Page 60 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies

On the other hand, the Roman troops were camped in the unrelenting heat alongside the Dead Sea.
Archaeological work shows that six Roman camps and a rock wall surrounded the fortress. For months,
the Romans faced severe water shortages.

Under the guidance of Roman general Flavius Silva, the Romans built a ramp on the western side of
Masada, using 30,000 Jewish slaves as laborers. Once the ramp was completed, Roman forces breached
a final barrier with fire and prepared to enter Masada the following morning.

However, as the Jews saw that their cause was hopeless, this last Zealot community made a difficult
choice. Each man killed his own family. A small group of men was chosen by lot to kill the other men.
Finally, one man killed the surviving men and then took his own life. According to the written record of
their community, the group had elected to die at their own hands as free men rather than be subjected
to the brutal treatment sure to come from the Romans. More than 900 men, women, and children were
found dead when the Roman soldiers arrived. Only two women and five children were found alive, in
hiding.

The small band of rebels atop Masada was the last group of Jews to live in freedom in Israel until 1948,
when the modern-day state of Israel was founded. Little wonder why Masada holds such a special place
among Jews today, or why it is the most visited site in Israel.

The 19 centuries between Masada’s fall and the new creation of the modern-day state of Israel
consisted of three more centuries of Roman rule, another three centuries of a weaker coalition of
“Christian” rule known as the Byzantine Era, the early Muslim reign in the area from the 7th through the
10th centuries, two centuries of rule under the European Christian Crusaders, and then more than six
centuries of strong rule from Islamic forces based in Turkey.

Turkish rule in Palestine came to an end during World War I. British forces ruled the land from 1917 until
1948, when a United Nations declaration created a “partitioned” area for Jewish people in their biblical
homeland.

Modern-Day Israel – A Brief History

Future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared Israel an independent State on May 14, 1948.

The surrounding Arab states immediately fought against the new Jewish state. Ten months of fierce
fighting took place throughout Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and in southern Lebanon. Though the
outnumbered Jews were at times in grave danger of losing all of their appointed land, Israeli forces
managed to win the battle. Israel refers to this battle as its “War of Independence.” An immediate
consequence of winning the war was the claiming of more land than had originally been decreed in the
UN “partition plan.” Jerusalem, however, was lost to Arab control, under Jordanian leadership.

Approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes in that first war. There
has been an ongoing debate and much conflict over whether to restore any of the Arab refugees to their
former property, and if so, how the restoration would be completed. In succeeding wars, Israel gained
even more land and more military dominance, leading to a never-ending debate about how to find
peace in the Middle East.

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