Sicarii

The Sicarii were a dissident faction of extremist Jewish . It lasts for sixty years until the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The term comes from Infiltrator sica , a dagger (short sword and curved), preferred weapon of anti-Roman Jewish murderers . Literally Sicaire means "dagger-man" .

History

Represent the Sicarii, from years 50 , the revival of the "Fourth Philosophy" of Judas the Galilean .

However, the Sicarii should not be confused with the Zealots , though these were the first representatives of the "Fourth Philosophy" as a "fourth sect", when it was founded in year 6 by Judas the Galilean and the Pharisee Zadok ^, . Other sources does not give the Zealots as members of the "fourth sect", but as members of "independent" to the philosophy of Judas the Galilean appeared in broad daylight in 44 - 46. Similarly for Infiltrators, even more radical branch of this movement, whose first significant actions (such as the alleged killing of Jonathan 56 ) are around 52 and whose height is reached at the beginning of the great Jewish revolt 66 - 70.

As early as 50 , the two factions coexist, the Zealots as police Temple composed solely of Jews (the Roman authorities could not enter the temple beyond the court of the Gentiles), as the Sicarii murderers committing their misdeeds primarily on the site of the shrine. The impunity of a large number of murders has suggested the hypothesis of a certain complicity .

The Sicarii concealed under their cloaks, small daggers, often Sica, hence their name. Their favorite grounds were large public gatherings, especially the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount. They quietly stabbed their enemies (Romans or sympathizers, Herodians , and rich Jews taking advantage of Roman rule) and then, pretending to discover with dismay the killing with a lot of cries and lamentations, they blended in with the crowd before to be identified and combined.

Among the victims of the Sicarii, there are the High Priest Jonathan ben Hanan who officiated from 36 to 37 and from 52 to 56. According to Flavius Josephus , the killing of Jonathan was sponsored by the Procurator Antonius Felix.

The Romans responded to some of these murders by severe reprisals: "When Albinus reached the city of Jerusalem , it took all the provisions and put every means to pacify the country by killing the largest number of Sicarii ( Flavius Josephus ) .

The Sicarii were not all fanatics and incorruptible. It was possible to bribe them to spare their intended victim. Flavius Josephus relates, after the kidnapping of the secretary of Eleazar , governor of the Temple , in response to retaliation of Albinus, the Sicarii agreed to free their victims in exchange the release of ten of them.

If the story of Barabbas was not invented for the purpose of parable , some convicted Sicarii were released against a promise not to kill their opponents. However, there is no evidence of this practice outside the Gospels , however, that virtually all agree on this point.

At the beginning of the Jewish revolt (in 66 ), the Sicarii, probably helped by Zealots (Josephus between the two factions without really explaining the differences), entered the city of Jerusalem and committed a series of atrocities by passing to Roman, to force people to go to war.

In a text of the Talmud , it says they destroyed the food supplies of the city that people are forced to fight against the besieging Roman instead of starting peace negotiations.

Their leaders at the time, John Gischala , Simon Bar Giora and Eleazar ben Simon , were important players in this war. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Eleazar escaped and took refuge in the fortress of Masada with 960 people - warriors, women and children - where they resist many years the Roman legions. Preferring to die than surrender, the last Sicarii collectively committed suicide to avoid being caught in 73.

Masada , looking toward the Dead Sea

In the seventh volume of his Jewish War , Josephus wrote that after the fall of the Temple in 70 , the Sicarii became the dominant Jewish revolutionary party, scattered abroad. Josephus combines particularly the mass suicide of Masada in 73 and the consequences of refusing the fiscal census ordered by Quirinius , their political and religious beliefs as resistance fighters, "Some factions do not just by identifying him as "Judas the Infiltrator. Most of the consonants and vowels match, between Sicarioi / Sicarin Josephus Iscariot and the New Testament .

Early modern and comparisons

Today, some extremists are comparable to the Sicarii, even to take the name of the latter .

You can do a lot of parallels with another caste of assassins, that of Nizari , fanatical Muslims in medieval times, hashishiyyin appointed by their enemies (literally "hashish"), whose talents inspired the term of murderers "murderers ". For the Assassins, as the Sicarii, it was natural to silence those of their co-religionists who do not respect their rules. Like the zealots of Masada , Assassins built fortresses in the mountains of remote areas to defend themselves against their enemies military. They also used the knife almost as the only means of assassination.

References

• Jewish Encyclopedia, article Sicarii, Richard Gottheil and Samuel Krauss
• Robert Eisenman , James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1997 (Viking) ISBN 0-14-025773-X
• Christophe Mzange, Simon the Zealot was he a revolutionary?

Source partial

• Translation from English wikipedia article in: Sicarii in its version of May 5, 2009.

See also

• Nizari
• Zealots
• Infiltrator
• Flavius Josephus
• Judas Iscariot

External link

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities Anthony Rich (3rd ed. 1883)

Streams of Judaism
Currents related to Judaism	Mosaic Yahwism Samaritanism Sabbatasme Frankisme
Historical currents	Judean sect: Sadducees Boethusiens Pharisees Chassidim Essenes Cult of the Dead Sea Zealots Sicarii Hellenistic Judaism : Jews of Elephantine Therapeutae Jews from the Hellenistic and Roman Egypt Min : Nazarenes Ebionites Crinthiens Elcsates Currents of the eighth century Issawi Yudghanisme
Orthodox Judaism	Modern Orthodox Dati Leumi
Ultra-Orthodox	Hasidim : Lubavitch Gur Breslav Belz Satmar Non-Hassidim : Mussar Edah Haredit Neturei Karta Hardal
Karaism	Pineapple Benjamins Avelei Tzion Tiflissim Asheri Talmid

• Ancient Rome portal
• Portal of Jewish culture and Judaism
• Portal of ancient Israel and Jews in Antiquity

Leave a Reply