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To: CMAC51
During the Jewish Wars of the first century, Jews supporting Israeli independence from Rome took control of a plush Roman settlement on steep and rugged Israeli hill called Gamala. When the hill was surrounded and sieged by the Roman army, the Jewish freedom fighters committed suicide rather than let themselves be taken by the Romans.

Today in Israel, soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force regularly go to Gamala, stand on that hill, and recite, "Never again. Never again."

There are some inaccuracies there. It was "the Jewish Wars of the 1st century," it was the Jewish revolt against Rome that started in 66 CE. The hilltop taken was Metzada (AKA Masada), which wasn't a plush Roman settlement, but one of Herod's royal palaces (though Herod was long dead). The "Never Again" bit is not quite true - it is "Metzada shall not fall again!" and it is spoken by Israeli troops as part of the ceremony when they get out of basic training.

60 posted on 08/17/2006 2:25:02 PM PDT by Ancesthntr
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To: Ancesthntr

Perhaps you should do your homework before you act all knowing. Right now, I am thinking the Isreali veteran knew more about his army than you do.

Aramaic: Gamla ("the Camel")
Fortified hillside town in the Golan 7 miles east of the Sea of Galilee, built on inaccessible slopes below a ridge shaped like the humps of a camel. Gamala was the hometown of Judah "the Galilean," who led a tax revolt against the Romans in 6 CE & whose descendents were leaders of radical revolutionary factions up through the war with Rome. Josephus reinforced the fortifications of the city; & it was the last settlement in the north to hold out against the Romans [67 CE]. Rather than submit to capture the defenders jumped to their death in the ravines below. For modern archaeologists the primary importance of Gamala is its 65' x 53' synagogue, the only undisputed structure for public Jewish worship datable to the early 1st c. CE that has yet been discovered in Palestine.

References:

Josephus, Antiquities 13.394-396; 18.4;
_____, War 1.105, 166; 4.4-8, 11-54, 62-83;
_____, Life 46-47, 58, 61, 114, 177-179, 183-185.

For further recent information about archaeological & historical evidence, see:

Rousseau, John J. & Rami Arav. Jesus & His World. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995) pp. 100-104.

Gamala: The Northern Masada. Selections from Josephus about Gamala, including his eye-witness account of the Roman siege.

Gamla. Donald D. Binder provides detailed photos & archaeological sketches focused on the excavations of the synagogue [SMU].

Archaeology in Israel: Gamla. article about the site, its history & artifacts in The Jewish Magazine (March 2000).


68 posted on 08/18/2006 6:16:14 AM PDT by CMAC51
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