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Josephus' Works are a corpus of works authored at the end of the first century CE by the Jewish historian Josephus.

Overview

In his writings, Josephus provides very detailed autobiographical information, about his childhood, his role of leadership in the Jewish War, and his reconversion as a supporter of the Roman rule and a personal friend of the Flavian emperors.

Josephus wrote in Greek. Greek was the main language of the Jewish communities scattered in Rome and in Italy, as well as the language of the Jews living in the Hellenistic East. However Greek was also the language of a multitude of Greek intellectuals, who settled in Rome, and used Greek to write on the rise and might of Rome. Therefore Josephus’s choice of Greek has a double purpose, to reach the Diaspora Jews, who with him, try to cope with the recent calamity, and a Roman audience, prone to listen to Greek intellectuals. Josephus is well known also in Roman sources (Suetonius).

Josephus is first of all known for the account of the Jewish War, published between 75 and 79 CE. The Jewish War, which is divided in seven books, main theme is the War between the Jews and the Romans, which ended in the conquest of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Temple. Thus, Josephus describes Vespasian and Titus campaign in Galilee and Judaea, the siege and conquest of Jerusalem, the dramatic siege of Masada, and the triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus at Rome.

Josephus published [Jewish Antiquities]] twenty years after the publication of the Jewish War, between 93 and 94 CE. Jewish Antiquities is divided in twenty books. It is possible to divide Antiquities in roughly two parts. The first part starts with the Creation of the World and ends with the return of the Exiles from Babylonia. The second part, which covers the Second Temple period, roughly start with the reconstruction of the Temple by Zerubabel and Joshua, the high priest, and it ends with the outbreak of the war against Rome in 66 C.E.

Against Apion is the last work published by Josephus. The book was written after 96 C.E., in the last years of Domitian’s rule. The book is an apology of Judaism.

Life, was maybe written in the last years of the first century CE., although its exact date vary. The Life focuses on the main on Josephus’s years as Governor of Galilee.

Bellum Iudaicum

Josephus is first of all known for the account of the Jewish War. The peculiarity of this book is that Josephus, the writer, does not just narrate the Jewish War between the Jews and the Romans, but he depicts himself as a witness. It seems that Josephus begun to make notes of what he was witnessing already during the siege of Jerusalem using as primary source both eye witnesses accounts taken from the mouth of Jewish deserters fleeing from besieged Jerusalem, and all “that went under my eye in the Roman camp”. Moreover, clearly, Josephus made use of personal recollections from his activities as Rebel commander of Galilee for the first part of the war. Thus Josephus to describe the Jewish rebel side, he made use of his personal experience and, it is probable that once narrating events that he did not witness personally, as for example what happened inside Jerusalem during the siege, he “interviewed” deserters to the Roman camp, prisoners, and of course survivors. On the other side, the Roman side is no less well documented. Thus it seems that Josephus made use of Vespasian’s Memorabilia as well as the military Commentaries written on the campaign In fact Josephus could boast that Vespasian as well as Titus, to whom he submitted the work once finished, not only praised its accuracy, but also Titus suggested to Josephus to publish the work, understanding clearly its propagandistic value for the Flavian dynasty. However Josephus did not use as source only accounts coming from the Jewish rebels on one side, and the Roman Imperial camp on the other. Thus King Agrippa II wrote no less than sixty - two letters to testify the veracity of Josephus’s account. Relatives of King Agrippa II, to which Josephus sold copies of his work in Greek, together with other of his compatriots, as Julius Archelaus, well testified the veracity of Josephus’s account. As the work was presented to Vespasian, when he was still alive, the Jewish War post quem dating is 79 CE., the year in which Vespasian died. On the other side, the last events described in the Jewish War, in book VII, relates to the year 73 CE. that must therefore be taken as the date ante quem, the book was written. However, as Josephus refer in his book to the Temple of Peace as already finished, thus to the year 75 CE., it is possible to assume that the Jewish War was published between 75 and 79 CE. It seems that the Jewish War was written twice, the first in Aramaic as Josephus addressed the first edition of his book to the Jews who lived in the Parthian kingdom. Later on Josephus published his work in Greek, with the help of assistants. In fact the Greek used by Josephus is quite polished, and more often than not, as the use of speeches to punctuate his history, clearly reflects the use of Thucydides as a source of inspiration. On the other, although written in Greek, and not in Latin, the structure of Josephus’s Jewish War, follows that of the Roman military commentaries which related a specific campaign. Thus Josephus follows quite closely the general structure of Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico. Therefore the book begins with a history of the people which the Roman fought, and the description of the campaign is punctuated by geographical descriptions of the countryside which witnessed the war. However a most important motive of the book is not just the polemos or war between the Jews and the Romans, but also, and possibly in no less than a measure, the stasis, or civil war between the Jews, and at a certain point, the stasis in the Roman Empire itself, which brought to the supreme position of power, as Emperor, the Roman commander in Judaea, Vespasian. Yet it is possible to say that the stasis inside the Jews can be seen as the main theme of the book. It is the stasis that brought to the confrontation between Jews and Romans, and therefore can be seen as the main cause of the war. Moreover, all along the book Josephus does not loose an occasion to condemn in the fiercest terms the Jewish extremists, no matter if the Sicariior the Zealots. Therefore, although the Roman governors’ greed has its own responsibility in precipitating the events, it is the Jewish extremists who bear the greatest responsibility to the outburst of the war and to its conclusion to the bitter end, not the Romans. The Jewish War is divided in seven books. If the first book can be seen as an introductive history of Judaea till the death of Herod the Great, already the second book depicts the origins of the war as well as the beginning of the war. The third and four books on the main describe Vespasian and Titus campaign in Galilee and Judaea and ends with the Roman army at the gates of Jerusalem, ravaged by stasis, or civil war. The fifth and the sixth books focus on the siege and conquest of Jerusalem, and are probably the most important and dramatic part of the entire book. The last seventh book is dedicated to the aftermath of the siege of Jerusalem, thus the conclusion of the war in Judaea, with a description of the dramatic siege of Masada, and with the triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus at Rome.

Antiquitates Iudaicae=

The second book published by Josephus in Rome is the [Jewish Antiquities]]. Josephus published it no less than twenty years after the publication of the Jewish War, in a social and political climate totally different from that of the War. In fact, Jewish Antiquities were published well into the reign of Domitian. It seems that Antiquities was dedicated to a certain Epaphroditus, who urged Josephus to write “Archaeology of Judaism and the Jews”, and to whom Josephus dedicated the book. This book is directed to an audience far away from the world of the Imperial ruling house, to which Josephus dedicated the War. Therefore Josephus answer the contemporary need for an apology of Jews and Judaism, much necessary in the hostile climate that stemmed inn Imperial Rome, as consequence of the Jewish War that devastated Judaea and razed to the ground the Temple. Josephus dates the Antiquities to year 13 of the reign of Domitian, between September 93 and September 94 CE. Jewish Antiquities is divided in twenty books. The individual books are preceded by an introduction which briefly indicates their contents; however this introduction was probably written much later, and probably did not stem in Josephus himself. It is possible to divide Antiquities in roughly two parts. The first part, books I-X, starts with the Creation of the World and ends with the return of the Exiles from Babylonia. This part is much dependent from the Bible, although it is not the only source used by Josephus. However Josephus follows somehow the chronological order and the division of the Bible. The second part, books XI-XX, which covers the Second Temple period, roughly start with the reconstruction of the Temple by Zerubabel and Joshua, the high priest, and it ends with the outbreak of the war against Rome in 66 C.E. In the first part, Josephus’s main model is in fact the Greek Bible. On the other side the Roman Antiquities of Dionysus of Halicarnassus are seen by Josephus as no less than a source of inspiration than the Bible. In fact the structure of Jewish Antiquities, presented to a public which included Gentiles, follows quite closely the structure of Roman Antiquities, beginning with its common division in twenty books. Moreover, both books share in a common the main outline, which stress the antiquity of the people discussed, the Romans in Dionysuss’ book and the Jews in Josephus. If at the beginning, Josephus depends from the last books of the Bible, then he makes ample use of the external books of the Bible and the Apocrypha and Pseudoepigrapha, as the non canonical writings of Pseudo-Eupolemus, the writings of the Hellenistic writer Artapanus, the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates and of course the First Book of Maccabees, Josephus main sources for the twelfth and thirteenth books of Antiquities. Josephus used external sources to corroborate the Biblical narration. The first and foremost example is of course Berossus’ History of Chaldea, Josephus main external source to corroborate the history of the flood and later on, Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Other sources, whose use is attested by Josephus are Hieronymus the Egyptian’ Phoenician History, Mnasesas, the Phoenician Menander, who translated the Tyrian archives in Greek, and is used by Josephus to corroborate the Biblical material dedicated to the figure of Solomon, Megasthenes’ History of India, Philostratus, History of India, and Philocrates, History of India and Phoenicia. Josephus’s main sources for the second part of Antiquities were the texts of Greek historians, mainly for the Hellenistic period. Therefore Josephus makes use of Herodotus to present an alternative source for the expedition of Sennacherib, Polybius, for the early Hellenistic period, Poseidonius, for Seleucid history, and of course of Strabo of Amaseia for the latter Hellenistic period, as well as for the history of the Jewish Diaspora in Egypt. However, the most important Greek historian, who indeed dominated the second part of Antiquities, mainly the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth books, is of course Nicolaus of Damascus, which is the main source used for the history of the reign of King Herod. One of the most interesting characteristics of Antiquities is that Josephus presents us with a list of decrees enacted by Roman rulers, which are probably authentic. Thus, the end of the fourteenth book is dedicated to a series of decrees concerning the Jews, which today most historians consider authentic. Moreover, another group of decrees is found in the successive sixteenth book.

Vita

Life, seen by Josephus as an appendix of Antiquities, was maybe written in the last years of the first century CE., although its exact date vary. As in Life, Josephus states that his far away patron and friend Agrippa II was already dead, it is clear that the Life was written after the last scion of the Herodian royal house died. Although Photius, using as source Justus of Tiberias, wrote that Agrippa II died in the third year of Traian, in 100 CE., however epigraphic and numismatic material points to an earlier date, possibly 95-96 CE, the year in which Agrippa II ceased to mint, slightly before Domitian’s murder. Yet, according to Rajak, Life was published as an appendix to Antiquities in 93/94 CE. The Life focuses on the main on Josephus’s years as Governor of Galilee, in the years 66-67 C.E. It seems that Josephus wrote this book as an answer to Justus of Tiberias, who blamed the young Jerusalem priest as one of the main responsible of the revolt against Rome. Thus Josephus tries to depict himself as a supporter of Rome from the beginning, and thus contradicts many statements written in the earlier Jewish War.

Contra Apionem

Against Apion is the last work published by Josephus. We do not know the original title, as the present name of the work, Against Apion, is found in Jerome. The work was written after Antiquities. First Josephus complains that Antiquities did not elicit enough response from his audience, which led him to write Against Apion. Thus the book was written after 96 C.E., in the last years of Domitian’s rule. As Antiquities, the book is dedicated to Epaphroditus. The book is an apology of Judaism, depicted as a classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity, as opposed to the relatively more recent tradition of the Greeks. Josephus therefore present part of the topics, already discussed in Antiquities. However now, Josephus emphasizes even more the antiquity and morality of Jewish Law and of its practice, opposing it to the moral ad civic traditions of the Greeks. Josephus, however, makes ample use of Greek authors, who indeed attest the antiquity of Jews and Judaism, and in the same time he criticize various statements of Greek writing authors, mainly Egyptian natives as Manetho, and Greeks from Alexandria, as Apion, who expounded a strongly anti-Jewish agenda. More than once, Josephus emphasizes the distinctiveness of Judaism, claiming that the Jews, contrary to other peoples were ready to die to defend their law. Therefore, with a much skilful use of rhetoric, in the best traditions of Greek and Roman apologetic writings, showing a real mastery of the intricacies of the rhetoric, Josephus strive to demonstrate the greater antiquity and the general superiority of Jewish tradition, law and practices over those of the Greeks. However, Josephus, to sharpen his point, makes ample use of Oriental sources in Greek, to corroborate the Biblical tradition, and therefore the antiquity of the Jews and of Jewish Law.

Editions and translations

Josephus were known in the Middle Ages through the Latin versions of his works and mostly, through the Latin and Hebrew paraphrases of the Bellum Iudaicum (Hegesippus and Josippon, respectively).

No surprisingly, the editio princeps (1470 Schüssler) published the Latin version, on which the first translations also were based.

With the publication of the editio princeps of the Greek text in 1544, began the critical work to recover the "original" Josephus and also came the first translations based on the Greek.

List of Josephus' Works

• Bellum Iudaicum / Jewish War
• Antiquitates Iudaicae / Jewish Antiquities
• Contra Apionem / Against Apion
• Vita / Life

External links

• [ Wikipedia]