It is likely that the faith of the Jewish people in the appearance of a promised Messiah was by this time a good deal shaken. So many impostors had appeared, and lured their thousands to destruction, that even the deeply seated belief in his speedy advent was not sufficient to induce them to admit the pretensions of any fresh aspirant without careful inquiry. But in the present instance there were two considerations, each of which had been enough by itself to remove all doubt or hesitation. The first is, what has been already mentioned, the flagrancy of the insult offered to Almighty God; which, in the judgment of the Jews, was certain to bring down signal and immediate judgment on its authors. The other was the fact that Barchochebas had been accepted as the veritable Messiah by Akiba, the greatest of their Rabbis, and chief of the schools at Bethor. Something should be said of both these men, who played so conspicuous a part at this crisis in Jewish history.
Note to Chapter III. on the Number Slain in the Jewish Wars.
The numbers of those slain in the Jewish wars, as reported by Josephus, are as under.
| At Cæsarea | 20,000 | At Mt. Gerizim | 11,600 |
| ” Scythopolis | 13,000 | ” Jotapata | 40,000 |
| ” Alexandria | 50,000 | ” Gamala | 15,000 |
| ” Damascus | 10,000 | ” Gadara | 15,000 |
| ” Ascalon (3 massacres) | 20,000 | ” Jerusalem | 1,100,000 |
| ”Joppa | 15,000 |
At other places there were smaller totals, amounting altogether to upwards of 100,000, and making the entire sum of slain something less than a million and a half. But, as is elsewhere intimated (Appendix I.), Josephus’s statements must be received with caution. The large population found in Palestine in Adrian’s reign is not easily reconcilable with it. Lightfoot’s opinion seems the more probable one. Notwithstanding the great carnage, he says, ‘Tantum abfuit gens a totali et consummatâ deletione, ut undique adhuc restaret innumera multitudo, quæ se pacate Romano nutui dedidisset, et pace sedibus suis quiete frueretur. Ita ut Templum et Metropolim quidem desiderares, verum terram habitatoribus repletam, compositum Synedrii, Synagogarum, Populi statum illico cerneres.’—Lightfoot, vol. xi. 468.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] According to Josephus’s account, 600,000 perished of hunger during the siege; and the total of those who died during the campaign amounted to little short of a million and half. But that he exaggerates is beyond dispute. See Appendix I.
[27] See note at end of chapter.
[28] He is said at the same time to have issued a decree forbidding the Jews to circumcise their children.