Caleb's Journey

By Sidney P. Little

A timeless narrative of struggle, determination, and faith, Caleb's Journey by Sidney Little proves to be a learned and inspired account of life in the ancient walled city of Jerusalem. Written for Christians and lovers of history, this epic novel of historical fiction follows a simple man named Caleb from his first enco

• Language: English
• Publisher: CITIOFBOOKS, INC.
• Release date: Sep 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781960952691

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Copyright © 2023 by Sidney Phelps Little

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023912249

Table Of Contents

Prologue 

An Encounter with John the Baptist 

The First Encounter at Cana 

Cleopas 

The Crucifixion 

Philadelphia 

Escape from Jerusalem 

Feeding the Multitude 

The March on Jerusalem 

Capture 

The First Christmas 

The Gathering of the Armies 

The First Blood is Drawn 

The Siege of Jerusalem Begins 

Jerusalem 

The Battering of the First Wall 

The Second Wall 

The Assault on Fortress Antonio 

The Romans Secure Their Hold on Antonio 

On to the Temple Mount 

Pricilla and Sara 

The Burning of the Temple 

The War on the City Continues 

Saving Aerius 

Return to Philadelphia 

Reunion 

Epilogue 

Prologue

My name is Caleb; I am the son of Isaac who was the son of Samuel. I have lived a long and what you'd probably think of as an eventful life for I was born during the forty-third year of the reign of the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus. During the many intervening years that I have been fortunate enough to spend on this earth I have seen many things—things that no other generation has ever before been privileged to witness—for I have seen the living God incarnate in the form of man, a man called Jesus.

As I grow weary and approach the end of my years I feel it is essential to tell my story so that you too may know of this man. He was a man full of wonder and wisdom—a wisdom that reaches beyond my knowledge to explain. He performed miracles and talked of God in ways that were so different from the way the teachers of the Law advocated. He taught with authority. He spoke of love and forgiveness, and all of his actions demonstrated not a God of wrath, but one who loves His people.

Not only did Jesus perform miraculous healings, but he was also a prophet speaking of things to come. This was especially evident when he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and of its Temple long before these proceedings ever took place. The first time he spoke of these future events occurred one day as he was teaching his disciples:

And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Let those in Jerusalem escape, and those outside the city should not enter it for shelter. For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled. How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for mothers nursing their babies. For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. They will be brutally killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be conquered and trampled down by the Gentiles until the age of the Gentiles comes to an end.

This Jesus said while Jerusalem still stood. It stood as a bastion against all that is wicked, a beacon to God, surrounded by beautiful grasslands and trees. This was at a time when it was inconceivable to the Jewish mind that this city built as a dwelling place for the living God could ever be destroyed.

In a similar manner, Jesus answered a question put to him by his followers as they were leaving the Temple on another day. One of his disciples turned, looked and gestured towards the structure and said, Teacher, look at these tremendous buildings! Look at the massive stones in the walls! They will stand for all time so that all men will come to know the greatness of Yahweh.

His reply shocked this disciple and surprised his other listeners into silence. He answered: These magnificent buildings will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another.

These things as you know have come to pass, but when He spoke those words it was heard by many as blasphemy. It resulted in one of the more serious charges brought against him by the Jewish leaders for they heard his prophecy as sacrilege, a slander against the Lord God, for they failed to see that he was the Messiah, the anointed one for whom they had been waiting.

During the time that he was with us, I actually saw and heard him and I even witnessed more than just a few of his miraculous works. But it wasn’t until after his death, resurrection and ascension that I learned of the many other things that I am now going to tell you. I was fortunate enough to watch as he fed a multitude of people with little more than a few loaves of bread and two fish. I saw firsthand as he restored sight to a blind man, and most importantly I watched the horror and dreadful destruction of Jerusalem, which actually occurred as a fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus spoke of so many years before the event took place. However there were other miracles that I only heard about for he performed many healings that were witnessed by a multitude of others, the curing of a crippled man, the restoration of good health to a leper, the raising of his friend Lazarus from his very grave and many additional events that proved to me that he was truly the Son of God.

So, let me begin at the beginning.

During this last one hundred years divisions in Jewish society have widened and deepened. The politics of Israel have become broken and divided into many highly polarized factions. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the scribes, the Herodians and the Hellenists each preach a different doctrine concerning the Lord God and His law. Evil lurked in the land. There were bandits, criminals and false prophets each with the intent of throwing off the yoke of Rome and seizing power over Israel, in particular Jerusalem, and ruling the land as they saw fit, not as God had prescribed. The only thing each of these groups had in common was their hatred for the Romans. They had no love for the Living God; their intentions were not honorable for they sought only personal power and wealth. Long before this time of internal strife had come to Israel, many Jews had forsaken the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Fortunately though, there were those that remained faithful to the law, and they were the ones that earnestly sought the true God, the one and only God of creation. My father Isaac was a living example of that remnant, for throughout his life he loved Jehovah and the scriptures and always sought the truth of God’s love for his people.

During my lifetime, this first eighty years since the birth of this man Jesus, the Romans that ruled Israel held both our Jewish law and our God in contempt. However, as long as we were obedient to their rule and paid our taxes, we were allowed to go on with a somewhat normal life.

Things began to change less than ten years after the crucifixion of Jesus. This transformation came during the reign of Emperor Cauis Julius Caesar Germanicus, whom you may know better by the name of Caligula. This mere mortal desired to see himself as a god and so he ordered his general, Petronius, to place his statue, that of Caligula, in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. And he further ordered that if Petronius encountered any opposition to this command, then all combatants were to be put to death and the rest of the city carried off into permanent captivity and made slaves of the Roman Empire.

Petronius in attempting to carry out his orders encountered stiff opposition from the Jews, so much so he soon discerned that they would prefer death than to see their Temple desecrated. Petronius, impressed by the courage of the people, ceased trying to place the statue in their holy of holies and temporarily avoided a conflict. However, when Caligula heard of the actions of his general, he was so enraged that he sent orders for Petronius’ immediate execution. Before these orders arrived in Jerusalem—for they had been delayed en route—Caligula, the man who thought himself a god, was assassinated and thus Petronius was spared his life, as was the Temple spared from the desecration.

Following the death of the emperor the nation of Israel became more rebellious against their Roman oppressors. This opposition by the Jews to the Romans was met with quick and brutal repression of the various rebel groups throughout Judea. There were numerous other powerbrokers bent on seizing control of Israel who led these various rebel groups and bandits. The Romans, seeing their authority and rule being challenged, began a campaign of brutality against all opposition in the land of Judea. Several insurrections cropped up during the years that followed the death of Caligula, and these so-called messiahs who led the rebels were eventually defeated and they and their followers put to the sword.

Not only did the Romans face a defiant though divided people, they themselves became equally guilty of grave injustices towards the Jews. Over the years the various emperors appointed assorted procurators to rule over the conquered lands. Those sent to Israel and Syria were corrupt, self-serving men bent on accumulating personal wealth from the Jewish people over whom they were sent to rule. As time went by different men—Pilate, Cumanus, Felix, Festus, Aquinas, and Florius—were appointed to these positions of authority over Judea, and their moral character seemed to degenerate with each succession. All were determined to enrich their own individual treasuries and through their authority they stole from the people’s reserves on one pretext or another. It was Florius who not only stole from his subjects but also was determined on destroying the whole nation of Israel.

The Jews had not been just innocent and passive victims, for many who had possessed and lived in this the Promised Land that God gave to His people out of love had turned their hearts from Him and dedicated their lives to lawlessness and to worshiping pagan gods. This heresy led Israel down the path to its own destruction.

For it wasn’t even twenty years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth that the Zealots, embolden by their numbers and a charismatic leader, attacked the Roman garrison in Jerusalem and forced them from the city leaving Judea in a state of chaos. It was during this time of instability that the cruel procurator Gessius Florius increased the taxes on the people’s treasury, primarily for his own benefit and greed. Finally, a short time later, Florius was forced to attack the Zealots in Jerusalem in order to reclaim the city in the name of Rome. This he did, and his army slaughtered over 3,500 Jews. As he and his troops sacked the upper marketplace the Zealots, with the Temple at their backs and in defense of their position, destroyed the northern portico of the Temple. This prevented Florius from raiding and taking the treasures stored there. Eventually, after a costly and bloody battle, the Zealots were able once again to drive the Romans from the city.

At this time the grandson of Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa II, king of all of Judea and a staunch ally of Rome, moved a large army into Jerusalem and regained control of the upper city situated atop Mount Zion. However, the high priest Eliezer in league with the Zealots retained control of the lower city and the Temple mount. The king then tried to negotiate a peace with the citizens of Jerusalem. The rebels would have nothing to do with his effort and set fire to his palace, the palace of his sister Bernice and the house of the high priest. Agrippa fled Jerusalem as the rebels captured the Antonia fortress as well as the palace of his grandfather, Herod the Great.

It was in the twelfth year of the reign of the madman Nero, or 66 CE, that total war broke out between Rome and Judea. Subsequent to an ever-growing escalation of serious outrages committed by one side against the other, a highly motivated group of youthful Jewish Zealots stealthily attacked the Roman garrison at Masada, quickly dislodged the troops stationed there and secured the fort for their own use. At the same time this clash was taking place at Masada, another event was developing in Jerusalem. The son of the high priest, a young man named Eleazar, swayed the Temple leadership to stop paying tribute to outsiders, in particular to the Emperor and to Rome itself, a practice that had been in place for nearly a century.

Though the older leaders of Jerusalem tried to cool the tempers of the passionate youth, their efforts were in vain. Realizing that the rebellion was beyond their control, the most influential citizens of the city went to Agrippa and the procurator Florius, imploring them to put a stop to the insurrection.

This was not to be. Once again King Agrippa sent troops to quell the uprising and soon these troops were able to regain control of the upper city. After a few more days of heavy fighting, the king’s army seized and occupied the Antonia fortress. These battles spilled a great deal of blood on both sides, and it wasn’t long before the rebels counter-attacked. Eleazar, aided by the rebels known only as the Sicarii, a name for the knives they used in their assassinations of those loyal to Rome, and other bandit gangs drove the king’s troops back out of the upper city, which the rebels promptly tried to burn with limited success. A few days later the rebels reestablished control of the Antonia fortress by overwhelming and slaughtering the entire garrison before turning on the king and his royal guard. Again Herod Agrippa and his followers withdrew from Jerusalem in favor of Caesarea, not to return again.

In the meantime a little known rabbi from Galilee took some followers to the fortress at Masada. With the help of the Zealots who still held that fortress city, he broke into the king’s armory, which until this time had been left undisturbed, and distributed the weapons to his supporters. He promptly traveled to Jerusalem, where through subterfuge he took control of the rebels and continued the defiant resistance to Rome.

These events forced the Roman general Cestius to take another course of action since it was clear that the Jews were now in a total war with the Empire. Early in 66 CE, he set out from his headquarters situated in Antioch and with the Twelfth Legion, which incorporated a large infantry contingent and numerous cavalry troops. He started south into Judea. This powerful legion on their way to Jerusalem burned the cities and slaughtered the inhabitants who were in their path. Cestius stopped for a time in Caesarea where over 8,000 Jews were massacred. From there Cestius split his forces and sent his commander Caesennius Gallus into Galilee to put down the uprising that was still under way there, as he and the main body of his army continued on towards Jerusalem.

It was during this same year that many of us, Jews and those newly converted to our faith in Jesus as the Messiah, were fortunate enough to escape from Jerusalem and flee to sanctuaries outside of Judea and into other cities and towns of the surrounding countries. I, son of Isaac, was one of the fortunate few able to flee into the wilderness and seek safety as the war continued to rage. With my fifteen-year-old grandson, Abram and thirty-six others who foresaw the end of our great capitol of Jerusalem, we escaped through the dung gate late one night as Cestius’s army was battering at the walls of the upper city.

Things in Jerusalem had become untenable for the citizens, as the city had fallen under the influence of evil men. Different rebel leaders would fight with other rebels in order to gain or regain control of the city. These constant battles left many of the noncombatants, innocent citizens, suffering from injury or even death for just having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This struggle for power over Jerusalem had little to do with religion. Rather, it was brought on by greed—greed for power and for wealth. The thought of God and this being His holy city or dwelling place made no difference in their thinking.

My father, who at this time was old and somewhat crippled, dedicated himself to bringing the Jews back to their faith and to glorifying God in all things. He was outspoken in his views and publicly rebuked those in power for the abandonment of their faith in God.

This did not sit well with those who sought to control Jerusalem, and eventually they arrested him on trumped up charges for blasphemy and threw him in prison. The Temple leadership, those who were the spiritual guides for the Jews, ignored my father’s pleas and left him to languish in his confinement.

I sought out all of the leaders I knew, requesting that they look into my father’s case. I begged that they release him, as he was an old man and he posed no real threat to their authority, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. My mother had died just two and a half years before, and I think I knew in my heart of hearts that my father not only felt strongly for his cause but that secretly he missed my mother desperately and had chosen this course of action to bring on his own end sooner than later.

My father had come to believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God, the Messiah, and this only strengthened his faith in God and in the ways of the Jewish faith. He was truly a messianic Jew. My father and I disagreed on how best to preach the Word for I felt God invited all to come to Him. This included the Gentiles as spoken by the prophet Isaiah, who declared nearly six hundred years earlier, I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. On this point my father disagreed, for he felt that Jesus’ coming was meant for Jews and Jews alone. No matter, he ended up in prison and all of my efforts failed to set him free. As Cestius’s legion moved from Antioch towards Caesarea, the Jewish authorities requested that the rebels in control of the city have my father scourged and executed for blasphemy. This they did. He died at the hands of the man who laid the whip to his back. I was devastated, for it hadn’t been too long since I had lost my mother, and my wife had died ten years earlier from a plague that ravaged the countryside during the winter months. It wasn’t long after my mother’s death that my daughter and her husband had also died a violent death during an early insurrection in Jerusalem. My grandson and I were now alone in a city that had gone mad.

With my father gone on to his reward and with Cestius’s army getting closer to the city, I determined it was time to leave. It appeared to me that God’s wrath was being poured out and all of the citizens of Judea were going to suffer.

Our sect of the followers of The Way determined that it was time to abandon Jerusalem and seek sanctuary elsewhere. As we made preparations to depart we received word that the Twelfth Legion was now within a three-day march and would soon arrive and surround the city. This proved to be a frightening development for us, for if we waited much longer we would not find a way to safety. Many Jews who got wind of our escape plans were soon clamoring to join us.

Conditions in Jerusalem had worsened as the rebel bands were in an all-out struggle for control of the city. Their continued fighting went day and night without respite. This caught many of the upright citizens in the center, between the differing factions, which resulted in untimely deaths for many of them. In the middle of this civil war we received word that the Twelfth Legion was within sight of the city and would be at Jerusalem’s gates the very next evening. As this word spread like wild fire throughout the city, all of the infighting ceased as if by magic and the citizens came together to meet the threat of the Roman army, which would soon surround the outer walls of the city of God.

As the Twelfth Legion approached from the north and established their camp on Mount Scopus, located across and east of the Kidron Valley a short distance from the northeast corner of the city, the citizens quickly came together and rushed to arms in defense of their beloved Jerusalem. On the following day, this powerful Roman legion marched from Scopus around the north end of Jerusalem to the western side of the city. Here they established their camp just opposite Herod’s towers, where they began to array their forces for the assault. As the Twelfth Legion was forming their battle alignment, the citizen soldiers of Jerusalem ran out of the gates in mob-like fashion to attack the Romans, taking them by surprise. Though superior only in number, the undisciplined Jews attacked the regimented soldiers of Rome with a ferocity that caused gaps to open in the Roman lines. This charge by the Jewish mob against the seasoned troops nearly divided Cestius’ infantry, which was already weary after completing the long march from Caesarea. This attack was totally unexpected and nearly brought the vaunted Twelfth Legion to destruction. Had it not been for the Twelfth Cavalry’s commander seeing the desperate state the infantry was in and then ordering his mounted troops to detour to aid the infantry, the Romans might have been defeated right then and there. As it was, the losses were heavy on both sides as I saw many fall to the swords, darts and arrows each side let fly at the other. These things I tell you about, I personally saw from atop the outer west wall that guarded the city.

After this first encounter with the Jews, Cestius withdrew his army from the western outskirts of Jerusalem and returned to his original encampment on Mount Scopus. They remained there for three days and three nights without making a move other than sending out small bands of infantry to confiscate food and grain from the citizens living in the area surrounding the city. During this time the final elements of the entire Twelfth Legion arrived in camp bringing with them their dreaded machines of war.

Then on the fourth day after his initial attack Cestius moved his troops back to the western outskirts of the capitol where another tremendous battle ensued. Before mid-afternoon of that same day, the Romans soundly defeated the Jews that went out to meet the attacking army. The Jews slowly withdrew to the gates of the upper city and finally entered them and shut them tight against the Roman infantry. As the sun set in the west, Cestius ordered his soldiers to burn the bordering communities and to move their camp once again to the western walls of the upper city. The now demoralized citizens and rebels that held Jerusalem spent a restless night behind those walls awaiting the next assault. The old guard of Jerusalem, those who had spent a lifetime of building a prominent name for the city, came together late that evening and elected two emissaries who went forth with entreaties to Cestius to inform him that they would open the gates if he would only rid them of these Zealots and bandits who were in control.

Cestius refused to hear these elected officials and sent them back inside the gates without even listening to their pleas. When I heard from the council of the elders that the Romans would not hear the emissaries, I determined that I would then lead the group of men, women and children from the city the very next night. I didn’t have much time to formulate a detailed plan. However, I felt that with the battle for control of Jerusalem in the balance, thirty-eight citizens would not be missed.

Early in the morning of that sixth day just before daybreak Cestius continued his attack, and the gates remained closed. While this battle raged throughout the morning, I walked the deserted streets along the south and east side of Jerusalem in hopes of finding a way to escape without notice. The sound of the battle was intense, and I could hear the clamor of the voices of the combatants above the loud din of the Roman battering ram that struck the gate and resounded throughout the city.

As I walked the city, I chanced upon the Dung Gate located at the very southeast corner of the wall. The gate was low and narrow and it had a most unpleasant odor about it. It would be the perfect place from which to escape. I determined that we would leave the city that very night. I found my way to the top of the wall just as the morning sun was peeking over the eastern horizon. There were some very young men keeping watch to see that the Romans didn’t try to enter the city through the back way. Except for them, the wall was quiet. I sneaked carefully to a parapet, surveyed the countryside and saw little movement. The Roman cavalry had a few patrols out, and it appeared we could make good our escape without detection. After I spent a relatively short time at the wall I stealthily found my way back to the street. I did not want to be confronted by the young men guarding the wall, for that could lead to a lot of trouble. I found my way back to those who were to escape the city with me. I told them to gather just enough provisions to last them about a week and meet me at this gathering place for we would leave that very evening. I cautioned all to be guarded in what they said to anyone including their own family members, for if our plan was discovered the provisional government would execute us all.

As the sun set that evening, we gathered in the house of one of the believers and planned our route to the Dung Gate. Once outside the city wall, we would descend into the Well of Joab, the junction of the Kidron and Hinnom valleys at the southeast corner of Jerusalem, before turning north to follow the stream at the bottom of the Kidron Valley that would lead us to the north end of the eastern wall. The route would take us past the Golden Gate, the eastern entrance to the Temple situated high above our route to our left, and then on below the Garden of Gethsemane on the eastern slope of the valley to the right of our path. From here our route would lead us on past Mount Scopus, another point high above the Kidron that overlooked Jerusalem. Scopus was situated on the broad plain just east of the Kidron Valley that afforded a view of the northeast corner of the city and was frequently used as a staging area for the Roman army. Once we were well beyond the heights of Mount Scopus, we would then climb out of the Kidron Valley and travel northwest to join with the road that led to Jotapata.

After the streets were dark, we left in groups of four and started for the gate. There were some patrols out that night, and it took a while for all of us to come together in a deserted house directly across from our exit. None of the groups encountered the patrols, and it wasn’t long before a member of our band crossed the narrow street and unlatched the gate. This man was especially chosen for the task as he was familiar with the gate and knew how to open this seldom-used exit from Jerusalem. It was also through his expertise that we were able to latch and bar the gate once we departed. Though we were leaving for good, we felt it necessary to secure the gate so that the Romans would not have access to the city through a fault of ours.

The night was dark; no moon had yet come up and all was quiet since the Romans had ceased their attack just before the sun had set. We left the wall and went to the small streambed that traveled north along the bottom of the valley and parallel to the eastern wall of Jerusalem. We stayed in the shadows, keeping as quiet as we could. The Roman patrols and their small camps were spread out all along the wall. Walking was difficult for us due to the stones and some standing water in the creek. More than once we had to lie on the ground and hush the children for fear we would be heard. It took us a much longer time than I had estimated before we reached a point that was opposite and to the east of the northeast corner wall of the city just below Mount Scopus on our right. Here we rested for a short time before continuing on. We were more out in the open now, so I placed some of the young men far to the front of the main group as lookouts and also some men to the rear; all of this to protect us from being discovered by the few men of the Twelfth Legion who remained in the camp atop Mount Scopus. It was a harrowing experience, for more than once we almost came upon some un-mounted troops and had to quickly and quietly circle around their small camps. Shortly before dawn we were nearly a half days walk north of Jerusalem. I recalled the lookouts and ordered a halt to our journey. Here we would sleep during the day and eat cold meals since a fire would attract too much attention. Before lying down and sleeping, I established a routine for posting guards that changed personnel every so often. This I did among the men only and let the women and children sleep throughout the day. This allowed all to have sufficient sleep while keeping the camp safe from intruders.

Just before I could drift off to sleep, I heard a great sound arise in the distance—a sound made by many men, the sickening sounds of battle. The siege by Cestius’s army had once again begun. All of those in our group climbed the bank of the streambed and peered off into the semi-darkness towards Jerusalem where a number of great fires could be seen burning. Each of us, I think, was giving thanks that we had at last escaped the bondage of the city and were able to look towards a more secure future.

We later learned that the siege of Jerusalem lasted nearly seven days. It was during the sixth day of the battle that the rebels, feeling betrayed, dealt harshly with those citizens they felt had tried to appease the Romans. It was also on the sixth day that Cestius began his assault on the Temple Mount itself. As the battle raged, many of the rebels, seeing only defeat, began deserting the city. Those citizens who remained in Jerusalem saw a glimmer of hope before them and finally gained the courage to try and open the gates in order to let the Romans into the Temple area and end the insurrection once and for all. Cestius, unaware of what was taking place inside the walls of the Temple Mount and for no apparent reason, called off his attack and withdrew from Jerusalem. As the fleeing mob of bandits and rebels realized that through some strange quirk of fate they had indeed won the day, they quickly reversed their retreat and returned to Jerusalem to resume their control. In addition, many of the Jewish rebels followed Cestius’s army in its withdrawal, causing a great number of casualties among the Roman’s rearguard while taking many of their siege engines from them. Following this debacle, Cestius then left a large force encamped outside the western wall.

The discouragement of those upright citizens who still remained in the city was devastating, and many made plans to escape the genocide that seemed to be coming. Jerusalem and the whole of Judea were now under the leadership of evil men who were at war with Rome.

Within a short time after our exodus from Jerusalem, the rebels cracked down and refused to let any additional citizens leave. Those that tried and were unfortunate enough to be captured were summarily executed by the rebel leadership. The Romans did little better, for women caught trying to escape the city had their hands slashed off and were sent back to the gates where they could go back into the city behind the walls. The men who were captured by the Romans were crucified in full view of those Jews who could see the executions from the top of the wall.

In the capital city itself the civil war between the various rebel groups resumed and continued to rage out of control. Not only were the Jews fighting among themselves but they were also involved in a total war with Rome. It was in this civil war that enormous quantities of the city’s food supplies were burned by one side of the fighting or the other—a reality that later led to massive starvation.

As I have said, it was during the sixth morning of the siege by Cestius and his Twelfth Legion that my small band made good our escape to seek sanctuary somewhere safe from the war between Rome and those bandits and criminals who sought to rule all of Judea. All of us who escaped had foreseen the end of our capitol city. With great trepidation, we left Jerusalem late at night as Cestius’s army was battering the walls of the upper city.

We who had escaped the rebels in the city and the Roman patrols outside the walls traveled only at night, sleeping during the day. Our goal was to journey north into Galilee. Once we arrived in the vicinity of Jotapata, we were surprised to find that this city was also making preparations for war with the Romans. For it was rumored that Vespasian and his Fifteenth Legion were preparing to march into Judea to lay siege to that city as well. So our little band of wanderers turned east towards Philadelphia, where we hoped to find sanctuary and to escape the danger of capture by the Romans or of being enslaved by the bandits who freely roamed the land—a thought that was constantly on our minds.

After five days and nights of arduous travel, we arrived at a small town to the east of the Jordan River. This town was little more than a grouping of two or three farms situated near the road. The owners of the land were good people and shared their meager supply of food and water with us as we tried to rest and regain our strength before continuing our journey. These people were isolated from the events taking place in Judea and were eager for the news of Jerusalem. Up to this time they had been unaware of the war with Rome. These farmers offered us a place to stay on the land near their small community. In return for this generosity, we helped the farmers in their fields and I, in particular, helped in repairing the buildings and fences that were in a sorry state of disrepair.

As I was the oldest in the group of the thirty-six men, women and children, I was looked to for guidance and leadership. All of these people, including the farmers, were Jews by birth and questioned what was happening in this land given to them by God. The farmers and their families listened intently to what I had to say.

I spoke to the group each night after our meal reciting much of what I knew about the scriptures of Moses and of the other prophets who had followed him. I tried to explain that many people had rebelled against God and that we all were suffering because of the action of the non-believing criminals that seized control of Jerusalem. These hard times had been predicted in the scriptures, and there was still greater suffering yet to come.

Then on the third night, after I told them all I knew of the history of the land of Israel, I told my own story—of my encounters with the true Messiah who had come to redeem all of God’s people.

And so I began.

An Encounter with John the Baptist

"I was born fifty-three years ago, during the forty-third year of the reign of Caesar Augustus or the thirteenth year after the birth of the man they called Jesus. The first seventeen years of my life were spent in Jerusalem, as my father was a teacher in a synagogue located within the walls of that great city. Like all youth of our time, I grew up under the tyranny of Rome, but on the whole these tyrants left us alone as long as we didn't break any of their laws and if we paid our taxes to Caesar.

"However, there were those Jews who stood up and fought these oppressors. These men were universally referred to as the Zealots. These so-called freedom fighters constantly harassed the Roman outposts and did as much injury to the enemy as possible. Of course, these people were not only fighting for Jewish liberty, but were also waiting for the coming Messiah—the anointed one chosen by God to save the land of Israel—to declare himself publicly and lead Israel in its drive to oust all foreign influence from the Promised Land. In the meantime, those Zealots who were captured by the Romans were dealt with in a very barbaric fashion. They were tortured and then usually crucified.

"Although the prophets of old had predicted the coming of a Messiah, no one was able to say when that would be. Many felt that it would be soon, and some even thought he'd already come but had not yet made himself known.

"My father was one of the latter. He often told me the story of a time before I was born when there was a spectacular star that shone for the longest time. It was so bright that it could even be seen in the eastern skies during daylight. He told me that he had