The
Unnamed Egyptian Prophet ( 52 to 58
CE)
Sources: Flavius
Josephus, Jewish War 2.259-263
and Jewish Antiquities 20.169-171; Acts
of the apostles 21.38.
Story: According
to Flavius Josephus, there were many
people during the governorship of
Festus
who deceived and deluded
the people under pretense of Divine
inspiration, but were in fact for
procuring innovations and changes of
the government. These men prevailed
with the multitude to act like
madmen, and went before them into
the wilderness, pretending that God
would there show them the signals of
liberty.
[Flavius
Josephus, Jewish War 2.259]
He continues with the following story.
There was an Egyptian
false prophet that did the Jews more
mischief than the former; for he was
a cheat, and pretended to be a
prophet also, and got together
thirty thousand men that were
deluded by him; these he led round
about from the wilderness to the
mount which was called the Mount of
Olives. He was ready to break into
Jerusalem by force from that place;
and if he could but once conquer the
Roman garrison and the people, he
intended to rule them by the
assistance of those guards of his
that were to break into the city
with him.
[Flavius
Josephus, Jewish War 2.261-262]
In his Jewish antiquities,
Josephus retold the story. The number
of followers seems to be less
exaggerated and the prophet's threat
to use violence are ignored.
about this time, someone
came out of Egypt to Jerusalem,
claiming to be a prophet. He advised
the crowd to go along with him to
the Mount of Olives, as it was
called, which lay over against the
city, and at the distance of a
kilometer. He added that he would
show them from hence how the walls
of Jerusalem would fall down at his
command, and he promised them that
he would procure them an entrance
into the city through those
collapsed walls. Now when Felix was
informed of these things, he ordered
his soldiers to take their weapons,
and came against them with a great
number of horsemen and footmen from
Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian
and the people that were with him.
He slew four hundred of them, and
took two hundred alive. The Egyptian
himself escaped out of the fight,
but did not appear any more. And
again the robbers stirred up the
people to make war with the Romans,
and said they ought not to obey them
at all; and when any persons would
not comply with them, they set fire
to their villages, and plundered
them.
[Flavius
Josephus, Jewish
Antiquities 20.169-171]
Comment: Like Theudas,
the Egyptian prophet took Joshua (the
man who made the walls of Jericho
fall; Joshua 6.20) as
an example. The Roman governor was
rightly alarmed: like Joshua and
Moses, the Egyptian claimed to lead
the Jews to a promised land without
enemies. This was clearly a messianic
claim, even though Josephus does not
mention it. The nameless Egyptian may
have called himself 'king Messiah',
because Josephus uses the Greek
verb tyrannein ('to
be sole ruler') in the first
quotation. It should be noted that the
Mount of Olives was regarded as the
place where God would stand on the Day
of Judgment, fighting the battle
against Israel's
enemies (Zechariah 14.4). |
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