Judaism, Masada, and Suicide: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The story of the mass suicide at Masada is often given as an example of Jewish thought. In fact, the modern state of Israel is sometimes described as having a “Masada complex.” The present article examines Bellum Judaicum (the Jewish Wars) by Josephus [1], who was the primary, and for many centuries, exclusive source on this topic and arrives at far different conclusions. Analysis of speeches at Masada, and at a slightly earlier mass suicide at Jotapata, indicates clearly that suicide represents a Graeco-Roman rather than a Jewish response to stress. These speeches conform to Plato's dualism between body and soul and Seneca's sense of freedom rather than to Biblical and rabbinic thought. This conclusion is buttressed by the absence of a suicide narrative in Josippon, the Jewish reconstruction of Josephus [2], and by the presence of a number of examples of similar collective suicides in Graeco-Roman literature. The motives of Josephus are explored in the context of his desire to differentiate himself from the Sicarii while being both a good Jew and a good Roman.