The Jewish War: Last half of book 5

[cahn]

Last week: Titus saving the day single-handedly as a millenium-old trope. The synoptic gospels foreshadowing these events, and discussion of the abomination of desolation. The Yom Kippur service description of the priest in his vestments. How much Titus might have intended the destruction of Jerusalem, and when, and how much that question may be different from how Josephus feels like he needs to justify it? A mention of R. Yochanan ben Zakkai, which all of you should definitely tell me more about :D

This week: Jerusalem is under siege. It's quite awful for those under siege, what with famine inside the city and getting crucified by Romans if they try to escape. Titus and Josephus continue to be blameless and awesome.

Next week: First half of Book 6: "...from its rebuilding by Haggai in the second year of the reign of Cyrus to its capture under Vespasian was 639 years and 45 days" (270).

Comments

Re: The Talmud on the Siege of Jerusalem

[cahn]

This is fascinating! I'm really glad that you guys are telling me more about this.

(There are some mathematical tractates which make this very clear. It's a completely independent mathematical/logical tradition--- you don't get any sense that these guys have heard of Euclid or Archimedes.)

Huh, this is really neat. So do they come up with something that works sort of like Euclidean geometry, or...?

Re: The Talmud on the Siege of Jerusalem

[cenozoicsynapsid]

I don't remember geometry specifically, I was talking more about the proof strategies. What I read at one point was this article: A Mathematical Proof of Kinnim 3:2, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40914641
See section seven "The role of mathematical proof" for the "quasi-inductive" nature of the arguments.

Re: The Talmud on the Siege of Jerusalem

[cahn]

Argh, I am having trouble logging into jstor tonight but this does sound really interesting! Will return if/when I am able to get in...