In the past two articles we have looked at the reason for the siege of the mountain fortress called Masada and the story of the defenders and how they committed suicide rather than live in Roman slavery. Archeological digs seem to confirm almost every detail except one. What happened to nearly 1000 corpses?
But first the lingering problem of reliable witnesses must also be considered. We have only one source of written information, the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. Born in Jerusalem, this man of royal and priestly descent was governor of Galilee when war broke out in A.D.66. It is interesting that he himself was the sole survivor of a mass suicide in Galilee and that he defected to the Roman side, taking the Latin name Josephus Flavius. The account of what went on inside Masada comes entirely from seven people. Josephus writes of those who remained, "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 hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another." Wars of the Jews, Jospehus, p.603.
An official Israeli government statement about the event reads, "Nearly 1,000 Jewish men, women and children who had survived the fall of Jerusalem occupied and fortified King Herod's mountaintop palace complex of Masada near the Dead Sea. For three years they held out against repeated Roman attempts to dislodge them. When the Romans finally broke through, they found that the defenders and their families had chosen to die by their own hands rather than be enslaved." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs ask@israel-info.gov.il
A tour guide explained to us as we visited the fortress, "Israeli Army recruits were brought up here and given a Bible and a gun. Then they swore their oath of allegiance: "Masada Shall Not Fall Again."
But not everyone agrees about Masada. "Nevertheless, [Masada] became a myth central to the national Jewish psyche after the Holocaust, said Yael Zerubavel, director of the Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University and expert Masada, when Jews needed to reinvent their national self-image from a people led helplessly to Nazi slaughterhouse into a people ready to die in self-defense rather than being victimized by persecutors." Quoted from the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California Online at http://www.shamash.org/jb/bk970404/usshun.htm
It would seem that there might be two basic reasons why this event might be labeled part myth. First, quoting again from the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, "The Jewish community's rejection of suicide is embodied in the principle that those who kill themselves should be buried outside the gates of a Jewish cemetery. In practice though, Jewish law permits most suicides to be viewed as victims of mental illness so that they can be interred normally. The basic approach is that ‘Judaism embraces life,' Schorsch said, ‘Judaism is a this-worldly religion, and suicide flies in the face of embracing life.'"
The second reason for doubting some of the Masada story is the lack of skeletons. Only the remains of twenty-five people have been found to date---and there's a dispute if these were freedom fighters or later residents. Since extremely dry desert conditions of the area are famous for preserving items for thousands of years, critics wonder why there is no trace of the 960 people somewhere around the fortress? c. Marvin Hunt May 1998
Until more evidence surfaces, the great mystery of Masada remains open for discovery. You can read and see a very good account of "The Last Days and Hours at Masada" by Ehud Netzer in the November/December 1991, Biblical Archaeology Review. You can also order the book Masada, about the archeological dig conducted by Yigael Yadin, at your favorite book store.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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Blessings!
Marvin Hunt

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