Josephus (37 – sometime
after 100),[1], also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph, son of
Matthias), who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as
Titus Flavius Josephus,[2] 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.
Josephus's two most important works are The Jewish War (c. 75) and
Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94).[3] Jewish War recounts the Jewish
revolt against Rome (66-70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the
history of the world from a Jewish perspective. These works provide
valuable insight into the background of 1st-century Judaism and early
Christianity.[3]
Life
Josephus, who introduced himself in Greek as "Iosepos (Ιώσηπος),
son of Matthias, an ethnic Jew, a priest from Jerusalem",[4] 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, killing thousands, and the remaining
survivors who had managed to elude the forces committed suicide.
However, in circumstances that are somewhat unclear but according to
legend Jospehus found himself trapped in a cave with 40 of his
companions. The Romans asked him to surrender on coming to know about
his location, but his companions refused to allow him to do so. He
therefore suggested that they kill each other, one by one, the order
to be decided by lot, and, beginning at some point, count round, every
third person being killed in turn. The sole survivor of this process
was Josephus, who then surrendered to the Romans. This brought about
the famous problem of Roman Roulette, Josephus and one of his soldiers
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's 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 dynasty client (hence he is often referred to as
Flavius Josephus - see below). In addition to Roman citizenship he was
granted accommodation 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.[5]
This was standard for new citizens.
Josephus's first wife perished together with his parents in Jerusalem
during the siege and Vespasian arranged for him to marry a Jewish
woman who had been captured by the Romans. This woman left Josephus,
and around 70, he married a Jewish woman from Alexandria by whom he
had three male children. Only one, Flavius Hyrcanus, survived
childhood. Josephus later divorced his third wife and around 75,
married his fourth wife, a Jewish girl from Crete, from a
distinguished family. This last marriage produced 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. Historian E. Mary Smallwood wrote:
(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.[6]
However, his critics ignore the fact that Simon Bar Giora and John of
Giscala, both extreme zealots and great opponents of Josephus, who
stayed in Jerusalem and led the war against Rome in its final stage,
in a moment of truth, preferred life over suicide and humbly
surrendered to the Romans. At any rate, those who have viewed Josephus
as a traitor and informer have questioned his credibility as a
historian — dismissing his works as Roman propaganda or as a personal
apologetic, aimed at rehabilitating his reputation in history. More
recently, commentators have reassessed previously-held views of
Josephus. As P.J. O'Rourke quipped,
Reason dictates we should hate this man. But it's hard to get angry at
Josephus. What, after all, did he do? A few soldiers were tricked into
suicide. Some demoralizing claptrap was shouted at a beleaguered army.
A wife was distressed... all of which pale by comparison to what the
good men did. For it was the loyal, the idealistic and the brave who
did the real damage. The devout and patriotic leaders of Jerusalem
sacrificed tens of thousands of lives to the cause of freedom.
Vespasian and Titus sacrificed tens of thousands of more to the cause
of civil order. Even Agrippa II, the Roman client king of Judea who
did all he could to prevent the war, ended by supervising the
destruction of half a dozen of his cities and the sale of their
inhabitants into slavery. How much better for everyone if all the
principal figures of the region had been slithering filth like
Josephus.[7]
Josephus 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.[8]
Significance to scholarship
The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First
Jewish-Roman War and are also important literary source material 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 as the classical concept of Josephus. In the mid
20th century, this view was challenged by a new generation of scholars
who formulated the modern concept 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 1991).
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).
A careful reading of Josephus' writings allowed Ehud Netzer, an
archaeologist from Hebrew University, to confirm the location of
Herod's Tomb after a fruitless search of 35 years - on top of tunnels
and water pools at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to the
Herodium, 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem - exactly where it should
be according to Josephus writings.
For many years, the works of Josephus were printed only in an
imperfect Latin translation from the original Greek. It was only in
1544 that a version of the Greek text was made available, edited by
the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius. The first English translation
appeared in 1602 by Thomas Lodge with subsequent editions appearing
throughout the 17th century. However, the 1544 Greek edition formed
the basis of the 1732 English translation by William Whiston which
achieved enormous popularity in the English speaking world and which
is currently available online for free download by Project Gutenberg.
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. This was the version used by H. St J. Thackeray
for the Loeb Classical Library edition widely used today.
Works
A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge
which originally appeared in 1602.(c. 75) War of the Jews, or The
Jewish War, or Jewish Wars, or History of the Jewish War (commonly
abbreviated JW, BJ or War)
(date unknown) Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades
(spurious; adaptation of "Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe"
by Hippolytus of Rome)
(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
Main article: The Wars of the Jews
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
Main article: Antiquities of the Jews
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 defense 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. |