One day a serious accident happened. Connected with Pilate's undertaking, apparently, was a large tower on the top of Ophel, opposite Siloam. This tower fell, without warning, and buried in the ruins eighteen men who had been working on it. Of course, the people held the accident to be the judgment of God upon the men who had helped in the sacrilegious labor. Then Pilate fell short of funds. To defray the expenses of the enterprise, the irreverent Pilate resorted to the temple, and ruthlessly appropriated a part of the treasures of the temple. These treasures amounted to vast sums derived from the temple dues voluntarily paid by Jews all over the world. Naturally, the people became enraged, and rose in rebellious demonstration against the governor. Incited by their priests and rabbis, the mob stormed Pilate's residence, and demanded that the work on the water system be abandoned. They railed against him, the Roman {120} governor, and hinted at sedition. Pilate became in his turn indignant. He sent a large number of soldiers, dressed in plain clothes and armed only with heavy clubs, who surrounded the mob, and beat them so remorselessly that great numbers of them were killed. The soldiers pressed the mob to the very temple, then entered the holy precincts of the temple itself, and there slew many of the poor pilgrims who were killing their own sacrifices. Their blood was mingled with the blood of the beasts they were preparing for sacrifice, and thus, according to the law, the House of God was polluted. The news of this outrage spread throughout Palestine. The country was filled with indignation. In Galilee, the feeling was particularly strong, for the men who had been slain were Galileans. [Sidenote: The necessity of repentance.] Jesus was journeying at this time in the province of Perea, expounding His teachings to great multitudes that followed Him. When news of the disasters in Jerusalem reached them, these multitudes were stirred by the wildest kind of excitement. They were particularly indignant at the murders in the temple. As for the eighteen men buried under the tower, and the Galileans slain in the tumult, the people accepted their death, in characteristic Jewish fashion, as the judgment of God for sins committed. But the pollution of the temple could not be overlooked. So there grew up a strong feeling for a national uprising to avenge the unprecedented evil.