Masada Dec 31 2011

Masada looking west

The first day with Ben and Megan Hill, Christopher Redd and Scott and Staci Jackson, Christine and I loaded up the van and headed down the hill from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea.  Passing Jericho, we headed south to Masada. 

Top of Masada Storage Rooms

Masada metzuda, "fortress” first fortified by Hasmonean ruler Alexander Janneus (103-
76 BC), According to Josephus, a first-century Jewish Roman historian, Herod the Great
fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt.
In 66 CE, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group
of Jewish extremists called the Sicarii overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the
destruction of the Second Temple, additional members of the Sicarii and their families fled
Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop, using it as a base for harassing the Romans. According to modern interpretations of Josephus, the Sicarii were an extremist splinter group of the Zealots who were equally
antagonistic to both Romans and other Jewish groups.

Scott with Abba Masada

remains Herod's Palace

Entrance to Roman Bath house

Ostraca "Lots"

Megan and Ben Hill in Synagogue Masada

Staci, Christine, Megan pose for pictures synagogue Masada

Siege ramp Masada

Seige ramp with Legionary camps

In 72, the Roman governor of Iudaea Lucius
Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the
Roman legion X Fretensis and laid siege to the

fortress. After positioning troops all around the
fortress, he built a circumvallation wall and then
a siege embankment against the western face of
the plateau, using thousands of tons of stones
and beaten earth
The Romans attacked Masada after
conquering Jerusalem and Herodion. Although
he was not present at the event, Josephus
provided the only description of Masada’s fall.
According to him, the Romans built a siege
ramp, they besieged Masada for a period (the
text is vague–but at most four months), using
siege engines and fire to destroy Herod’s wallOn entering Masada, the Romans
discovered that the Jewish inhabitants were all
dead (Josephus described how the Sicarii killed
their families and refugees–possibly including
Essenes from Qumran) and then each other,
casting lots to determine who would kill his
colleagues then himself.
The Roman ramp still stands on the western
side and can be climbed on foot. Many of the
ancient buildings have been restored from
their remains, as have the wall-paintings of
Herod's two main palaces, and the Romanstyle
bathhouses that he built. The synagogue,
storehouses, and houses of the Jewish rebels
have also been identified and restored. The
meter-high circumvallation wall that the Romans
built around Masada can be seen, together with
eleven barracks for the Roman soldiers just
outside this wall. Water cisterns two-thirds of
the way up the cliff drain the nearby wadis by
an elaborate system of channels, which explains
how the rebels managed to have enough water
for such a long time.
Inside the synagogue, an ostracon bearing the
inscription me'aser cohen (tithe for the priest)
was found, as were fragments of two scrolls;
parts of Deuteronomy 33-34 and parts of Ezekiel
35-38 (including the vision of the "dry bones"),
found hidden in pits dug under the floor of a
small room built inside the synagogue. In other
loci fragments were found of the books of
Genesis, Leviticus, Psalms, and Sirach, as well as
of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.