Flavius Josephus, Ancient Jewish Historian

As we work our way through the Old Testament, we move from events in the ancient Near East well before 1000 BC (Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the judges and eventually the reign of Saul) to events in the fifth century BC (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.) This period covers the development of early alphabets, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. In the sixth century BC the Archaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire) arose and slowly conquered the civilizations in the Fertile Crescent, including the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. By the fifth century BC, the Persian Empire had collided with the Greek city-states to the west. In both Greece and Persia, there were well-developed alphabets, philosophers and their writings. Archaeologists and historians have considerable sources from those times, some of which speak directly to the history of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. On Sundays I will try to look at some of these, including the Elephantine papyri and ancient historians such as Flavius Josephus and Lucian of Samosota. These various sources give us independent information about some of the events in the later histories of the Old Testament.

Today I want to look at Flavius Josephus.

Flavius Josephus

Josephus was a Jewish leader in the first century AD, born in Jerusalem just after the crucifixion of Jesus. At one point (a little after the missionary journeys of Paul) he led an army against the Romans, was defeated, surrendered to the Romans and became an aide to the Roman emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty. Taking the name Flavius, Joseph fully sided with Rome at the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Clearly adept at choosing the winning side, Josephus returned to Rome where he wrote several histories. One of the histories was The Jewish War which covered the conflicts between Jews and Romans from 168 BC through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That work was probably written in Hebrew or Aramaic but quickly translated into Greek, the language of the Roman empire of that day.

Of particular interest to us is Josephus' history of the Jews, The Antiquities of the Jews. 

The Antiquities of the Jews

The Antiquities of the Jews, written in Greek, probably about 95 AD, is an attempt to give a comprehensive history of the Jewish people. It includes many details from the Old Testament histories, from Adam through Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David and so on, with some considerable embellishments. It adds considerable details to the history of the divided kingdom and then goes on to describe the Babylonian exile, the return to Jerusalem afterwards, through the revolt of the Maccabees and eventually into the first century AD.

An online copy of The Antiquities of the Jews is here at Project Gutenberg. It makes for interesting reading. The Antiquities consists of twenty books (volumes.) Here, according to the translation cited above, is a table of contents for those twenty volumes.

1. From Biblical creation to Death of Abraham's son Isaac
2. From History of Isaac's sons to Exodus of Jews from Egypt
3. IFrom Exodus from Egypt to First 2 years of the 40 years in the wilderness
4. From The remaining 38 years in the wilderness to Death of Moses upon reaching Canaan
5. From Joshua's replacement of Moses as leader to Death of the priest Eli
6. From The capture of the Ark by the Philistines to Death of King Saul
7. From David's ascension to the throne of the Kingdom of Israel to Death of King David
8. From Solomon's ascension as King of Israel to The death of King Ahab in battle with the Syrian army, and the saving of the army by Jehoshaphat
9. From Reign of King Jehoshaphat to Fall of Samaria
10. From Babylonian captivity of the Jews to Daniel and the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
11. From Start of the Persian Empire of Cyrus to the Great to Death of Alexander the Great
12. From Death of Alexander the Great to Maccabean Revolt and the death of Judas Maccabeus
13. From Origins of the Hasmonean dynasty to Death of Queen Alexandra
14. From The death of Queen Alexandra to Death of Antigonus II Mattathias
15. From Herod the Great's taking of Jerusalem to Completion of King Herod's temple in Jerusalem
16. From Completion of King Herod's temple to Death of Herod's sons
17. From Death of Herod's sons to Banishment of King Archelaus
18. From The banishment of King Archelaus to Banishment of the Jews living in Babylon
19. From The banishment of the Jews living in Babylon to Fadus the Roman procurators of Judea
20. From The time of Emperor Claudius to Procurator of Judea  to Florus, who antagonized the Jews leading to the Jewish Wars

Book VIII takes us from Solomon to Jehoshaphat; Book IX covers the time from Jehoshaphat to the fall of the northern kingdom. As one can see by the subtitles, Daniel appears in Book X. (That book starts with king Hezekiah.) Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther appear in Book XI. At times Josephus adds to the Old Testament material and it is not clear whether the details provide additional history or are a creative embellishments. At times his details differ slightly from the Masoretic text or the Septuagint. 

Josephus mentions Jesus briefly in paragraph 3 of chapter 3 of Book XVIII. In Book XX, Chapter 9, paragraph 1, is recorded the death of James, the brother of Jesus.

Importance of The Antiquities

The original texts of the Old Testament were probably written in Hebrew or proto-Hebrew on papyrus or vellum scrolls. These scrolls were fragile and deteriorated over time. We have few copies of the Old Testament in Hebrew from before 1000 AD and those are fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls. In our attempts to identify the original writings in Hebrew, we may look at the Septuagint or Peshitta manuscripts since those documents, although not in Hebrew, appear to be translations from the original Hebrew around the time of Jesus and so they give us a clue as to what the ancient Hebrew manuscripts looked like at that time. The works of Josephus have a similar value -- in some cases Josephus seems to be using Old Testament documents as his source. Furthermore, in his history of the divided kingdom, Babylonian exile and Second Temple period, Josephus seems to have access to other documents that has since disappeared. In this way we get an additional perspective on the details of events in the scrolls of Kings or Chronicles or Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther.