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The Masada myth is the early Zionist retelling of the Siege of Masada, and an Israeli national myth. The Masada myth is a selectively constructed narrative based on Josephus' account, supplemented with fabrications and omissions. This narrative was socially constructed and promoted by Jews in Mandatory Palestine and later Israel. Despite the modern academic consensus, popular accounts by figures like Yigal Yadin and Moshe Pearlman have perpetuated the myth, influencing public perception. [1] [2]
In the myth narrative, the defenders of Masada were depicted as national symbols of heroism, freedom, and national dignity. This narrative selectively emphasized Josephus's account, highlighting the defenders' courage and resistance while omitting the details of their murderous campaign against innocent Jews, as well as certain elements of their final mass suicide. [3]
The early Zionist settlers often considered themselves direct descendants of the ancient Hebrews, and thus used the Masada myth narrative to establish a sense of national heroism and to promote patriotism. [4] [5]
The only original source on the Siege of Masada is the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus Flavius, who participated in the revolt before joining the Roman side. In a 1986 article investigating the national myth by Barry Schwartz, Yael Zerubavel and Bernice M. Barnett, it was described as "one of the least significant and least successful events in ancient Jewish history". [6]
Josephus describes the defenders of Masada as Sicarii, an extreme Jewish group known for assassination, including the killing of the High Priest in Jerusalem. The Sicarii did not join the fight against Rome but instead plundered local villages, such as Ein Gedi, where they massacred over 700 women and children. [7]
In 1927, shortly after the first Hebrew translation of Josephus was published, 27-year-old Yitzhak Lamdan published a Hebrew epic poem called "Masada: A Historical Epic" about the Jewish struggle for survival in a world full of enemies. The poem described Masada as a symbol for the Land of Israel and the Zionist enterprise, and as both a refuge and a potential trap. The poem was highly influential, but the "potential trap" aspect was left out in its mainstream Zionist reception and interpretation. [8] According to literary scholar and cultural historian David G. Roskies, Lamdan's poem later inspired the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. [9]
The transformation of Masada into a symbol of modern Israeli heroism has been attributed to Shmarya Guttman. In 1942, through organized treks and advocacy, Guttman established Masada as a Zionist emblem. The Masada myth often whitewashed Josephus's account, overlooking the Sicarii's violent actions and presenting them instead as heroic defenders. This transformation was facilitated by a constellation of events in the twentieth century, including knowledge of the Holocaust. [10] Between February and July 1942, the Masada ethos became deeply rooted in youth movements and public discourse. The myth narrative resonated strongly, symbolizing Jewish resilience and loneliness during the Holocaust. Youth movements and Palmach squads integrated this ethos into their activities, reinforcing its significance. [10]
Archeologist Yigal Yadin, formerly the Israeli Chief of the General Staff, sought to portray the defenders as committed supporters of a national resistance led by the Zealots. [7]
For example, Yadin interpreted scrolls found at Masada as evidence of diverse sectarian support. However, these scrolls might have been looted from nearby villages, and Josephus's identification of the defenders as Sicarii suggests a more complex picture. [7]
In 1969 the Israeli government held a military funeral for 27 skeletons found during Yadin's excavations. Since the skeletons were later admitted by Yadin to have been found together with pig bones, later archaelogists suggested the bones may well have been those of local Christians or Roman soldiers. [11]
A 1981 miniseries and, later, full-length movie, Masada , was broadcast which further popularized the myth narrative. [12]
The table below compares the key elements of the typical myth narrative, versus the original narrative written by Josephus. [13]
Element | Josephus' Account | Mythical Narrative |
---|---|---|
Characters | Sicarii, a group of Jewish murderers and robbers ("terrorists", in some sources) | Zealots, freedom fighters |
Behavior prior to siege | Raided and massacred nearby Jewish villages | Heroically defended against Romans |
Reason for Suicide | Persuaded by Elazar Ben-Yair, most killed by 10 people | Chose death over slavery |
Survivors | 7 survived | None |
Role in Jewish Revolt | Sicarii were living in Masada before Jerusalem's fall | The "last stand", having escaped to Masada after the fall of Jerusalem |
Masada is an ancient fortification in southern Israel, situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km (12 mi) east of Arad.
The Sicarii were a group of the Jews who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, conducted a campaign of "terror-kidnapping, extortion, robbery, and murder" against other Jews and Romans, and became known for a reported mass suicide at the Siege of Masada. The Sicarii opposed the Roman occupation of Judea. The Sicarii carried sicae, or small daggers (sickles), concealed in their cloaks; at public gatherings, they pulled out these daggers to attack, blending into the crowd after the deed to escape detection.
The First Jewish–Roman War, sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt, or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire fought in the province of Judaea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity.
The siege of Masada was one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War, occurring from 72 to 73 CE on and around a hilltop in present-day Israel.
Ein Gedi, also spelled En Gedi, meaning "spring of the kid", is an oasis, an archeological site and a nature reserve in Israel, located west of the Dead Sea, near Masada and the Qumran Caves. Ein Gedi, a kibbutz, was established nearby in 1954.
Judas of Galilee, or Judas of Gamala, was a Jewish leader who led resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes by Quirinius in the Judaea Province in 6 CE. He encouraged Jews not to register and those that did had their houses burnt and their cattle stolen by his followers. He is credited with beginning the "fourth philosophy" of the Jews which Josephus blames for the disastrous war with the Romans in 66–73. These events are discussed by Josephus in The Jewish War and in Antiquities of the Jews and mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Jewish War is a work of Jewish history written by Josephus, a first-century Roman-Jewish historian. It has been described by the historian Steve Mason as "perhaps the most influential non-biblical text of Western history".
Gamla, also Gamala, was an ancient Jewish town on the Golan Heights. Believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars, it transitioned into a predominantly Jewish settlement that came under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE. The town's name reflects its location on a high, elongated ridge with steep slopes resembling a camel's hump.
The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that lies east of the Judaean Mountains, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, it has been nominated to the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in the State of Palestine, particularly for its monastic ruins.
Brit HaBirionim was a self-declared faction of the Revisionist Zionist Movement (ZRM) in Mandatory Palestine, active between 1930 and 1933. It was founded by Abba Ahimeir, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Yehoshua Yeivin.
Nachman Ben-Yehuda is a professor emeritus and former dean of the department of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Masada is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the northern Jordan Valley near the Sea of Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 388. Although still called a kibbutz, it privatized itself in 2006.
The negation of the Diaspora is a central assumption in many currents of Zionism. The concept encourages the dedication to Zionism and it is used to justify the denial of the feasibility of Jewish emancipation in the Diaspora, arguing that Diasporic life leads either to discrimination and persecution or Jewish national decadence and assimilation. A more moderate formulation says that the Jews as a people have no future without a "spiritual center" in the Land of Israel.
Yitzhak Lamdan was an Israeli Hebrew-language poet, translator, editor and columnist.
Menahem ben Judah lived around the time of the First Jewish–Roman War and is mentioned by Josephus. He was the leader of a faction called the Sicarii who carried out assassinations of Romans and collaborators in the Holy Land.
The politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine refers to the significance of archaeology in the politics and social fabric of Israel and Palestine. Many important developments in Levantine archaeology have occurred within Israel and Palestine.
Eleazar ben Hanania was a Jewish leader during the Great Revolt of Judea. Eleazar was the son of the High Priest Hanania ben Nedebai and hence a political figure of the 1st century Judaea Province. Eleazar was the governor of the temple at the outbreak of the rebellion in 66 CE and following the initial outbreak of the violence in Jerusalem convinced the priests of the Jewish Temple to stop service of sacrifice for the Emperor. The action, though largely symbolic, was one of the main milestones to bring a full-scale rebellion in Judea.
The Pillage of Ein Gedi refers to the Sicarii raid of Ein Gedi during the First Jewish–Roman War. According to Josephus, on Passover, the Sicarii of Masada raided Ein Gedi, a nearby Jewish settlement, and killed 700 of its inhabitants. Josephus' account is the only known record of the pillage and its perpetrators. Pliny the Elder however described the destruction of Ein Gedi after the end of the war:
Below the settlement of the Essenes was once the village of Ein Gedi, second only to Jerusalem in fertility of soil and groves of palm trees. But now it, like Jerusalem (Jericho), is but a heap of ashes
This ancient story has since become a national symbol well known to Israelis and disseminated to tourists who find a trip to Masada at sunrise a compulsory part of a pilgrimage to the Israeli homeland. The struggle of the Jews on Masada has been embellished and wrapped in hyperbole, and they themselves have been deemed freedom fighters, resisters, and warriors who retained their freedom against all odds. In 1981, ABC made those mythologized events recognizable to the wider American population with the broadcast of a well-watched television miniseries starring Peter O'Toole that dramatized the story. Some historians even couple the thwarted capture of Masada with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Citing Zionist Isaac Lamdan's 1926 poem Masada, about this earlier Jewish conflict, David Roskies asserts that it, "more than any other text, later inspired the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto." No doubt Masada was influential, but Roskies's observation remains in the realm of speculation, considering the equally influential poetry of Hayim Bialik, whose prose more insistently calls for passionate resistance.