as they were not able to get off, for I desired them to stay, they looked with concern at my words to them. I ordered, therefore, the multitude to restrain entirely their acclamations, and placed the most faithful of my armed men upon the avenues, to be a guard to us, lest John should unexpectedly fall upon us; and I encouraged the Galileans to take their weapons, lest they should be disturbed at their enemies, if any sudden insult should be made upon them; and then, in the first place, I put Jonathan and his partners in mind of their [former] letter, and after what manner they had written to me, and declared they were sent by the common consent of the people of Jerusalem, to make up the differences I had with John, and how they had desired me to come to them; and as I spake thus, I publicly shewed that letter they had written, till they could not at all deny what they had done, the letter itself convicting them. I then said, "O Jonathan! and you that are sent with him as his colleagues, if I were to be judged as to my behaviour, compared with that of John's, and had brought no more than two or three witnesses,[1] good men and true, it is plain you had been forced, upon the examination of their characters beforehand, to discharge the accusations: that, therefore, you may be informed that I have acted well in the affairs of Galilee, I think three witnesses too few to be brought by a man that hath done as he ought to do; so I gave you all these for witnesses. Inquire of them[2] how I have lived, and whether I have not behaved myself with all decency, and after a virtuous manner among them. And I farther conjure you, O Galileans! to hide no part of the truth, but to speak before these men as before judges, whether I have in anything acted otherwise than well."
6O. WHILE I was thus speaking, the united
voices of all the people joined together, and called
me their benefactor and saviour, and attested to
my former behaviour, and exhorted me to continue
so to do hereafter; and they all said, upon their
oaths, that their wives had been preserved free
from injuries, and that no one had ever been
aggrieved by me. After this, I
Josephus
vindicates
himself.
read to the Galileans two of those
epistles which had been sent by
Jonathan and his colleagues, and
which those whom I had appointed
to guard the road had taken, and sent to me.
These were full of reproaches and of lies, as if I
had acted more like a tyrant than a governor
against them; with many other things besides
therein contained, which were no better indeed
than impudent falsities. I also informed the
multitude how I came by those letters, and that
those who carried them delivered them up
voluntarily; for I was not willing that my enemies
should know anything of the guards I had set,
lest they should be afraid, and leave off writing
hereafter.
51. WHEN THE multitude heard these
things, they were greatly provoked at Jonathan
and his colleagues that were with
him, and were going to attack
them, and kill them; and this they
He protects
Jonathan.
had certainly done, unless I had
restrained the anger of the Galileans, and said
that, "I forgave Jonathan and his colleagues
what was past, if they would repent, and go to
their own country and tell those who sent them
the truth as to my conduct." When I had said
this, I let them go, although I knew they would
do nothing of what they had promised. But the
multitude were very much enraged against them,
and entreated me to give them leave to punish
them for their insolence; yet did I try all methods
to persuade them to spare the men; for I knew
that every instance of sedition was pernicious to
the public welfare. But the multitude was too
angry with them to be dissuaded; and all of
them went immediately to the house in which
Jonathan and his colleagues abode. However,
when I perceived that their rage could not be
restrained, I got on horseback, and ordered the
multitude to follow me to the village of Sogane,
which was twenty furlongs off Gabara; and by
using this stratagem, I so managed myself, as not
to appear to begin a civil war amongst them.
52. BUT WHEN I was come near Sogane, I caused the multitude to make a halt, and exhorted them not to be so easily provoked to anger, and to the inflicting such punishments as could not be afterwards recalled:
I also gave order, that a hundred
men, who were already in years,
He pacifies the
multitude by
stratagem.
and were principal men among
them, should get themselves ready
to go to the city of Jerusalem, and should make
a complaint before the people, of such as raised
seditions in the country. And I said to them
that, "in case they be moved with what you say,
you shall desire the community to write to me,
and to enjoin me to continue in Galilee, and to
order Jonathan and his colleagues to depart out
of it." When I had suggested these instructions
to them, and while they were getting themselves
ready as fast as they could, I sent them on this
errand the third day after they had been
assembled: I also sent five hundred armed men with
them [as a guard], I then wrote to my friends in
Samaria, to take care that they might safely pass
through the country: for Samaria was already
under the Romans, and it was absolutely
necessary for those that go quickly [to Jerusalem] to
pass through that country; for in that road you
may, in three days' time, go from Galilee to
Jerusalem. I also went myself, and conducted
the old men as far as the bounds of Galilee and
- ↑ We here learn the practice of the Jews in the days of Josephus, to inquire into the characters of witnesses before they were admitted; and that their number ought to be three, or two at the least, also exactly as in the law of Moses, and in the Apostolical Constitutions, b. ii. ch.37. See Horeb Covenant Revived, page 97, 98.
- ↑ This appeal to the whole body of the Galileans by Josephus, and the testimony they gave him of integrity in his conduct as their governor, is very like that appeal and testimony in the case of the prophet Samuel, 1 Sam. xii. 1-5; and perhaps was done by Josephus in imitation of him.
