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On the Theophania
Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Lee, 1843
21. From the sixth Book of Josephus.
“And, How can it be necessary, that I should describe the severity of the famine, as to things inanimate? I come then to the making known of a fact, the like of which has not been recorded, either among the Greeks, or the Barbarians: one which, it is shocking to mention, and, to the hearing, incredible. I myself indeed, would gladly have left this calamity (unmentioned)—that I might not be thought by those who shall come after, to have related falsehoods,—had I not had many witnesses among those of our own times. I should indeed otherwise have rendered but a doubtful good, as to the land of my fathers, had I omitted to mention the things which it has, in fact, suffered. A certain woman, of those who resided on the other side of the Jordan,—whose name was Mirian, well known on account of her family and wealth,—took refuge with many (others) in Jerusalem, and with them was shut up (in the siege). This woman’s other possessions, as they were after she left the passage (of the Jordan) and came into the city, the Tyrants seized. The residue of her treasures moreover, should it have sufficed for her daily sustenance, was invaded and seized by the attendant soldiers. Grievous indignation therefore, took possession of her; and many times did she excite the robbers against herself, by curses and reproaches. But, when no one put her to death,—either on account of her indignation or in mercy; and she became weary of seeking sustenance for others from every quarter, and (as) suspicion was excited against her, even if she found (it): hunger, at the same time, remaining in her bowels, and indignation inflaming her more than hunger;—she took for her counsellor impetuosity and necessity, and dared to do that which was contrary to nature. She seized upon her son,—for she had a sucking infant,—and said, “Wretched (babe)! for Whom do I preserve thee in war, famine, and tumult?—that thou shouldest be a slave to the Romans? If thou shouldest indeed live happily with them, still famine precedes (this) servitude; and the seditious are cruel. Come; be thou to me for food; to the seditious, the vengeance;—and to the world, the tale which alone is wanting to (complete) the sufferings of the Jews! And, saying this, she at once killed her son. She then roasted him, and ate a part of him! the rest she hid, and kept!” These sufferings out of many, I have here set down on account of the Divine prediction of our Saviour, which declared, “Woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days:” and because it adds this also to the predictive words of our Saviour, “There shall be great tribulation on the land, and great wrath upon this people:” or, as Matthew has said, “For there shall be at that time great tribulation, the like of which has not been since the beginning of the world, even until now; nor shall be” (hereafter). It will be well therefore, to hear this writer himself, when thus putting on record the fulfilment of these same things.