At this moment, per Google, the web is filled with 161 news articles disseminating a press release from the Israeli Antiquity Authority announcing the discovery of a drainage tunnel in Jerusalem that was apparently used by the city's residents as a refuge and secret exit from the city during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 66-70 CE.
We haven't read all 161, but of those we've scanned, we like this one best: the report from Arutz Sheva that decorates the story with some touches of Jewish nationalism, like calling Josephus a "Jewish turncoat."
Speaking of Josephus, our frustration with the coverage so far is that it refers to a statement by Josephus about the use of a drainage tunnel by refugees but does not give the specific reference from the Jewish War. We are scholarly enough to want to reread the reference but not scholarly enough to recall it or to locate it. So we appoint willing gentle readers to serve as research assistants to our SWNIDish self and other gentle readers, offering a hat tip to the person who finds the specific passage from Josephus and directs us to the same.
2 comments:
The only reference I have found thus far is in Wars of the Jews, 6.9; though, it seems a bit vague, for it calls the hiding places "caverns" (6.9.4[433]). I'll keep looking and let you know what I find.
Is this it? [i]"[Judas] that had been a captain of a certain band at the siege of Jerusalem, and by going down into a certain vault under ground, had privately made his escape." [/i]
Book 7, Chapter 6, Paragraph 5.
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