19. The Sacrifice at Masada

The ruined palace of Masada is a sacred place associated with 960 Jewish heroes and heroines who, some 1 900 years ago, committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. About thirty years ago, Masada was excavated and restored by archaeologists and volunteers led by Yigael Yadin. Read on to learn about this amazing event.

One discovery always leads to another. Archaeologists working near the Dead Sea became curious about a steep rock near Qumran. At the top of this rock are the ruins of the great palace and fort of Masada. In 1963 a man began careful exploration of this forbidding place. Yigael Yadin was both soldier and archaeologist, and he and his father had both been studying the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yadin was anxious to explore the history of the great palace of Masada.

It was a huge palace. He knew that hundreds of workers were going to be needed for digging there, so Yadin extended an invitation to young men and women from all over the world to join him in digging at Masada. For two summers hundreds of young people came. Masada is not a pleasant place in mid-summer; the mountains are hot and brown and dry. There was no protection for the workers except in camp huts. Yet each year hundreds came to help.

Why? What was the particular interest of this place? Why was there any excitement about this lonely ruin?

Masada had been the scene of great events and acts of courage. The story was famous, but many people had doubts about its truth. Now Yadin and his young workers were digging in order to prove it was true.

Masada had once been the palace of King Herod who ruled Palestine under the Romans during the life of Christ. He had had this palace built far from the city. It was lonely and it was safe, hanging over the steepest part of the rock. The palace was fixed to the actual sides of the rock at three levels. Nowadays men would not dare to build in such a place; yet Herod gave orders for his servants to build it there. They did the work with their own hands and simple tools. They made it beautiful with wall paintings and fountains and fine stone floors. Water was brought from a great distance to this waterless mountain, and on the upper level there were beautiful fountains and gardens and baths. Inside their palace Herod and his family were comfortable and safe.

Earthquakes have since destroyed a lot of the palace, but the main walls are still standing. Young workers have cleared some of the ruins so we can see how beautiful they were. The workers were tied together with ropes and let down over the cliffs as they worked. Digging in those ruins the young people were sharing the dangers of the men who first built the palace.

After Herod's death the palace became a fort for the Jewish rebels fighting for their freedom from Rome. But the Romans were too powerful. They had already attacked Jerusalem and the great temple had gone up in flames. They had destroyed the monastery at Qumran. Its priests had escaped to the mountains with their scrolls and treasure. In the year A.D. 73 the Roman army arrived at Masada. Orders had been given to destroy the fort and everyone inside it.

There were nine hundred and sixty men, women and children defending the fort, and the Romans were determined that nobody should escape. They built a wall all round the hill. There were eight camps for guarding every corner. The water pipes going into the fort were cut, and the fountains and the baths in Herod's palace ran dry. Soon the drinking water was finished.

Then the Romans began building a great bank of earth against the side of the hill at Masada; soon the height of the bank reached the height of the walls of the fort. They then shot burning arrows into the fort and set fire to the buildings inside. As the wooden walls went up in flames and the arrows shot through the air, the defenders were driven back into the fort inside.

It was clear that the Romans were going to win. The Jews had no hope of keeping their freedom, and were facing certain death.

But the Jews were determined to die as free men, preferring to kill themselves while they were still free. They would not wait for the Roman victory, and decided to make a terrible sacrifice.

Every man took his wife and children to his own room. First they burned all their belongings, and said a loving goodbye to each other. When they could say no more the men killed their wives and children.

Sadly they returned to a place in the centre of the fort. Their lives had no value now, and they chose ten men to kill all the others. Hundreds of men then lay down beside their dead families, and the ten chosen officers had the dreadful task of killing them all.

Finally, the last ten men chose one to complete the sacrifice. He had to kill his nine companions and then he killed himself.

When the Romans broke through the walls of Masada they were met by a dreadful silence—they had seized a dead fort.

This story of courage and sacrifice brought young people from all over the world to dig at Masada. They admired the strong character and love of freedom shown by the defenders of the fort, and wanted to see where it had happened.

In two years Yigael Yadin and his workers raised Masada again from its ruins. Of course the Romans had destroyed everything, but signs of the fort's history could be seen. They found many examples of the beautiful work of Herod's palace; wall paintings and baths and beautiful rooms were brought to life again. Yet perhaps the little huts of the Jewish defenders were more admired. In some of these the pots were still on the fire waiting for the evening meal. In others, the bones of whole families lay together. One pile of bones may have been the remains of the ten men chosen to do the final killing.

The character of Masada lives in those simple huts and not in the ruins of the palace. Everything that has been uncovered by the archaeologists shows the truth of the old story about the sacrifice at Masada.

From Successful Reading, 1979.