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The Church History of Eusebius

Chapter V.--The Last Siege of the Jews after Christ.

1. After Nero had held the power thirteen years, ¹ and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months, ² Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there. ³ Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus. ⁴

2. For the Jews after the ascension of our Saviour, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them, ⁵ and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded, ⁶ and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour, died in the manner already described. ⁷ But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel, ⁸ relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them, "Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name." ⁹

3. But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. ¹⁰ And when those that believed in Christ had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.

4. But the number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable,--all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive. sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, ¹¹ stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire,--all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus. ¹²

5. But it is necessary to state that this writer records that the multitude of those who were assembled from all Judea at the time of the Passover, to the number of three million souls, ¹³ were shut up in Jerusalem "as in a prison," to use his own words.

6. For it was right that in the very days in which they had inflicted suffering upon the Saviour and the Benefactor of all, the Christ of God, that in those days, shut up "as in a prison," they should meet with destruction at the hands of divine justice.

7. But passing by the particular calamities which they suffered from the attempts made upon them by the sword and by other means, I think it necessary to relate only the misfortunes which the famine caused, that those who read this work may have some means of knowing that God was not long in executing vengeance upon them for their wickedness against the Christ of God.

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Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ ἱστορία

Ε Περὶ τῆς μετὰ τὸν Χριστὸν ὑστάτης Ἰουδαίων πολιορκίας.

[3.5.1] Μετὰ Νέρωνα δέκα πρὸς τρισὶν ἔτεσιν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπικρατήσαντα τῶν ἀμφὶ Γάλβαν καὶ Ὄθωνα ἐνιαυτὸν ἐπὶ μησὶν ἓξ διαγενομένων, Οὐεσπασιανός, ταῖς κατὰ Ἰουδαίων παρατάξεσιν λαμπρυνόμενος, βασιλεὺς ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἀναδείκνυται τῆς Ἰουδαίας, αὐτοκράτωρ πρὸς τῶν αὐτόθι στρατοπέδων ἀναγορευθείς. τὴν ἐπὶ Ῥώμης οὖν αὐτίκα στειλάμενος, Τίτωι τῶι παιδὶ τὸν κατὰ Ἰου[3.5.2]δαίων ἐγχειρίζει πόλεμον. μετά γε μὴν τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀνάληψιν Ἰουδαίων πρὸς τῶι κατ' αὐτοῦ τολμήματι ἤδη καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ πλείστας ὅσας ἐπιβουλὰς μεμηχανημένων, πρώτου τε Στεφάνου λίθοις ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἀνηιρημένου, εἶτα δὲ μετ' αὐτὸν Ἰακώβου, ὃς ἦν Ζεβεδαίου μὲν παῖς, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰωάννου, τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτμηθέντος, ἐπὶ πᾶσί τε Ἰακώβου, τοῦ τὸν αὐτόθι τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς θρόνον πρώτου μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀνάληψιν κεκληρωμένου, τὸν προδηλωθέντα τρόπον μεταλλάξαντος, τῶν τε λοιπῶν ἀποστόλων μυρία εἰς θάνατον ἐπιβεβουλευμένων καὶ τῆς μὲν Ἰουδαίας γῆς ἀπεληλαμένων, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆι τοῦ κηρύγματος διδασκαλίαι τὴν εἰς σύμπαντα τὰ ἔθνη στειλαμένων πορείαν σὺν δυνάμει τοῦ Χριστοῦ, φήσαντος αὐτοῖς· «πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐν τῶι ὀνό[3.5.3]ματί μου», οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐκκλησίας κατά τινα χρησμὸν τοῖς αὐτόθι δοκίμοις δι' ἀποκαλύψεως ἐκδοθέντα πρὸ τοῦ πολέμου μεταναστῆναι τῆς πόλεως καί τινα τῆς Περαίας πόλιν οἰκεῖν κεκελευσμένου, Πέλλαν αὐτὴν ὀνομάζουσιν, ἐν ἧ τῶν εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκότων ἀπὸ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ μετωικισμένων, ὡς ἂν παντελῶς ἐπιλελοιπότων ἁγίων ἀνδρῶν αὐτήν τε τὴν Ἰουδαίων βασιλικὴν μητρόπολιν καὶ σύμπασαν τὴν Ἰουδαίαν γῆν, ἡ ἐκ θεοῦ δίκη λοιπὸν αὐτοὺς ἅτε τοσαῦτα εἴς τε τὸν Χριστὸν καὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους αὐτοῦ παρηνομηκότας μετήιει, τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἄρδην τὴν γενεὰν αὐτὴν [3.5.4] ἐκείνην ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀφανίζουσα. ὅσα μὲν οὖν τηνικάδε κατὰ πάντα τόπον ὅλωι τῶι ἔθνει συνερρύη κακά, ὅπως τε μάλιστα οἱ τῆς Ἰουδαίας οἰκήτορες εἰς ἔσχατα περιηλάθησαν συμφορῶν, ὁπόσαι τε μυριάδες ἡβηδὸν γυναιξὶν ἅμα καὶ παισὶ ξίφει καὶ λιμῶι καὶ μυρίοις ἄλλοις εἴδεσι περιπεπτώκασιν θανάτου, πόλεών τε Ἰουδαϊκῶν ὅσαι τε καὶ οἷαι γεγόνασιν πολιορκίαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁπόσα οἱ ἐπ' αὐτὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ὡς ἂν ἐπὶ μητρόπολιν ὀχυρωτάτην καταπεφευγότες δεινὰ καὶ πέρα δεινῶν ἑοράκασι, τοῦ τε παντὸς πολέμου τὸν τρόπον καὶ τῶν ἐν τούτωι γεγενημένων ἐν μέρει ἕκαστα, καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τέλει τὸ πρὸς τῶν προφητῶν ἀνηγορευμένον βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως ἐν αὐτῶι κατέστη τῶι πάλαι τοῦ θεοῦ περιβοήτωι νεῶι, παντελῆ φθορὰν καὶ ἀφανισμὸν ἔσχατον τὸν διὰ πυρὸς ὑπομείναντι, πάρεστιν ὅτωι φίλον ἐπ' ἀκριβὲς ἐκ τῆς τῶι Ἰωσήπωι [3.5.5] γραφείσης ἀναλέξασθαι ἱστορίας· ὡς δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος τῶν ἀθροισθέντων ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἁπάσης ἐν ἡμέραις τῆς τοῦ πάσχα ἑορτῆς ὥσπερ ἐν εἱρκτῆι ῥήμασιν αὐτοῖς ἀποκλεισθῆναι εἰς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀμφὶ τριακοσίας μυριάδας τὸ πλῆθος ἱστορεῖ, ἀναγκαῖον [3.5.6] ὑποσημήνασθαι. χρῆν δ' οὖν ἐν αἷς ἡμέραις τὸν πάντων σωτῆρα καὶ εὐεργέτην Χριστόν τε τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ κατὰ τὸ πάθος διατέθεινται, ταῖς αὐταῖς ὥσπερ ἐν εἱρκτῆι κατακλεισθέντας τὸν μετελθόντα αὐτοὺς ὄλεθρον πρὸς τῆς θείας δίκης καταδέξασθαι. [3.5.7] Παρελθὼν δῆτα τῶν ἐν μέρει συμβεβηκότων αὐτοῖς ὅσα διὰ ξίφους καὶ ἄλλωι τρόπωι κατ' αὐτῶν ἐγκεχείρηται, μόνας τὰς διὰ τοῦ λιμοῦ ἀναγκαῖον ἡγοῦμαι συμφορὰς παραθέσθαι, ὡς ἂν ἐκ μέρους ἔχοιεν οἱ τῆιδε τῆι γραφῆι ἐντυγχάνοντες εἰδέναι ὅπως αὐτοὺς τῆς εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ παρανομίας οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν