Judas the son of Ezechias

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The Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus ( Antiquities, XIV 9.2) reports how Ezechias (Hezekiah), the father of Judas, who roamed the border areas to Syria with an armed band as a “robber chief”, spoke of the young Herod (even before he became king was seized and executed. Apparently, however, the power structure of the Ezechias family remained intact, because according to Josephus his son Judas had "great power" and could "be held down by Herod only with difficulty". This qualification probably hides the fact that Judas had established a local special rule in northern Israel, which was in conflict with the political system of the Roman client king Herod .

As Josephus further reports ( Antiquities, XVII 10.5), Judas collected after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC. At Sepphoris , a city in Galilee (today: Sefuriye), “a crowd of depraved people attacked the armory, seized the weapons located there, distributed them among his own, also stole the money kept there and spread it on all sides Horror by plundering and dragging anyone who fell into his hands ”. According to Josephus, Judas even strived for the rule of kings, which he wanted to achieve "not so much through bravery as through unbridled desire for destruction."

From the (tendentious) description of Josephus it emerges that Judas succeeded in bringing the then important city of Sepphoris in northern Israel into his power and ruling it for a limited time. Because in the war between Herod the Great and his rival Matthias Antigonus for power over Galilee, Sepphoris got between the fronts. Herod conquered the city and held it until his death in 4 BC. BC Judas the son of Ezechias (Judah ben Hezekiah) used the situation to lead the townspeople to an uprising against the Herodians, who were patronized by the Romans. Then let Publius Varus Quinctilius , then governor of Syria, completely destroy the city.

Map of the kingdom of Herod and in Jesus times.

The unrest that broke out in the Roman territory in Judea after the death of Herod had reached such proportions that the Roman governor in Syria Publius Quinctilius Varus had to advance with reinforcements in order to safeguard Roman interests. His associations also attacked the city of Sepphoris, reducing it to rubble and selling into slavery the inhabitants, who apparently had sympathized with the government of Judas . Judas, about whom Josephus does not give further details, may have died in these battles.

Some historians assume a personal identity to Judas of the Galileans .

swell

  • Flavius ​​Josephus: Jewish antiquities . Fourier, Wiesbaden, undated

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Hengel : The Zealots: Investigations into the Jewish freedom movement in the time from Herod I to 70 AD. Vol. 1 Works on the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, Brill Archive, Leiden 1976, ISBN 978-9-0040- 4327-5 , p. 338 [1]
  2. ↑ Reza Aslan . Zealot: Jesus of Nazareth and his time. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-498-00083-7 , p. 292 [2]
  3. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Horn : Judas, the Galilean. In: Hans Dieter Betz (Ed.): Religion in past and present: Concise dictionary for theology and religious studies. Vol. 4. IK. 4., Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-146944-5 , p. 599
personal data
SURNAME Judas the son of Ezechias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish rebel against Roman supremacy
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century