Prince Denmark

Amongst the ways in which Germany is twenty to thirty years behind the UK on progressive issues is cigarette advertising (i.e. it still exists). Every day when I come to work, I chain my bike to a bike rack advertising Prince Denmark cigarettes... and every day it annoys me by its lack of an "of" between the two words.

Astonishingly, they're not the people behind Hamlet cigars...

The Jewish War, fit the sixth, covering Book IV

Describing Lake Ḥula, Josephus says (IV.1):

Lake Semechonitis is thirty furlongs in breadth, and sixty in length; its marshes reach as far as the place Daphne,^* which in other respects is a delicious place, and hath such fountains as supply water to what is called Little Jordan, under the temple of the golden calf, where it is sent into Great Jordan.

* Apparently a mistake for Dan, as no such place Daphne is referenced there anywhere else.

Temple of the golden calf!? The answer lies, astonishingly, one thousand years back in Israelite history:

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It is impressive that this temple had lasted throughout all the ructions that had overtaken the nation since.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, the Zealots invite the Idumaeans into the city. Anan, the High Priest, bars the gates against them, and Yeshua, the deputy High Priest, gives a speech to them. At one point, he says (IV.4):

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I'm surprised to see wearing of black as a sign of mourning; it's not present in Judaism nowadays.

Skipping past a great deal of internecine warfare and atrocities, to where Shim'on bar Giora is about to take control of the city, Yoḥanan of Giscala and the Zealots being hemmed up in the Temple, we encounter (IV.10):

[The Zealots] erected four very large towers aforehand, that their darts might come from higher places, one at the north-east corner of the court, one above the Xystus, the third at another corner over against the lower city, and the last was erected above the top of the Pastophoria [priests' chambers], where one of the priests stood of course, and gave a signal beforehand, with a trumpet at the beginning of every seventh day, in the evening twilight, as also at the evening when that day was finished, as giving notice to the people when they were to leave off work, and when they were to go to work again.

This echoes the siren sounded in Jerusalem to mark the advent of the Shabbos today; I wonder whether it directly influenced it. The commentator in the online edition says:

This beginning and ending the observation of the Jewish seventh day, or sabbath, with a priest's blowing of a trumpet, is remarkable, and no where else mentioned, that I know of. Nor is Reland's conjecture here improbable, that this was the very place that has puzzled our commentators so long, called "Musach Sabbati," the "Covert of the Sabbath," if that be the true reading, 2 Kings 16:18, because here the proper priest stood dry, under a "covering," to proclaim the beginning and ending of every Jewish sabbath.

I'm surprised the announcement of the Sabbath is not known to be mentioned elsewhere (or was not when this commentary was written); after all, we know the Temple had a herald (Sheqālim 5:1) with a voice loud enough (yeah, right!) to allegedly be heard from Jericho (Tāmid 3:8).

The reference in Kings is:

2 Kings 16:18	מלכים ב טז יח-טז יח
And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria.	וְאֶת־מיסך (מוּסַךְ) הַשַּׁבָּת אֲשֶׁר־בָּנוּ בַבַּיִת וְאֶת־מְבוֹא הַמֶּלֶךְ הַחִיצוֹנָה הֵסֵב בֵּית ה׳ מִפְּנֵי מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר׃

Meanwhile, in Rome, civil war was raging in what has become known as the year of the four emperors. Right at the end of this, we read (IV.10):

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Martin Goodman argues, in his book Rome and Jerusalem, that for the Romans to destroy the Temple of Jerusalem was unprecedented; the Romans had respect for temples. As we see here, however, that's not true. It might have been an unruly mob of soldiers who destroyed the temple (presumably that of Jupiter; the narrative just says "the Capitol") where Sabinus was holing up rather than its destruction being a state decision, but they still did it.

Josephus notes         Jewish learning notes index