(25) Pilate offends Jewish susceptibilities in the matter of (i) the Emperor’s busts, (ii) the Corban money
Now Pilate, the governor[[165]] of Judæa, having occasion to transfer |c. A.D. 26| a (Roman) army from Cæsarea into winter quarters in Jerusalem, conceived the idea of annulling Jewish legislation by bringing within the city walls the Emperor’s busts which were attached to the standards; whereas the very making of images is forbidden us by the Law.[[166]] For this reason former governors used to make their entry into the city with standards from which these ornaments were absent. Pilate was the first to bring the images into Jerusalem and erect them there. This was done without the knowledge of the citizens because the army entered by night. As soon as they knew of it, they came in crowds to Cæsarea, and for many days petitioned for the removal of the images. Pilate stood firm, because to comply would be[[167]] tantamount to high treason against Cæsar, and on the sixth day, the Jews still persisting in their entreaties, he placed an armed force under cover and came in person to the judgement-seat; this had been set up in the race-course, where he had the soldiers concealed[[168]] in ambush. When the Jews once more presented their petition, at a given signal he had a cordon of soldiers round them and threatened to punish them with instant death if they did not desist from their uproar and depart to their homes. Thereupon they flung themselves on their faces and bared their necks and said that they would gladly welcome death rather than venture to transgress the wise ordinances[[169]] of their laws. Pilate marvelled at their obstinacy in the observance of their laws, and forthwith had the images taken back from Jerusalem to Cæsarea.
On another occasion he expended the consecrated funds[[170]] on the construction of (an aqueduct for) conveying water to Jerusalem, bringing it from a distance of two hundred furlongs.[[171]] The Jews were dissatisfied with his action in this matter, and many thousands[[172]] of them assembled and raised an outcry against him, requiring him to abandon his project; some, as is the way of a mob, even proceeded to rail at and insult the man. Pilate thereupon dressed a large body of soldiers in Jewish garb, under which they carried clubs, and stationed them where they could surround the Jews, whom he then ordered to retire. When these began to revile him, he gave the soldiers the prearranged signal; and they laid about them with a severity much greater than Pilate had ordered, punishing indiscriminately those who had taken part in the riot and those who had not. (The Jews resisted with no lack of spirit)[[173]]; and so, caught, as they were, unarmed by assailants equipped for the purpose, many of them fell and were left to die on the spot, while others escaped with wounds. Thus ended the insurrection.—Ant. XVIII. 3. 1 f. (55-62).
(26) Jesus Christ[[174]]
Now about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he should be called a man. For he was a doer of marvellous acts, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure; and he won over to himself many Jews and many also of the Greek nation. He was the Christ.[[175]] And when, on the indictment of the principal men among us, Pilate had sentenced him to the cross, yet did not those who had loved him at the first cease (to do so); for he appeared to them alive again on the third day, as the divine prophets had declared—these and ten thousand other wonderful things—concerning him. And even now the race[[176]] of Christians, so named from him, is not extinct.—Ant. XVIII. 3. 3 (63 f.).
(27) Tiberius expels all Jews from Rome
A precedent for the similar action of Claudius, which brought Aquila and Priscilla to Corinth (Acts xviii. 2). Suetonius alludes to this order of Tiberius: “He repressed foreign religious ceremonies—Egyptian and Jewish rites—compelling their devotees to burn their sacred vestments with all their paraphernalia. Under pretext of their military oath, he distributed the younger Jews over provinces with an insalubrious climate; others of the same race, or followers of kindred religions, he removed from the city, under penalty for disobedience of servitude for life” (Tiberius, § 36).
I revert to the story, which I promised to tell, of what befell the Jews in Rome at this time.
A Jew, who was a thorough rascal, had been driven from his country by an accusation of transgressing certain laws and by fear of consequent punishment. He was then living in Rome, where he professed to expound the inner meaning[[177]] of the laws of Moses, and took into partnership three men with characters exactly resembling his own. Fulvia, a lady of rank and a proselyte to Judaism, became their disciple, and was induced by them to send a present of purple (cloth) and gold to the Temple at Jerusalem. Having obtained possession of these articles, they appropriated them to their own use to defray their private expenses;[[178]] which in fact was the original object of their request. Fulvia lodged a complaint with her husband Saturninus; he reported the matter to Tiberius, his friend; and Tiberius ordered the whole Jewish (colony) to quit Rome. The consuls enlisted four thousand of them and drafted them to the island of Sardinia, inflicting penalties on a very large number who refused military service in deference to their ancestral laws. Thus, through the wickedness of four men, were the Jews expelled from the city.—Ant. XVIII. 3. 4 f. (80-84).