The decree of the Emperor giving CÆsarea Philippi to Syria, was no sooner known, than the Jews in all parts of JudÆa took up arms. Agrippa happened at this time to be in Jerusalem, and he did his best to show the Jews the extreme folly of trying to fight against such a powerful people as the Romans, and begged and entreated of them not to rebel, and so bring misery upon themselves. Instead of listening to this wise and kind advice, the Jews were so enraged with Agrippa for giving it, that he was obliged to leave the city at once, to save himself from their violence. War now raged on every side, and fearful acts of cruelty were perpetrated by both parties. Thousands and thousands of Jews were massacred at CÆsarea, at Ptolemais, and even at Alexandria; and at Jerusalem, the soldiers of Florus put 3,500 to death in one day. The Jews acted in the same manner as far as they could, and murdered great numbers both of Syrians and Romans. Upon this general revolt of the Jews, Cestius Gallus the governor of Syria, marched with a large army into JudÆa and Galilee; burning all the towns and villages in his way, and killing the inhabitants.

Near Jerusalem he was met by a great number of Jews, who attacked him with such fury, that his whole army was in the greatest danger. Agrippa, who with a body of troops had joined Gallus, now again attempted to stop further bloodshed, and sent two of his officers to speak to his countrymen, the Jews, and propose terms of peace. The enraged Jews, however, killed one of the officers, whilst the other escaped wounded: Gallus then advanced with his whole army, defeated the rebellious Jews, and took possession of the lower parts of Jerusalem. Had he at once attacked the upper part of the city, and laid siege to the forts, it is probable that he would have taken the whole, and then the war must have ended. But, as a writer of that time says, "it seems as if God, being angry with the Jews, had determined that they should expiate their sin by the most severe suffering, and would not therefore allow the war to end so soon."

Some say, Gallus was advised to retire by some of his own officers, who had been bribed to do so by Florus. However that maybe, Gallus suddenly went away with his army: his retreat gave the Jews fresh hopes, and they pursued him even to his camp at Gibeon, about six miles from Jerusalem: here, the Jews attacked the Syrians with the greatest fury, and killed more than 5,000 of them; whilst Gallus escaped by night.

Leaving the history of this terrible war for a few minutes, we must speak of another Epistle to be found in the New Testament, where it is called "The General Epistle of Jude." The writer of this Epistle was, the "Judas (not Iscariot)" mentioned by St. John; whom St. Luke tells us (ch. vi.) was the brother of James; and he appears to have been the same person whom St. Mark (ch. iii.) calls "Thaddeus," and of whom St. Matthew (ch. x.) speaks as "Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus."

In the Gospels, therefore, we have four names for this Apostle, Jude, Judas, Thaddeus, and Lebbeus. The Book of Acts makes no mention of him. From other histories we have reason to believe, that this Apostle was a husbandman, or cultivator of the earth, and not a fisherman, as so many of the twelve were. After Jude became an Apostle, he, of course, followed the Lord as long as he lived; and then we have reason to believe that he went eastward, and preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia and other countries. He then returned to Syria, from whence he wrote his Epistle, about the same time as St. Peter wrote his First Epistle from Rome, that is, a.d. 66; just when Nero gave that decree concerning CÆsarea, that led to the war of which we have been speaking. St. Jude's Epistle is very short, and was written to warn the Christians in general not to listen to false teachers; but to take care to believe only such truths as had been taught by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. After writing this Epistle, it is supposed that St. Jude travelled again eastward, and preached the Gospel in Persia, where he suffered martyrdom.

To return to the Jews: their defeat of Gallus made them more obstinate in their determination not to submit to the Romans, and they accordingly made very great preparations for carrying on the war with vigour. At this time all the Christians quitted Jerusalem. They remembered how Jesus had told His disciples, that when they should see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, and "the abomination of desolation," they would know that the destruction of the city was near at hand, and that they must leave it, and take refuge in the mountains. The prophecy had now been fulfilled; for the armies of the heathen Romans had compassed or surrounded the city, and these armies were fitly called "the abomination of desolation," because they not only spread desolation and misery wherever they went, but they were abominable and hateful to the Jews, because on their standards and flags they had images and pictures of the false gods of the Romans, and also of their emperors, to whom, as well as to the gods, they offered sacrifices.

The Christians, seeing that the time of which Jesus had warned them was now come, left Jerusalem, and crossing the river Jordan journeyed on about one hundred miles, and took refuge in a city called Pella, belonging to King Agrippa: the inhabitants of Pella were Gentiles. Nero, who was still alive when the Jews defeated Gallus, ordered Vespasian, one of his bravest and most skilful generals, to march at once into JudÆa with a large army. Vespasian set to work to collect soldiers, and his son Titus went into Egypt to fetch from Alexandria two Roman legions, or "regiments," as we should call them. An immense army thus entered Galilee: one town after another fell into the hands of the Romans, and thousands of the Jews were slain. At Joppa, large numbers of the wretched inhabitants took refuge on board their ships, hoping thus to escape; but a violent storm dashed the vessels back upon the rocks; many of the people were drowned or crushed by the broken ships; and many, seeing no further hope of escape, killed themselves: such as did reach the shore, were slaughtered without mercy by the Romans. It is said that for a long space the sea was red with the blood of these poor creatures, and that not a man remained alive to carry these terrible tidings to Jerusalem.

During this time Vespasian had taken prisoner a man, who is famous for having written a History of the Jews, and of the destruction of Jerusalem. This man, whose name was Josephus, was a Jew, born in Jerusalem, a few years after the Crucifixion of our Lord. When he was quite young he showed a great fondness for learning, and was so very clever and sensible, that when he was only sixteen years old, the Chief Priests and rulers often asked his advice. Josephus adopted the opinions of the Pharisees; and as he grew up he took an active part in the management of public affairs.

When the wars broke out, Josephus showed so much knowledge and skill in military matters, that he was made governor, and acted as general of the Jewish armies.

Amongst other places which the Romans besieged, was a small town called Jotapa, or Jotaphata. Josephus defended it for nearly two months, but at last the Romans took it, and slew all the inhabitants except Josephus and forty of his men who escaped, and took refuge in a cave. Some one told Vespasian where Josephus was concealed; and the Roman general sent to offer life and safety to him and his companions, upon certain conditions, which they might have accepted without any disgrace. Josephus wished to accept these terms; but when he spake of submitting to the Romans, his companions threatened to murder him. Determined not to live to become prisoners to the Romans, and unwilling to be guilty of the great crime of self-murder, these wretched people drew lots to decide who should kill his companion: in this way one fell after another, until one man only remained alive besides Josephus, who had of course taken no share in this transaction. Josephus easily persuaded his companion to submit to the Romans: Vespasian treated the Jewish general with the greatest kindness: he kept him with him more as a friend than as a prisoner, and often consulted him, and asked his advice.

Mean time, Vespasian in one part of the country, and his son Titus in another, carried on the war with vigour; taking one city after another: in vain they besought the Jews to submit; these miserable people persisted in their useless resistance, and thus enraged the Romans, who treated them with great barbarity. Multitudes were destroyed, and a vast number were sold as slaves.

After the whole of Galilee had been thus subdued, Titus joined his father at CÆsarea, and there their armies had a little rest.

The troubles in Rome after the death of Nero, a.d. 68, prevented Vespasian having the means of carrying on the war with vigour; and indeed he was in no hurry to begin the siege of Jerusalem, because the Jews were daily rendering his task more easy, by fighting amongst themselves, and so wasting that strength which should have been kept to resist the enemy.

The city of Jerusalem was at this time in a most dreadful state of confusion and tumult. The inhabitants were divided into two parties: one party, seeing that a continuance of war would totally ruin their country, wished to submit to the Romans; the other party, the Zealots, would not hear of submission; and as they were the worst of men, they committed the most horrid crimes, often under pretence of religion. No person's life was safe, and the whole city was distracted by acts of violence and cruelty. The leader of the party of Zealots within the city was a man named John; another man named Simon, of equally bad character, headed a party outside, and collecting a band of ruffians, encamped with them before the city. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who suffered severely from the tyranny of John, fearing that he would burn the city, unhappily determined to let Simon and his troops come in, by way of defending them against John. But this step only increased their miseries; for they now suffered from the violence and wickedness of two parties, instead of one. Thus a third party was formed in Jerusalem; and these three parties, instead of joining to defend themselves against the Romans, fought against each other, and many were killed, even in the temple, and before the very altar itself.