The Jewish War: First half of Book 4

[cahn]

Last week: Josephus really hypes Vespasian up! Galilee is also very nice! Discussion of Josephus' prophecy of Vespasian, both in Josephus and in Feuchtwanger's novelization, with detours into Antonia and Caenis.

This week: Internal strife in Jerusalem! Lots of internal strife!

Next week: Last half of book 4.

Comments

[lannamichaels]

It's not the mass general suicide that I feel is at issue here. Mass suicide of everyone kiling themselves certainly happened. What is at issue here for me is the idea that the men ("we") decided to kill the women to avoid rape.

[cenozoicsynapsid]

Yes, I was agreeing with you that this is not part of rabbinic Judaism as we know it. If honor killing of this type was (as I conjecture) part of what was going on with the mass suicides, it was quite likely affected by Roman or Hellenic cultural influence. One reason to believe that such influence was happening is that the Romans and Hellenes also believed suicide was an honorable end for men, and we definitely see Jewish men killing themselves. Yet this kind of mass suicide is also not part of Judaism as we know it, so this suggests to me that there is a fair degree of cultural influence around Judean attitudes toward suicide.