the vulgar to
be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of
happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of
their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was
opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared
that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them.
Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth
day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible
phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a
fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events
that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals;
for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor
were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.
Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were
going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom
was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first
place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they
heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence."
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
turn