Category:Josephus (subject)

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Flavius Josephus (Yosef Ben Matityahu; 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.Josephus’ life is known on the main from his Jewish War, in which he took a prominent part, on both sides, and of course in the Life itself. 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 at nineteen, in 56-57 C.E., 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 Poppaea 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 Mattatiah. 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. After a siege of forty seven days, by the middle of the summer of 67 C.E., Jotapata fall in the hands of the Romans. Joseph Ben Mattiah 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 Mattiah 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 Mattiah 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.

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 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 Iulius 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. 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. 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. 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. Josephus is well known also in Roman sources (Suetonius).