus on the power amassed before them; crouched atop the wall, faces agape in fear and defiance. Behind the walled fortress city, over a million Jews are packed here for the Passover festival, one that introduced to humanity the premise of Liberty; the larger than usual gathering this year to become history’s most impacting war; it will become history and humanity’s ultimate game changer. Included here are Jews from other land and Greeks and Romans who came in solidarity against Rome.
Vespasian has made his son understand the importance of this war for Rome and the Flavian dynasty’s future. Titus stands still and silent, panning the fortress in suppressed awe, as a gladiator measuring and sizing up his opponent before battle. The two contestants face each other in a measured stand-off; all future monotheistic belief systems are on a precipice; it is a holy war for both these contestants and also, retrospectively, humanity’s unfolding derivative history.
The Jews assemble makeshift fortifications in strategic crevices and behind shields made of tree barks; they have equipped themselves with clever village produced weapons and those captured and stolen from Rome. They are armed with daggers, firebrands, slings, fire torches, javelins, stones, spears and buckets of oil – and a small dose of ingenuity before history’s most awesome power. The defenders behind the wall appear sombre and purpose united, communicating orders
in few words and gestures. They are seen as prepared, resigned and braced for war – one in defence of their strange Hebrew belief every empire of divine kings found barbaric and intolerable; and the Jews equally saw the same of their invaders from across the seas.
Behind the wall, priestly groups are chanting war psalms of blessings before battle, and women are handing out foods and drinks to the defenders; youth groups are rehearsing sling rotations in the centre courts.
Those Jews arriving late are blocked from entering the fortress safety by the legions. They turn away fleeing for the northern hills opposite the fortress; those caught are strung on rows of crosses in the sight of the Jewish defenders on the wall towers; rows of crosses appear. Finally, after sizing and panning the enemy, Titus nods, retreating to his war carriage, smirking menacingly at the Jews starring back at him defiantly from atop the walls.
“I promised my father a short war.” Titus addresses Tiberius. “Josephus will ride with us and impart all knowledge he possesses of the enemy.”
“Will the mighty Titus not afford even small forbearance to prevent this war, as did the great Caesar?” The scribe attempts to sway Titus’ unrelenting focus of war; his deliberations are conditioned; he was not saved from death by any measure of benevolence; he was made to understand his orders that Vespasian must appear as Rome’s light unto the nations and the rebel Jews as the dark forces of this war.Josephus has few outlets to manoeuvre before Titus; he has no friends in Rome or Judea anymore; his deliberations are couched; saving the holy Temple is presented by the Hebrew scribe to Titus as a mark of Rome’s glory:
“Let Titus now see the terror and wonder before us, see how the holy city’s walls reach to the heavens – has any eye seen such works of holiness and beauty upon the earth as fit to destroy!?” “Great Jupiter!” Tiberius is awe struck by the fortress.
“Did I not tell you so truthfully? That wall would measure thirty of Hannibal’s elephants high… those stones, the weight of a hundred elephants! Higher than the pyramids. Who made all this?” “Speak, scribe.” Titus orders, focused on the wall.
“And darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Gen. 1:2)
Rome’s Legions stand before the outermost third wall of the Jerusalem fortress. Two contestants face each other in this confrontation, one which allows no exit features or compromise for either contestant. Now Rome is a mighty eagle, panting and heaving in quickened breaths, its fiery bloody eyes focused on its prey: Rome is set to destroy one miniscule group of bandits and primitive peasants assuming a right to alter the Roman world’s status quo. Above the highest wall on earth, the faces of Jews line the towers; they gaze at the greatest super power amassed before them. In the distance stands a temple harbouring the core of the Hebrew law of Monotheism; therein is what stirred Mighty Rome, as it did all nations of the divine emperor realm.
Titus, Tiberius and Josephus are stationed on Mount Scopus, a raised northern plateau affording them a grand vista of the 450-acre city-sized fortress. Delegates from the Empire have come to witness this war from safe distant hill tops. The stiff-necked Jews have become an affront to all of Mighty Rome’s divine emperors, and not without immense impact for Rome’s other conquered nations and the right of their own beliefs. That one small province has alone challenged Rome’s Heresy decree, rejecting Rome’s forbiddance of their Hebrew monotheistic belief, made all of Rome’s conquered nations focused on this unusual war, one not of might or terrain, yet one destined to become history’s most impacting; it will become history and humanity’s ultimate game changer. The Holy War syndrome began in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. The Roman Historian Casius Dio writes of the nations’ reactions:
“The whole earth, one might say, was being stirred over the matter.”
The legions appear as a swarm of locusts surrounding the tallest structure in the world; they occupy the entire terrain stretching to the distant hills across the Fortress. The outermost front wall of the Fortress casts a shadow covering more than half the Roman armies. The Jews gaze from the wall tops – 120 cubits high, at the unending legions below, arrayed in formidable armoury with their new monster war machines in the midst of each legion. That Rome was more than another brute force is now displayed before all; a dedicated, disciplined, majestically choreographed and fastidiously organized assembly of her power is showcased before a poignant juncture, outside the towering stone walls of the Jerusalem fortress. Rome’s legions stand in sparkling costumes and armoury, with their ensign banners displaying each legion’s numbered signatures. Each article of Rome’s forces is accounted, every action is measured, and all is rehearsed and ready. Perfectly symmetrical square blocks made of hundred soldiers each stand before the outermost third wall of the Jerusalem fortress; they cover the horizon east to west and extend to the northern hills opposite the fortress.
Atop the wall, the lad Boaz removes his sling from his shoulder; he squats to collect a smooth rounded stone from under him; he stands on a box containing a large stock of such boulders. He loads the stone and begins whirling his sling; he is focused on Tiberius, the Roman Captain some 2,000 cubits (Elbow to palm length) away from atop the tower. The stone whirls in ever increasing radius, a faint and formidable wind lashing sound; the people back away, fleeing to secured places in protection of the Roman response. The lad turns to Eleazar awaiting permission to launch. Eleazar sways his face in negation at the enthusiastic inexperienced lad. The lad drops the stone back into the box under his feet in angst and frustration.
The Jews again focus on the power amassed before them; crouched atop the wall, faces agape in fear and defiance.
Eleazar has a smirk; he calls to the lad Boaz with hand gestures.
“I could have hit their second in command?” The Lad winces.
“I know you could. But I have bigger plans for you. Always wait for my signals.” They turn to focus on the power assembled before them. The thirteen-year-old lad is becoming a man too quickly; Eleazar nods at him tenderly, then he hands him two berries. “Raal!?” [Poison]; Boaz knows what it is.
Eleazar nods. “Treat it carefully…don’t put it near your mouth. I will show you how to use it on your stone.”
Behind the walled fortress city, over a million Jews are packed here for the Passover festival, one that introduced to humanity the premise of Liberty; the larger than usual gathering this year seeks also protection from an existential onslaught. Included here are Jews from other land and Greeks and Romans who came in solidarity against Rome.
The Jews have numerously faced such battles before; now they scatter about in preparation of a war with the mightiest force, one that felled all other nations and mighty empires. The Jews tightly fill the entire single and double story dwellings and commercial cavities behind the walls. Armed with war insights derived from their own history, the Jews understand their hopeless stakes and the inevitable conclusion of this war.
Vespasian has made his son understand the importance of this war for Rome and the Flavian dynasty’s future. Titus stands still and silent, panning the fortress in suppressed awe, as a gladiator measuring and sizing up his opponent before battle. The two contestants face each other in a measured stand-off; all future monotheistic belief systems are on a precipice; it is a holy war for both these contestants and also, retrospectively, humanity’s unfolding derivative history. The Jews assemble makeshift fortifications in strategic crevices and behind shields made of tree barks; they have equipped themselves with clever village produced weapons and those captured and stolen from Rome. They are armed with daggers, firebrands, slings, fire torches, javelins, stones, spears and buckets of oil – and a small dose of ingenuity before history’s most awesome power.
The defenders behind the wall appear sombre and purpose united, communicating orders in few words and gestures. They are seen as prepared, resigned and braced for war – one in defence of their strange Hebrew belief every empire of divine kings found barbaric and intolerable; and the Jews equally saw the same of their invaders from across the seas.
Behind the wall, priestly groups are chanting war psalms of blessings before battle, and women are handing out foods and drinks to the defenders; youth groups are rehearsing sling rotations in the centre courts.
Those Jews arriving late are blocked from entering the fortress safety by the legions. They turn away fleeing for the northern hills opposite the fortress; those caught are strung on rows of crosses in the sight of the Jewish defenders on the wall towers; rows of crosses appear.
Finally, after sizing and panning the enemy, Titus nods, retreating to his war carriage, smirking menacingly at the Jews starring back at him defiantly from atop the walls. “I promised my father a short war.” Titus addresses Tiberius. “Josephus will ride with us and impart all knowledge he possesses of the enemy.”
“Will the mighty Titus not afford even small forbearance to prevent this war, as did the great Caesar?” The scribe attempts to sway Titus’ unrelenting focus of war; his deliberations are conditioned; he was not saved from death by any measure of benevolence; he was made to understand his orders that Vespasian must appear as Rome’s light unto the nations and the rebel Jews as the dark forces of this war. [105] Josephus has few outlets to manoeuvre before Titus; he has no friends in Rome or Judea anymore; his deliberations are couched; saving the holy Temple is presented by the Hebrew scribe to Titus as a mark of Rome’s glory:
“Let Titus now see the terror and wonder before us, see how the holy city’s walls reach to the heavens – has any eye seen such works of holiness and beauty upon the earth as fit to destroy!?” “Great Jupiter!” Tiberius is awe struck by the fortress. “Did I not tell you so truthfully? That wall would measure thirty of Hannibal’s elephants high… those stones, the weight of a hundred elephants! Higher than the pyramids. Who made all this?”
“Speak, scribe.” Titus orders, focused on the wall.
Excerpt from the book: https://amzn.to/3t2CLH4
Next week’s installment: ROME’S MARCH OF MIGHT
“BEN HUR II – EXILE”: What ‘REALLY’ happened in the First Century?
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