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[314]
But the rage of the Idumeans was not satiated by these slaughters;
but they now betook themselves to the city, and plundered every house,
and slew every one they met; and for the other multitude, they esteemed
it needless to go on with killing them, but they sought for the high priests,
and the generality went with the greatest zeal against them; and as soon
as they caught them they slew them, and then standing upon their dead bodies,
in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to the people, and Jesus
with his speech made to them from the wall. Nay, they proceeded to that
degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without burial, although
the Jews used to take so much care of the burial of men, that they took
down those that were condemned and crucified, and buried them before the
going down of the sun. I should not mistake if I said that the death of
Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from
this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her
affairs, whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their
preservation, slain in the midst of their city. He was on other accounts
also a venerable, and a very just man; and besides the grandeur of that
nobility, and dignity, and honor of which he was possessed, he had been
a lover of a kind of parity, even with regard to the meanest of the people;
he was a prodigious lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy in
government; and did ever prefer the public welfare before his own advantage,
and preferred peace above all things; for he was thoroughly sensible that
the Romans were not to be conquered. He also foresaw that of necessity
a war would follow, and that unless the Jews made up matters with them
very dexterously, they would be destroyed; to say all in a word, if Ananus
had survived, they had certainly compounded matters; for he was a shrewd
man in speaking and persuading the people, and had already gotten the mastery
of those that opposed his designs, or were for the war. And the Jews had
then put abundance of delays in the way of the Romans, if they had had
such a general as he was. Jesus was also joined with him; and although
he was inferior to him upon the comparison, he was superior to the rest;
and I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed this city to
destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his sanctuary
by fire, that he cut off these their great defenders and well-wishers,
while those that a little before had worn the sacred garments, and had
presided over the public worship; and had been esteemed venerable by those
that dwelt on the whole habitable earth when they came into our city, were
cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I
cannot but imagine that virtue itself groaned at these men's case, and
lamented that she was here so terribly conquered by wickedness. And this
at last was the end of Ananus and Jesus.
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