Rome and the East
the major national pilgrim festival. None the less John’s representation of
Tabernacles as being a strong reason for going up to Jerusalem clearly ac-
cords with our other evidence. Josephus emphasises the special importance
of the festival (Ant. , –) and the requirement to go up to Jerusalem
to celebrate it for eight days (Ant. , –); but, apart from the rules for
the festival given by Philo,^8 perhaps the most striking of all testimony to
its significance in this period is Josephus’ casual reference to the fact that in
.. Cestius Gallus was able to capture Lydda with ease, because the entire
population had gone up to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles (BJ, ).
It is also in the context of this celebration of Tabernacles that John repre-
sents differences breaking out over the inappropriateness of aChristoscoming
from Galilee, and not from Bethlehem; and it is also here that the arrest
and examination of Jesus is first concretely foreshadowed, for their atten-
dants report about him to thearchiereis(high priests) andPharisaioi, who re-
proach them for not bringing Jesus with them. We may recall a profoundly
relevant episode which, as Josephus records (BJ, –), took place at
Tabernacles in.., when a peasant, also named Jesus, began to proph-
esy in public against Jerusalem and the Temple, was arrested by thearchontes
(magistrates), brought before the then Roman governor, Albinus, flogged,
cross-questioned, and finally released as a lunatic.
In John’s narrative there follows a long section representing Jesus’ preach-
ing and healing, with no explicit indication of his either staying in Jerusalem
or leaving it ([:–]; :–:). But then there comes a festival described
asta enkainia(festival of restoration), in Jerusalem. It can only be Hanukkah,
for the meaning, ‘‘renewal,’’ is the same, and we are in winter (:); Jesus
spends his time at the Temple, in the ‘‘Stoa of Solomon.’’ We know from
Josephus that this festival was celebrated for eight days but not how it was
celebrated, except (in general terms) with hymns, sacrifices, and popular re-
joicing (Ant. , –). Jesus again runs into danger, this time the threat
of stoning by the mob, and escapes. He then leaves Jerusalem to cross the
Jordan to the spot where John had first baptized him, and is called back to
raise Lazarus from his tomb at Bethany near Jerusalem (:–:). It is
this miracle which provokes an initialsynhedrion(meeting) of the high priests
and Pharisees, at which they resolve to put Jesus to death for fear of the Ro-
man reaction if all the people were to follow him. Caiaphas makes his first
appearance, described as ‘‘archiereus[high priest] of that year,’’ and utters the
proposition that one man should die for the sake of the people. This thought,
. Philo,De Spec. Leg. , ; , –.