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NOTES
the other factors already discussed, a crucial link in the chain of causation
( . . . ): the power struggle within the Jewish ruling class.
5 Most recently, F. Millar, The Roman Near East 31 BC–AD 337, Cambridge/London
1993, 351ff., has drawn attention to the implications of the tensions between
‘Hellenism’ and ‘Judaism’.
6 R.A. Horsley and J.S. Hanson, Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs. Popular Movements in
the Time of Jesus, Minneapolis/Chicago/New York 1985, 88ff., Chs 3 and 4. Goodman,
Ruling Class (n. 3), 89ff.
7 Cf. D.M. Rhoads, Israel in Revolution 6–74 CE, Philadelphia 1976, 65f.
8 Matthew 26.55; 27.38; 27.44. Mark 14.48; 15.27. Luke 22.52. John 18.40. Cf.
K.H. Rengstorf, s.v. leistes, Theol. Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, IV, 1942, new
impr. 1962, 262–7.
9 Cf. Rengstorf, leistes (n. 8), 266, on the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25–37):
The very nature of the Zealots, in combining their own subsistence with the
destruction of their enemies [my emphasis], means that it is very likely that
Jesus had them in mind as the leistai of this parable.
In this context it is unimportant that Rengstorf erroneously refers to these leistai as
Zealots – a movement which, according to Josephus, occurred no earlier than the
outbreak of the war: cf. below, nn. 22 and 88.
10 R.A. Horsley, ‘The Sicarii: Ancient Jewish “Terrorists”’, JR 59, 1979, 435–58.
Idem, ‘Josephus and the Bandits’, JSJ 10, 1979, 37–63. Idem, ‘Ancient Jewish
Banditry and the Revolt against Rome, ad 66–70’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 43,
1981, 409–32. Horsley and Hanson, Bandits (n. 6), 48–87 = Ch. 2: Ancient
Jewish Social Banditry (quotation at 77). R.A. Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of
Violence. Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine, San Francisco 1987, 33–43.
11 On Hobsbawm, Bandits, see above, pp. 11–12
12 Cf. Goodman, Ruling Class (n. 3), 60f.
13 Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence (n. 10), 37.
14 Horsley, ‘Ancient Jewish Banditry’ (n. 10), 432. Cf. R.A. Horsley, ‘Menahem in
Jerusalem. A Brief Messianic Episode among the Sicarii – Not “Zealot Messianism”’,
NT 27, 1985, (334–48) 336: ‘. . . the term lestai (brigands) is used by Josephus
not as a pejorative epithet for members of the Zealot movement, but primarily with
reference to actual groups of brigands.’
15 A. Blok, ‘The Peasant and the Brigand: Social Banditry Reconsidered’, CSSH 14,
1972, 494–503, with Hobsbawm’s rejoinder, ibid. 503–5. See most recently S.
Brunk, ‘‘‘The Sad Situation of Civilians and Soldiers”: The Banditry of Zapatismo
in the Mexican Revolution’, AHR 102, 1996, (331–53) 332f.
16 Blok, ‘The Peasant’ (n. 15), 500.
17 On the life and work of Flavius Josephus cf. Schürer, History (n. 1), 43–63 and,
now, the contributions of M. Hadas-Lebel, G. Jossa and M. Goodman in the
collection by F. Parente and J. Sievers, eds, Josephus and the History of the Greco-
Roman Period. Essays in Memory of Morton Smith, Leiden 1994.
18 Jos. Bell. Iud. 2.16.4 (352–6).
19 Jos. Bell. Iud. 5.9.3 (365f.). (Trans. Thackeray, Loeb)
20 Cf. M. Broshi, ‘The Credibility of Josephus’, in G. Vermes, J. Neusner, eds, Essays
in Honour of Yigael Yadin (= JJS 33, 1982), Totowa 1983, 379–84. Goodman,
Ruling Class (n. 3), 5.
21 Cf. Rhoads, Israel in Revolution (n. 7), 159–62, esp. 160:
By applying this term (sc. leistai/brigands) to various revolutionary groups,
Josephus was impugning their motives, implying falsely that they were
not different from common highway robbers and that their intentions
were solely a desire for material gain.
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