Jesus Comparative Figures: Sign Prophet Series (Jonathan the Weaver)

Part 8 Jonathan the Weaver

David Fiensy noted that leaders of mass peasant movements rarely came from those that were on the bottom rung of social class. “Jonathan the weaver, was an artisan. The survey of leadership of rebellions in the Roman empire, then, is consistent with the findings of modern investigations of peasant societies. Leaders rarely came from peasants themselves.”[1] In Marks gospel Jesus is referred to as a τέκτων – tekton (‘artisan’) (Mark 6:3) although this is often translated as a carpenter, tekton can mean any sort of artisan. “Josephus tells us of one Jonathan, who, following the Roman victory over Israel and the capture of Jerusalem (70 CE), fled to Cyrene (North Africa). According to Josephus, this man, by trade a weaver, was one of the Sicarii. He persuaded many of the poorer Jews to follow him out into the desert, “promising to show signs and apparitions” (War 7.437–38; Life 424–25).”[2] It is noted that Jonathan had Jewish followers (War 7.438).

Jesus being an artisan helped in his rise, being an exorcist/healer would explain a further exaltation of Jesus among his own people. Jesus would have belonged to a class of charismatic Jews such as Honi or Ben Dosa performing thaumaturgic actions.[3] Jesus’ rise came through his healings where people believed he could overpower Satan affecting people. This would give him the belief that God was with him. Jonathan also being an artisan helped in his rise and a further rise came from being involved with the Sicarii. Jonathan “a final figure appeared in the northern African coastal province of Cyrenaica. A weaver by trade and a refugee whom Josephus associates with the failed Sicarii of Alexandria, Jonathan gained a following among ‘the poor’ (War 7.438), estimated at two thousand elsewhere in Josephus (Life 424). In what is by now a familiar script, he led his followers into the wilderness and promised ‘to demonstrate to them signs and wonders’ (War 7.437). ”[4] Jonathan could be seen as “prophet like Moses” who went with his followers into the desert, preparing them for the restoration of Isreal. Many of the Sign Prophets appealed to the economically oppressed peasants of the time, Jonathan “came thither and prevailed with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him;” (War 7.438). There are some indications that there was a more significant element of class conflict in the disturbances created by Jonathan the Sicarius and his followers in Cyrene than in the other cases. …  Josephus specifically states that Jonathan’s followers were drawn from the poor (War 7.438). They were opposed, in the first instance, not by the Roman authorities, but by the “men of rank” among the Jews (7.439)[5] He was against “the wealthiest of the Jews” (7.442), also described as “the well-to-do” (7.445). Greame Lang had noticed that “Jesus himself is recorded as expressing some rather strong opinions about the wealthy. After meeting the rich young man who sadly declines to sell all he has and give the money to the poor, Jesus tells his disciples that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god” (Mark 10:23-25). Many attacks in the Jewish war were carried out by the poor against the upper classes. Ananias’ palace and Herodian palaces were burnt down; all of the debt records were destroyed (War 2.17.6). The Dead Sea Scrolls offer a window into the minds of these Jews and in the scroll 4Q171 describes “the time of testing” doing a pesher on psalm 37. It uses the typology of testing on Exodus and Wilderness. All this together with the reversal of fortunes expected at a realized eschatology meant….. “some of [Jesus’] rhetoric certainly would have been received without much argument by some of the revolutionaries described by Josephus.”[6] Jonathan’s actions were directed not against the Romans, but rather against members of the Jewish aristocracy. If he was a practical revolutionary at all, he might be better described as a social revolutionary than as a political revolutionary.[7] This reminds us of the gospels who appropriated the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion on the Jewish aristocrats (High Priest) instead of on those who carried out the crucifixion- the Romans. Our first Jewish author on Jesus (Paul) blamed his own people for the crucifixion of Jesus by Roman soldiers (1 Thess. 2:15).

Let us now reproduce the passages:

And now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade a weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed Catullus, the governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into the desert, and of the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out after him both horsemen and footmen, and easily overcame them, because they were unarmed men; of these many were slain in the fight, but some were taken alive, and brought to Catullus.

War 7.437-440

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for a certain Jew, whose name was Jonathan, who had raised a tumult in Cyrene, and had persuaded two thousand men of that country to join with him, was the occasion of their ruin; but when he was bound by the governor of that country, and sent to the emperor, he told him that I had sent him both weapons and money. However, he could not conceal his being a liar from Vespasian, who condemned him to die; according to which sentence he was put to death. Nay, after that, when those that envied my good fortune did frequently bring accusations against me, by God’s providence I escaped them all. I also received from Vespasian no small quantity of land, as a free gift, in Judea;

Life 424-25

Josephus goes on in the War to mention his personal involvement with this Sign Prophet. “Jonathan’s name was known to Josephus because of a personal accusation made against Josephus by the Lybian governor Catullus. Josephus is accused along with other prominent Jewish leaders of being implicated in the Jonathan plot (War 7.488).”[8] Because of this personal involvement, Josephus happens to write about Jonathan in autobiography, the passage is reproduced above in his book Vitae – Life. After Jonathan’s arrest, Jonathan conspired with the Roman governor Catullus to accuse aristocrats Jews and Josephus himself in being implicated in the plot (War 7.488). Part of this accusation is that Josephus provided weapons to Jonathan’s movement, but this looks like a false accusation (on both accounts, Josephus being involved and weapons provided). In the next months, governor Catullus used Jonathan to incriminate several important Jewish men, but the new emperor, Vespasian,  grew suspicious and in the end, Catullus was reprimanded and Jonathan was burned alive.[9] The earlier account of this narrative looks like the more accurate assessment that this movement was not armed (too poor to arm). We see in the case of Jonathan (same as the Baptist) his followers were unarmed. As noted by Nathan C. Johnson: In the groups discussed here, such salvation, as we shall see, never arrived, and Rome violently put down these gatherings. In light of this iron-fisted response, the question arises whether or not these movements had violent intentions. Though a handful of sign-prophet gatherings were armed, these movements were not all violent per se, and Josephus even notes that some of the slain throngs were “unarmed”.[10]

 I will also reproduce the plot Josephus reports about his involvement with Jonathan:

 

As for Jonathan, the head of this plot, he fled away at that time; but upon a great and very diligent search, which was made all the country over for him, he was at last taken. And when he was brought to Catullus, he devised a way whereby he both escaped punishment himself, and afforded an occasion to Catullus of doing much mischief; for he falsely accused the richest men among the Jews, and said that they had put him upon what he did. Now Catullus easily admitted of these his calumnies, and aggravated matters greatly, and made tragical exclamations, that he might also be supposed to have had a hand in the finishing of the Jewish war. But what was still harder, he did not only give a too easy belief to his stories, but he taught the Sicarii to accuse men falsely. He bid this Jonathan, therefore, to name one Alexander, a Jew (with whom he had formerly had a quarrel, and openly professed that he hated him); he also got him to name his wife Bernice, as concerned with him. These two Catullus ordered to be slain in the first place; nay, after them he caused all the rich and wealthy Jews to be slain, being no fewer in all than three thousand. This he thought he might do safely, because he confiscated their effects, and added them to Caesar’s revenues. Nay, indeed, lest any Jews that lived elsewhere should convict him of his villainy, he extended his false accusations further, and persuaded Jonathan, and certain others that were caught with him, to bring an accusation of attempts for innovation against the Jews that were of the best character both at Alexandria and at Rome. One of these, against whom this treacherous accusation was laid, was Josephus, the writer of these books. However, this plot, thus contrived by Catullus, did not succeed according to his hopes; for though he came himself to Rome, and brought Jonathan and his companions along with him in bonds, and thought he should have had no further inquisition made as to those lies that were forged under his government, or by his means; yet did Vespasian suspect the matter, and made an inquiry how far it was true. And when he understood that the accusation laid against the Jews was an unjust one, he cleared them of the crimes charged upon them, and this on account of Titus’s concern about the matter, and brought a deserved punishment upon Jonathan; for he was first tormented, and then burnt alive.

War 7.441-450

To  Johnson this movement looked millenarian:

As happened previously in Alexandria, however, Jewish men of rank reported his activity to the Roman-appointed governor (Catullus), who quashed the unarmed multitude with cavalry and infantry. Jonathan temporarily escaped but was later apprehended, used as an informant, tortured, and eventually burned alive in Rome at the command of Emperor Vespasian (War 6.450). Again, the promise of thaumaturgical proof of God’s support lends the movement to millenarian categorization. Despite Jonathan’s alleged association with the Sicarii, the unarmed status of his adherents marks this as yet another ‘assaulted’ millenarian group (though cf. Life 424–25, where Jonathan accuses Josephus of supplying ‘arms and money’ to the movement). Rome was once again the aggressor, preemptively stamping out perceived threats. That a millenarian ideology associated with nativism and restorationism could gain traction outside Judea is of interest, intimating how durable, attractive, and adaptable the millenarian impulse could be among an oppressed religious group.[11]

BACK TO INTRODUCTION

 

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[1] David Fiensy, Leaders of Mass Movements and the Leader of the Jesus Movement, JSNT 74, pp.3-27 (12).

[2] Craig Evans, ch 2 in Amy-Jill Levine et al (eds) Jesus in Context, p.59

[3] Gaza Vermes, Jesus the Jew, chapter 3, especially p.58 and 69; Honi the Circle-Drawer by the rabbis (y. Taanit 16a–b;  b. Taanit 19a; 23a) and Onias the Righteous by Josephus. (Antiquities 14.2.1-21). Hanina Ben Dosa (example Ta’anit. 24b–25a; Berakhot 34b.

[4] Nathan C. Johnson, (2021) “Early Jewish Sign Prophets” in James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.), CDAMM retrieved from here: https://www.cdamm.org/assets/articlePDFs/31519-early-jewish-sign-prophets.pdf

[5] Rebecca Gray, Prophetic Figures in Late Second Temple Jewish Palestine, The Evidence from Josephus, Oxford 1993, p.135

[6] Greame Lang, “Oppression and Revolt in Ancient Palestine: The Evidence in Jewish Literature from the Prophets to Josephus”, Sociological Analysis 49/4 (Oxford, 1989), pp. 325-342, first quote at 327, second quote at 329.

[7] Gray, Prophetic Figures, p.139

[8] David Allen, “How Josephus Really Viewed Jesus”, RevBíb 85/3-4, p.339.

[9] Johnson, Early Jewish Sign Prophets.

[10] Johnson, Early Jewish Sign Prophets

[11] Johnson, Early Jewish Sign Prophets.