Josephus's The Jewish War example essay topic

Ashley Duff HIST 329 12/3/03 Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattithiah (or Matthias in Greek) in 37 C.E. in Jerusalem, while the land was under Roman rule. He is best known for the Jewish Antiquities, an extensive 20-volume history of the Jews, as well as The Jewish War, an "eyewitness account of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in Jerusalem (Abram 44)". It is hard to put together the details of Josephus' life, because the only known sources we have about him are scant details from his autobiography. Josephus "came of a noble and priestly family, and on his mother's side was connected with the royal house of the Hasmoneans (Charlesworth 68)". He received the Hebrew education of "literature, history, and lore" that was expected of a Jewish upper class boy, and he was so intelligent that by the age of fourteen "he was consulted by the chief priests and city leaders" on legal points (Charlesworth 68, Bartlett 72).

As a young man, Josephus explored the three sects of Judaism: the Pharisees, Sadducee's, and Essenes. Being dissatisfied with all three, he became a pupil of an ascetic man named Bann us, "who wore no other clothing than what grew upon trees, ate nothing which did not grow of itself, and bathed frequently in cold water, night and day, in order to attain purity (Charlesworth 68)". One guesses that Josephus was unwilling to endure this high level of religious virtuousness, because after three years he returned to Jerusalem to become a Pharisaic priest. Around 64 C.E., Felix, the procurator of Judea, had arrested a group of priests on some petty charge and sent them to Rome.

Josephus himself traveled to Rome "to speak on [their] behalf... and through the assistance of a Jewish actor, Aliturus, and of Nero's empress, Poppa ea Sabina, he was successful" in getting the priests released (Grant 366). Josephus was overwhelmed by the grandeur of Rome, and soon felt that his people's need for autonomy would be senseless against Rome's power. Upon returning home, Josephus found his homeland in an uprising against the Romans after "the priests were persuaded to suspend the sacrifices offered in the Temple since Herod's time on behalf of Rome and the emperor (Bartlett 73)". After seeing the might and majesty of the city of Rome (which Josephus believed was divinely predestined) and considering himself "a man of two cultures and allegiances", Josephus knew it was futile for his people to revolt, but nevertheless in a public meeting he was drafted as commander-in-chief of Galilee and Gamal a in 67 C.E. (Bartlett 72). He reveals that he "spent more time [in Galilee] controlling internal factions than fighting the Roman army (Goldberg par. 3)".

The governor of Syria, Vespasian, approached with his army, and Josephus retreated within the town of Jota pata. There a seven week siege took place, and Josephus "ignored a suicide pact declared by his fellow Jews and went over to the Romans, convinced, as he said later, that God had done the same (Grant 367)". Although Vespasian wanted Josephus bound and sent to the emperor Nero, Josephus convinced his captors that he had a significant prophecy for the Roman general, and got a personal interview with him. Josephus foretold Nero's death and the ascension of Vespasian (followed by his son Titus) as emperor. Considering that Vespasian was not of a noble background and simply a "plain country farmer", it was highly unlikely that such an event would occur, but the general "decided to keep Josephus around, in case he did have the power to foretell the future (Charlesworth 65, Abram 44)". Sure enough, in the summer of 68 C.E. Nero committed suicide, and after less than a year of civil war, Vespasian was acknowledged as emperor.

Josephus was handsomely rewarded by the new emperor and became part of Titus's staff as an insider from Jerusalem to interpret and negotiate with the Jews on behalf of the Romans. Josephus witnessed from the Roman camp the horrible atrocities inflicted upon his countrymen and the destruction of his city and the Temple. Although considered a traitor by the Jews, "it should be recorded to his credit that he saved the life of his brother and of over two hundred friends and did all he could to lighten the lot of the captives (Charlesworth 80)". After the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans, Josephus accompanied Titus to Alexandria in Egypt and then to Rome, where he was granted a pension, a place to live on Vespasian's estates, and Roman citizenship. He took the name Flavius, after the dynasty name of Vespasian. It was in Rome that Josephus composed his works, four of which remain that we know of today: The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, The Life of Josephus, and Against Apion.

The date of his death is unknown (but "perhaps safest to date... somewhere between AD 95 and 105"), and after his passing "the Romans erected a statue of him and placed his works in the public library (Bartlett 76, Abram 44)". Josephus's The Jewish War was composed first in Aramaic, and then translated into Greek with the help of literary assistants. Even the title itself attests to Josephus's Roman sympathies and the fact that he was a "court-supported Roman citizen", the "Jewish War" was what the Romans called the conflict (Abram 44). It was written to warn the "Jews beyond the Euphrates... that Roman power was in the end invincible, invincible even by a patriotic and desperate nation".

The book was meant "to warn peoples beyond the frontier to think twice before the challenged the might of Rome". One can even go as far to say that the book argued that " [t] he war with all its miseries was the punishment of God upon the Jews for their sins (Charlesworth 82, 83)". The book is considered pretty historically accurate, although Josephus takes the official pro-Roman point of view and attempts to glorify the Romans (who were also temporarily his captors); "however, Josephus is a dependable historian and at times reaches a high degree of excellence, capturing admirably the tension, brutality, religious fanaticism, and horrors of war". Since being a historian at the time Josephus wrote meant a different way of writing than we know now", [s] elf-justification is abundant, facts and figures are sometimes precarious or exaggerated, and speeches are invented (Grant 367)". Nonetheless, Josephus is pretty much the only remaining source we have for a string of extremely momentous incidents. Even King Agrippa II of Judea "wrote no less than sixty-two letters of approval, testifying to the accuracy of the narrative (Charlesworth 83)".

Josephus's next book was the Jewish Antiquities, written when he was 56 and "including such topics as the origin of the Jewish people, their history, the work of Moses, and the Jews' military record" to the universal non-Jewish reader (Bartlett 79). It was fashioned after the Roman Antiquities, and " [a] p proximately half the work is a rephrasing of the Hebrew Bible, while much of the rest draws on previous historians (Goldberg par. 7)". He points out how old the Jewish culture and Bible was, perhaps to gain some Jewish sympathy from the reader due to their comprehensive deep-rooted history. Although Josephus revered the Romans for their empire and the Greeks for their writing, "he was nevertheless proud of his Judaism even if he regretted the political folly of extremist Jews (Bartlett 80)".

He even tells the Biblical stories in a "puerile rhetoric" to "gain [the] reader's goodwill and interest" and "to show that Jewish heroes and philosophers were not so different from Greek ones... that outstanding Jews can hold their own in wider society (Charlesworth 84, Bartlett 80)". A very important aspect of Jewish Antiquities was that "outside of the Christian gospels, Josephus provides us with the only surviving contemporary written account of the story of Jesus, his crucifixion by order of Pontius Pilate, and the belief that he was restored to life (Abram 44)". In a different section, he identifies the disciple James as "the brother of the so-called Christ". Josephus also was the first to put in writing the subject of candle lighting at Hanukkah. Against Apion "was a defense against Roman critics of Jewish Antiquities and against anti-Semitism (Abram 44)". Apion was a Greco-Egyptian grammarian who "had been one of the signatories of a protest against the Jews addressed by the Alexandrian Greeks to the emperor Caligula... [and] published various other attacks on Judaism as well (Grant 368)".

Apion was given Alexandrian citizenship, "and that by way of return he attacked the Jewish community, knowing how much the Alexandrian disliked it". Josephus even goes as far to say that "Apion's death from gangrene after a necessary operation of circumcision as nothing less than fitting", for Apion complained how Jews "refused pork and practised circumcision (Bartlett 87)". Josephus uses Against Apion to condemn anti-Hebrew writers and their ignorance to the antiquity of the Jewish people. He compares Jewish and Greek stances on law and creed to show how acceptable Judaism was to Greek philosophers. Against Apion was also noteworthy because "it has preserved much information about obscure authors and their writings", such as Manet ho (Bartlett 88)". The Life of Josephus was an autobiography written "mostly in self-defense against a Galilean historian [Justus] who claimed that Josephus was a traitor, a liar, and himself responsible for revolt (Abram 44)".

The work is set up as follows: "1 (1-6), Josephus' ancestry; 2 (8-12), his education; 3-6 (13-27), his early life; 7-74 (28-413), his command in Galilee; 75-6 (414-29), his life under the Romans; 76 (430), conclusion (Bartlett 89)". The Life of Josephus is mostly a rationalization of his past behavior, and perhaps even to "cover his lack of success" in the past concerning the Jewish War (Bartlett 90). This work is thought of as confounding because "Josephus is trying simultaneously to demonstrate his consistency and loyalty to both Jews and Romans". It is also funny how Josephus holds himself in such high regard, boasting about his "youthful intelligence and piety... his moral virtues in middle life... his preservation by divine providence... his obedience to divine instruction, and his veracity as a historian (Bartlett 91)". Flavius Josephus is a rarity because the span of ancient history in the Mediterranean is covered by Greco-Roman writers and influences.

Josephus is one of the only surviving Jewish historians of the time, and he gives his readers a different viewpoint of past events and insight to happenings that Greco-Roman writers would not have even known of.

Bibliography

Abram, Stephen. "E-Sustainability-The Amazing and True Story of Flavius Josephus". Information Outlook 7.7 (2003): 44.
Bartlett, John R. Jews in the Hellenistic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Charlesworth, M.P. Five Men. New York: Books for Libraries Press, Inc., 1936.
Goldberg, G.J. "The Life of Flavius Josephus". Flavius Josephus Home Page. 17 Aug. 2002.
Jewish History Ring. 8 pars. 23 Nov. 2003 web Grant, Michael.
Readings in the Classical Historians. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.