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Case file

John of Gischala

The word “siege” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak in 2010. Today the opening carries none. 4 remain further down the article, where a reader arriving from a search result does not go.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. “siege” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 4.
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The opening as it read in 2010

John of Giscala (Hebrew: Yohanan mi-Gush Halav or Yohanan ben Levi ) (birth date unknown; death date after 70 ), was a leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War , and played a part in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 .1 As part of the Roman campaign to put down the revolt in Judea, Titus marched on Gush Halav , called Giscala by the Romans. Giscala was the last town in Galilee not yet conquered. Outside the walls of the city, he called on them to surrender. John prevailed upon Titus not to enter the city that day, as it was the sabbath , "not so much out of regard to the seventh day as to his own preservation." John fled to Jerusalem that night, and "Titus was greatly displeased that he had not been able to bring this John, who had deluded him, to punishment." When John entered Jerusalem , it was in an uproar, and the people clamored for news. John...went about among all the people, and persuaded them to go to war, by the hopes he gave them. He affirmed that the affairs of the Romans were in a weak condition, and extolled his own power. He also jested upon the ignorance of the unskillful, as if those Romans, although they should take to themselves wings, could never fly over the wall of Jerusalem, who found such great difficulties in taking the villages of Galilee, and had broken their engines of war against their walls. These harangues of John's corrupted a great part of the young men, and puffed them up for the war. Soon after his arrival in Jerusalem, he played an instrumental part in the outcome of the Zealot Temple Siege , handing the city over to control of the Zealots. He attempted to set himself up as ruler of Jerusalem, but was challenged in April 69 by Simon Bar Giora . They were both in turn challenged by a third faction led by Eleazar ben Simon . John and the Zealots fought in civil war with these two factions until he was finally captured by Titus commanding the Romans during the Siege of Jerusalem . He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and taken back to Rome. The Jewish War . : Check date values in: |year= ( help ) CS1 maint: year ( link ) Josephus (c. 75). The Jewish War . : Check date values in: |year= ( help ) CS1 maint: year ( link ) Josephus (c. 75). The Jewish War . : Check date values in: |year= ( help ) CS1 maint: year ( link )2

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Today
“siege” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 4. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
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