Jesus ben Ananias

Jesus ben Ananias was a plebeian farmer, who, according to Flavius Josephus' The Wars of the Jews, four years before the First Jewish-Roman War, begun in 66 AD went around Jerusalem prophesying the city's destruction. The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem turned him over to the Romans, who tortured him. The procurator Lucceius Albinus took him to be a madman and released him. He continued his prophecy for more than seven years until he was killed by a stone from a catapult during the Roman siege of Jerusalem during the war. His name is rendered ישוע בן חנניה in modern Hebrew histories.

Commentary

Irish theologian and bible scholar Adam Clarke noted how similar Jesus Ben Ananias' words hearkened back to Isaiah 66:5: "A voice of noise in the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendered recompense to his enemies." Biblical scholar Craig A. Evans and Catholic seminary professor Theodore J. Weeden, believed that there are several important parallels between the temple related experiences of Jesus of Nazareth, and the apocalyptic preacher Jesus son of Ananias. The latter of whom warned of the Jerusalem temple's destruction for seven and a half years, as recorded by Josephus.