A Mother's Infanticide
The Effects of Famine
Meanwhile in the city the victims of famine were dropping in their thousands, and there was suffering beyond description. In every house the mere flicker of a sight of food caused domestic warfare, and family members would fight each other to grab some pitiful means of keeping alive. Not even the dying…
Mary, a wealthy Jew, cannibalizes her own child and offers the child’s remains to the Jewish rebels as the remaining populace of Jerusalem longs for death. The Roman legions are disgusted when they hear of it. According to Josephus, this episode leads Titus to vow to ruin Jerusalem.
This episode is likely not historical. Indeed, it reads as the fulfillment of a biblical curse for breaking the covenant with God: a mother will eat her own children “secretly, because of utter want, in the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in your towns” (Deuteronomy 28:57, NJPS).
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