cahn | The Jewish War: Book 7

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The last book!

Last week: Astrological phenomena and the star of Bethlehem. Messianic (?) prophecy about Vespasian. Brutality of the siege, and discussion of the law of war protecting prisoners from the enemy army (or lack thereof). Imperator.

This week: Book 7. Wrapping up of the war. The Masada fortress and group suicide (which I think is interesting to think about given the discussion we had a few books back). The temple of Onias. (Dedicated commment threads for both of these below, for anyone who wants to join in!)

Yay book club, thank you everyone!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

cahn

This is so fascinating! I think it's particularly interesting that it's the story in which Onias was the jealous one where his temple was dedicated to the worship of God, but not the other way around. What does that mean?

Of course this is not the path R" Yochanan be Zakkai and his reconstituted Sanhedrin took the Jewish people. They centered rituals where prayer replaced sacrificial worship. My sense has always been that this was a transition that was already somewhat in the cards even before the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem and there are parts of the Onias story that support that, such as the narrative of High Priest Shimon being the last generation to use the name of God in the Yom Kippur service. The sacrificial rite was becoming less effective and central and especially to Pharisaic Judaism it was not the main power base.

Ooh. This is really interesting (as well as not something I would have ever figured out for myself). Like

cenozoicsynapsid, I'm also interested in what you think about the reasons for this?

But Josephus's version highlights the other dimension. R"Yochanan Ben Zakkai emphasized replacement of the sacrificial rite because after the destruction of the Temple it was not safe to offer sacrifices to the God of the Jews even in private altars, because the Romans saw this as rebellious behavior.

*nods*

From:

cenozoicsynapsid

This is so fascinating! I think it's particularly interesting that it's the story in which Onias was the jealous one where his temple was dedicated to the worship of God, but not the other way around. What does that mean?

I don't know! But I agree, it's fascinating. It seems pretty implausible that a would-be High Priest wouldn't be instructed on the vestments he had to wear. The vestments are specified in the Torah, he'd have seen the High Priest wearing them in previous years, and anyway, as we discussed with respect to the Zealots' stooge priest, it seems like the families who were of High-Priestly rank had their sons educated for the position. As

seekingferret says, the story is from long after Onias's time; in fact, this is evidence that it's from fairly long after the destruction of the temple. The attribution to Rabbi Meir is consistent with that, as he was a disciple of Akiva (so, later than the *third* Roman-Jewish war). So the story is probably meant to teach us something, rather than communicate a legitimate history about Onias... but I can't tell what.

From:

cahn

So the story is probably meant to teach us something, rather than communicate a legitimate history about Onias...

It really does seem like it, with the two contradictory stories that end up in opposite places with the two brothers, but I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from it either? That good things can come from not-so-great beginnings, and vice versa?