With him and Jose ben Johanan of Jerusalem, his colleague, begins the period known in Jewish history as that of the zugot (duumvirate), which ended with Hillel and Shammai.
[3] Jose ben Joezer was distinguished for his piety, and is called "the most pious in the priesthood" ("hasid shebikechunnah").
[4] He professed great veneration for scholars, one of his sayings being: "Let thy house be a meeting-place for the wise; powder thyself in the dust of their feet, and drink their words with eagerness" [5] Jose was probably among the sixty pious men who, at the instigation of the high priest Alcimus, the son of his sister, were crucified by the Syrian general Bacchides.
[6] The Midrash reports the following dialogue between Alcimus and Jose ben Joezer while the latter was on the way to execution: On this Alcimus was seized with remorse and committed suicide: "He went and subjected himself to all four modes of execution inflicted by the Beth Din: stoning, burning, beheading, and strangulation.
He took a beam and stuck it in the ground, attached a rope to it, set up logs [in front of it], and built a stone wall around it.