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Caesar's Messiah
CHAPTER 15
The Apostles and the Maccabees
My analysis revealed that the Apostles John and Simon were lam-
poons of Jewish militants that turned these leaders of the Jewish
rebellion into Christians. I therefore attempted to determine if other
distortions of history, either in the New Testament or War of the Jews,
had been used in the creation of Christianity. The first thing that
struck me after beginning this inquiry was that there were simply
too many characters in both works with the names Simon, John,
Judas, Eleazar (Lazarus), Matthias (Matthew), Joseph, Mary, and
Jesus.
If you consult the Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names in Web-
ster's Unabridged, you will find hundreds of Hebrew first names.
Notably, in both Josephus and the New Testament the same few Jew-
ish names proliferate. In War of the Jews there are nine Eleazars,
three Jacobs (Jameses), six Jesuses, five Matthiases (Matthew), one
Mary, four Mariammes, eight Johns, seven Josephs, ten Judases, and
thirteen Simons. In the New Testament the same pattern occurs:
there are seven Marys, nine Simons, two Johns, two Josephs, four
Judases, two Lazaruses (Eleazar), two Matthiases (Matthews), two
Jameses, and, at the minimum, three Jesuses. From the standpoint
of probability, it is unlikely that this set of names would even over-
lap in two works that have so few named characters, let alone with
this many duplications.
I suspected that the authors of the New Testament and the
works of Josephus had deliberately used these particular names over
and over. But if these particular names were used deliberately, what
was the intent?
302
The Apostles and the Maccabees 303
The answer lies in the fact that this same set of names was
known to have been used by a third group, the Maccabees, the fam-
ily that ruled Israel during the first and second centuries B.C.E.,
until they were replaced by the Romans with Herod. Within that
family are found the same names that are so overused by Josephus
and the New Testament. The founder of the dynasty was Mattathias
(Matthew), who had five sons named Simon, Judas, John, Eleazar
(Lazarus), and Jonathan.
NOW at this time there was one whose name was Mat-
tathias, who dwelt at Modin, the son of John, the son of
Simeon, the son of Asamoneus, a priest of the order of
Joarib, and a citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons; John,
who was called Gaddis, and Simon, who was called
Matthes, and Judas, who was called Maccabeus, and
Eleazar, who was called Auran, and Jonathan, who was
called Apphus. Now this Mattathias lamented to his chil-
dren the sad state of their affairs, and the ravage made in
the city, and the plundering of the temple, and the calami-
ties the multitude were under; and he told them that it was
better for them to die for the laws of their country, than to
live so ingloriously as they then did. 216
Josephus also claims to bean ancestor of the Maccabees, by way
of a daughter of Simon, son of Mattathias, who is mentioned above.
In charting his lineage, Josephus records that his branch of the fam-
ily alternated the names of the males every other generation: Jose-
phus' father was named Mattathias, while his grandfather had been
named Josephus, etc. Therefore, the male names used multiple times
in the New Testament are almost exactly the same as those Josephus
says were used by the males of the Maccabee family. These names are
Joseph, Judas, Simon, Eleazar (Lazarus), John, and Matthias
(Matthew).
It is interesting that Jesus, like the sons of Matthias, the founder
of the Maccabean dynasty, was also said to be one of five sons.
Notice how some of the names in Jesus' family are Maccabean.
304 Caesar's Messiah
Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called
Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses (Joseph), and
Simon, and Judas?
Matt. 13:55
The Maccabees were the creators of the Judea that Rome
destroyed. For 376 years, from Zerubbabel to Jonathan Maccabaeus
(537-161 B.C.E.), there had been only a negligible Jewish state.
Many writers of this era were not even aware of the existence of
Judea. The Greek historian Herodotus, painstakingly exact in his
documentation of the nations and peoples of the known world,
refers only to the Syrians of Palestine ("Philistia") when he describes
the area. But the embers of a Jewish national identity were never
completely extinguished and in the second century B.C.E. the Mac-
cabean family became the leaders of a movement that brought Eretz
Israel (the land of Israel) back into existence.
The Maccabees conquered the territories of Samaria, Galilee,
Edom, and Moab and the cities of Gadara, Pella, Gersa, Gamala, and
Gaza. The inhabitants of any area the Maccabees conquered were
forced to convert to Judaism and the males were circumcised. Those
who refused were executed.
The reign of the Maccabees ended in 37 B.C.E. when Herod,
with Roman support, defeated Matthias Antigonus, the last Mac-
cabean king of Israel. The original Herod was not a Jew but an
Edomite Arab. His authority was challenged by the religiously zeal-
ous Jews who believed in the maintenance of a separate racial iden-
tity. "Whoso marries an Aramean woman, the Zealots lynch him." 217
The people of Israel dubbed Herod "the Edomite slave," refer-
ring both to his slavish relationship with Rome and to his non-Jew-
ish background. To many Jews, Herod and his descendants were
thus unacceptable as the kings of Israel. Josephus describes a mes-
sianic movement that he calls the "fourth philosophy" which was
begun by Judas the Galilean (in the same year that Jesus was pur-
portedly born), who led a rebellion against the Herods and Rome
that continued until the fall of Masada in 73 C.E.
As Josephus relates it, most of the leaders of this philosophy had
"Maccabean" names, and in many instances were related to one
another. For example, in addition to Judas the Galilean, who is cred-
The Apostles and the Maccabees 305
ited with creating the "fourth philosophy," Josephus lists someone
named Eleazar as the person who actually starts the war. John and
Simon were the names of the "Jewish tyrants" who controlled the
rebels during the siege of Jerusalem. The movement ends at Masada
when the Sicarii destroy themselves under the leadership of some-
one also named Eleazar, who was also identified as a descendant of
Judas the Galilean.
Josephus records the names of the leaders of the Jewish rebel-
lion at its onset in 66 C.E. Josephus' list continues the pattern of
"overusing" Maccabean names and includes a John, a Matthias, an
Eleazar (Lazarus), a Simon, and a Joseph (himself). Notably, there is
also a Jesus.
They also chose other generals for Idumea; Jesus, the son
of Sapphias, one of the high priests; and Eleazar, the son of
Ananias, the high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then
governor of Idumea, who was of a family that belonged to
Perea, beyond Jordan, and was thence called the Peraite,
that he should be obedient to those fore-named command-
ers. Nor did they neglect the care of other parts of the
country; but Joseph the son of Simon was sent as general
to Jericho, as was Manasseh to Perea, and John, the Ess-
cue, to the toparchy of Thamna; Lydda was also added to
his portion, and Joppa, and Emmaus. But John, the son of
Matthias, was made governor of the toparchies of Gophnit-
ica and Acrabattene; as was Josephus, the son of Matthias,
of both the Galilees. Gamala also, which was the strongest
city in those parts, was put under his command. 218
Because the Maccabees were the royal family Herod defeated,
and were religious zealots, it is logical that they would have been a
focus of those zealous Jews who rebelled against Herod's rule. Herod
is also recorded as systematically killing members of the Maccabean
family.
It seemed to me, based on their persistent use of Maccabean
names, that the family of Judas the Galilean was descended from the
Maccabees, though this is not recorded by Josephus or in any other
extant history. I have yet another reason for reaching this conclu-
sion. The discovery of the true identity of the Apostles John and
306 Caesar's Messiah
Simon, as well as the original Messiah, Eleazar, had shown me that
Josephus could deliberately have obfuscated their true identities to
create the historical confusion in which Christianity was grafted
onto the Sicarii movement. Therefore, if Josephus had omitted
recording the fact that the family of Judas the Galilean was
descended from the Maccabees, he would simply have been contin-
uing this intentional obfuscation.
Josephus and the authors of the New Testament turned the Mac-
cabean family, members of which had led the first-century revolt
against Rome, into the Apostles and the family of Jesus, the Messiah
of peace, whom Rome had invented to replace the warrior Messiah
of Maccabean Judaism.
I suspect that within first-century Judea, the Maccabean family
was regarded as messianic, and was similar to what is called a
Caliphate throughout the Islamic world today — Caliph meaning
"successor" in Arabic. Such a family needed to have a way of identi-
fying its members, particularly its successors. The purpose of and
theoveruse of Maccabean names, ad absurdum, in Josephus and the
New Testament was to interfere with this process and, in the confu-
sion, to graft Christianity onto the movement that centered on that
family. The fact that there were messianic families in first-century
Judea is borne out by a quote from Eusebius citing an earlier work
by Hegesippus.
Vespasian, after the capture of Jerusalem, issued an order
to ensure that no one who was of the royal stock should be
left among the Jews, that all the descendants of David
should be ferreted out and for this reason a further wide-
spread persecution was again inflicted upon the Jews. 219
The previous quote shows that the Romans were indeed trying
to eradicate at least one messianic family. Notice that the Messiah
who was a problem for the Romans was identified as Jewish.
Destroying the family from which this Messiah was spawned is
described as a continuation of the persecutions of the Jews. This
shows that Rome oppressed a Jewish, not a Christian, messianic
movement in the first century C.E.
The Apostles and the Maccabees 307
Supporting the contention that Rome saw the family of Judas
the Galilean as part of this messianic problem is that Josephus
records that the "world ruler," or Messianic prophesies, were what
most stirred the masses to revolt, and that the only family specifi-
cally targeted for destruction by the Romans was the family of Judas
the Galilean. Notice in the following passage that Judas' sons are
named James and Simon, just as two of the Apostles.
And besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now
slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt,
when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of
the Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing book. The
names of those sons were James and Simon, whom
Alexander commanded to be crucified. 220
Josephus also records that Judas' descendant "Eleazar" was in
charge of the Sicarii at Masada in 70 C.E. when the "fourth philoso-
phy" was finally destroyed. It seems clear that a family that had led
messianic revolutionaries generation after generation would have
been the family from whom a Messiah would be expected.
The passage above suggests that the Zealots saw the family of
Judas the Galilean as a messianic family. However, the Maccabees
were of the seed of Aaron and not of the family of David. If the fam-
ily of Judas the Galilean were descendants of the Maccabees, and
therefore of Aaron, how could they have been seen as messianic by
the Jewish rebels?
Though the son of David has come to be the Messiah's epithet
in both the Talmud and the New Testament, in the first and second
centuries C.E. many Jews looked to a Messiah other than the one
"coming" from the family of David. Rabbi Akiba, for example,
believed that Bar Kokhbah, the revolutionary Jewish leader of the
second century C.E., was the true Messiah though nowhere was it
claimed that he was of the house of David.
More important is the fact that found among the Dead Sea
Scrolls were two works, the Damascus Document and Ttt Rule, both
of which describe a sect that looked forward to the appearance of a
Messiah. In both works, this coming Messiah is described as a mem-
ber of the family of Aaron.
308 Caesar's Messiah
This is the exact statement of the statutes in which (they
shall walk until the coming of the Messiah) of Aaron and
Israel who will pardon their iniquity. 221
They shall depart from none of the counsels of the Law
. . . until there shall come the Prophet and the Messiahs of
Aaron and Israel. . . 222
Each work also refers to the family of Aaron in a way that shows
it to be in a position of leadership.
But God remembered the Covenant with the forefathers
and raised from Aaron men of discernment . . . 223
The Sons of Aaron alone shall command in matters of
justice and property . . .
The authors of the New Testament were well aware that the
Messiah did not need be of the family of David. Jesus is quoted as
stating exactly that:
How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of
David?
For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said
to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine ene-
mies thy footstool.
David therefore himself calleth him [the Messiah] Lord;
how then can he be his son?
Mark 12:35-37
That Jesus stated that the Messiah need not be of the family of
David should not be surprising, because Jesus himself was not of
that family. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke trace completely dif-
ferent versions of Jesus' "family of David" genealogy through his
father Joseph, who, of course, was not his father at all. A fact well
known to the authors of the Gospels because, according to them, he
was born of the Holy Spirit and a virgin.
Given the fact that the family of Aaron was considered mes-
sianic by many Jews of this era, and that the Maccabean dynasty was
the royal Jewish family of this era and was of the house of Aaron, it
is probable that Zealots would have seen the Maccabees as the fam-
ily from which the "Messiah of Aaron" would appear. If this theory
The Apostles and the Maccabees 309
is correct, then the messianic movement of first-century Judea
developed as a reaction against Rome, which had ousted the Mac-
cabees and replaced them with their puppets, the family of Herod.
The struggle of first-century Judea was akin to many in Medieval
Europe, in that it involved an ousted royal family seeking to return
to power, a foreign government propping up an unpopular king, and
a dispute over religion.
Jewish Zealots, hoping to restore the Maccabean family, focused
on those parts of their scripture that they believed prophesied God's
sending a Messiah who would restore Israel to a sovereign Jewish
state. The Book of Daniel, which does not specify which earthly fam-
ily the Messiah was to come from, would have seemed especially apt
because it foresees a "son of God" who helps to restore Israel after a
series of tribulations. The Zealots applied these prophecies to the
Maccabees.
The Roman authors of War of the Jews, in order to transform the
Maccabees from the messianic family of the Jews into the founding
family of Christianity, created an "official" history, the War of the Jews,
that contains an undifferentiated clump of individuals with Mac-
cabean names. These individuals are described variously as robbers
and false prophets. One of the purposes of War of the Jews, therefore,
was to obscure the real history of the "five sons of Matthias."
Then, the Gospels graft Jesus and his four brothers, named
Judas, /Simon, Joseph and James, his father, named Joseph, and his
mother, named Mary, as well as his disciples, named Simon, Judas,
John, Eleazar, and Matthew onto the history of the Maccabean fam-
ily. By creating so many characters with Maccabean names, the
authors of the New Testament and War of the Jews sought to fool the
uneducated into believing that Christianity had originated from
within the Maccabean family.
This symbolic grafting of Christianity onto the messianic tradi-
tion of the Maccabees was mirrored by an effort to physically graft the
Herodian family onto the Maccabees. 225 Herod married Mariamme,
a direct descendant of Mattathias, the founder of the Maccabean
dynasty. After she bore him four children, Herod executed her and
her brother, thereby ensuring that only his Maccabean children
would remain.
3 1 0 Caesar's Messiah
Throughout his works Josephus is very careful to avoid making
any mention of the Messiah. He uses the word only twice, both times
in conjunction with Jesus, and never explains exactly what the term
means. Josephus mentions numerous messianic figures without ever
referring to them as a Messiah or a Christ, calling them instead false
prophets, robbers, or charlatans. For example, Josephus uses these
pejorative secular terms with a character named Thuedas (c. 45 C.E.),
no doubt the same Thuedas mentioned in the New Testament, who
promised to lead his followers over dryshod like Joshua before Jericho.
In other words, he claimed to be able to "part" the water like Moses.
Clearly he was an individual operating within a religious framework
and not simply, as Josephus describes him, a robber.
Josephus is reworking history again, this time excluding from it
the messianic aspirants who had led revolts against Rome during the
first century C.E. He uses the name-switching trick to transform
Messiahs into robbers. He is again making it difficult to trace the lin-
eage of the real messianic family. The only messianic lineage remain-
ing after 70 C.E., according to the New Testament and Josephus, is
that of Jesus, who, after endorsing Rome, left the planet.
Even when Josephus applies a messianic prophecy to Vespasian
he does not refer to the prophet directly, but rather to the vision of
some "ambiguous oracle." I would argue that Josephus' avoidance of
the specific prophesies that predict the Messiah, as well as of the
term itself, is an example of how he deliberately blurs the history of
Judaism so that Christianity can, in the confusion, claim the history
as its own. In this case he has blurred the identity and intent of the
Maccabean messianic aspirants of this era, leaving only the Messiah
of Christianity visible.
With his description of the death of Eleazar, a descendant of
Judas the Galilean, at Masada in 73 C.E., Josephus hoped not only
to wipe from history the truth of the family that had stirred such
opposition to Rome but actually to use its individuals and history as
the "rock" upon which the new religion would be built. The trans-
formation of Simon and John above is just part of a deception on a
huge scale, encompassing not just the history of a family, but also of
an entire religion, for more than a century.
The Apostles and the Maccabees 3 1 1
Christianity is the Sicarii movement of Judas the Galilean delib-
erately blurred and transformed. The Romans transformed the his-
tory of the cult of the militant Maccabean Messiah into the history
of Christianity.
Robert Eisenman has pointed out a number of overlaps between
the Sicarii movement and Christianity during the second half of the
first century C.E. Both were messianic movements, both were in
Judea during the same period, and both have engaged in missionary
activities. More important is Eisenman's claim that the word "Sicar-
ios" itself may be a "quasi-anagram and a possible pejorative in
Greek for the word "Christian." 226 If true, this wordplay creating
"Christian" from "Sicarii" would fit perfectly into the pattern of cre-
ating Christianity out of the Sicarii movement.
Josephus describes numerous "Eleazars" in War of the Jews. I
believe that attributes of these Eleazars, together with those of
Lazarus in the New Testament, are intended to reveal the identity of
the true Messiah. What is telling is that these Eleazars are so often
described as the leaders of a messianic movement. Josephus begins
this by stating that an Eleazar was responsible for the "true begin-
ning" of the war.
At the same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high
priest, a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of
the temple, persuaded those that officiated in the Divine
service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And
this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans; for
they rejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account . . 227
In the passage below notice that another Eleazar is described as
the nephew of "Simon the tyrant," who I have identified as the
Apostle Simon. This supports the contention that a messianic family
led the Jewish rebellion and the identities of those family members
were transformed into the Apostles and Jesus.
Of the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former
battles did the like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the
brother's son of Simon the tyrant. But when Titus perceived
that his endeavors to spare a foreign temple turned to the
3 1 2 Caesar's Messiah
damage of his soldiers, and then be killed, he gave order to
set the gates on fire. 228
Josephus identifies a Simon and a Judas as the sons of "Jairus."
An Eleazar is also identified as a member of this family, the Eleazar
who is a "tyrant" at Masada and a descendant of Judas the Galilean,
and is also identified as a relative of Simon the tyrant (the Apostle
Simon) above.
A few there were of them who privately escaped to Masada,
among whom was Eleazar, the son of Jairus, who was of
kin to Manahem, and acted the part of a tyrant at Masada
afterward. 229
This establishes the family of Jairus as part of the family of Judas
the Galilean, the true messianic family, and connects the Apostles to
the family of Judas the Galilean, which connects the Apostles to the
family of Jairus that is found in the New Testament.
The hopelessly cross-connected genealogy described above is
deliberately difficult to follow. The overly complex genealogies in the
New Testament and Josephus serve both to prevent the uneducated
from understanding them as parodies of the Jews and to expand the
general confusion over who the real members of the Maccabean
family were — the confusion into which Christianity was inserted.
While Josephus has purposely made the genealogies difficult to fol-
low, they were constructed to reveal — to the alert reader — that the
characters in the New Testament and War of the Jews are not only the
same individuals but are all members of the same family.
All the Eleazars in the works of Josephus and all the Lazaruses
in the New Testament are lampoons of the real Eleazar, who was
anointed as the Messiah by the Jewish rebels who defended Jeru-
salem in 70 C.E. The Eleazar who is "a son of Jairus" and a "descen-
dant of Judas the Galilean," and who was the leader of the Sicarii at
Masada, is also part of this construct. Supporting this is the fact that
in the New Testament the daughter of someone also called Jairus,
the "ruler" of a synagogue, is, like Lazarus, "raised from the dead"
by Jesus. In the passage below, notice that Jesus brings with him
only Simon, John, and James. As noted above, this "Apostle" Simon
is in fact the Jewish tyrant Simon, who is described in Josephus as
The Apostles and the Maccabees 313
both a son of Jairus and the brother of a John and a James. The
reader should appreciate just how small a circle we are dealing with
here. It is a small circle because it is a single family.
Knowing that the Apostles Jesus brings with him to witness the
"resurrection" of Jairus' daughter are her relatives helps us to under-
stand the real meaning of the passage. It is a lampoon of a belief in
the resurrection of the dead, a belief held by the followers of the
messianic family. It is possible that this lampoon was based on a real
incident, in which the Romans discovered members of the messianic
family hidden in the subterranean caverns beneath Jerusalem and
Titus "restored" a young woman to life. Notice that in the passage
Jesus instructs that the girl be given "something to eat," good advice
if the cause of the child's illness is starvation.
The daughter is another unnamed New Testament character. I
suspect that Josephus intends for the "informed reader" to be able to
guess her name, however. Since "Eleazar" is the son of Jairus and his
sisters are named Mary and Martha, this suggests that the "resur-
rected" daughter of Jairus would have been yet another "Mary," that
is to say, a rebellious female.
Josephus and the New Testament created a running joke about
the many "starving Marys" during the war. The reader will recall that
Josephus describes how famine "pierced through Mary's very bowels"
in the chapter on "The Son of Mary Whose Flesh Is Eaten" and that
the "Mary" in the New Testament who is Jesus' mother was prophe-
sied to one day be "pierced through."
Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by
name; and seeing him, he fell at his feet,
and besought him, saying, "My little daughter is at the
point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she
may be made well, and live."
And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and
James and John the brother of James.
And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you
make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."
And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside,
and took the child's father and mother and those who were
with him, and went in where the child was.
314 Caesar's Messiah
Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi";
which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise."
And immediately the girl got up and walked (she was
twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome
with amazement.
And he strictly charged them that no one should know
this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Mark 5:36-43
The passage from Josephus that describes Eleazar's scourging
and miraculous escape from crucifixion, which I analyzed previously,
is followed immediately in War of the Jews by Josephus' description
of the siege of Masada. In that story yet another Eleazar convinces
the Sicarii defenders of Masada to commit suicide rather than risk
being captured by the Romans.
I regard Josephus' famous passage describing the mass suicide
of the Jewish defenders as complete fiction. Josephus was not inter-
ested in recording history but in creating effective propaganda. This
is why, though there certainly were Sicarii who were besieged by the
Romans at Masada, I do not believe that they slew themselves. I
believe Josephus invented Eleazar's speech exhorting the Jews to kill
themselves to instill in the Jews and hoi polloi the belief that suicide
is noble when one is confronted with Roman force majure. "Noble"
suicides of Jewish rebels run throughout the works of Josephus and
it was hoped, no doubt, that they would counteract the courageous
custom of the Jewish defenders, who fought down to the last man,
and thus cost the imperial family more of its troops. Notice that, as
with the crucifixion of Jesus and the destruction of the temple, it is
the Jews, not the Romans, who are again "responsible" for the
slaughter at Masada.
It is likewise for symbolic purposes that Josephus places the
final Eleazar, the descendant of Judas the Galilean, in the final act of
the Roman conquest of the messianic movement. It makes the con-
clusion of his fictitious history the completion of one era and the
beginning of another — that is, the end of Maccabean Judaism and
the beginning of Christianity.
The Apostles and the Maccabees 315
With the death of this final Eleazar, Josephus is bringing an end
to the messianic family of Judas the Galilean and its messianic
movement, the "fourth philosophy," or the Sicarii.
. . . There was but one only strong hold that was still in
rebellion. This fortress was called Masada. It was one
Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii,
that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that
Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we
have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation when
Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one; 230
Just as Eleazar's death brings an end to his family and their "phi-
losophy," it also heralds the beginning of another family and another
philosophy. Josephus concludes his description of the battle of Masada
by claiming that, somehow, one group did survive the mass suicide.
So these people died with this intention, that they would not
leave so much as one soul among them all alive to be sub-
ject to the Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman, and
another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most
women in prudence and learning, with five children, who
had concealed themselves in caverns under ground, and
had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden
there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one
another. 231
As shown in the Building Jesus chapter, the date of the slaugh-
ter at Masada, the fifteenth of Nisan 73 C.E., is meant to be under-
stood as the ending of Christianity's forty years of wandering and
thus the beginning of its dominion over the land of Israel and its
replacement of Judaism. It is easy to see that within the symbolic
landscape that Josephus has created the "five children" mentioned
in the passage above, who are "kin to Eleazar," are to be understood
as the founders of the Christian dynasty.
Josephus, who had begun War of the Jews with the description
of the beginning of a dynasty, the Maccabees — "Accordingly Mat-
thias armed himself, together with his own family, which had five
3 1 6 Caesar's Messiah
sons ..." — ends his work with the beginning of another dynasty
that starts with a woman who was kin to Eleazar and "five children."
Their names are not given. I am confident, however, that within the
Flavian court they would have been known as Mary, her son Jesus,
and his four brothers. They are the new dynasty, ready to enter the
Promised Land that has been given to them by "God."
Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called
Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon,
and Judas? 233
Though Josephus symbolically converted the Maccabee family
to Christianity at Masada, the Messianic rebellions centering on that
family apparently continued until the defeat of Simon Bar Cochba in
135 C.E. Bar Cochba means "son of the star." Simon was so nick-
named because of the "star" prophecy of Judaism that looks to a
Messiah, the same prophecy that the New Testament claims for Jesus.
On the coins minted by the Jewish rebels during their 132-135 C.E.
revolt, only two individuals are celebrated. One coin is dedicated to
Bar Cochba and its inscription reads "Simeon, prince of Israel." The
other individual so commemorated is Eleazar. His coin reads "Elea-
zar the priest." 234 The coins present the same dichotomy that exists
in the New Testament and War of the Jews — that is, between a mili-
tary leader named Simon and a spiritual one named Eleazar. Rome's
struggle with "Simon" and "Eleazar" evidently continued even after
the family's "extinction" at Masada.
Since Jesus' ministry lampoons the Jews by drawing darkly
comic parallels with Titus' campaign through Judea, it seems logical
that there would also be a lampoon of the twelve Apostles within
War of the Jews. In this way the symmetry between the two works
would be maintained. I assumed that the lampoon would involve a
technique similar to the identity-switching used to transform the
Jewish rebel leaders Simon and John into Christians. I discovered
precisely such lampoons within Josephus' description of the assaults
by the Romans on the temple of Jerusalem. Within the passages
twelve Roman soldiers twice attempt to capture the wall that will
lead to the temple.
The Apostles and the Maccabees 317
The passages that contain this complex lampoon begin with a
speech by Titus calling for volunteers to assault the temple. One sol-
dier named "Sabinius" accepts the challenge and in a manner much
like the devotio of Decius Mus (Chapter 11), he volunteers to sacri-
fice his life in the effort.
Upon this speech of Titus, the rest of the multitude were
affrighted at so great a danger. But there was one, whose
name was Sabinus, a soldier that served among the
cohorts, and a Syrian by birth, who appeared to be of very
great fortitude, both in the actions he had done, and the
courage of his soul he had shown . . .
Sabinius was joined by eleven others and the twelve make their
assault, which fails when Sabinius trips over a "large stone," remi-
niscent of the large stone that entombed Jesus. Notice that Sabinius
was possessed by a "divine" fury.
There followed him eleven others, and no more, that re-
solved to imitate his bravery; but still this was the principal
person of them all, and went first, as excited by a divine fury.
And now one cannot but complain here of fortune, as
still envious at virtue, and always hindering the perform-
ance of glorious achievements: this was the case of the
man before us, when he had just obtained his purpose; for
he then stumbled at a certain large stone, and fell down
upon it headlong, with a very great noise. 235
A second assault is made and again Josephus refers to the num-
ber twelve, though this time he adds to it.
Now two days afterward twelve of those men that were on
the forefront, and kept watch upon the banks, got together,
and called to them the standard-bearer of the fifth legion,
and two others of a troop of horsemen, and one trumpeter;
these went without noise, about the ninth hour of the night,
through the ruins, to the tower of Antonia; and when they
had cut the throats of the first guards of the place, as they
were asleep, they got possession of the wall. . 236
3 1 8 Caesar's Messiah
In my opinion, Josephus is using the temple as a symbol of
Judaism and the attempt to force "twelve" into it is a comic descrip-
tion of the insertion of the Apostles into the new Judaism. The point
is that the temple will no longer be Jewish but Christian, once the
"twelve" force their way in. In the following segment notice that get-
ting into the temple would "begin" the Romans' entire conquest, a
phrase reminiscent of "completing the calamities of the Jews" in the
Son of Mary chapter.
Then did the seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish
army, as well that belonging to John as that belonging to
Simon, drive them away; and indeed were no way wanting
as to the highest degree of force and alacrity; for they
esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once the Romans
got into the temple, as did the Romans look upon the same
thing as the beginning of their entire conquest. So a terri-
ble battle was fought at the entrance of the temple, while
the Romans were forcing their way, in order to get posses-
sion of that temple . . . 237
Josephus next makes reference to a confusion over the identity
of the combatants, which takes place as this battle is fought at the
temple door. The wordplay is quite interesting because it is, if this
interpretation is correct, a spoof of the planned confusion of identi-
ties used by the Romans to usher in Christianity.
Now during this struggle the positions of the men were
undistinguished on both sides, and they fought at random,
the men being intermixed one with another, and con-
founded, by reason of the narrowness of the place; while
the noise that was made fell on the ear after an indistinct
manner, because it was so very loud. Great slaughter was
now made on both sides, and the combatants trod upon the
bodies and the armor of those that were dead, and dashed
them to pieces. Accordingly, to which side soever the battle
inclined, those that had the advantage exhorted one
another to go on, as did those that were beaten make great
lamentation. But still there was no room for flight, nor for
pursuit, but disorderly revolutions and retreats, while the
The Apostles and the Maccabees 3 1 9
armies were intermixed one with another; but those that
were in the first ranks were under the necessity of killing or
being killed, without any way for escaping; for those on both
sides that came behind forced those before them to go on,
without leaving any space between the armies. 238
Josephus then lists those Jews who most "signalized" them-
selves in the battle.
Now those that most signalized themselves, and fought most
zealously in this battle of the Jewish side, were one Alexas
and Gyphtheus, of John's party, and of Simon's party were
Malachias, and Judas the son of Merto, and James the son
of Sosas, the commander of the Idumeans; and of the zealots,
two brethren, Simon and Judas, the sons of Jairus. 239
Another assault is made and again neither side can tell one from
the other because the armies are intermixed. Confusion reigns, which
did less harm to the Romans, who remembered their watchword. I
believe that Josephus is again making a satirical point regarding the
confusion of identities that enabled the Romans to create Christian
Apostles out of Jewish rebels.
... for the great confused noise that was made on both
sides hindered them from distinguishing one another's
voices, as did the darkness of the night hinder them from
the like distinction by the sight, besides that blindness
which arose otherwise also from the passion and the fear
they were in at the same time; for which reason it was all
one to the soldiers who it was they struck at. However, this
ignorance did less harm to the Romans than to the Jews,
because they were joined together under their shields, and
made their sallies more regularly than the others did, and
each of them remembered their watch-word; while the
Jews were perpetually dispersed abroad, and made their
attacks and retreats at random, and so did frequently seem
to one another to be enemies; for every one of them
received those of their own men that came back in the dark
as Romans, and made an assault upon them; so that more
of them were wounded by their own men than by the
320 Caesar's Messiah
enemy, till, upon the coming on of the day, the nature of the
right was discerned by the eye afterward.
This fight, which began at the ninth hour of the night,
was not over till past the fifth hour of the day; and that, in
the same place where the battle began, neither party could
say they had made the other to retire; but both the armies
left the victory almost in uncertainty between them;
wherein those that signalized themselves on the Roman
side were a great many, but on the Jewish side, and of
those that were with Simon, Judas the son of Merto, and
Simon the son of Josas; of the Idumeans, James and Simon,
the latter of whom was the son of Cathlas, and James was
the son of Sosas; of those that were with John, Gyphtheus
and Alexas; and of the zealots, Simon the son of Jairus. 240
My interpretation is that the entire sequence is a comic way of
describing how the authors of the New Testament, acting as agents
of Rome by the means of their false histories, the New Testament
and the works of Josephus, transformed Jewish rebels into Christian
Apostles. The first point I want to make is that the two confusing
passages in which Josephus describes those who "signalized" them-
selves are a puzzle. The reader who "solves" it will recognize that the
lists describe the twelve individuals who were fighting to preserve
the temple.
In other words, when the two lists of Jews who "signalized"
themselves are combined and the duplications are cancelled out,
there are left four Simons, two Judases, John and James, as well as
Alexas, Gyphtheus, Malachias, and Sosas. Eight have the names of
Apostles and four do not, for a total list of twelve individuals. Readers
may go through this confusing process for themselves if they wish.
Take the first list:
Alexas
and Gyphtheus, of John's party,
and of Simon's party were Malachias, and Judas the
son of Merto,
and James the son of Sosas, the commander of the
Idumeans;
The Apostles and the Maccabees 321
and of the zealots, two brethren, Simon and Judas, the
sons of Jairus.
And add it to the second:
of those that were with Simon, Judas the son of Merto, and
Simon the son of Josas;
of the Idumeans, James and Simon, the latter of whom
was the son of Cathlas, and James was the son of Sosas;
of those that were with John, Gyphtheus and Alexas;
and
of the zealots, Simon the son of Jairus.
Removing the duplicates produces the following list of twelve
individuals:
Alexas
Gyphtheus
John the tyrant
Simon the tyrant
Malachias
Judas the son of Merto
James the son of Sosas
Sosas the leader of the Idumeans
Simon the son of Jairus
Judas the son of Jairus
Simon the son of Josas
Simon son of Cathlas
Josephus then records that there was another battle, during
which the "twelve" again "signalize" themselves. He also mentions
the courage of another individual, an Eleazar (Lazarus). As 1 have
shown above, Eleazar was the Jewish Messiah for whom Jesus was
switched in the New Testament. Josephus' "signalizing" of the
"twelve" and an Eleazar obviously support this interpretation. Jose-
phus is spoofing the real Messiah and his twelve disciples.
Of the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former
battles did the like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the
brother's son of Simon the tyrant. But when Titus perceived
322 Caesar's Messiah
that his endeavors to spare a foreign temple turned to the
damage of his soldiers, he gave order to set the gates on
fire. 241
In order to "document" the switching of Christian Apostles for
Jewish rebels Josephus then records another group of individuals.
He presents the list of these individuals between the two lists nam-
ing the twelve Jews who "signalized" themselves in battle. This new
list names those Jews who deserted to the Romans in the midst of
the battle. Notice that we have another "five sons of Matthias."
... of whom were the high priests Joseph and Jesus, and
of the sons of high priests three, whose father was Ishmael,
who was beheaded in Cyrene, and four sons of Matthias, as
also one son of the other Matthias . . 242
Joseph, Jesus, and Matthias are, of course, all names associated
with Christianity. "Matthias" is not only the name of one of the
authors of a Gospel (Matthew) but the name of the disciple who
replaced Judas as one of the twelve Apostles. In addition to these
three, Josephus' lists include five sons of Matthias, a Joseph, and a
Jesus. The "five sons of Matthias" are meant to be understood as the
five sons of the founder of the Maccabean dynasty — that is, Judas,
Simon, John, Eleazar (Lazarus), and Jonathan. Of course, as Jose-
phus relates it, these "five sons of Matthias" are quite different from
the original "five sons of Matthias" in that they have defected to
Caesar. However, the point of the joke Josephus is making here is
that these five sons of Matthias have the same names as the original
five sons of Matthias.
Thus, the "five sons of Matthias" who deserted to the Romans
and the twelve "signalized" Jewish rebels contain names that overlap.
The overlapping names are those of both Apostles and the sons of
Matthias Maccabee — Judas, Simon, John, and Eleazar. The list of
those who deserted to the Roman side also contain both a Jesus and
a Joseph, which are both names from Christianity. The Jewish side
also contains a Malachias, a point I shall explore below.
My interpretation of the passage is that during the confusion of
battle the Jews who "signalized" themselves and who had the same
The Apostles and the Maccabees 323
names are transformed into the sons of Matthias who desert to the
Romans. Just as Jesus had been transformed into Titus, the leaders
of the Jewish rebellion are turned into twelve turncoats. It's another
example of the "name-switching" technique that was used to create
the Apostles Simon and John. The complex confusion about identity
is a spoof on how the Romans created the Apostles and inserted
them into the temple (Judaism) by transforming the history of the
Maccabees into the "history" of Christianity.
... for the great confused noise that was made on both
sides hindered them from distinguishing one another's
voices, as did the darkness of the night hinder them from
the like distinction by the sight. . . However, this ignorance
did less harm to the Romans than to the Jews, because . .
each of them remembered their watch-word; while the
Jews . . . frequently seem to one another to be enemies; for
every one of them received those of their own men that
came back in the dark as Roman . . 243
This interpretation is strengthened by Josephus' inclusion of a
Malachias as one of the twelve Jews who "signalized" themselves.
The name Malachi is Hebrew for "my messenger" and was a syn-
onym for the prophet Elijah. This meaning comes from the Book of
Elijah, in which God states, "Behold, I send my messenger (Malachi)
who shall prepare the way before me." Elijah (Malachi) was believed
by the messianic Jews rif the first century C.E. to be about to return
to earth as a forerunner of the Messiah. 244
The authors of the New Testament created John the Baptist to
be Christianity's Elijah, that is, the messenger who heralded the
Messiah's "coming."
"Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming
first"
Matt. 17:11
Like Elijah, John is said to have worn a leather girdle and a
"cloak of hair." 245 Like Elijah, John also lived by the banks of the
Jordan near Jericho. 246 The last of the Books of the Prophets is the
324 Caesar's Messiah
Book of Malachi. As scholars have long recognized, the authors of
the Gospels used that book, with its apocalyptic sayings of a mes-
sianic forerunner, as the basis for John the Baptist's descriptions of a
Day of Judgment.
In the Book of Malachi it states,
Behold the day cometh, burning like a furnace and all the
proud and they that do wickedly are stubble and the day
shall cometh that shall set them aflame, and the Lord of
Hosts, and shall not leave them root and branch. 247
The author of the Gospel of Matthew makes John the Baptist
paraphrase Malachi:
The axe is already laid to the root of the tree and every tree
that bringeth not forth fruit is hewn and cast into the midst
of the fire . . . and his fan is in his hand and he shall winnow
his threshing-floor and gather wheat into his garner and
the chaff he shall burn with unquenchable fire. 248
However, John adds his own political perspective to Malachi,
warning those who believe they have nothing to fear from the Day
of Judgment because they are the "children of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob" — that is, the Jews — should be aware that their "Jewishness"
does not make them safe. John states (with a play on words) "God
is able from these stones (abanim) to raise up children (banim) unto
Abraham." John the Baptist thus shares with Jesus a "vision" of a
coming apocalypse for the Jews. From my perspective, however, the
more important point is that John is saying that "God" can create
"Jews" at will, the same idea that Josephus is relating with the story
of the battle of the temple, during which "the positions of the men
were undistinguished on both sides, and they fought at random, the
men being intermixed one with another." Abanim and banim con-
tinues the wordplay regarding "son" and "stone" — that is, ben and
eben — that exists in the New Testament and War of the Jews.
John the Baptist also paraphrases the Book of Malachi when he
states that though he (John) baptizes with water there is one "com-
ing" who is mightier and will baptize with fire.
The Apostles and the Maccabees 325
And who may abide the day of his coming? And who can
stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire. 249
This prophecy, once again, when taken literally, came to pass in
a manner that would be humorous to the residents of the Flavian
court. That is, Titus did indeed "baptize" with fire.
They ... set fire to the houses whither the Jews had fled
and burnt every soul in them. 250
Malachias (My Messenger) in Josephus' list of "signalized" Jews
must be understood, like Elijah or John the Baptist, as the forerun-
ner of a Messiah. Since a "Jesus" is also a character in the passage,
the identity of the Messiah he is coming before seems obvious. The
logic of the lampoon suggests that the "Jesus" on the Roman list
switches himself with his "forerunner" at the same time that his
"Apostles" switch themselves with their Jewish namesakes.
My analysis suggests that the Maccabees were inserted into
Christianity in the first century C.E. They were also somehow
extracted from Judaism at the same time. One needs to look into the
Book of the Maccabees to read of its origin.
Since the Romans inserted the Maccabees in Christianity, it is at
least logical to wonder if they also removed them from Judaism,
which was being reestablished at about the same time. As Eisenman
points out in James the Brother of Jesus, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zacchai
is described in the Talmud as having worked to reestablish a form of
Judaism after the 70 C.E. holocaust. He worked at an academy at
Yavneh, established with the authorization of Rome. He is also
claimed to have applied the Star prophecy, the Messiah or world-
ruler prophecy, to Vespasian exactly as Josephus had done. These
facts provide a basis for speculation about the extent to which Rome
was also involved in the creation of Rabbinical Judaism.
Chapter 16: The Samaritan Woman and Other Parallels
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