Josephus

Lore & Background

Josephus initially fought against the Roman Empire during the First Jewish–Roman War as general of the Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in AD 67 to the Roman army led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Yodfat. He claimed the Jewish messianic prophecies that initiated the war made reference to Vespasian becoming emperor. Vespasian kept him as a slave and interpreter, then granted him freedom after becoming emperor in AD 69. Josephus defected to the Roman side, was granted Roman citizenship, and became an advisor and close associate of Titus, serving as his translator during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. He recorded the Great Jewish Revolt, including the siege of Masada. His works include The Jewish War (c. 75), Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94), and his autobiography The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 94-99).

Reader's Guide

Josephus was born into one of Jerusalem's elite families, the second-born son of Matthias, a Jewish priest. His older full-blooded brother was also named Matthias. Their mother was an aristocratic woman descended from the Hasmonean dynasty. Josephus's paternal grandparents were a man also named Joseph(us) and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman. He descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib. He calls himself a fourth-generation descendant of 'High Priest Jonathan' (either Jonathan Apphus or Alexander Jannaeus). He was raised in Jerusalem and educated alongside his brother. At around 26, he traveled to Rome to negotiate the release of Jewish priests imprisoned there by Nero. With the assistance of Nero's wife Poppaea and a Jewish actor, he succeeded. Upon his return to Jerusalem, at the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War, he was appointed military governor of Galilee. He trained 65,000 troops in the region. He contended with John of Gischala for control of Galilee. He fortified several towns in Lower and Upper Galilee. He first engaged the Roman army at a village called Garis. He resisted the Roman siege of Yodfat until it fell in the lunar month of Tammuz in the thirteenth year of Nero's reign. After the fall, he was trapped in a cave with 40 companions. He suggested a method of collective suicide; they drew lots and killed each other, and Josephus was one of two men left who surrendered. In AD 69 he was released. He acted as a negotiator during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, during which his parents were held as hostages by Simon bar Giora. While confined at Yodfat, he claimed a divine revelation that led to his prediction that Vespasian would become emperor. After the prediction came true, Vespasian released him. In AD 71 he went to Rome with Titus, became a Roman citizen and client of the Flavian dynasty, and was granted accommodation in Judaea and a pension. Vespasian arranged for him to marry a captured Jewish woman, whom he later divorced. Around AD 71 he married an Alexandrian Jewish woman as his third wife; they had three sons, of whom only Flavius Hyrcanus survived childhood. He later divorced her. Around AD 75 he married his fourth wife, a Greek Jewish woman from Crete, who was a member of a distinguished family; they had two sons, Flavius Justus and Flavius Simonides Agrippa.

Did You Know?

• Josephus interpreted the destruction of the Temple as a sign that God had turned to the Romans due to Jewish sins, but believed the covenant remained intact with restoration dependent on repentance.
• His works provide insight into first-century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity, and are the chief source next to the Bible for the history of ancient Israel.
• He provides an independent extra-biblical account of figures such as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, John the Baptist, James brother of Jesus, and Jesus of Nazareth.
• Scholarship traditionally identified him as a Pharisee, but Steve Mason argued in 1991 that he was an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who associated with the Pharisees as a matter of deference.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"And when the book of Daniel was showed him [Alexander the Great] wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that he himself was the person intended." — Josephus "Their exercises are unbloody battles, and their battles bloody exercises." — Josephus "I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee." — Josephus "Antipater, now undisputed heir, had called down on his head the utter loathing of the nation, for everyone knew that all the slanders directed against his brothers had originated with him." — Josephus