316
CAESAR'S MESSIAH
sons . . ."232—ends his work with the beginning of another dynasty that starts with a woman who was kin to Eleazar and "five children." Their names are not given. I am confident, however, that within the Flavian court they would have been known as Mary, her son Jesus, and his four brothers. They are the new dynasty, ready to enter the Promised Land that has been given to them by "God." Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, 233 and Judas?
Though Josephus symbolically converted the Maccabee family to Christianity at Masada, the Messianic rebellions centering on that family apparently continued until the defeat of Simon Bar Cochba in 135 C.E. Bar Cochba means "son of the star." Simon was so nicknamed because of the "star" prophecy of Judaism that looks to a Messiah, the same prophecy that the New Testament claims for Jesus. On the coins minted by the Jewish rebels during their 132-135 C.E. revolt, only two individuals are celebrated. One coin is dedicated to Bar Cochba and its inscription reads "Simeon, prince of Israel." The other individual so commemorated is Eleazar. His coin reads "Eleazar the priest."234 The coins present the same dichotomy that exists in the New Testament and War of the Jews—that is, between a military leader named Simon and a spiritual one named Eleazar. Rome's struggle with "Simon" and "Eleazar" evidently continued even after the family's "extinction" at Masada. Since Jesus' ministry lampoons the Jews by drawing darkly comic parallels with Titus' campaign through Judea, it seems logical that there would also be a lampoon of the twelve Apostles within War of the Jews. In this way the symmetry between the two works would be maintained. I assumed that the lampoon would involve a technique similar to the identity-switching used to transform the Jewish rebel leaders Simon and John into Christians. I discovered precisely such lampoons within Josephus' description of the assaults by the Romans on the temple of Jerusalem. Within the passages twelve Roman soldiers twice attempt to capture the wall that will lead to the temple.