Josephus’ Early Challenges in Galilee—and the Emergence of John of Gischala
Upon arriving in Galilee, Josephus saw that his work was cut out for him. He was tasked with mobilizing the populace, raising an army, securing the region and building up fortifications throughout the area. And he had to do this in a region that was comprised of both Jews and Gentiles as well, and on top of that, attitudes among the Jews about the revolt were varied as it was—from the overtly zealous and borderline criminal element to the segment of Jews were not, in fact, in favor of the revolt.
And somehow Josephus had to prepare the region for the inevitable backlash from the Roman legions.
There was one man who proved to be the biggest thorn in Josephus’ side; a man (at least according to Josephus) who was perhaps more responsible for the violence and slaughter that was to come than anyone else: John of Gischala—a Levite, an extreme zealot, and a self-serving, power-hungry megalomaniac who sought to subvert Josephus’ efforts at every turn.
John had built up a considerable following in his own right, but when Josephus first came to Galilee, John presented himself as an ally who wanted to help prepare the region for when Rome would attack. And so, Josephus gave John a considerable amount of money to lead the effort to rebuild the walls in Gischala. Instead of using the money to buy materials for the wall, John bought oil and then turned around and sold it at a profit to himself. And with that money, he was able to build up more of a following, and when it became large enough, John was prepared to try and overthrow Josephus.
In addition to John of Gischala, Josephus had to deal with other rogue elements among the rebels. At one point, some men of Dabaritta robbed a man named Ptolemy, King Agrippa’s steward, and came away with a large cache of garments, gold, and silver cups. When Josephus found out, he called the men in, he chastised them, took the loot, and said he was going to send it back to Ptolemy.
It was then that John of Gischala decided to make a move. He, along with the men who had robbed Ptolemy, began to subtly spread the rumor that Josephus was actually intending to betray the entire resistance. Within a short time, crowds of angry Jews showed up in Taricheae where Josephus was staying. In an attempt to avert a riot, and to preserve his own life, Josephus came out to the crowd, rent his own clothes, and told them it was not true that he was intending to betray them. In fact, even though he disagreed with what the robbers had done, he was not going to send the loot back. Instead, he was going to use the money to help rebuild the wall at Taricheae. After the contingent from Tiberius began to object to why only Taricheae’s wall was being rebuilt, Josephus said was determined to provide security for all the towns in the region as well.
Most of the crowds left, satisfied. But there were still about 2,000 people who stayed outside of Josephus’ residence, intending to assault him. When diplomacy failed, Josephus decided he needed to use another tactic. And so, he told the mob that he would, in fact, comply with their demands, and he invited the leaders inside of the house to discuss them. As soon as the leaders were in the house, though, Josephus ordered his men to capture them and whip them severely. After they had then kicked the leaders out, the people in the mob feared for their own safety and ran away.
John of Gischala Attempted Coup Against Josephus
And so, when that attempt to oust Josephus, John of Gischala soon moved on to another plan. At this point, it must be pointed out, John’s treachery had not come to light. At this point, Josephus still viewed John as an ally. In any case, it was at this time that John claimed he was sick, and so he requested leave from Josephus to take time off in Tiberias to use the city’s hot baths. Josephus gave him leave, and John proceeded to recruit people in Tiberias to rise up in revolt against Josephus.
When Silas, the governor of Tiberias, got wind of what John was doing in the city, he quickly wrote a letter to Josephus to warn him of John’s actions. Soon after Josephus received the letter, John sent armed men to try to assassinate him. When the assassination attempt failed, Josephus knew he had to act quickly and crush John’s revolt.
And so, Josephus led his soldiers to Tiberias to gain security of the city and the mounting revolt disintegrated. John, though, was able to escape and fled back to Gischala. In Tiberias, though, Josephus had to deal with those who had joined John. He demanded that they publicly proclaim their allegiance to him, or else he’d burn down their houses and kill their families.
Not surprisingly, they all publicly proclaimed their allegiance. Still, some secretly continued to send money to John to raise an army to fight Josephus. Soon, John had sparked revolts against Josephus in Sepphoris, Gamala, and Gischala. And so, Josephus had to travel throughout Galilee to put down the uprising that John and his followers were causing. Eventually, though, Josephus succeeded in this, and at one point had John holed up in Gischala. Yet while he was doing this, Tiberias again revolted against Josephus, but it didn’t side with John; instead, Tiberias appealed to King Agrippa.
And this shows just how varied the attitudes among the Jews of Galilee were: some sided with Josephus; those who sided with John of Gischala were the most radical elements and obviously felt Josephus was too tame for their tastes; and still there were Jews who were against any kind of revolt and wanted Agrippa to restore order before the Romans would invade.
In any case, when Tiberias revolted against him again, Josephus was forced to abandon his siege of Gischala in order to try and retake Tiberias again. Since his soldiers were still scattered throughout Galilee, Josephus had to resort to trickery. He ended up sailing up to Tiberias with ships that were largely empty. When the people of Tiberias saw the ships surrounding the city, they assumed Josephus had been able to assemble his entire army, and so, when he demanded that they hand over the ring-leaders, they quickly complied.
Josephus was then able to arrest the ring-leaders, take them back to Taricheae, and put them in prison. The head ring-leader of the revolt was a man named Clitus—and in order to assert his authority in Tiberias and convince the people not to revolt again, Josephus had Clitus’ right hand cut off.
After that, Josephus was able to subdue and secure Galilee, and thus make preparations for the coming Roman invasion. Unfortunately for both Josephus and the Jews, while he was putting down the revolt in Tiberias, John of Gischala once again was able to escape back to his hometown of Gischala.
