Giving up on Josephus

I am giving up on Flavius Josephus. I just have too much difficulty making heads or tails of what all he is up to in his life. I am probably not familiar enough with the history of that time to make sense of it. It may be that I will write about him again in a more general way, but for now, it is just hanging over my head, making me feel guilty for not writing about him, so I am publicly abandoning him.

At the moment, it would be much more useful to me to study ways of keeping cool in the summertime!

Life of Josephus, Part 4

In the next two paragraphs (8 and 9) of The Life of Flavius Josephus, we find that Josephus and his companions have arrived in Galilee. They found the people of the village of Sepphoris miserable because the Galileans were planning to attack them because they (Sepphoris) were friends with the Romans and with Syria. Apparently, Josephus was able to smooth that over, at least for the time being.

Josephus then went to Tiberius and found there three factions in that city. The first was composed of, as Josephus says, "men of worth and gravity." They were led by Julius Capellus. This group wanted to continue in their allegiance to Rome. There was in this group a man named Pistus who disagreed because he was guided by his son Justus, of whom we will hear more in a moment.

The second faction was composed of "the most ignoble persons." They wanted to go to war.

Justus, mentioned above, was leader of the third group. Josephus says that "he pretended to be doubtful about going to war, yet was he really desirous of innovation." Josephus says that Justus expected to gain power for himself if they rebelled. One point that Justus used to stir up the people of Tiberias was that they had been the capital of Galilee, with the royal treasury and the archives, but that now Sepphoris was the capital, having ingratiated itself with Rome.

Apparently, Justus was an educated man and a persuasive speaker. He persuaded some in Tiberius to take up arms and others he forced to. They "set the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos on fire," which were near Tiberias and Scythopolis.

In paragraph 10, we meet John, the son of Levi, in Gischala, a village. John did his best to keep his people from rebelling against Rome, but the neighboring villages of Gadara, Gabara, and Sogana, and the Tyrians combined into an army and destroyed Gischala. John took up arms then and afterward rebuilt Gischala and fortified it.

We'll stop there because the next paragraph is very long and will probably get its own post. This post shows how much of an uproar Galilee was in when Josephus arrived, with opposing factions and jealousies and resentments among the villages. It would appear to me that it was not just a rebellion against Rome, but was, with men like Justus, an excuse to stir things up and perhaps gain power out of the situation.

Some of this is confusing because of all the people named and the villages and regions named. Israel was a small country with small villages all over and some larger towns and cities. It wasn't that far from one end of the country to the other, or from side to side, so it's not difficult to imagine that news traveled fairly quickly. Therefore, I can imagine everyone getting involved in the question of whether or not to rebel.

(Link to Part 3)

Life of Josephus, Part 3

Links to my previous posts about The Life of Flavius Josephus (There are additional links in the posts themselves.) :

"Flavius Josephus and His Works"
"A Bit More on Flavius Josephus" (scroll down--something's too long somewhere and crowds the post below the sidebar!)
"Life of Josephus, Part 1"
"Life of Josephus, Part 2"

A couple of links about Gessius Florus, who came up in "Part 2" and about whom Pop emailed to me a link suggesting Gessius Florus and Josephus might be the same person:

"Florus, Gessius" in the Jewish Encyclopedia
"Gessius Florus"

That last link sounds as if they are not the same person. But who knows?! Nevertheless, I gathered this bit of information on Gessius Florus from a Google search, and I place it here for anyone who is interested.

According to Josephus, this defeat of Gessius Florus resulted in the killing of the Jews in the neighboring cities in Syria, despite no rebellion on the part of the Syrian Jews. In Scythopolis, the Jews that lived there were forced to bear arms against other Jews. The Damascus Jews also went through the same types of things. Josephus writes, "...we have given a more accurate account of these things in the books of the Jewish war. I only mention them now [in The Life of Flavius Josephus], because I would demonstrate to my readers that the Jews' war with the Romans was not voluntary, but that, for the main, they were forced by necessity to enter into it." (This in paragraph 6 of The Life of Josephus Flavius.)

Now, in the little bit I've read so far, there were indeed some Jews eager for a rebellion, but I take it that many did not want to participate for fear of repercussions if they lost. And there were probably those Jews who were content with the way things were, because their lives were going well. Josephus strikes me as one of the latter. I do not know what his true position was--I have heard that he betrayed his fellow Jews, but I have also heard that it only appeared that way and that his writing of all these histories was his way of trying to make up to the Jews any wrongdoing they thought he had done. I am not sure that reading his writing will straighten that out for me, but it is interesting.

I am going through The Life of Josephus Flavius because I thought it might give me some knowledge about this often-quoted man. In addition, I can decide whether I want to continue discussing him through a reading of his other works, or if I want to move on to Eusebius. Or some other project. I do feel bad that I have been so lax about this project.

The next thing to occur after the defeat of Gessius Florus was that Josephus was sent to Galilee with Joazar and Judas ("two others of the priests") because not all of Galilee had revolted and Josephus and his companions were to attempt "to persuade the ill men there to lay down their arms." He's supposed to tell them that it's better to keep the arms for the most courageous men of the nation (Doesn't that sound insulting to the men he'll be telling this to?) and also that the Jews should wait to see what the Romans do. (Paragraph 7)

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Life of Josephus, Part 2

After returning from Rome, where he had helped secure the freedom of some incarcerated priests, Josephus found that many people in Israel were contemplating rebellion against the Romans. He tried to talk them out of it because he could see that they were no match for the Romans, but those enthused about rebellion would not listen to him.

Josephus finally began to fear that if he continued to speak against rebellion, he would be perceived by the other Jews as an enemy, so he withdrew to the inner court of the temple. I take that to mean that he busied himself at the temple so that he could avoid what was going on in the general population of Jerusalem. He eventually became more involved again, though, and was dismayed to see so many of the rebels with weapons. He and those of like mind were frankly afraid to speak too strongly against rebellion for fear of being killed, but they did try to persuade the rebels to lie low and wait a bit. Apparently, they had high hopes that someone named Gessius would come with a large force and put an end to the rebellion. Gessius finally arrived, but was beaten, which just made things worse, as it gave the Jewish people the hope and belief that they could beat the Romans, so they continued their rebellius plans.

I tried to find out something about Gessius from wikipedia. He was a Roman Procurator of Judea 64-66 a.d. He is mentioned in the article, "The Great Jewish Revolt," toward the end of the "Background" paragraph. It isn't a lot of information, but he was a Roman leading Roman forces, so that lets you know that Josephus' hope was that Gessius would defeat the rebels early on, so as to prevent much greater bloodshed and war. It may be, too, that Josephus was quite content with the status quo.

Life of Josephus, Part 1

I am still plodding along with Josephus, though not very quickly. I keep doing other things. In earlier posts, I mentioned that he was Jewish, though not seeming all that religious, and that he had looked into the various sects, at last joining the Pharisees, apparently more for their political power than for any other reason. He studied and was an educated man. Now, this quote shows what happens next:

3. But when I was in the twenty-sixth year of my age, it happened that I took a voyage to Rome, and this on the occasion which I shall now describe. At the time when Felix was procurator of Judea there were certain priests of my acquaintance, and very excellent persons they were, whom on a small and trifling occasion he had put into bonds, and sent to Rome to plead their cause before Caesar. These I was desirous to procure deliverance for, and that especially because I was informed that they were not unmindful of piety towards God, even under their afflictions, but supported themselves with figs and nuts. Accordingly I came to Rome, though it were through a great number of hazards by sea; for as our ship was drowned in the Adriatic Sea, we that were in it, being about six hundred in number, swam for our lives all the night; when, upon the first appearance of the day, and upon our sight of a ship of Cyrene, I and some others, eighty in all, by God's providence, prevented the rest, and were taken up into the other ship. And when I had thus escaped, and was come to Dieearchia, which the Italians call Puteoli, I became acquainted with Aliturius, an actor of plays, and much beloved by Nero, but a Jew by birth; and through his interest became known to Poppea, Caesar's wife, and took care, as soon as possible, to entreat her to procure that the priests might be set at liberty. And when, besides this favor, I had obtained many presents from Poppea, I returned home again.

So at a young age, he appears to be developing some influence. He is active in the politics and current events of his time, which makes him a reasonably knowledgable historian.

Rather than start right in on his Antiquities of the Jews, I wanted to read his Life and so learn a bit about him directly.

A Bit More on Flavius Josephus

From the Catholic Enclyclopedia at New Advent, the entry on Josephus, Flavius:

Jewish historian, born A.D. 37, at Jerusalem; died about 101. He belonged to a distinguished priestly family, whose paternal ancestors he himself traces back five generations; his mother's family claimed descent from the Machabeans. He received a good education, and association with distinguished scholars developed his intellectual gifts, more especially his memory and power of judgment. He also made himself fully acquainted with and tried the leading politico-religious Jewish parties of his age -- the Essenes, Pharisees, and Sadducees.

Impressed by the outward importance of the Pharisees and hoping to secure through them a position of influence, he attached himself to their party at the age of nineteen, although he shared neither their religious nor political views.

I have been trying to get a handle on Josephus. It would help if I had more time to spend reading his works and his life. I get an impression from the above that he was not deeply religious, but rather looked at what would provide the best situation in life for him. Would this make his history less biased and more reliable, do you think? (Of course, now that I think of it, "less biased" toward what?!) Have any of you formed an idea as to whether his history is considered a good source to depend upon?

I have been all over the map with my reading, but find that more and more I am interested in non-fiction, particularly history and religion. Since I am new to Josephus, I will probably ask ignorant questions, but how else can I shed my ignorance?

Edited to add: I did a search at lds.org and found that Josephus has been occasionally quoted throughout the years and the quotes are always treated as a very reliable history. It's been several years since the last quote I could find, though, so what I am asking is have there been any recent findings that seem to question the authenticity of Josephus, or that find him authentic, but of questionable reliability? I am continuing to look around on the internet, but if any of you have studied Josephus, I thought you might give me a hint or two. Thanks!

Flavius Josephus and His Works

When I bought my copy of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, I also found a sale copy of Josephus: The Complete Works translated by William Whiston, A.M. You can find Josephus' writings online here (scroll down) or here. But you know how I am about having a physical book in my hands!

Josephus writes the history of the Jewish people. It is a widely quoted document written by a man who lived in the first century A.D. As such, it is an important view of the Jewish people and of early Christianity. He draws on his own experiences as well as the work of other historians and provides some important background and also independent confirmation of some Biblical people and events.

Reading this book will, like the Eusebius book, be a long term project, during which time I will also do other reading and writing. What I wish to gain from reading these books is more understanding of the scriptures by learning some history and background information. I also want to gain insight into the people of those times. History always fascinates me and my opinion is that you can't read too much of it.

I would like to share bits and pieces of these readings in my blog, but will continue writing on a variety of topics as well.