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Josephus: The Complete Works
Flavius Josephus was a first-century Pharisee, soldier, informant to the Romans, and writer. He left behind the most extensive writings on ancient Jewish history still in existence. These are his complete collected writings in a beautiful hardcover edition. If you want to understand and immerse yourself in the Jewish history, culture, and community of Jesus, let The Complete Works open your eyes. Flavius Josephus—first-century Pharisee, Jewish historian, Roman consultant, and writer—documented aspects of life during the time of Christ, giving us extensive writings on ancient Jewish history. By studying Josephus' works, you'll gain a behind-the-scenes look at biblical figures, including Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, and James the brother of Jesus; plus insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls community, Sadducees and Pharisees, the War of the Jews, and more. Features
1149 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 100
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About the author
Flavius Josephus
1,533 books211 followersTitus Flavius Josephus was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer who was born in Jerusalem - then part of Roman Judea - to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.
He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as the head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. Josephus claims the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a hostage and interpreter. After Vespasian did become Emperor in 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius.
Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. He became an advisor and friend of Vespasian's son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem, which resulted -- when the Jewish revolt did not surrender -- in the city's destruction and the looting and destruction of Herod's Temple (Second Temple).
Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada, but the imperial patronage of his work has sometimes caused it to be characterized as pro-Roman propaganda.
His most important works were The Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94). The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation (66–70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into 1st century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity.
Alternate spelling:
Flávio Josefo (Romance languages)
He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as the head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. Josephus claims the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a hostage and interpreter. After Vespasian did become Emperor in 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius.
Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. He became an advisor and friend of Vespasian's son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem, which resulted -- when the Jewish revolt did not surrender -- in the city's destruction and the looting and destruction of Herod's Temple (Second Temple).
Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada, but the imperial patronage of his work has sometimes caused it to be characterized as pro-Roman propaganda.
His most important works were The Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94). The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation (66–70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into 1st century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity.
Alternate spelling:
Flávio Josefo (Romance languages)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
April 1, 2025
A very dense, information-packed history of the Hebrew people in the later part of the 1st century CE. The two major historical tracts are "The Jewish War" written around 75 CE and "Antiquities of the Jews" around 94 CE. The depiction of the eviction of the Jewish people by the Roman Empire and the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE is fascinating.
I will post a more detailed review of these amazing works at a future date.
I will post a more detailed review of these amazing works at a future date.
May 16, 2021
I enjoyed this book and structuring. The book acts as an abbreviated commentary from the beginning of The Bible up to the times of King Herod. I found the writing clear and not complicating the Biblical passages it was examining. I will use this as a study-aid and reference to Biblical study.
The book is broken up starting with The Antiquities of the Jews, The Wars of the Jews, and then an appendix of various dissertations. These dissertations include historical clarifications, various chronological timelines, some Greek language analyses, and a breakdown on Jewish Weights and Measurements (cubits, inches, digits, Jewish miles, wine gallons, and coinage like drachmae and talents and shekels).
I think this is an invaluable study and reference material for the serious Bible or Tanakh student. Thanks!
The book is broken up starting with The Antiquities of the Jews, The Wars of the Jews, and then an appendix of various dissertations. These dissertations include historical clarifications, various chronological timelines, some Greek language analyses, and a breakdown on Jewish Weights and Measurements (cubits, inches, digits, Jewish miles, wine gallons, and coinage like drachmae and talents and shekels).
I think this is an invaluable study and reference material for the serious Bible or Tanakh student. Thanks!
December 14, 2016
I use this book as a reference to my daily Bible study. The text gives insight into historical aspects of the Bible & clarifies persons as well as their part in the history of God's people. The translation is clear & easy to absorb.
Fascinating read as Josephus writes of evidence of remains of 'the Giants', recorded in Scripture, which he himself has seen. Genesis 6 , 'Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God (fallen angels) saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men & they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.' Josephus wrote, 'For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence that they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, That these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.' The book's translator writes, "This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of the antiquity." Josephus writes, "For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, & terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any creditable relations of other men." Antiquities of the Jews 5.2.3. "He was seen by one of the enemy (Philistines), his name was Achmon, the son of Araph, he was on of the sons of the giants. He had a spear, the handle of which weighed three hundred shekels, & a breastplate of chain work, & a sword." Ant. 7.12.1. "
The 'pillar of salt', written in the Old Testament about Lot's wife who turned to look back upon the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, was addressed, "But Lot's wife continually turning back to the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt, for I have seen it, and it remains to this day." Antiq.1.11.4. Translator, William Whiston, writes about this, "This pillar of salt, was, we see here, standing in the days of Josephus; and he had seen it. That it was standing then, is all so attested by Clement of Rome, contemporary with Josephus; as also that it was so in the next century, is attested by Irenaeus with the addition of an hypothesis, how it came to last so long, with all it's members entire. Whether the account that some modern travelers give be true, that it is still standing, I do not know."
Of Jesus Christ, Josephus writes, "Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer or wonderful works-a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, & many of the Gentiles. He was (The) Christ; & when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those who loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these & ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; & the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." Ant. 18.3.1.
Fascinating read as Josephus writes of evidence of remains of 'the Giants', recorded in Scripture, which he himself has seen. Genesis 6 , 'Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God (fallen angels) saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men & they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.' Josephus wrote, 'For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence that they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, That these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.' The book's translator writes, "This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of the antiquity." Josephus writes, "For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, & terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any creditable relations of other men." Antiquities of the Jews 5.2.3. "He was seen by one of the enemy (Philistines), his name was Achmon, the son of Araph, he was on of the sons of the giants. He had a spear, the handle of which weighed three hundred shekels, & a breastplate of chain work, & a sword." Ant. 7.12.1. "
The 'pillar of salt', written in the Old Testament about Lot's wife who turned to look back upon the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, was addressed, "But Lot's wife continually turning back to the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt, for I have seen it, and it remains to this day." Antiq.1.11.4. Translator, William Whiston, writes about this, "This pillar of salt, was, we see here, standing in the days of Josephus; and he had seen it. That it was standing then, is all so attested by Clement of Rome, contemporary with Josephus; as also that it was so in the next century, is attested by Irenaeus with the addition of an hypothesis, how it came to last so long, with all it's members entire. Whether the account that some modern travelers give be true, that it is still standing, I do not know."
Of Jesus Christ, Josephus writes, "Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer or wonderful works-a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, & many of the Gentiles. He was (The) Christ; & when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those who loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these & ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; & the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." Ant. 18.3.1.
July 21, 2011
I gave this book a "4" for a couple reasons. First of all, the 200 or so pages in The Antiquities of the Jews that cover the Herodian Dynasty are really intriguing. The political maneuverings, the personal friendships with Antony and Roman Caesars, as well as the antipathy of Cleopatra towards Herod the Great reveal a world that was interconnected in a way that I had had no idea before reading this. The internal drama of the Herodian family plays out like a work of Shakespeare. The vast remainder of The Antiquities is basically just a carbon copy of the Old Testament and Id recommend that if you have to choose between reading one or the other Id recommend the OT. If you've read the OT you will find most of The Antiquities quite tedious I think though there are interesting insights here and there. I did feel that Josephus made a huge attempt to remain detached from the material he was presenting and simply "reveal the facts." When it comes to his own life or the reporting of things done by the Romans one gets the feeling of a much more "rosy-colored" perspective.
Secondly, the Wars of the Jews actually was quite exciting to read...especially for an "old" book. I found myself wanting to read on at the end of every section to find out what would happen. This book covers events of which Josephus was an actual eyewitness and therefore is much richer in detail. It gives an overview of the Herodian Dynasty but does not go even close to the depth that The Antiquities do on that subject.
Secondly, the Wars of the Jews actually was quite exciting to read...especially for an "old" book. I found myself wanting to read on at the end of every section to find out what would happen. This book covers events of which Josephus was an actual eyewitness and therefore is much richer in detail. It gives an overview of the Herodian Dynasty but does not go even close to the depth that The Antiquities do on that subject.
January 5, 2020
This book is not a slog whatsoever. There are parts where Josephus excels in his story telling. Such as when he describes the Roman Legion’s order of battle and what their day to day regime consisted of and why they are the finest fighting force the world has ever seen up to that point, or when Josephus details the distinctions between Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, or when Josephus would drift off into metaphysical meanderings concerning the nature of fate and what that could possibly mean for a people who’s history is entwined with prophecies or omens (an owl will mark a Roman Emperor’s greatness than will foretell his imminent death according to Josephus or Josephus’ own dream tells of his victory).
All rulers who were good to the Jews are considered good, and all rulers who were not are considered bad, according to Josephus. The history of Rome usually never considers the world from the perspective of the vanquished; Josephus gives the modern reader a perspective of a beaten people as they were being scattered to the four corners while providing a quotidian struggle of their striving for relevance before only having their history and their religion as a glue to hold them together. BTW, I had not realized how despicable and duplicitous Josephus was even when he writes his story such that to make himself look favorable in the eyes of his fellow Jews, but always being watchful not to offend the Romans. Even in his own words, he comes across as a traitor to his own people.
A history like this is always just as important for the history that is being told by the historian and for how we with our modern sensibilities see how the historian is telling his story providing us insight into how they thought about themselves as a snapshot of history. As Giovanni Battista Vico says within his New Science from 1725 one should always consider history through the eyes, times and context of the explicator in order to understand.
Josephus’ dwelling in detail on the Essenes is fascinating since he writes in a time period such that Christianity if it were considered at all would be mostly considered as a sect of the Jews (70-95 CE). The overlap with who the Essenes were as portrayed by Josephus overlap with how Jesus Christ would be later portrayed by the Gospels especially the Book of John and by the early church fathers far more than I was aware of. Also, I see Josephus really did not like the Epicureans.
After one reads about a thousand pages from the same author, one gets a rhyme and reason to the writer’s patter and the section that Josephus connects Pontius Pilate to Jesus Christ did not seem to fit the natural flow of Josephus’s writing, but the section later on John the Baptist did at least for me. The Jesus section just did not seem to go with what Josephus was trying to tell in his book as a whole. I’ll let biblical scholars and the historians fight it out among themselves, and suspect a good philologist can resolve the point, but overall, it’s not really that important one way or another.
Particularly in the ‘Jewish Wars’, Josephus thinks himself worthy of a Thucydides (for those who don’t know, Thucydides wrote the best history ever 450 years before Josephus and all historians of Josephus time period would have been familiar with it as all historians should be today) and tries to recreate speeches never said while being true to intent. He somewhat fails at this. He only sees one side of the argument and they are often tied up with him wanting to please his Roman masters while denigrating his Jewish brethren, those he claims he was fighting for. Obviously, Josephus risked real physical harm if he strayed too far from offending the Romans and would always err on the side of self preservation and the Romans.
The end notes from 1757 of this 1737 translation of a first century Jewish historian make this book worthwhile by themselves. They were as much fun as reading as the text itself. They took themselves incredibly seriously and they took it as a given that if the bible says it, it is true. The remnants of Noah’s ark are still available to visit according to them.
There was one Tolstoy type allusion in this book. Tolstoy in War and Peace would say that Russia won the war against France because Napoleon’s barber was sick and gave his cold to Napoleon thus making Napoleon not able to lead his army properly. Josephus tells a story of an unnamed Roman soldier a year or two before the complete destruction of Jerusalem who showed his private parts as an insult in front of the temple and that led to the ultimate revolt by the Jews against the Romans. Who knows if it’s true? History is often defined by the inconsequential, and by the way, according to Josephus that soldier was beheaded by the Romans.
Everything that was in the Jewish War and the Jewish Antiquities was covered better and more reliably by Heinreich Graetz’s Volume I and II of The History of the Jews written in about 1860. Graetz never assumes the truth of divine intervention, or prophets, or omens or dreams while Josephus accepts them at face value, and Graetz considers Josephus’ account of Masada as a complete fabrication not worthy of refutation even.
All rulers who were good to the Jews are considered good, and all rulers who were not are considered bad, according to Josephus. The history of Rome usually never considers the world from the perspective of the vanquished; Josephus gives the modern reader a perspective of a beaten people as they were being scattered to the four corners while providing a quotidian struggle of their striving for relevance before only having their history and their religion as a glue to hold them together. BTW, I had not realized how despicable and duplicitous Josephus was even when he writes his story such that to make himself look favorable in the eyes of his fellow Jews, but always being watchful not to offend the Romans. Even in his own words, he comes across as a traitor to his own people.
A history like this is always just as important for the history that is being told by the historian and for how we with our modern sensibilities see how the historian is telling his story providing us insight into how they thought about themselves as a snapshot of history. As Giovanni Battista Vico says within his New Science from 1725 one should always consider history through the eyes, times and context of the explicator in order to understand.
Josephus’ dwelling in detail on the Essenes is fascinating since he writes in a time period such that Christianity if it were considered at all would be mostly considered as a sect of the Jews (70-95 CE). The overlap with who the Essenes were as portrayed by Josephus overlap with how Jesus Christ would be later portrayed by the Gospels especially the Book of John and by the early church fathers far more than I was aware of. Also, I see Josephus really did not like the Epicureans.
After one reads about a thousand pages from the same author, one gets a rhyme and reason to the writer’s patter and the section that Josephus connects Pontius Pilate to Jesus Christ did not seem to fit the natural flow of Josephus’s writing, but the section later on John the Baptist did at least for me. The Jesus section just did not seem to go with what Josephus was trying to tell in his book as a whole. I’ll let biblical scholars and the historians fight it out among themselves, and suspect a good philologist can resolve the point, but overall, it’s not really that important one way or another.
Particularly in the ‘Jewish Wars’, Josephus thinks himself worthy of a Thucydides (for those who don’t know, Thucydides wrote the best history ever 450 years before Josephus and all historians of Josephus time period would have been familiar with it as all historians should be today) and tries to recreate speeches never said while being true to intent. He somewhat fails at this. He only sees one side of the argument and they are often tied up with him wanting to please his Roman masters while denigrating his Jewish brethren, those he claims he was fighting for. Obviously, Josephus risked real physical harm if he strayed too far from offending the Romans and would always err on the side of self preservation and the Romans.
The end notes from 1757 of this 1737 translation of a first century Jewish historian make this book worthwhile by themselves. They were as much fun as reading as the text itself. They took themselves incredibly seriously and they took it as a given that if the bible says it, it is true. The remnants of Noah’s ark are still available to visit according to them.
There was one Tolstoy type allusion in this book. Tolstoy in War and Peace would say that Russia won the war against France because Napoleon’s barber was sick and gave his cold to Napoleon thus making Napoleon not able to lead his army properly. Josephus tells a story of an unnamed Roman soldier a year or two before the complete destruction of Jerusalem who showed his private parts as an insult in front of the temple and that led to the ultimate revolt by the Jews against the Romans. Who knows if it’s true? History is often defined by the inconsequential, and by the way, according to Josephus that soldier was beheaded by the Romans.
Everything that was in the Jewish War and the Jewish Antiquities was covered better and more reliably by Heinreich Graetz’s Volume I and II of The History of the Jews written in about 1860. Graetz never assumes the truth of divine intervention, or prophets, or omens or dreams while Josephus accepts them at face value, and Graetz considers Josephus’ account of Masada as a complete fabrication not worthy of refutation even.
November 3, 2009
The first half of the book is a chronological exposition of the "Old Testament". The second half is an eye witness account of the war of the Jews and the Roman Empire including the fall of Jerusalem. It is very detailed with graphic imagery.
March 5, 2020
Као што знамо, Јосиф Флавије био је познати јеврејски историчар и војсковођа... с тим да, на примјер, ја појма нисам имао да је био и ово друго док нисам прочитао књигу, што само говори о томе колико појма благог немам са историјом било чега. Било како било, ова сабрана дјела састоје се од два главна комада - Јеврејских старина (књига која почиње стварањем свијета а завршава тамо негдје при почетку јеврејске побуне против Римљана) и Јудејског рата (наставља се хронолошки на претходну, са одређеним преклапањима). Прва књига (која је иначе објављена неких двадесетак година након друге) у првој половини представља буквално препричан Стари завјет (са неким ситним одступањима) и морам признати да је било врло занимљиво читати о тим познатим догађајима испричаним на мало другачији начин. Поред тога, сјећам се да сам на неколико мјеста поједина мјеста у Библији боље разумио кроз Јосифове описе, али нисам вадио биљешке тако да сад појма немам која тачно мјеста су у питању.
Јудејски рат је одлична историја побуне Јевреја против Римљана, која је писана из прилично неутралне перспективе. Наиме, све је почело са извјесним прокуратором (или како год се то звало на нашем) Јудеје Флорусом, који је (бар нам се тако наводи) био једно велико ђубре и из чиста мира је малтретирао Јевреје разноразним великим порезима и другим малтретирањима и онда је њима у једном тренутку пукао филм па су одлучили да ступе у штрајк глађу... пардон, у рат. Али ствари су знатно компликованије од тога. Они мудрији међу Јеврејима, укључујући цара Агрипу (сјећамо га се из Дјела апостолских, кад се суочио с Павлом у судници и рекао "Још ћеш ме натјерати да постанем хришћанин") били су свјесни да од крљања с Римљанима нема љеба, те да не треба превише таласати већ сачекати да Флорус крепа или буде смијењен, са вјером да ће након тога на његово мјесто доћи неко нормалнији.
Наравно, десило се управо супротно и побуна се проширила широм земље, при чему су Римљани углавном без већих проблема поосвајали сва јеврејска упоришта. Међутим, кад су дошли до Јерусалима, ситуација се из коријена промијенила и ту су им Јевреји нанијели гадне невоље.
Неко би из овога могао да помисли да је у питању класична прича о опсади, међутим ништа није даље од истине. Прво ваља примијетити да на предводнике побуне Јосиф не гледа са превише симпатија, заправо они главни међу њима су представљени као највећи шљам, који је управо свом сопственом народу нанијели највише зла. Наиме, неколико тих згубидана који су се млатили с Римљанима по разноразним селендрама збрисали су у Јерусалим након римских освајања и тамо се забарикадирали и завели страховладу. Обичан свијет уопште није био за рат и радо би се одмах предали, али ови ликови су имали своје добро наоружане паравојне формације и убијали су људе лијево и десно, узимали им храну и сл., с тим да су те фракције ратовале међусобно (лијепо је описано у књизи ко је држао коју позицију) и да су били сложни само кад треба клат поштен свијет и троловат Римљане који су напољу бјеснили.
Те будале су у једном тренутку чак и запалиле жито које би иначе могло да траје бар неколико година читавом граду и тако довели до опште глади због које је град на крају и пао, чије језиве детаље овом приликом нећемо описивати, али доста тога је предсказано у старозавјетним пророцима.
Римљани су били врло стрпљиви и у неколико наврата лијепо нудили помиловање свима који се предају, али цивили нису то могли да ураде због паравојних формација, а ови зато што су будале. Онда је на крају Римљанима коначно пукао филм и кад су успјели да уђу у град, побили су и попалили све живо, уз одређене изузетке. Веома фасцинантна прича коју стварно вриједи прочитати. Јосиф је био свједок ових догађаја, јер се на почетку борио против Римљана и имао одређене успјехе, а кад су га ухватили онда је био са Титом (не Јосипом Брозом) у опсади Јерусалима и покушавао да посредује око предаје града, без успјеха.
Моје замјерке на ове књиге своде се на двије ствари. Прво, догађаје је у одређеном периоду врло тешко пратити јер се скоро свако зове или Ирод или Агрипа или Александар или Аристобулус или Хирканус (или нека комбинација ових имена) и провалити ко је ту коме шта равно је рјешавању компликованијих парцијалних диференцијалних једначина. Наравно, ово није кривица историчара, али ко му је крив што је одлучио да пише о томе. Друга ствар је што Јосиф изгледа много воли говоре, па тако на неколико мјеста буквално цитира говор који је неко негдје држао, умјесто да само преприча суштину тих говора, нарочито код оних којима није присуствовао, па их је очигледно писао сам. Због тога књига на одређеним мјестима изгледа као да читате фикцију умјесто историје.
Поред ове двије главне књиге, сабрана дјела садрже и аутобиографију и препуцавање са некаквим Апионом који је писао нешто против Јевреја и онда је Јосиф узео на себе да му објасни неколико ствари. Ту је и некаква расправа о рају и паклу, али аутентичност тог дјела је упитна.
Јудејски рат је одлична историја побуне Јевреја против Римљана, која је писана из прилично неутралне перспективе. Наиме, све је почело са извјесним прокуратором (или како год се то звало на нашем) Јудеје Флорусом, који је (бар нам се тако наводи) био једно велико ђубре и из чиста мира је малтретирао Јевреје разноразним великим порезима и другим малтретирањима и онда је њима у једном тренутку пукао филм па су одлучили да ступе у штрајк глађу... пардон, у рат. Али ствари су знатно компликованије од тога. Они мудрији међу Јеврејима, укључујући цара Агрипу (сјећамо га се из Дјела апостолских, кад се суочио с Павлом у судници и рекао "Још ћеш ме натјерати да постанем хришћанин") били су свјесни да од крљања с Римљанима нема љеба, те да не треба превише таласати већ сачекати да Флорус крепа или буде смијењен, са вјером да ће након тога на његово мјесто доћи неко нормалнији.
Наравно, десило се управо супротно и побуна се проширила широм земље, при чему су Римљани углавном без већих проблема поосвајали сва јеврејска упоришта. Међутим, кад су дошли до Јерусалима, ситуација се из коријена промијенила и ту су им Јевреји нанијели гадне невоље.
Неко би из овога могао да помисли да је у питању класична прича о опсади, међутим ништа није даље од истине. Прво ваља примијетити да на предводнике побуне Јосиф не гледа са превише симпатија, заправо они главни међу њима су представљени као највећи шљам, који је управо свом сопственом народу нанијели највише зла. Наиме, неколико тих згубидана који су се млатили с Римљанима по разноразним селендрама збрисали су у Јерусалим након римских освајања и тамо се забарикадирали и завели страховладу. Обичан свијет уопште није био за рат и радо би се одмах предали, али ови ликови су имали своје добро наоружане паравојне формације и убијали су људе лијево и десно, узимали им храну и сл., с тим да су те фракције ратовале међусобно (лијепо је описано у књизи ко је држао коју позицију) и да су били сложни само кад треба клат поштен свијет и троловат Римљане који су напољу бјеснили.
Те будале су у једном тренутку чак и запалиле жито које би иначе могло да траје бар неколико година читавом граду и тако довели до опште глади због које је град на крају и пао, чије језиве детаље овом приликом нећемо описивати, али доста тога је предсказано у старозавјетним пророцима.
Римљани су били врло стрпљиви и у неколико наврата лијепо нудили помиловање свима који се предају, али цивили нису то могли да ураде због паравојних формација, а ови зато што су будале. Онда је на крају Римљанима коначно пукао филм и кад су успјели да уђу у град, побили су и попалили све живо, уз одређене изузетке. Веома фасцинантна прича коју стварно вриједи прочитати. Јосиф је био свједок ових догађаја, јер се на почетку борио против Римљана и имао одређене успјехе, а кад су га ухватили онда је био са Титом (не Јосипом Брозом) у опсади Јерусалима и покушавао да посредује око предаје града, без успјеха.
Моје замјерке на ове књиге своде се на двије ствари. Прво, догађаје је у одређеном периоду врло тешко пратити јер се скоро свако зове или Ирод или Агрипа или Александар или Аристобулус или Хирканус (или нека комбинација ових имена) и провалити ко је ту коме шта равно је рјешавању компликованијих парцијалних диференцијалних једначина. Наравно, ово није кривица историчара, али ко му је крив што је одлучио да пише о томе. Друга ствар је што Јосиф изгледа много воли говоре, па тако на неколико мјеста буквално цитира говор који је неко негдје држао, умјесто да само преприча суштину тих говора, нарочито код оних којима није присуствовао, па их је очигледно писао сам. Због тога књига на одређеним мјестима изгледа као да читате фикцију умјесто историје.
Поред ове двије главне књиге, сабрана дјела садрже и аутобиографију и препуцавање са некаквим Апионом који је писао нешто против Јевреја и онда је Јосиф узео на себе да му објасни неколико ствари. Ту је и некаква расправа о рају и паклу, али аутентичност тог дјела је упитна.
July 9, 2009
Nope, I cannot claim to have read this volume from cover-to-cover, but I have read much of it... including the spurious accounts of his own conversion to Christianity.
It's been a while, but as I recall, Flavius Josephus was a Jewish scholar writing a history of his people for the Romans. Jewish scholars discount him because he wrote for the Romans.
He possessed a restless mind. His plan, as I recall, was to spend a few years practicing life as a Pharisee, then as a Sadducee. I think he planned to try a third discipline but discovered such a deep appreciation for the Pharisaic belief system that he stayed put. As I say, it's been a few years.
I loved Josephus's descriptions of Old Testament era history. I found his explanations of the era between Ezra and Christ indispensible. He is, of course, the only source we have about the siege of Masada.
He is a good writer. Many question his veracity, and maybe they are right; but for novice historians, he is an excellent source.
It's been a while, but as I recall, Flavius Josephus was a Jewish scholar writing a history of his people for the Romans. Jewish scholars discount him because he wrote for the Romans.
He possessed a restless mind. His plan, as I recall, was to spend a few years practicing life as a Pharisee, then as a Sadducee. I think he planned to try a third discipline but discovered such a deep appreciation for the Pharisaic belief system that he stayed put. As I say, it's been a few years.
I loved Josephus's descriptions of Old Testament era history. I found his explanations of the era between Ezra and Christ indispensible. He is, of course, the only source we have about the siege of Masada.
He is a good writer. Many question his veracity, and maybe they are right; but for novice historians, he is an excellent source.
March 1, 2022
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Biblical scholars love to study him because of the parallels between his writing and what is contained in the Old Testament. Christians also love Josephus because of two paragraphs in which Jesus Christ is mentioned. Reading his Complete Works with those intentions is, in my opinion, the wrong way to look at these histories since such an approach closes the reader’s mind to Josephus’s intended purpose in writing Jewish history and also obscures the deeper meaning of the text.
Josephus’s first major work of importance is “The Antiquities Of the Jews”. It was written to give a Jewish perspective on Jewish history. As we learn from later essays in this collection, the Jews believed that scholars and historians from outside the nation of Judea were misrepresenting Israelites, often for malicious purposes. Josephus wrote these histories to set the record straight about who and what the Jewish people really were in his time. The first half of the Antiquities are a rewriting of The Torah. For those of you who don’t know the difference between Og and Magog, The Torah is otherwise known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses from the Old Testament. Josephus is merciful to his readers and kindly sticks to the high points, sparing us the nightmarishly boring miseries of the genealogies, the Book of Psalms, Proverbs, the endless lists of Hebraic prohibitions, and the thoroughly useless books of the later prophets. He covers everything from the beginning of the world to Moses, Abraham, Noah, Samson, King David, and the building of Solomon’s Temple. This is the most lackluster writing in the Complete Works. Josephus writes as if he is just going through the motions of regurgitating stories that, by now, are all too familiar anyhow. The parallels with the Old Testament don’t amount to much either considering he was just copying things that had already been written. There is nothing remarkable in that. As a modern reader, you have to laugh a couple times when Josephus comments on how the stories of Samson and Jonah don’t sound realistic; he explains that he is writing these down because that is how they are written and not because he believes they are true.
Significant themes that run through the first half of the Antiquities are constant warfare, intergenerational conflict, and the inability of the Jews to live up to the high standards of morality and honor that God imposed on them. And that latter theme is given as a theological reason for why terrible things keep happening to the Israelites. The healthy skeptic will identify that as the God Gap fallacy, meaning that since there is no definite explanation for why bad things happen in the world, we have to say that God is responsible for lack of a better explanation. Just fill in any unanswered questions you have with “God” and move on to something else.
Josephus was a historian though, not a theologian, and the miracles, prophecies, and supernatural occurrences begin to diminish as the Antiquities move closer to Josephus’s lifetime, a time period he is more familiar with, hence the more secular approach to writing in the later chapters. The strongest part of this history of Judea is the life of King Herod, the man who built an alliance with Rome, rebuilt the kingdom of Judea, ruled the Jewish people with cruelty, and ultimately suffered because his sons fought chronically with him and each other over the line of succession. King Herod also had a close relationship with his favorite sister Salome, and I do mean really close, as in they slept together in the same bed. The story of Herod is bold in its details and heavily laden with moral failings and Shakespearean tragedy, almost like a long, drawn out telling of Macbeth. The Antiquities are worth reading just for these passages alone.
While on the topic of Herod, a word must be said about the two most famous paragraphs in the writings of Josephus. Those are the paragraphs mentioning the name of the Christian Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus” pops up all over the place in these histories because it was a common name in Judea, just like David, John, Mike, and Bill are common now. (Imagine a guy named Bill the Messiah) All the Jesuses mentioned by Josephus are like a rogue’s gallery of Judea since most of them are criminals, thieves, defrocked rabbis, and leaders of seditious sects. But one latter passage is a definite reference to Jesus Christ the messiah. Actually, all that is said is that there is a man in Judea whose name is Jesus Christ and he is a wise man. Nothing more, nothing less. This paragraph stands out like a long, loud, obnoxious burp in the middle of a violin concerto. Of course, this paragraph is known to be an interpolation that doesn’t show up in these manuscripts until four centuries after Josephus died. But that hasn’t stopped Christians from arguing in favor of its authenticity. Unless you are the kind of person who gets an erection from seeing the name “Jesus Christ” in print, such bickering is a waste of mental energy.
The other passage that Christians love so much is another paragraph that mentions James whose brother was Jesus the Christ. The paragraph is all about James and doesn’t say anything else about Jesus except that he was stripped of his position as high priest (rabbi?) of Jerusalem by the king who didn’t like him. Again, this is an interpolation. The phrase “the Christ” was added in later by some dimwitted monk in the Middle Ages who was assigned to hand copy the works of Josephus. The paragraph was possibly not even entirely written by Josephus, considering that it has nothing to do with the narrative that encompasses it and is actually a poorly written and confusing paragraph to begin with; the main idea of it is not entirely clear and seems like an anomaly in light of all the other well-written passages throughout the Complete Works. Besides, it also says the father of James and Jesus is Gamaliel, not Joseph as it says in the New Testament.
Christians love to lionize Josephus, saying these passages prove the existence of their messiah even though the history of these interpolations is well-known. Besides, even if these were authentic accounts of Jesus Christ, neither passage gives any real insight into who Jesus Christ was or what he was about. Further, claiming that these passages are authentic only weakens the unprovable Christian bias that Jesus existed. I myself have serious doubts as to his existence and prefer the mythicist interpretation of the New Testament which is a horribly boring work of composite, piecemeal fiction to begin with.
Otherwise, “The Antiquities Of the Jews” has one other passage that is well-written and interesting too. The story of the young Roman emperor Caius, otherwise known as Caligula, is included. The short life of Caius is significant to the history of Judea because he was the emperor who caused relations to sour between the Jews and the Romans. When Caius insisted that the Jews put a golden statue of himself in the Temple of Ceserea, the Jews began to hate the Romans and relations between the two countries went steadily downhill from then on.
This conflict leads into Josephus’s second major work of importance, “The Jewish Wars”. This history begins by repeating the biography of King Herod. Readers with a low tolerance for repetition may want to limit themselves to reading only “The Jewish Wars” for this reason. But it must be remembered that the story of Herod is vital in understanding the relationship that Judea had with Rome.
Eventually we learn that the emperor Vespasian sends the general Titus with an army to conquer Judea. At first he offers the Jews a chance to surrender peacefully, allowing themselves to be annexed by the great empire. But the Jews are too proud and feel that such political domination would be a transgression against the laws of the Covenant they have with God. So the wars begin. Along with lots and lots of combat, there are also some interesting descriptions of the geography of Judea, descriptions of the Temple of Jerusalem, and some good passages about the vegetation of the region. Other interesting passages explain the beliefs and practices of three Jewish sects: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. When Josephus gets down to it, his descriptive writing is of a high caliber. That is why the best passage of “The Jewish Wars” is that which tells the story of the Roman siege of Jotapata. This village was located on a mountain top outside of Jerusalem. Josephus himself was the general of their army, which might explain why his telling of this battle is so visually brilliant and realistic.
As the narrative continues, there are battles, skirmishes, melees, and more and more battles ad nauseam. There are some interesting soliloquies as generals and ambassadors speak at length to their enemies or their troops. Josephus writes these speeches as if he wished them to be read to an audience during a theatrical performance, as if they were tailor-made for Greek or Shakespearean drama.
As the Roman soldiers draw closer to Jerusalem and methodically decimate and plunder the walled city, it becomes increasingly clear that the Jews stand no chance of winning. I found myself rooting for the Jews the whole time, so when the final battle winds down, it was seriously sad to see them lose. The end of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple predates Valhalla’s Wake and the real life tragedy of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in Guyana. In fact, the ugly specter of genocide and ethnic cleansing hang heavy over the entirety of Josephus’s writings. Reading this in the 21st century is distressing considering all that has happened to the Jewish people up to the Holocaust and beyond. As the great comedian Jon Stewart said once on The Daily Show, “The Jews are the chosen people. Chosen for what? Punishment?”
Another distressing aspect of “The Jewish Wars” is the commentary of Josephus himself. The author was prescient enough to surrender to the invading Romans in order to avoid being slaughtered in battle. We can be thankful for that even if we find his lack of loyalty to his own people distasteful; but he did survive to write this unique history, providing a voice for the ancient Jewish people who might not otherwise have had such proper representation in historical narratives. But the sad part is that when the Jews get defeated, he browbeats them, saying that they lost because they were not strict enough in the observance of God’s commandments. This type of religious guilt trip does no good for coming to terms with reality. The truth in this case was that the Roman army was superior in numbers and military capability. Such facts have nothing to do with God and kicking his people when they are down is a terribly unfair way to look at them. It is yet just another example of how religious thought can be sadistic, toxic and destructive.
A shorter essay at the end of this volume, “Flavius Josephus Against Apion”, is revealing in how it shows the relation between Jews and their neighbors. Previous to Josephus, most histories of the Israelites were written by Egyptians and Greeks whose intention was to slander and humiliate the Jews by writing lies and what we might call “yellow journalism” in today’s world. The Egyptian writer Manetho goes as far as to say the Jews were nothing more than lepers and carriers of a plague that were exiled from Egypt to prevent the spreading of disease. The commentaries of the Greek historian Apion are no better. Using simple logic, Josephus dismantles and disproves their arguments, further advocating for the Jewish people and vindicating them for being ethical, intelligent, serious, and hard-working. The final essay in this book is a brief explication of Jewish ethics and belief, mostly pertaining to the Pharisee’s interpretation of Hebraic law. It is the most religious and preachy part of the book and fortunately, it does not go on too long. But for historical purposes it is important. Both essays put the writings of Josephus into context since they show how his intention is to give a Jewish perspective on who the ancient people of Judea really were without the insults perpetrated against them by their enemies.
The writing of Josephus isn’t difficult but it isn’t easy either. I found it more exciting and accessible than Plutarch or Livy, but there is also the question of translation that comes in here. The best parts of these writings are the most descriptive parts while the worse parts are the redundant accounts of wars. At times, it seems like the author is committed to listing every battle the Jews got themselves into, no matter how small or unimportant. He never even explains what the cause of many of these wars were and he probably didn’t know why they happened anyways. Then again, there was one curious war that started because some joker of a Roman soldier whipped out his schmuck, showing it to Jewish worshipers during a Passover celebration at the Temple. Imagine being written into the history books for that. But that is par for the course when reading ancient history. Another annoyance is the bewildering number of men named Eleazar, Hezekiah, Joseph, Jonathan, and Jesus. Ancient people were awfully unoriginal when it came to choosing names for their children which can make for some slow reading, especially when these characters are introduced and then never do anything interesting.
The atheist historian Richard Carrier referred to the writings of Josephus as elegant. I myself would prefer to use some other adjective, but he was right to say that this is high quality prose, at least by ancient standards. When approached as a historical text about ancient Judea, it may not be accurate or reliable, but is it grandiose and eye-opening. When approached as a parallel text to the Old Testament or a validation for the existence of Jesus Christ, the finer qualities of the prose and intended meaning of the author will be distorted or possibly even misunderstood or ignored and that is a tragedy because this is a good book. But approach it as you will. If you want to cloud up your mind with religious thought that is your business. Just leave me out of it, please.
Josephus’s first major work of importance is “The Antiquities Of the Jews”. It was written to give a Jewish perspective on Jewish history. As we learn from later essays in this collection, the Jews believed that scholars and historians from outside the nation of Judea were misrepresenting Israelites, often for malicious purposes. Josephus wrote these histories to set the record straight about who and what the Jewish people really were in his time. The first half of the Antiquities are a rewriting of The Torah. For those of you who don’t know the difference between Og and Magog, The Torah is otherwise known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses from the Old Testament. Josephus is merciful to his readers and kindly sticks to the high points, sparing us the nightmarishly boring miseries of the genealogies, the Book of Psalms, Proverbs, the endless lists of Hebraic prohibitions, and the thoroughly useless books of the later prophets. He covers everything from the beginning of the world to Moses, Abraham, Noah, Samson, King David, and the building of Solomon’s Temple. This is the most lackluster writing in the Complete Works. Josephus writes as if he is just going through the motions of regurgitating stories that, by now, are all too familiar anyhow. The parallels with the Old Testament don’t amount to much either considering he was just copying things that had already been written. There is nothing remarkable in that. As a modern reader, you have to laugh a couple times when Josephus comments on how the stories of Samson and Jonah don’t sound realistic; he explains that he is writing these down because that is how they are written and not because he believes they are true.
Significant themes that run through the first half of the Antiquities are constant warfare, intergenerational conflict, and the inability of the Jews to live up to the high standards of morality and honor that God imposed on them. And that latter theme is given as a theological reason for why terrible things keep happening to the Israelites. The healthy skeptic will identify that as the God Gap fallacy, meaning that since there is no definite explanation for why bad things happen in the world, we have to say that God is responsible for lack of a better explanation. Just fill in any unanswered questions you have with “God” and move on to something else.
Josephus was a historian though, not a theologian, and the miracles, prophecies, and supernatural occurrences begin to diminish as the Antiquities move closer to Josephus’s lifetime, a time period he is more familiar with, hence the more secular approach to writing in the later chapters. The strongest part of this history of Judea is the life of King Herod, the man who built an alliance with Rome, rebuilt the kingdom of Judea, ruled the Jewish people with cruelty, and ultimately suffered because his sons fought chronically with him and each other over the line of succession. King Herod also had a close relationship with his favorite sister Salome, and I do mean really close, as in they slept together in the same bed. The story of Herod is bold in its details and heavily laden with moral failings and Shakespearean tragedy, almost like a long, drawn out telling of Macbeth. The Antiquities are worth reading just for these passages alone.
While on the topic of Herod, a word must be said about the two most famous paragraphs in the writings of Josephus. Those are the paragraphs mentioning the name of the Christian Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus” pops up all over the place in these histories because it was a common name in Judea, just like David, John, Mike, and Bill are common now. (Imagine a guy named Bill the Messiah) All the Jesuses mentioned by Josephus are like a rogue’s gallery of Judea since most of them are criminals, thieves, defrocked rabbis, and leaders of seditious sects. But one latter passage is a definite reference to Jesus Christ the messiah. Actually, all that is said is that there is a man in Judea whose name is Jesus Christ and he is a wise man. Nothing more, nothing less. This paragraph stands out like a long, loud, obnoxious burp in the middle of a violin concerto. Of course, this paragraph is known to be an interpolation that doesn’t show up in these manuscripts until four centuries after Josephus died. But that hasn’t stopped Christians from arguing in favor of its authenticity. Unless you are the kind of person who gets an erection from seeing the name “Jesus Christ” in print, such bickering is a waste of mental energy.
The other passage that Christians love so much is another paragraph that mentions James whose brother was Jesus the Christ. The paragraph is all about James and doesn’t say anything else about Jesus except that he was stripped of his position as high priest (rabbi?) of Jerusalem by the king who didn’t like him. Again, this is an interpolation. The phrase “the Christ” was added in later by some dimwitted monk in the Middle Ages who was assigned to hand copy the works of Josephus. The paragraph was possibly not even entirely written by Josephus, considering that it has nothing to do with the narrative that encompasses it and is actually a poorly written and confusing paragraph to begin with; the main idea of it is not entirely clear and seems like an anomaly in light of all the other well-written passages throughout the Complete Works. Besides, it also says the father of James and Jesus is Gamaliel, not Joseph as it says in the New Testament.
Christians love to lionize Josephus, saying these passages prove the existence of their messiah even though the history of these interpolations is well-known. Besides, even if these were authentic accounts of Jesus Christ, neither passage gives any real insight into who Jesus Christ was or what he was about. Further, claiming that these passages are authentic only weakens the unprovable Christian bias that Jesus existed. I myself have serious doubts as to his existence and prefer the mythicist interpretation of the New Testament which is a horribly boring work of composite, piecemeal fiction to begin with.
Otherwise, “The Antiquities Of the Jews” has one other passage that is well-written and interesting too. The story of the young Roman emperor Caius, otherwise known as Caligula, is included. The short life of Caius is significant to the history of Judea because he was the emperor who caused relations to sour between the Jews and the Romans. When Caius insisted that the Jews put a golden statue of himself in the Temple of Ceserea, the Jews began to hate the Romans and relations between the two countries went steadily downhill from then on.
This conflict leads into Josephus’s second major work of importance, “The Jewish Wars”. This history begins by repeating the biography of King Herod. Readers with a low tolerance for repetition may want to limit themselves to reading only “The Jewish Wars” for this reason. But it must be remembered that the story of Herod is vital in understanding the relationship that Judea had with Rome.
Eventually we learn that the emperor Vespasian sends the general Titus with an army to conquer Judea. At first he offers the Jews a chance to surrender peacefully, allowing themselves to be annexed by the great empire. But the Jews are too proud and feel that such political domination would be a transgression against the laws of the Covenant they have with God. So the wars begin. Along with lots and lots of combat, there are also some interesting descriptions of the geography of Judea, descriptions of the Temple of Jerusalem, and some good passages about the vegetation of the region. Other interesting passages explain the beliefs and practices of three Jewish sects: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. When Josephus gets down to it, his descriptive writing is of a high caliber. That is why the best passage of “The Jewish Wars” is that which tells the story of the Roman siege of Jotapata. This village was located on a mountain top outside of Jerusalem. Josephus himself was the general of their army, which might explain why his telling of this battle is so visually brilliant and realistic.
As the narrative continues, there are battles, skirmishes, melees, and more and more battles ad nauseam. There are some interesting soliloquies as generals and ambassadors speak at length to their enemies or their troops. Josephus writes these speeches as if he wished them to be read to an audience during a theatrical performance, as if they were tailor-made for Greek or Shakespearean drama.
As the Roman soldiers draw closer to Jerusalem and methodically decimate and plunder the walled city, it becomes increasingly clear that the Jews stand no chance of winning. I found myself rooting for the Jews the whole time, so when the final battle winds down, it was seriously sad to see them lose. The end of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple predates Valhalla’s Wake and the real life tragedy of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in Guyana. In fact, the ugly specter of genocide and ethnic cleansing hang heavy over the entirety of Josephus’s writings. Reading this in the 21st century is distressing considering all that has happened to the Jewish people up to the Holocaust and beyond. As the great comedian Jon Stewart said once on The Daily Show, “The Jews are the chosen people. Chosen for what? Punishment?”
Another distressing aspect of “The Jewish Wars” is the commentary of Josephus himself. The author was prescient enough to surrender to the invading Romans in order to avoid being slaughtered in battle. We can be thankful for that even if we find his lack of loyalty to his own people distasteful; but he did survive to write this unique history, providing a voice for the ancient Jewish people who might not otherwise have had such proper representation in historical narratives. But the sad part is that when the Jews get defeated, he browbeats them, saying that they lost because they were not strict enough in the observance of God’s commandments. This type of religious guilt trip does no good for coming to terms with reality. The truth in this case was that the Roman army was superior in numbers and military capability. Such facts have nothing to do with God and kicking his people when they are down is a terribly unfair way to look at them. It is yet just another example of how religious thought can be sadistic, toxic and destructive.
A shorter essay at the end of this volume, “Flavius Josephus Against Apion”, is revealing in how it shows the relation between Jews and their neighbors. Previous to Josephus, most histories of the Israelites were written by Egyptians and Greeks whose intention was to slander and humiliate the Jews by writing lies and what we might call “yellow journalism” in today’s world. The Egyptian writer Manetho goes as far as to say the Jews were nothing more than lepers and carriers of a plague that were exiled from Egypt to prevent the spreading of disease. The commentaries of the Greek historian Apion are no better. Using simple logic, Josephus dismantles and disproves their arguments, further advocating for the Jewish people and vindicating them for being ethical, intelligent, serious, and hard-working. The final essay in this book is a brief explication of Jewish ethics and belief, mostly pertaining to the Pharisee’s interpretation of Hebraic law. It is the most religious and preachy part of the book and fortunately, it does not go on too long. But for historical purposes it is important. Both essays put the writings of Josephus into context since they show how his intention is to give a Jewish perspective on who the ancient people of Judea really were without the insults perpetrated against them by their enemies.
The writing of Josephus isn’t difficult but it isn’t easy either. I found it more exciting and accessible than Plutarch or Livy, but there is also the question of translation that comes in here. The best parts of these writings are the most descriptive parts while the worse parts are the redundant accounts of wars. At times, it seems like the author is committed to listing every battle the Jews got themselves into, no matter how small or unimportant. He never even explains what the cause of many of these wars were and he probably didn’t know why they happened anyways. Then again, there was one curious war that started because some joker of a Roman soldier whipped out his schmuck, showing it to Jewish worshipers during a Passover celebration at the Temple. Imagine being written into the history books for that. But that is par for the course when reading ancient history. Another annoyance is the bewildering number of men named Eleazar, Hezekiah, Joseph, Jonathan, and Jesus. Ancient people were awfully unoriginal when it came to choosing names for their children which can make for some slow reading, especially when these characters are introduced and then never do anything interesting.
The atheist historian Richard Carrier referred to the writings of Josephus as elegant. I myself would prefer to use some other adjective, but he was right to say that this is high quality prose, at least by ancient standards. When approached as a historical text about ancient Judea, it may not be accurate or reliable, but is it grandiose and eye-opening. When approached as a parallel text to the Old Testament or a validation for the existence of Jesus Christ, the finer qualities of the prose and intended meaning of the author will be distorted or possibly even misunderstood or ignored and that is a tragedy because this is a good book. But approach it as you will. If you want to cloud up your mind with religious thought that is your business. Just leave me out of it, please.
October 31, 2023
This is a fascinating work that deserves its place in literature and history.
While this is quite a tome, it can be broken down into sections that I appreciated for different reasons.
1. The work opens with the history of the origins of the Jews. For those who are familiar with the Old Testament, it will be fairly familiar. He is clearly writing with the influence of his own time (He tends to downplay the role of women in Hebrew history. Reading Roman era takes on the Biblical stories relating to women protagonists makes the Old Testament feel feminist (maybe first wave?).🫣😜🤷♂️
This part of the story tracks quite closely with the Old Testament, but the author clearly was drawing on additional sources as well. Some of those sources are lost or quite fragmentary today. But they allow Josephus to include far more detailed accounts of some of the events related in the Torah. For example, the dialogue between Joseph and his brothers in Egypt has a lot more content than the Genesis account.
2. The section on Alexander the Great and his era was fantastic and quite engaging for me as a person who reads at least two Alexander the Great books each year. Solid account that tracks well with what we know of Alexander and Jewish culture in that time.
3. The Hellenistic era in this work is quite difficult to keep straight. There are a lot of names that lost me. He assumed too much on my prior knowledge or my ability to keep this Alexander and Antipiter apart from that Alexander and Antipiter. They all blended together in my mind and maybe I’ll try to read it again later with Wikipedia open the whole time.
4. The Roman era (or the Herod the Great era) read like a high stakes drama. Betrayal, murder, manipulation, politics, poison, Cleopatra, iconic speeches, suicides, and Caesar all weave in and out of Herod’s story like a Netflix or HBO series. Is someone ever made a show about Herod it would be like Game of Thrones meets Soap Opera meets Ben Hur meets dysfunctional family x 10. Josephus shows his ability to write most engagingly here.
5. Post Herod delves into more obscure politics with little references here and there to various events, “Jesus the Christ,” political figures, and other odds and ends that set the stage for the Jewish revolt.
All told, I enjoyed this work and encourage any serious student of history to pick it up. It is long and complicated at times, but it is compelling and well researched. It is sometimes difficult to pick up a 2000 year old book and push through parts you don’t understand, but I think if you do, you will find some great experiences along the way.
While this is quite a tome, it can be broken down into sections that I appreciated for different reasons.
1. The work opens with the history of the origins of the Jews. For those who are familiar with the Old Testament, it will be fairly familiar. He is clearly writing with the influence of his own time (He tends to downplay the role of women in Hebrew history. Reading Roman era takes on the Biblical stories relating to women protagonists makes the Old Testament feel feminist (maybe first wave?).🫣😜🤷♂️
This part of the story tracks quite closely with the Old Testament, but the author clearly was drawing on additional sources as well. Some of those sources are lost or quite fragmentary today. But they allow Josephus to include far more detailed accounts of some of the events related in the Torah. For example, the dialogue between Joseph and his brothers in Egypt has a lot more content than the Genesis account.
2. The section on Alexander the Great and his era was fantastic and quite engaging for me as a person who reads at least two Alexander the Great books each year. Solid account that tracks well with what we know of Alexander and Jewish culture in that time.
3. The Hellenistic era in this work is quite difficult to keep straight. There are a lot of names that lost me. He assumed too much on my prior knowledge or my ability to keep this Alexander and Antipiter apart from that Alexander and Antipiter. They all blended together in my mind and maybe I’ll try to read it again later with Wikipedia open the whole time.
4. The Roman era (or the Herod the Great era) read like a high stakes drama. Betrayal, murder, manipulation, politics, poison, Cleopatra, iconic speeches, suicides, and Caesar all weave in and out of Herod’s story like a Netflix or HBO series. Is someone ever made a show about Herod it would be like Game of Thrones meets Soap Opera meets Ben Hur meets dysfunctional family x 10. Josephus shows his ability to write most engagingly here.
5. Post Herod delves into more obscure politics with little references here and there to various events, “Jesus the Christ,” political figures, and other odds and ends that set the stage for the Jewish revolt.
All told, I enjoyed this work and encourage any serious student of history to pick it up. It is long and complicated at times, but it is compelling and well researched. It is sometimes difficult to pick up a 2000 year old book and push through parts you don’t understand, but I think if you do, you will find some great experiences along the way.
September 18, 2024
Reading through Josephus was a worthy exercise that gave context to the New Testament. I found lots of primary source knowledge that helped me through scholarly arguments for/against biblical accuracy. E.g. Bart Ehrman asserts Jesus wasn’t buried because Roman didn’t allow burial to the crucified, but there’s evidence in Josephus that Rome allowed Jews to keep their Law (requiring burial) and the Sanhedrin did the burials (Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus was a Sanhedrin member)
August 14, 2016
Heavy, heavy, heavy reading. Unless you're a history nut, or you are insane, leave this one alone. It does possess some interesting nuggets in amongst the endless tales of paranoid and violent despots, but the language is almost impossible to understand: long sentences with weird syntax and very big and obscure words. It's obviously not meant to be read cover to cover, but I attempted it anyway. It was my toilet book, so I figured I could wade through it all eventually.
Wrong. I bailed about two thirds of the way through The Antiquities of the Jews. My tip, if you are brave enough to take on The Works of Josephus, is to speed read through. You'll get the gist and avoid the apoplexy caused by the language.
Wrong. I bailed about two thirds of the way through The Antiquities of the Jews. My tip, if you are brave enough to take on The Works of Josephus, is to speed read through. You'll get the gist and avoid the apoplexy caused by the language.
January 4, 2020
Finally! I started this book sometime in the Spring of 2015, and have been reading it off and on since then.
It took so long, not because it was a bad read, but because it was such a long book and I needed to read other books for school. BUT, I am finally finished!
All in all, this was an excellent read! Especially for anyone who wants to further study the historical context of the Bible, Judaism, Christianity, or the early Roman Empire. This particular translation is good and fairly easy to understand for the average reader.
Surprisingly, I found Josephus at his best and most interesting when describing those events which are not recorded in the Christian scriptures - such as the 500 years between the Old and New Testaments, the political climate of Rome and Judea near the time of Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and Josephus’s own life story.
Really, the only thing keeping this from five stars is the sheer length of the book.
It took so long, not because it was a bad read, but because it was such a long book and I needed to read other books for school. BUT, I am finally finished!
All in all, this was an excellent read! Especially for anyone who wants to further study the historical context of the Bible, Judaism, Christianity, or the early Roman Empire. This particular translation is good and fairly easy to understand for the average reader.
Surprisingly, I found Josephus at his best and most interesting when describing those events which are not recorded in the Christian scriptures - such as the 500 years between the Old and New Testaments, the political climate of Rome and Judea near the time of Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and Josephus’s own life story.
Really, the only thing keeping this from five stars is the sheer length of the book.
March 26, 2015
This text gives you both the Antiquities, the Jewish War, and the Life. Josephus is an essential read for understanding politics in Palestine from the Maccabean Revolt through the destruction of the Temple. While he doesn't discuss Jesus, most scholars view his paragraph on Christ as a later interpolation, he does give us the social and political context of the world Jesus would have lived in. You will not read the Bible the same way after reading Josephus. You will be a much more informed reader and will be able to critically appraise the gospels.
August 4, 2010
Certain parts of this book were very interesting, especially the Antiquties. It is not easy reading, however. Only those really interested in the historical perspective should plan on investing their time.
October 15, 2017
Tremendous read about Jewish History and some tantalizing anecdotes about early Christianity as well from Josephus!! Very dense and detailed book....for those that love ancient history and in particular Jewish History, this is a must read!
August 14, 2009
Used this as a text for one of my research seminars in college.
April 27, 2022
Well worth a read if you are interested in the subject,
October 16, 2022
Historical accuracy with an enjoyable read. Easily understandable reading.
October 25, 2016
WHEW.
I don't know if I'll ever get all the way through this alternative version of the Old Testament. Handed down to us from a first-century Jewish historian, this here has all my fave biblical tales -- plus a few tantalizing details and minus a few parts that I thought were... yknow, biblical.
For instance:
Moses as a youngster was a BADASS army general and totally destroyed the Ethiopians who were causing an insurgency in south Egypt. While he was down there, he married an Ethiopian princess. Which would later be a sore point for Moses' other wife and baby-mama Zipporah.
And also, Moses has just died (as I'm reading), and there's not been word one about the golden calf! I really really thought the golden calf incident was one of those "make-or-break" moments in the bible. If I was to sit down with someone and spill out what I know about the OT in a sitting, it would definitely make the cut.
It can be tedious, just like the real bible, but what a fascinating read.
I don't know if I'll ever get all the way through this alternative version of the Old Testament. Handed down to us from a first-century Jewish historian, this here has all my fave biblical tales -- plus a few tantalizing details and minus a few parts that I thought were... yknow, biblical.
For instance:
Moses as a youngster was a BADASS army general and totally destroyed the Ethiopians who were causing an insurgency in south Egypt. While he was down there, he married an Ethiopian princess. Which would later be a sore point for Moses' other wife and baby-mama Zipporah.
And also, Moses has just died (as I'm reading), and there's not been word one about the golden calf! I really really thought the golden calf incident was one of those "make-or-break" moments in the bible. If I was to sit down with someone and spill out what I know about the OT in a sitting, it would definitely make the cut.
It can be tedious, just like the real bible, but what a fascinating read.
September 2, 2008
This version tries to remedy a problem that cropped up with students not being able to cross reference Whiston's translation with the Greek texts. As a result, each paragraph has Whiston's numbering system in boldface and throughout the text there are numbers appearing in parentheses, corresponding to the Greek texts' line numbers. Also the numbers are Arabic instead of Roman. Whiston's original footnotes have footnotes themselves from the modern editors. This can, at times, become tedious, but the editors say the Whiston work is a good example of the history of scholarship. I think Josephus' works are fascinating.
December 9, 2013
It would be untrue if I said I read this cover to cover because I didn't. I read a great deal and skimmed a great deal. I have no way of accessing how much is lost in translation and I know that Josephus tended to skew history in his favor. I'm also aware that unscrupulous editors made unnecessary additions. Overall, an interesting read that should be taken with a hefty grain of salt.
For those who care, Josephus identified Vespasian as the predicted Messiah and was at no time ever a Christian, making one edit particularly famous for its oddness and unfortunate acceptance among the less skeptical.
For those who care, Josephus identified Vespasian as the predicted Messiah and was at no time ever a Christian, making one edit particularly famous for its oddness and unfortunate acceptance among the less skeptical.
April 30, 2018
While some commentators caution the readers of this massive work to take some of its history with a few grains of salt, you won't find a more comprehensive and detailed account of this time and place (the first centuries BC and AD, Judaea).
Flavius Josephus records the unimaginable horror, depravity, and sheer carnage of the "Jewish Wars" in excruciating detail. As I read through the first volume, I kept thinking to myself—"This has to be the bottom, it can't get any worse"—but it always did. By the time I finished I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. This was a time when wars were fought with the brutality of mankind on conspicuous and unfettered display.
Flavius Josephus records the unimaginable horror, depravity, and sheer carnage of the "Jewish Wars" in excruciating detail. As I read through the first volume, I kept thinking to myself—"This has to be the bottom, it can't get any worse"—but it always did. By the time I finished I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. This was a time when wars were fought with the brutality of mankind on conspicuous and unfettered display.
January 18, 2013
I read most of the book. I skimmed, then went back and re-read, looked up other sources, then continued. Although a vain man, he was a very important historian because of the amount of information he provides. I read his history with a grain of salt as I would read any; it has a bias - just as the translator obviously does.
It was very hard to start, but once you get used to his style of writing and ignore his self-flattery, you start to learn. I would give his style lower ratings, but I am not analyzing his style, only the content.
It was very hard to start, but once you get used to his style of writing and ignore his self-flattery, you start to learn. I would give his style lower ratings, but I am not analyzing his style, only the content.
August 25, 2019
Antiquities; Wars ; Autobiography; Against Apion. also a treatise on Hades. These books took me several months to finish as I mostly read them at night on the Kindle and I would fall asleep. Kindle projected 60 hours.
.... It took longer. Esteemed as the quintessential historian of the first century, Josephus is cited by virtually every author who had written about the Jews since his time. The translator provides excellent footnotes explaining difficult parts.
.... It took longer. Esteemed as the quintessential historian of the first century, Josephus is cited by virtually every author who had written about the Jews since his time. The translator provides excellent footnotes explaining difficult parts.
March 19, 2008
I first read Josephus in graduate school, finding him fascinating enough to track down in the original Greek (through the Loeb). His complete works are available in translation at very little expense because of his importance to Biblical studies, which causes Biblical-studies presses to keep producing inexpensive editions. Nice!
August 6, 2019
I read through this a couple years ago. I enjoyed Josephus's perspective of the Old Testament works and some of the discourses inside. I also got some insight into the inter-Testimental period, of which I previously knew little. Lastly, I loved his commentaries on faux-historians who attempted to discredit Jewish history. He also adds a bit of his own personality as he does so.
July 6, 2021
An excellent collection. The footnotes stem from the much earlier translation and at times feel completely absurd (i.e., quoting Bible parables to declare an absolute support or refutation Josephus) and our understanding of the texts and life in that era has superseded many of these now-vapid footnotes.
The material and the editors own notes are presented fantastically though.
The material and the editors own notes are presented fantastically though.
March 3, 2013
What a spectacular historical compilation! This book is one of my favorite resources when looking for accurate data on the Holy Roman Empire or Jewish history.
In invaluable resource for any student of history or theology!
In invaluable resource for any student of history or theology!
April 22, 2008
Without Josephus we would know even less of Jewish and Roman hsitory. His was the first Jewish work to be published with the introduction of movable type. Deservedly so. Wow!
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