Josephus

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Flavius Josephus
Roman Judea
Diedc. AD 100[3] (aged 62–63)
Children5 sons
Academic background
Influences
Academic work
EraHellenistic Judaism
Main interests
Notable works
Influenced

Flavius Josephus[a] (/ˈsfəs/;[8] Greek: Ἰώσηπος, Iṓsēpos; c. AD 37 – c. 100) was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing The Jewish War, he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.

He initially fought against the

interpreter. After Vespasian became emperor in AD 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the Emperor's family name of Flavius.[9]

Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted

Herod's Temple
(the Second Temple) soon followed.

Josephus recorded the Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66–70), including the siege of Masada. His most important works were The Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94).[10] The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Greek and Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into first-century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity.[10] Josephus's works are the chief source next to the Bible for the history and antiquity of ancient Israel, and provide a significant and independent extra-Biblical account of such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, John the Baptist, James, brother of Jesus, and possibly Jesus of Nazareth.

Biography

Galilee, site of Josephus's governorship, before the First Jewish–Roman War

Josephus was born into one of Jerusalem's elite families.

Hasmonean dynasty.[13] Josephus's paternal grandparents were a man also named Josephus and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman—distant relatives of each other.[14] Josephus's family was wealthy. He descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem.[15] Josephus was a descendant of the High Priest of Israel Jonathan Apphus.[15] He was raised in Jerusalem and educated alongside his brother.[16]

In his mid twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor

King Agrippa's forces to protect them from the insurgents.[20]

Josephus also contended with

Placidus the tribune and later by Vespasian himself. Josephus first engaged the Roman army at a village called Garis, where he launched an attack against Sepphoris a second time, before being repulsed.[26] At length, he resisted the Roman army in its siege of Yodfat (Jotapata) until it fell to the Roman army in the lunar month of Tammuz, in the thirteenth year of Nero
's reign.

After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands; the survivors committed suicide. According to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 AD. The Romans (commanded by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus, both subsequently

siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, during which time his parents were held as hostages by Simon bar Giora.[30]

While being confined at Yodfat (Jotapata), Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation that later led to his speech predicting Vespasian would become emperor. After the prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. Josephus wrote that his revelation had taught him three things: that God, the creator of the Jewish people, had decided to "punish" them; that "fortune" had been given to the Romans; and that God had chosen him "to announce the things that are to come".[31][32][33] To many Jews, such claims were simply self-serving.[34]

In 71 AD, he went to Rome as part of the entourage of Titus. There, he became a Roman citizen and client of the ruling

freedmen.[4][5]

Vespasian arranged for Josephus to marry a captured Jewish woman, whom he later divorced. Around the year 71, Josephus married an Alexandrian Jewish woman as his third wife. They had three sons, of whom only Flavius Hyrcanus survived childhood. Josephus later divorced his third wife. Around 75, he married his fourth wife, a Greek Jewish woman from Crete, who was a member of a distinguished family. They had two sons, Flavius Justus and Flavius Simonides Agrippa.

Josephus's life story remains ambiguous. He was described by Harris in 1985 as a

Graeco-Roman thought, commonly referred to as Hellenistic Judaism.[10] Before the 19th century, the scholar Nitsa Ben-Ari notes that his works were banned as those of a traitor, whose work was not to be studied or translated into Hebrew.[6]
His critics were never satisfied as to why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee, and after his capture, accepted the patronage of Romans.

Scholarship and impact on history

The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish–Roman War and also represent important literary source material for understanding the context of the

Temple
Judaism.

Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th centuries took an interest in Josephus's relationship to the sect of the Pharisees.[citation needed] Some[who?] portrayed him as a member of the sect and as a traitor to the Jewish nation—a view which became known as the classical concept of Josephus.[35] In the mid-20th century, a new generation of scholars[who?] challenged this view and formulated the modern concept of Josephus. They consider him a Pharisee but describe him in part as patriot and a historian of some standing. In his 1991 book, Steve Mason argued that Josephus was not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became associated with the philosophical school of the Pharisees as a matter of deference, and not by willing association.[36]

Impact on history and archaeology

The works of Josephus include useful material for historians about individuals, groups, customs, and geographical places. However, modern historians have been cautious of taking his writings at face value. For example, Carl Ritter, in his highly influential Erdkunde in the 1840s, wrote in a review of authorities on the ancient geography of the region:

Outside of the Scriptures, Josephus holds the first and the only place among the native authors of Judaea; for Philo of Alexandria, the later Talmud, and other authorities, are of little service in understanding the geography of the country. Josephus is, however, to be used with great care. As a Jewish scholar, as an officer of Galilee, as a military man, and a person of great experience in everything belonging to his own nation, he attained to that remarkable familiarity with his country in every part, which his antiquarian researches so abundantly evince. But he was controlled by political motives: his great purpose was to bring his people, the despised Jewish race, into honour with the Greeks and Romans; and this purpose underlay every sentence, and filled his history with distortions and exaggerations.[37]

Josephus mentions that in his day there were 240 towns and villages scattered across

Agrippa II, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and Jesus.[42] Josephus represents an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and the context of early Christianity
.

A careful reading of Josephus's writings and years of excavation allowed

Hebrew University, to discover what he considered to be the location of Herod's Tomb, after searching for 35 years.[43] It was above aqueducts and pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to the Herodium, 12 km south of Jerusalem—as described in Josephus's writings.[44] In October 2013, archaeologists Joseph Patrich and Benjamin Arubas challenged the identification of the tomb as that of Herod.[45] According to Patrich and Arubas, the tomb is too modest to be Herod's and has several unlikely features.[45] Roi Porat, who replaced Netzer as excavation leader after the latter's death, stood by the identification.[45]

Josephus's writings provide the first-known source for many stories considered as Biblical history, despite not being found in the Bible or related material. These include Ishmael as the founder of the Arabs,[46] the connection of "Semites", "Hamites" and "Japhetites" to the classical nations of the world, and the story of the siege of Masada.[47]

Josephus's original audience

Scholars debate about Josephus's intended audience. For example, Antiquities of the Jews could be written for Jews—"a few scholars from Laqueur onward have suggested that Josephus must have written primarily for fellow Jews (if also secondarily for Gentiles). The most common motive suggested is repentance: in later life he felt so bad about the traitorous War that he needed to demonstrate … his loyalty to Jewish history, law and culture."[48] However, Josephus's "countless incidental remarks explaining basic Judean language, customs and laws … assume a Gentile audience. He does not expect his first hearers to know anything about the laws or Judean origins."[49] The issue of who would read this multi-volume work is unresolved. Other possible motives for writing Antiquities could be to dispel the misrepresentation of Jewish origins[50] or as an apologetic to Greek cities of the Diaspora in order to protect Jews and to Roman authorities to garner their support for the Jews facing persecution.[51]

Literary influence and translations

Josephus was a very popular writer with Christians in the 4th century and beyond as an independent witness to the events before, during, and after the life of

Epistles of St. Paul.[52][53] Later editions of the Greek text include that of Benedikt Niese, who made a detailed examination of all the available manuscripts, mainly from France and Spain. Henry St. John Thackeray and successors such as Ralph Marcus used Niese's version for the Loeb Classical Library
edition widely used today.

On the Jewish side, Josephus was far more obscure, as he was perceived as a traitor. Rabbinical writings for a millennium after his death (e.g. the

Yosippon, which paraphrases Pseudo-Hegesippus's Latin version of The Jewish War, a Latin version of Antiquities, as well as other works. The epitomist also adds in his own snippets of history at times. Jews generally distrusted Christian translations of Josephus until the Haskalah ("Jewish Enlightenment") in the 19th century, when sufficiently "neutral" vernacular language translations were made. Kalman Schulman finally created a Hebrew translation of the Greek text of Josephus in 1863, although many rabbis continued to prefer the Yosippon version. By the 20th century, Jewish attitudes toward Josephus had softened, as he gave the Jews a respectable place in classical history. Various parts of his work were reinterpreted as more inspiring and favorable to the Jews than the Renaissance translations by Christians had been. Notably, the last stand at Masada (described in The Jewish War), which past generations had deemed insane and fanatical, received a more positive reinterpretation as an inspiring call to action in this period.[53][54]

The standard editio maior of the various Greek manuscripts is that of

Münster University will provide a new critical apparatus. Late Old Slavonic translations of the Greek also exist, but these contain a large number of Christian interpolations.[55]

Evaluation as a military commander

Author Joseph Raymond calls Josephus "the Jewish Benedict Arnold" for betraying his own troops at Jotapata,[56] while historian Mary Smallwood, in the introduction to the translation of The Jewish War by G. A. Williamson, writes:

[Josephus] was conceited, not only about his own learning, but also about the opinions held of him as commander both by the Galileans and by the Romans; he was guilty of shocking duplicity at Jotapata, saving himself by sacrifice of his companions; he was too naive to see how he stood condemned out of his own mouth for his conduct, and yet no words were too harsh when he was blackening his opponents; and after landing, however involuntarily, in the Roman camp, he turned his captivity to his own advantage, and benefited for the rest of his days from his change of side.[57]

Historiography and Josephus

Josephus in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

In the Preface to Jewish Wars, Josephus criticizes historians who misrepresent the events of the Jewish–Roman War, writing that "they have a mind to demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and lessen the actions of the Jews."[58] Josephus states that his intention is to correct this method but that he "will not go to the other extreme … [and] will prosecute the actions of both parties with accuracy."[59] Josephus confesses he will be unable to contain his sadness in transcribing these events; to illustrate this will have little effect on his historiography, Josephus suggests, "But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only."[59]

His preface to Antiquities offers his opinion early on, saying, "Upon the whole, a man that will peruse this history, may principally learn from it, that all events succeed well, even to an incredible degree, and the reward of felicity is proposed by God."[60] After inserting this attitude, Josephus contradicts Berossus: "I shall accurately describe what is contained in our records, in the order of time that belongs to them … without adding any thing to what is therein contained, or taking away any thing therefrom."[60] He notes the difference between history and philosophy by saying, "[T]hose that read my book may wonder how it comes to pass, that my discourse, which promises an account of laws and historical facts, contains so much of philosophy."[61]

In both works, Josephus emphasizes that accuracy is crucial to historiography. Louis H. Feldman notes that in Wars, Josephus commits himself to critical historiography, but in Antiquities, Josephus shifts to rhetorical historiography, which was the norm of his time.[62] Feldman notes further that it is significant that Josephus called his later work "Antiquities" (literally, archaeology) rather than history; in the Hellenistic period, archaeology meant either "history from the origins or archaic history."[63] Thus, his title implies a Jewish peoples' history from their origins until the time he wrote. This distinction is significant to Feldman, because "in ancient times, historians were expected to write in chronological order," while "antiquarians wrote in a systematic order, proceeding topically and logically" and included all relevant material for their subject.[63] Antiquarians moved beyond political history to include institutions and religious and private life.[64] Josephus does offer this wider perspective in Antiquities.

Works

The works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge (1602)

The works of Josephus are major sources of our understanding of Jewish life and history during the first century.[65]

  • (c. 75) War of the Jews, The Jewish War, Jewish Wars, or History of the Jewish War (commonly abbreviated JW, BJ or War)
  • (c. 94)
    AotJ
    or Ant. or Antiq.)
  • (c. 97) Flavius Josephus Against Apion, Against Apion, Contra Apionem, or Against the Greeks, on the antiquity of the Jewish people (usually abbreviated CA)
  • (c. 99) Life of Josephus, or Autobiography of Josephus (abbreviated Life or Vita)

The Jewish War

His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians"—usually thought to be the Jewish community in

Jewish War (Latin Bellum Judaicum or De Bello Judaico). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of the fall of Jerusalem, and the subsequent fall of the fortresses of Herodion, Macharont and Masada and the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the empire and the uprising in Cyrene. Together with the account in his Life of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus's own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s (Life 13–17).[66]

1581 German translation of Josephus' The Jewish War in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland

In the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Josephus would have witnessed the marches of

Judea
, representing them as corrupt and incompetent administrators.

Jewish Antiquities

The next work by Josephus is his 21-volume Antiquities of the Jews, completed during the last year of the reign of the Emperor Flavius Domitian, around 93 or 94 AD. In expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an apologia for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people. Josephus claims to be writing this history because he "saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings",[68] those writings being the history of the Jews. In terms of some of his sources for the project, Josephus says that he drew from and "interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures"[69] and that he was an eyewitness to the wars between the Jews and the Romans,[68] which were earlier recounted in Jewish Wars.

He outlines Jewish history beginning with the creation, as passed down through Jewish historical tradition.

Tanakh
are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders. He includes an autobiographical appendix defending his conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces.

Louis H. Feldman outlines the difference between calling this work Antiquities of the Jews instead of History of the Jews. Although Josephus says that he describes the events contained in Antiquities "in the order of time that belongs to them,"[60] Feldman argues that Josephus "aimed to organize [his] material systematically rather than chronologically" and had a scope that "ranged far beyond mere political history to political institutions, religious and private life."[64]

Against Apion

Josephus's

anti-Judaic allegations ascribed by Josephus to the Greek writer Apion and myths accredited to Manetho
are also addressed.

Spurious works

See also

Notes and references

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Some modern authors give his birth name, including patronymic, which was "Yosef ben Mattityahu", “Yoseph bar Mattityahu" or "Yosef ben Matityahu",[4][5][6][7] literally meaning "Joseph son of Matthias". That is what he calls himself at the start of The Jewish War (Ἰώσηπος Ματθίου παῖς, Iósipos Matthíou país). "Flavius" was not part of his birth name, and was only adopted later.[4]
  2. ^ A large village in Galilee during the 1st century AD, located to the north of Nazareth. In antiquity, the town was called "Garaba", but in Josephus' historical works of antiquity, the town is mentioned by its Greek corruption, "Gabara".[21][22][23]
  3. ^ This method as a mathematical problem is referred to as the Josephus problem, or Roman roulette.[28]

Citations

  1. ^ Josephus 1737, 18.8.1.
  2. ^ "Flavius Josephus".
  3. ^ a b Mason 2000.
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ . Retrieved 28 November 2011. The converts themselves were banned from society as outcasts and so was their historiographic work or, in the more popular historical novels, their literary counterparts. Josephus Flavius, formerly Yosef Ben Matityahu (34–95), had been shunned, then banned as a traitor.
  7. ^ Goodman 2019, p. 186.
  8. ^ "Josephus". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers.
  9. ^ Mimouni 2012, p. 133.
  10. ^ a b c Harris 1985.
  11. ^ Goodman 2007, p. 8: "Josephus was born into the ruling elite of Jerusalem"
  12. ^ Mason 2000, pp. 12–13.
  13. ^ Nodet 1997, p. 250.
  14. ^ "Josephus Lineage" (PDF). History of the Daughters (Fourth ed.). Sonoma, California: L P Publishing. December 2012. pp. 349–350.
  15. ^ a b Schürer 1973, pp. 45–46.
  16. ^ Mason 2000, p. 13.
  17. Vita § 3
  18. ^ Goldberg, G. J. "The Life of Flavius Josephus". Josephus.org. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  19. ^ a b Josephus, Vita, § 67
  20. ^ Josephus, Vita, § 68
  21. ^ Klausner, J. (1934). "Qobetz". Journal of the Jewish Palestinian Exploration Society (in Hebrew). 3: 261–263.
  22. ^ Rappaport 2006, p. 44 [note 2].
  23. ^ Safrai 1985, pp. 59–62.
  24. doi:10.4159/DLCL.josephus-life.1926. Retrieved 31 May 2016.  – via digital Loeb Classical Library
    (subscription required)
  25. ^ a b Josephus, Vita, § 37
  26. ^ Josephus, Vita, § 71
  27. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War. Book 3, Chapter 8, par. 7
  28. ^ Cf. this example, Roman Roulette. Archived February 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ Jewish War IV.622–629
  30. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (5.13.1. and 5.13.3.)
  31. ^ Gray 1993, pp. 35–38.
  32. ^ Aune 1991, p. 140.
  33. ^ Gnuse 1996, pp. 136–142.
  34. ^ Goodman 2007, p. 9: "Later generations of Jews have been inclined to treat such claims as self-serving"
  35. ^ Millard 1997, p. 306.
  36. ^ Mason, Steve (April 2003). "Flavius Josephus and the Pharisees". The Bible and Interpretation. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  37. ^ Ritter, C. (1866). The Comparative Geographie of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula. T. & T. Clark.
  38. Vita § 45
  39. ^ Josephus 1737, 3.6.4: After describing the curtain that hung in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, Josephus adds: "…Whence that custom of ours is derived, of having a fine linen veil, after the temple has been built, to be drawn over the entrances."
  40. Vita § 54
  41. ^ Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley: 1895, s.v. The Jewish War 1.24.2 (end) (1.473).
  42. . In the sixteenth century the authenticity of the text [Testimonium Flavianum] was publicly challenged, launching a controversy that has still not been resolved today
  43. NY Times
    . Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  44. ^ Murphy 2008, p. 99.
  45. ^ a b c Hasson, Nir (11 October 2013). "Archaeological stunner: Not Herod's Tomb after all?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  46. ^ Millar 2011, Chapter 14: "Hagar, Ishmael, Josephus, and the origins of Islam": "Josephus is thus alluding to a proposition, not yet established in his narrative, that Ishmael was the founder (ktistēs) of the race (ethnos) of the 'Arabes' and offers this as his explanation of a custom currently observed by them."
  47. ^ Gilad, Elon (17 June 2019). "The Myth of Masada: How Reliable Was Josephus, Anyway?". Haaretz. Retrieved 28 September 2023. The only source we have for the story of Masada, and numerous other reported events from the time, is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, author of the book 'The Jewish War'.
  48. ^ Mason 1998, p. 66.
  49. ^ Mason 1998, p. 67.
  50. ^ Mason 1998, p. 68.
  51. ^ Mason 1998, p. 70.
  52. ^ Maier 1999, p. 1070.
  53. ^ a b Josephus, Flavius (2017) [c. 75]. The Jewish War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxix–xxxv.. Information is from the Introduction, by Martin Goodman.
  54. .
  55. ^ Bowman 1987, p. 373.
  56. ^ Raymond 2010, p. 222.
  57. ^ Josephus, Flavius (1981). The Jewish War. Translated by Williamson, G. A. Introduction by E. Mary Smallwood. New York: Penguin. p. 24.
  58. ^ JW preface. 3.
  59. ^ a b JW preface. 4.
  60. ^ a b c Josephus 1737, preface §3.
  61. ^ Josephus 1737, preface §4.
  62. ^ Feldman 1998, p. 9.
  63. ^ a b Feldman 1998, p. 10.
  64. ^ a b Feldman 1998, p. 13.
  65. ^ Ehrman 1999, pp. 848–849.
  66. ^ "Josephus: The Life of Flavius Josephus". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  67. ^ Josephus. The War of the Jews.
  68. ^ a b Josephus 1737, preface §1.
  69. ^ Josephus 1737, preface §2.
  70. ^ Feldman 1998, p. 232.

General sources

Further reading

External links

Works

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