Josephus
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Josephus (c. 37 – c. 100 AD (or CE)), who introduced himself as "Joseph, son of Matthias, [a Jew by ethnicity], a priest from Jerusalem" (cf. War I.3), giving the Greek form Iōsēpos Matthiou pais of his name in Hebrew Yosef Ben-Matityahu (יוסף בן מתתיהו), is also known as Flavius Josephus. He was a 1st century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 and later settled in Rome.
Life
Josephus fought in the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73, acting as a military leader in Galilee. However, in circumstances that are somewhat unclear (see also Josephus problem), Josephus surrendered to the Roman forces invading Galilee in July, 67; and he became a prisoner and provided the Romans with intelligence on the ongoing revolt. The Roman forces were led by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus (both subsequently Roman emperors). In 69 Josephus was released in a ceremony that, some modern scholars have argued, may have been intended to symbolise a reinstatement of his previous state as a free man (cf. War IV.622-629).
In around 70 Josephus divorced his first wife and married a Jewish woman of Alexandria, Egypt. By this marriage he had two children, a son named Flavius Hyrcanus and a second child about whom nothing is known. In 71 he arrived in Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen and Flavian client. Although he only ever calls himself "Josephus", he appears to have taken the Roman nomen Flavius and praenomen Titus; for not only was it standard for a new citizen to take the first two names of his patron, but the nomen Flavius is attested for Josephus in a text by the third century Church theologian Origen (Comm. Matt. 10.17). In addition to Roman citizenship he was granted accommodation in Vespasian’s former home, land in conquered Judea, and a decent, if not extravagant, pension (Life 423: chrēmata, literally: anything useful, wealth, monies, but not necessarily "retirement pension"). It was while in Rome, and under Flavian patronage, that Josephus wrote all of his known works.
Around 75 he divorced his second wife and married a third, by whom he had two sons, Flavius Justus and Simonides Agrippa,
Josephus's life is beset with ambiguity. For his critics, he never satisfactorily explained his actions during the Jewish war — why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee in 67 with some of his compatriots, and why, after his capture, he cooperated with the Roman invaders. Hence, many have viewed Josephus as a traitor and informer and questioned his credibility as a historian — dismissing his works as Roman propaganda or as a personal apologetic, aimed at rehabilitating his reputation in history.
Nevertheless, he was unquestionably an important apologist in the Roman world for the Jewish people and culture, particularly at a time of conflict and tension. He always remained, in his own eyes, a loyal and law-observant Jew. He went out of his way both to commend Judaism to educated gentiles, and to insist on its compatibility with cultured Graeco-Roman thought. He constantly contended for the antiquity of Jewish culture, presenting its people as civilised, devout and philosophical.
Significance to scholarship
The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War. They are also important literary source for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and post-Second Temple Judaism.
Josephus offers information about individuals, groups, customs and geographical places. His writings provide a significant, extra-biblical account of the post-exilic period of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean dynasty and the rise of Herod. He makes references to the Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius's census, and to such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and II, John the Baptist, James (the brother of Jesus) and a brief and highly disputed reference to Jesus himself. Along with Philo of Alexandria, he is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and early Christianity.
See also the "Testimonium Flavianum"
Works
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 Mesopotamia – in his "paternal tongue" (War I.3), arguably the Western Aramaic language. He then wrote a seven-volume account in Greek known to us as the Jewish War (Bellum Iudaicum). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of the fall of Jerusalem, 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).
Rome cannot have been an easy place for a Jew in the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt. Josephus would have witnessed the marches of Titus’s triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying trophies of despoiled treasure from the Temple. He would have experienced the popular presentation of the Jews as a bellicose and misanthropic people.
It was against this background that Josephus wrote his War, and although often dismissed as pro-Roman propaganda (perhaps hardly surprising given where his patronage was coming from) he claims to be writing to counter anti-Judean accounts. He disputes the claim that the Jews serve a defeated god and are naturally hostile to Roman civilization. Rather, he blames the Jewish War on unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics among the Jews, who led the masses away from their natural aristocratic leaders (like him), with disastrous results. He also blames some of the governors of Judea, but these he presents as atypical Romans: corrupt and incompetent administrators. Thus, according to Josephus, the traditional Jew was, should be, and can be, a loyal and peace-loving citizen. Jews can, and historically have, accepted Rome’s hegemony precisely because of their faith that God himself gives empires their power.
Jewish Antiquities
Josephus is next encountered in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews, completed in the last year of Flavius Domitian (93). He claims that interested persons have pressed him to give a fuller account of the Jewish culture and constitution. Here, 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.
Beginning with the story of Creation he outlines Jewish history. Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks. Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like that of Rome resisted monarchy. The great figures of the biblical stories are presented as ideal philosopher leaders. There is again an autobiographical appendix defending Josephus's own conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces.
Against Apion
Josephus' Against Apion is a final two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity against what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent traditions of the Greeks. Some anti-Judean allegations by the Greek writer Apion, and myths accredited to Manetho are also exposed.
References
- The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged New Updated Edition Translated by William Whiston, A.M., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1987. ISBN 0913573868 (Hardcover). ISBN 0565631676 (Paperback).
List of works
- (ca. 75 CE/AD) War of the Jews, or Jewish War, or Jewish Wars, or History of the Jewish War (commonly abbreviated JW, BJ or War)
- (ca. 75) Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades
- (ca. 94) Antiquities of the Jews, or Jewish Antiquities, or Antiquities of the Jews/Jewish Archeology (frequently abbreviated AJ, AotJ or Ant. or Antiq.)
- (ca. 97) Flavius Josephus Against Apion, or Against Apion, or Contra Apionem, or Against the Greeks, on the antiquity of the Jewish people (usually abbreviated CA)
- (ca. 99) The Life of Flavius Josephus, or Autobiography of Flavius Josephus (abbreviated Life or Vita)