Jesus ben Ananias

Jesus, the son of Ananias, was a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the Jewish War against Rome began in 66 CE, went around Jerusalem prophesying the city's destruction. The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem turned him over to the Romans, who tortured him. The procurator Albinus took him to be a madman and released him. He continued his prophecy for more than seven years until he was killed by a stone from a catapult during the Roman siege of Jerusalem during the war. His name is rendered "ישוע בן חנניה" Yeshua ben Hananiah in modern Hebrew histories.[1][2][3][4]

But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, 23 began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus [for he was then our procurator] asked him, Who he was? and whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months, without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.[5]

-(Book 6, Chapter 5, Section 3 of the historian Flavius Josephus' The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem)

External links

References

  1. ^ .עין הקורא: סופרים וספרים, עיתונאים ועיתונים Aba Ahimeir - 2003 כי בגישתנו לומר משהו על אורי צבי, נזכרנו בקטע הנ״ל על נביא ״איכה״, ישוע בן חנניה שמו, מתקופה החורבן השני. ... ומאז המלחמה עד היום הזה אין קולו של ישוע בן חנניה של תקופתנו נשמע. בערב של כל חורבן לאומי שלנו מופיע הנביא, משורר האחרית.
  2. ^ Entsiḳlopedyah Miḳraʼit: otsar ha-yediʻot ʻal ha-Miḳra u-teḳufato מוסד ביאליק - 1976 - ... וכן שולחן־ערוך׳ יורה דעה סי׳ שלט׳ א)׳ כן נחשבה קינת ישוע בן חנניה לסימן רע ( יוסף בן מתתיהו׳ מלח׳ ו׳ה׳ג)׳ יתר על כן׳ תפקיד זה משתלב בפעולות הדרמאטיות של הנביאים׳ שלפעמים תפקידן לא רק לסמל אלא אף כאילו לבצע את המסומל (להוציא מכוח .
  3. ^ קטדרה בתולדות ארץ־ישראל ויישובה: 118-122 Yad Yitsḥaḳ Ben-Tsevi - 2006 יוספוס פלוויוס מספר כי בשנת 62 לסה״נ ניבא יהודי פשוט ושמו ישוע בן חנניה על חורבן ירושלים והמקדש, ועשה זאת בהר הבית ... ההסבר למקרה של ישוע בן חנניה, ובמידת מה גם לאמרה שיוחסה לישו כי יהרוס את המקדש, טמון בעדויות שונות מרחבי האימפריה .
  4. ^ מולד מפלגת פועלי ארץ־ישראל - 1968 - לכל ענין משפטו של ישו בידנו הקבלה מאלפת ביותר אצל יוסף בן מתתיהו(מלחמות וי, סוף פרק ה׳): ״ארבע שנים לפני המלחמה״ קם בחג הסוכות בחצר בית המקדש איש ושמו ישוע בן חנניה, והתחיל מתנבא על חורבן ירושלים והבית
  5. ^ Josephus The Wars of the Jews, http://www.interhack.net/projects/library/wars-jews/b6c5.html