A Mother's Infanticide

Josephus

The Jewish War 6.193–217

ca. 75

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…

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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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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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