   #copyright

Josephus

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historians, chroniclers
and history books

   A representation of Flavius Josephus, a woodcutting in John C.
   Winston's translation of his works
   Enlarge
   A representation of Flavius Josephus, a woodcutting in John C.
   Winston's translation of his works

   Josephus (c. 37 – c. 100 AD/CE), who became known, in his capacity as a
   Roman citizen, as Flavius Josephus, was a 1st-century Jewish historian
   and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded
   the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70. His works give an important insight
   into first-century Judaism.

Life

   Josephus, who introduced himself in Greek as "Iosepos (Ιώσηπος), son of
   Matthias, an ethnic Hebrew, a priest from Jerusalem" , fought the
   Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War of 66- 73 as a Jewish military
   leader in Galilee. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat was taken under
   siege, the Romans invaded, killed thousands, and the remaining
   survivors who had managed to elude the forces committed suicide.
   However, in circumstances that are somewhat unclear (see also Josephus
   problem), Josephus surrendered to the Roman forces invading Galilee in
   July 67. 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 (cf. War IV.622-629) and according to Josephus' own account,
   he appears to have played some role as a negotiator with the defenders
   in the Siege of Jerusalem in 70.

   In 71 he arrived in Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman
   citizen and Flavian client (hence he is often referred to as Flavius
   Josephus - see below). In addition to Roman citizenship he was granted
   accommodation in Vespasian's former homeland in conquered Judea, and a
   decent, if not extravagant, pension. It was while in Rome, and under
   Flavian patronage, that Josephus wrote all of his known works.

   Although he only ever calls himself "Josephus", he appears to have
   taken the Roman nomen Flavius and praenomen Titus from his patrons .
   This was standard for new citizens.

   Around 70, Josephus divorced his first wife and married a Jewish woman
   from Alexandria by whom he had two children: a son Flavius Hyrcanus and
   a second child, about whom nothing is known. Around 75, he again
   divorced and, by a third marriage, produced two more sons, Flavius
   Justus and Simonides Agrippa.

   Josephus' 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, some 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. Most Rabbinical commentators, however, have
   found him to be an upright Jew.

   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.

   Eusebius reports that a statue of Josephus was erected in Rome.

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. Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century
   became focused on Josephus' relationship to the sect of the Pharisees.
   He was consistently portrayed as a member of the sect, but nevertheless
   viewed as a villainous traitor to his own nation - a view which became
   known in Josephan studies as the classical conception. In the mid 20th
   century, this view was challenged by a new generation of scholars who
   formulated the modern conception of Josephus, still considering him a
   Pharisee but restoring his reputation in part as patriot and a
   historian of some standing. Recent scholarship since 1990 has sought to
   move scholarly perceptions forward by demonstrating that Josephus was
   not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became part of the
   Temple establishment as a matter of deference and not willing
   association (Cf. Steve Mason, Todd Beall, and Ernst Gerlach).

   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 the Great. He makes references to the
   Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the
   Herodian Temple, Quirinius' census and the Zealots, and to such figures
   as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and Agrippa II, John the
   Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and a disputed reference to Jesus.
   He is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism
   (and, thus, the context of early Christianity).

Works

List of works

     * (c. 75) War of the Jews, or Jewish War, or Jewish Wars, or History
       of the Jewish War (commonly abbreviated JW, BJ or War)
     * (c. 75) Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades
     * (c. 94) Antiquities of the Jews, or Jewish Antiquities, or
       Antiquities of the Jews/Jewish Archeology (frequently abbreviated
       AJ, AotJ or Ant. or Antiq.)
     * (c. 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)
     * (c. 99) The Life of Flavius Josephus, or Autobiography of Flavius
       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 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 (Latin 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' 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' triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and
   carrying trophies of despoiled treasure from the Temple in Jerusalem.
   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 what he calls
   "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

   The next literary work by Josephus is his twenty-one volume Antiquities
   of the Jews, completed in the last year of the emperor Flavius Domitian
   (between 1.9. 93 and 14.3.94, cf. AJ X.267). 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' 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 ascribed by Josephus to the Greek
   writer Apion, and myths accredited to Manetho are also exposed.

Literature about Josephus

     * The Josephus Trilogy, a novel by Lion Feuchtwanger
          + Der jüdische Krieg (Josephus), 1932
          + Die Söhne (The Jews of Rome), 1935
          + Der Tag wird kommen (The day will come, Josephus and the
            Emperor), 1942
     * Flavius Josephus Eyewitness to Rome's first-century conquest of
       Judea, Mireille Hadas-lebel , Macmillan 1993, Simon and Schuster
       2001

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
