The Myth of Masada

[EGross]

I posted this on a different forum, but since the Christian community, for some reason, also loves Masada (fomr some reason that escapes me) I thought I'd post it here as well:

I live about an 1 hour drive from Masada (Matzada). It makes for a nice dawn picnic. But I prefer a mid-day view during the winter. In the wee hours the IDF usually trains it's new recuits by having them march up the mountain at dawn and telling them the myth as though it were history. I prefer taking the cable car! It has also become far too Christian-ized in the past few years for my tastes, with a video speaking of John the Baptist and other foreign customsm, and christian statues and medallions sold in the gift shop. I prefer a less tacky version.

10 years or so ago, Dr. ben Yehuda explained in his book "The Masada Myth" (available on amazon), how the myth deveoped, which, until 50 or so years ago, nobody even gave it any thought. I add this because just as those go "How could anyone create a Jesus myth. It must be true!", this is a modern day example using Josephus as a source.

The lack of a single body (excluding about a half dozen roman solders found in a cave) from this mass suicide, the description of the palace that does not match the current ruins in size, number of columns, or design, the speech that he could never have witnessed, and the fact that the Rabbinical writers never wrote a single word of it throughout history, makes it like the Jesus story - you have a few history bits inserted with some fiction that not only cannot be confirmed, but do not make a lot of rational sense.

The story itself was fairly dead until Israel needed some sort of symbol to rally behind, and the soldiers and student are still indoctrinated, but more and more are seeing it as a ruin without any suicide ending. Josephus seems to have loved suicide, considering it pops up in several places. It was amazing that there were any Jews left by his accounts.

Think of it, the Jews have poetic dirges of the atrocities and the deaths of that period, but not one poem that mentions Masada. Nada. A story that has the husbands slash up their wives and children, then each other, and then the bodies go "poof" and the memory of it goes "poof", except by someone who was obviously never there - relying on details he did not know, and a speech he had not heard, and most likely, a battle that never took place.

Nachman ben Yehuda, a professor of Anthropology, did a presentation concerning the Masada Myth, to the American Socialogical Association a number of years ago, as the story, at least here in Israel, took on a more metaphoric rather than a literal historic event, having then been classified by the UN as a historic site. You might be interested in reading his excellent presentation here.

On the other hand, it is a big money making business in Israel, with millions of dollars coming from tourists who like a good horror story. One of the best Israeli tour guides that I have seen doing a 5-minute presentation to summarize the Josephus myth of Masada can be seen below. Well worth watching for it's entertainment value! (Recently, the tour guides have been injecting truth by inserting the word "Myth" into their presentations.

The guy is so typically Israeli! Sometimes, the 5 minutes doesn't work well in the forum software, so if it stops right away, just cut and paste >>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9EsVm6v6Mqw <<-this link in your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...EsVm6v6Mqw

[Confused Ape]

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting it.

The tour guide is a brilliant story teller.

[EGross]

Yes. I encountered the youtube by accident, and chuckled, because he reminds me of most of the Israelis who lead youth movement programs (not just tours, but Boy-scout-like programs, like Bnei Akiva and Ezra). You can also tell by the way he speaks that it's a fun job for him, without taking the story seriously. That kind of group is very typical of what I see when I visit. It has a beautiful view, and some portions are always empty enough to give you some privacy for a picnic. At the end when he says "45 minute walk", it's more like an hour or so, because once you get to the bottom, you have a long walk back to the entrance.

I still am confused why Christians flock to this place and why the tourism shop focuses on them. They even had one of those wooden cut outs, where you can stick your head through it, and be hugging a painted picture of "John the Baptist" (aka "Generic guy with a beard"). But maybe because the use of the Masada myth is gone, the Israelis aren't as interested in that myth as much as finding a water source and going swimming.

[Confused Ape]

I still am confused why Christians flock to this place and why the tourism shop focuses on them.

Christians would go to the 'Holy Land' to look at Jesus sites but a lot of them would want to visit other tourist attractions while they're there. Masada is an interesting historical site with the addition of a good story attached to it.

[Angrboda]

The Christian connection is bizarre, but myth or not, it's an epic tale, worthy of retelling.

(It's reminiscent of Alexander's conquest of Tyre. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in Alexander's tent during the planning of that siege.)

[Anomalocaris]

Except when the myth is used to pump up one group at another's expense.

[Minimalist]

Josephus was in Rome when Flavius Silva took Masada. As was customary in ancient "historical" writing the "speeches" of Silva and Eleazar ben Ya'ir are fictional devices to move the plot along.

Even more oddly, the drawing lots horseshit at the end of the Masada story is remarkably similar to the drawing lots story at the end of the siege of Jotapata - where Josephus allegedly was - to the point where it seems he simply copied the idea.

The last thing the rebels on Masada had to worry about was being forced into slavery.

The Romans knew what to do with rebels.

[Justtristo]

Josephus was in Rome when Flavius Silva took Masada. As was customary in ancient "historical" writing the "speeches" of Silva and Eleazar ben Ya'ir are fictional devices to move the plot along.

Even more oddly, the drawing lots horseshit at the end of the Masada story is remarkably similar to the drawing lots story at the end of the siege of Jotapata - where Josephus allegedly was - to the point where it seems he simply copied the idea.

The last thing the rebels on Masada had to worry about was being forced into slavery.

The Romans knew what to do with rebels.

That was quite likely the real fate of the rebels, being crucified along some major road, although Josephus would have not have that mentioned. Even Rome Josephus would have eventually known about the fate of the Masada Rebels.

Because I hypothesis that he secretly admired them (he probably only defected to the Romans to save his own skin). Maybe for the rest of his life he might have wished sometimes, he should have been died back in Jotapata.

[Minimalist]

although Josephus would have not have that mentioned.

It is a lot less "heroic."

[Justtristo]

although Josephus would have not have that mentioned.

It is a lot less "heroic."

I would hypothesis that if Josephus saw these rebels as anything other than tragic heroes, he would have saw it fit to tell the truth in that they got their just deserts by being crucified.

This would not be the last time that the rebels of the first Jewish revolt would be seen by latter generations as heroes fighting for a lost cause. The Jacobites in Scotland and the Confederate in the modern era are still seen by some as tragic heroes.

Although I am personally disgusted by the portrayal of the Confederates as heroes. Because to me the Southern states only succeeded in order to prevent the institution of slavery being dismantled by the US federal government. I would submit as evidence that support for succession was correlated by level of slave ownership, areas in south with low slave ownership like Appalachia were against succession.