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Flavius Josephus / Joseph ben Mattatihu (37 CE - c100 CE) was a Jewish priest, politician, general, and historian. His writings are the major source for the study of Second Temple Judaism.

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Biography

Joseph, son of Matthias, was born in 37 or 38 CE. in Jerusalem from a well known respected family of priests, which belong to the “first of the twenty four courses”, and which could trace his lineage to no less than the Hasmoneans from his mother side. Josephus at about sixteen, to better his education, passed though the three sects, which dominated then Jewish spiritual and political life in Judaea, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. However he decided also to follow a certain Bannus in the wilderness. At the end, Josephus said in his Autobiography that at nineteen, in 56-57 C.E., he chose the Pharisees as the sect more suited to his needs. In 61 C.E., when he was twenty-sixth, Josephus traveled to Rome as part of a delegation of eight people to ask for the liberation of a group of priests, sent there by the procurator Felix. Josephus was presented to the empress Poppea through the offices of Aliturus, “an actor who was a special favorite of Nero and of Jewish origin.” It is in this period that Josephus probably married his first wife. Back to Judaea, soon the Jewish Revolt broke out in 66 C.E. Josephus was appointed governor of Galilee by the new provisory government in the same year. In Galilee, Josephus organized anew the administration of the area confided to him, and of course he planned the defense of Galilee from the Roman onslaught, which did not wait to come. Josephus, as Governor of Galilee, made to himself various enemies, as Justus of Tiberias, a member of the local elite, with ties to King Agrippa II, and John of Gishala, a local potentate who aspired to be a member of the local elite, and Simeon ben Gamaliel, a moderate Pharisee leader from Jerusalem, who, however did not get along with Joseph ben Mattatihu. The military situation deteriorated swiftly when Sepphoris, the most important city in Galilee after Tiberias, gave itself to the Romans, who garrisoned the city. Soon Josephus found himself besieged in the stronghold of Jotapata in the spring of 67 C.E.; see Siege of Jotapata. The resistance lasted forty seven days; by the middle of the summer of 67 C.E., Jotapata fell in the hands of the Romans. Joseph ben Mattatihu was successful to escape into a cistern connected with a cave, together with forty companions. However, the Romans soon discovered the hiding place of Joseph. As the Romans told to Joseph that his life would be spared though the middle of a certain Nicanor, Josephus persuaded his companions to kill each other drawing lots, than to fall in the hands of the Romans, positioning himself to be the last. But then he persuaded his surviving companion to surrender to the Romans. This was probably the most dramatic moment of Joseph’s life. According to Josephus, once in front of Vespasian, the Roman commander, he predicted him no less than his accession to the Imperial throne. Anyway, in chains, Joseph ben Mattatihu remained together with the Roman army for the rest of the war, as an adviser, as Vespasian decided not to send him to Nero. Joseph then followed Vespasian and Titus to Alexandria in the summer of 69 CE. There Vespasian was indeed acclaimed Emperor. The prophecy of Joseph ben Mattatihu somehow fulfilled itself. Titus, who from the beginning had developed a special bond of friendship with Josephus, ordered that Josephus’s chains be symbolically severed with an axe. As a prisoner Joseph married his second wife, a Jewess captive from Caesarea, who did not remain with him long, but left him when he was in Alexandria. Once Vespasian left for Rome, Josephus followed Titus for the rest of the campaign, which by now was focused on the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. There Josephus tried to persuade the Jews, without much success, to surrender to the besieging Roman army. His role was probably conspicuous enough if, after the capture of Jerusalem, Josephus was successful in asking for the freedom of his brother and fifty friends, and no less than one hundred and ninety prisoners, including women, detained in the Temple area. Moreover, he was given by Titus as well some sacred books pillaged in the sack of the city. Josephus then followed Titus to Rome, where he “was honored with the privilege of Roman citizenship”, was given a pension, and a lodging “in the house which he had occupied before he became Emperor”. Moreover Josephus was granted instead of the lands that he owned in Judaea in the Jerusalem area, other lands in the plain area. Thus, from now onwards, Joseph Ben Mattiah, now a Roman citizen, assumed the name of Titus Flavius Josephus, in honor of his patrons. During the reign of Vespasian and his son Titus, Josephus probably continued to live in the Flavian domus, previously owned by the Imperial family before their relocation on the Palatine. By then, Vespasian had given to Josephus a country estate in Judaea, “no small quantity of land”, probably Josephus main source of income. Moreover Josephus, once he divorced his previous wife, had married a “wife who had lived at Crete, but a Jewess by birth”. To his firstborn, Hyrcanus, son of his first wife, two more sons were added to the family, Flavius Iustus and Flavius Simonides Agrippa. Although more than once “accused” by his enemies, nor Vespasian nor Titus, gave any serious hearings to the slanders towards Josephus. It seems that his situation did not worsen under Domitian. On the contrary, in the Life, Josephus clearly states that Domitian, who succeeded Titus “still augmented his respects to me”. Not only Domitian, but also his wife Domitia showed kindness towards the Jewish propagandist. Moreover the Roman ruler exempted Josephus country estates in Judaea from taxes. Another episode that Josephus relate, on which however we have no other hint, is that once Josephus was accused by some Jews, and two of Josephus’s servants, an eunuch, and another slave who was also the tutor of Josephus’s son. The Emperor not only did not accept the slanders moved towards Josephus, but he punished all the accusers as well. Therefore, Josephus survived well the reign of terror that characterized Domitian last years, as he was successful to survive in much more unpleasant situations before. Josephus probably died in the last years of the first century CE. or at the very beginning of the second century.

Josephus' Works

See Josephus' Works

Josephus in ancient sources

Josephus’ life is known mainly from his own writings--the Jewish War, in which he took a prominent part, on both sides, and in his autobiography. Josephus is also mentioned by the Roman historian Suetonius.

• See Josephus (sources)

Josephus in literature and the arts

Josephus' Works have been a continuous source of inspiration for the arts. As a fictional character himself, Josephus has a much less prominent role, which however has considerably grown in contemporary times. The trilogy of Lion Feuchtwanger remains the most successful and elaborated attempt to provide a fictional biography of Josephus.

• See Josephus (arts)

Josephus in scholarship

• See Josephus (research)

Related categories

• Josephus' Works

• Vespasian / Titus

References

• Josephus / Steve Mason / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), dictionary, 828-832

• / [[]] / In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary,

External links

• Wikipedia
• Livius.org