a more complex situation, in which different factions of the Jewish elite were battling over more mundane issues of money and power for them-selves. Josephus: The Historian and His Society. Meanwhile, the Egyptians, who were themselves looked down upon by their Hellenistic overlords, had a particular dislike for the Jews, perhaps due to what they saw as their favored treatment by the Greeks. . When Titus died, Josephus remained loyal to his successor, another Flavian emperor named Domitian (ruled 81–96). There may have been a portent that gave them hope. Book 6 opens with the final chapter of the battle for Jerusalem. Josephus appears to have used earlier no-longer-available sources, particularly the work of Nicolas of Damascus, whose history of Herod was probably largely financed by Herod himself and naturally biased in his favor. The fighting became so bad that stray projectiles between the warring parties would fall inside the Temple precincts, killing innocent worshippers. Throughout his other works Josephus cites many Greek historians, and although they go unmentioned in The Jewish War, he might well have drawn on them for this work too. H. St. J. Thackeray. He claims that they were the most accurate interpreters of Scripture, were politically wellrespected, and on the whole were opposed to the war. . Encyclopedia.com. For example, he describes his surrender to the Ro-mans at Jotapata in some detail. After appointing a series of governors, Rome reappointed a king in Judaea, Agrippa I (ruled 41–44 ce). Having achieved control of Galilee, the coastal region and the Jordan valley, Vespasian could have attacked Jerusalem from three sides. The Roman army started slowly to capture and destroy Jerusalem’s fortifications. There were two other parties in the city: the Sadducee Temple authorities and the Zealots of Eleazar son of Simon. (according to Josephus,…, GREECE (Heb. Even the Romans were impressed: “Here encountering the mass of slain, instead of exulting as over enemies, they admired the nobility of their resolve and the contempt of death displayed by so many in carrying it, unwavering, into execution” (War, 7.406). Attridge, H. W. “Josephus and His Works.” In Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period. After Herod died in 4 bce, things very quickly began going downhill. There was a prophecy in the book of Numbers (24.17) that "a star shall come forth out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel", which was commonly taken to be a prediction of the Messiah. Since 312 BCE, under Seleucos I Nicator, Greek culture flourised. Judah found itself on a slip of land between two of them, Seleucus (in the north, around the area of modern-day Syria) and Ptolemey (in modern-day Egypt). “The Jewish War”, written in 78CE, offers a detailed account of a turbulent and calamitous period in Jewish history. Also they installed themselves as high priests in the Jewish faith, establishing both the Hasmonean dynasty and an independent Jewish state, or one at least as independent as any small vassal state could be. They often encouraged the establishment of a peculiarly Greek institution, the polis, a city-state that had its own constitution and administrative structures. A distinctly Hellenistic artistic style, dramatic forms, and philosophical schools sprang up in different regions. Philadelphia: Van Gorcum and Fortress, 1984. If Roman incompetencies lit the tinderbox, though, they did not create it. He demanded their punishment, but when his policemen could not find the mockers, he had some passersby arrested and crucified. Nor did the Romans fin… The defeat of the Jews and their humiliation were commemorated publicly with an engraving on the Arch of Titus and on Roman coins. Its fortifications were strong; its stores, fully stocked. They also would integrate Per-sian ideas into their literature. Originally a regional commander in the rebellious jewish army, Josephus wrote his history after his capture by the Romans and defection to their side (he became a Roman citizen and a courtier … One of the latter was John of Gischala, who controlled the Galilean countryside, which was the province assigned to Joseph son of Matthias. The Persian Empire collapsed suddenly when Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king whose military conquests from North Africa to the Asian steppes would result in the unprecedented spread of Greek culture, stormed through the Near East in 332 bce. They fancied the impetuosity of these men to be irresistible and their cheerfulness to be invincible” (War, 6.13–14). Ed. Loeb Classical Library. Josephus suggests that since the time of Herod’s death more than 60 years earlier, several competing Jewish nationalist factions had arisen. As the war got underway, Romans began allowing or participating in the slaughter of Jews in major population centers throughout the Near East. Even though the high priest Ananias and the Jewish prince Marcus Julius Agrippa tried to pour oil on the troubled waters, they were no longer in control of the situation. Feldman, Louis H. Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible. Herod Antipas man-aged to hold on to his share, in Galilee, from 4 bce to 39 ce. Josephus’s true motives in writing his history remain tantalizingly obscure. When only Josephus and one other leader were left, he says, “anxious neither to be condemned by the lot [killed first] nor, should he be left to the last, to stain his hand with the blood of a fellow countryman, he persuaded this man also, under a pledge, to remain alive” (War, 3.391). seemed to indicate that the time for the great war of liberation had come? Meanwhile, John of Gischala continued the struggle in the Golan heights, on Mount Tabor and from his hometown Gischala. Josephus concludes with a brief epilogue in which he asserts the truthfulness of his narrative. Another group, adherents of the so-called “Fourth Philosophy,” preached that the Jews should have no king but God. which must have made a discontent populace even more discontent. By the end of September, 30, 70, the entire city lay in ruins. In any event, the reigning Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, took unkindly to this civil war and initiated a short-lived religious persecution of the Jews in Judaea—an unparalleled act in antiquity that continues to puzzle modern historians. Jewish communities throughout the Near East wrote histories, philosophies, poetry, and dramas in Greek, all in Hellenistic form. second temple period (to 330 c.e.) T… Although the earliest known Jews on the Greek mainland are to…, The term Judaism is used to refer both to a religion and to a nation of people with close cultural ties. This Menahem was the son or the grandson of Judas the Galilean, who had led an anti-Roman revolt in 6 CE; two of his relatives had been crucified after a similar disturbance. Whether and in what way Jews prior to the Middle Ages might have “thought historically” is an interesting and still unresolved question, but they clearly rejected the type of writing demonstrated by Josephus. Josephus. The first two books cover the period from the Maccabees to the early stages of the revolt. The first nine chapters of this book disprove the "causes" given from time to time by politicians and others for our being in a War which even the ignorant mob had sensed and labelled "phoney." In 62, for example, “at the feast which is called Pentecost [Shavuot], the priests on entering the inner court of the temple by night, as their custom was in the discharge of their ministrations, reported that they were conscious, first of a commotion and a din, and after that of a voice as of a host—‘We are departing hence’” (War, 6.299–300). The Jewish people rose up against mighty Rome in 66 A.D.; and for seven improbable years, against all odds, they defied the seemingly invincible legions of the Roman Empire. In November, however, the army was forced to return; on his way back, he was defeated by one of the leaders of the Zealots, Eleazar son of Simon. World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historic Events That Influenced Them. It was reinforced with units of III Gallica, IIII Scythica, and VI Ferrata, plus auxiliaries and foreign allies. But the war was not quite over. Jewish practices—the Jewish observance of the Sab-bath and of their own holidays rather than the city’s festal calendar, their circumcision, their avoidance of pork and meats that had been sacrificed to the protecting gods of the polis, and their tendency to marry only other Jews—all irritated many of the non-Jews. But compared to the next procurator, Florus, Albinus appeared “by comparison a paragon of virtue” (War, 2.277). The man who had predicted it, Joseph son of Matthias, was released and received Roman citizenship and a new name Flavius Josephus. Vespasian now expelled John of Gischala from a town named Gadara, and after this first success, he marched on Jotapata, which was defended by Joseph son of Matthias. The renewal of the revolt under the false Messiah, Bar-Cocheba, led only to a still more complete destruction of Jerusalem and devastation of Palestine by the army of Hadrian (132-135). It turned into an anti-taxation protest against Rome. Jewish historiographer and cultural apologist whose main works, The Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, are of gre…, ALEXANDRIA , city in northern *Egypt. Josephus’s complex agenda muddies our ability to sort fact from fiction in his narratives. The surviving rebels, facing certain death at the hands of the Romans, made a suicide pact, slaughtering each other and themselves. The Jewish War present facts accurately and without bias. Did he want to clear himself of wrongdoing in the eyes of fellow Jews? Jewish War : Vol. Despite these humiliations, Josephus stands tall as a protector of the reputation of the Jews. There is a well-known saying: “Truth is the first casualty in war.” Ever since the Arabs of the region first attacked the idea of a return to Jewish sovereignty, the truth of Jewish … G.A. Translated by William Whiston. This page was created in 1998; last modified on 10 October 2020. Meanwhile, the Greek inhabitants of the capital of Judaea, Caesarea, attacked their Jewish neighbors; the Jews replied in kind, expelling many Greeks from Judaea, Galilee and the Golan heights. Rabbinic Judaism began its development and rise at this time, offering alternatives to the sacrificial worship of God that had previously been confined to the Temple, although it would be many centuries before the Jews would accept the vision of the Rabbis. The Rise and Fall of Archelaus 7. For all of his complex motives, his defensiveness, and his biases, Josephus is our only even semi-reliable source for the Jewish War. The Temple authorities elected generals and ordered them to take charge of the countryside. Josephus wrote as a Greek historian. Quite the contrary—like Philo, he was War had become inevitable. If the Jews by and large embraced Hellenistic culture, there was less ready acceptance in the other direction. Was he patterning the story of Masada on his own experience? The deepest cause of the war was the impoverishment of … It began in 66 AD in Caesarea, where there was religious tension between the Greek and Jewish population. Of its style my readers must be left to judge; but, as concerning truth, I would not hesitate boldly to assert that, throughout the entire narrative, this has been my single aim” (War, 7.454–455). The Roman-Jewish historian begins with the Hasmonaean Dynasty and the historic struggle between the Greeks and Jews, Josephus, himself, a descendent of the Hasmonaean lineage. Herod’s kingdom was divided among his children. The term comes from Hellenes, another name for Greeks. They tried to erect a statue of the Roman emperor in the vicinity of the Jerusalem Temple, and later looked the other way when Gentiles rioted against Jews in Caesarea, which was the capital of Palestine at the time. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Ruled by the Ptolemies during this period, Judah, now re-named Judaea, shifted hands in 200 bce, when the Seleucid leader Antiochus solidified his control of the area. From early on, though, Christians such as Eusebius adapted modes of Greek historiography, constructing accounts of their own story historically. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Titus returned to Judaea, where his father decided to postpone the war against the Jews and to intervene in the civil war. [CDATA[ Most Hellenistic cities accepted and respected the Jews as a people with a venerable past. There is some scholarly debate about whether his sympathy for the Pharisees increased in his later writings, but some indication of his allegiance can already be found in The Jewish War . In September 66, the Romans in Jerusalem surrendered and were lynched. The group of Menahem was called Sicarians ("dagger men"). The enormous corpus of rabbinic literature produced between 70 and 640 ce pays absolutely no attention to him or to his style of historiography, and no Jewish community preserved his corpus long enough to leave even fragments in their collection of works. The Jewish War was his first such work. God was planning to punish His people for their sins. Trans. In August 66, a man named Menahem made a raid on the fortress of Masada, where he seized lots of weapons. Schwartz, Seth. At several points he suggests that things could have ended differently had only cooler voices prevailed over the murderous din of the Jewish zealots. Convinced that Romans would destroy his kingdom, the king of Gamala sent a contingent of cavalry in Judea which … The incident with the collection plate set fire to the powder. Josephus begins his history of the Jewish War by going back to Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes (215 BC-164 BC). To this end, he made one, in his eyes assuredly insignificant, decision at this time. Josippon was an anonymous Hebrew tract from the tenth century that told a history of the Second Temple period. Written in the 70s, the work was originally com-posed in Aramaic (or possibly Hebrew) for the Jews who lived in the east, under Persian rule. Beginning with Herod’s reign, the records become largely dependent upon Josephus himself for the historical account. The obvious reason why this incident led to war, was the religious tension between the Jewish populace and the Roman government. Of course this was tactless and brutal, but it it would not have led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple if there had not been one or two deeper causes. This War was Jewish and has never had any other object than the salvation of the Jews from Hitler. THE JEWISH WAR OF SURVIVAL by ARNOLD LEESE-- 1945 --Preface[Or perhaps: How Britain and America Saved the Devil (WRF)]I stood, as Mr. Richard Stokes, M. P., stood, for a negotiated peace, but, possibly, on vastly different grounds. Now a Roman court historian, he explains the reasons for the revolt and provides a detailed narrative of the fighting. However, after the Hasmonean dynasty, this Hellenisation became more than that of Greek culture and the cosmopolitan way of llife. Josephus accuses Florus of legalizing brigandage (as long. The Temple was looted and burned on August 30, 70. The Rabbis are completely uninterested in history as such, and their historical narratives are short, incidental, and almost always serve a moral purpose. The latter were the most influential: they occupied the Temple, removed the high priest from the scene and replaced him by a strawman named Phannias. Josephus’s life is known to history primarily from his own account. The new king had the high priest Ananias executed, but when he went to the Temple, he was lynched by the adherents of Ananias' son. We possess fragments of several earlier Jewish histories written in Greek, but none comes as close as Josephus to resembling contemporary Greek historical writings. Alexander and his successors might best be seen as “philo-Hellenes,” Macedonians who laid claim to the heritage of Greece by enthusiastic appropriation of things that they saw or styled as “Greek.” They used the Greek language in their official dealings and documents, and promoted Greek cultural productions. Europe. The Jewish War is Josephus’s superbly evocative account of the Jewish revolt against Rome, which was crushed in 70 CE with the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. John of Gischala, however, managed to escape to Jerusalem, where he assumed leadership of the faction most supportive of the war. The survival of Josephus’s writings is a historical accident. Therefore, it’s best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publication’s requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. "The Jewish War Following their standard practice, they deported the Israelite elite to Babylonia, in the east. However, the Roman governors and the Temple authorities had found practical solutions to deal with these problems. Moderate rabbis like Yohanan ben Zakkai may still have counseled peace, making a distinction between obligatory and optional war, but they were a minority. Events in History at the Time of the Narrative, Events in History at the Time the Narrative Was Written. How ‘the Sylvester’ on December 31 became one of the favorite holidays for some Israelis and why so many other Israelis hate it with a passion. With the Temple in ruins, the nobility shattered, and the priesthood adrift, who would serve as the political and religious leaders of the people? He prob-ably never managed to retake Jerusalem, but he kept a significant number of Roman forces tied down in Judaea for three years as they attempted to flush the insurgents out of their elaborate cave bunkers in the Judaean desert. Did he want to encourage peaceful coexistence under Roman rule? Imprisoned by the Romans, he prophesied to the Roman general Vespasian that Vespasian would soon become emperor. The Sadducees (who spoke for a conservative, sacerdotal aristocracy) were still talking in terms of … Antiochus was king of the Seleucid Empire G.A. But Jewish independence in Judaea actually ended 26 years earlier, with Pompey’s arrival in Jerusalem in 63 bce. They also seemed to almost deliberately provoke the Jews. The Ro-mans followed their military victory over the Jews with a campaign of humiliation. Some scholars have argued that behind Josephus’s narratives is a subtle political argument. The book of Ecclesiastes, a part of the Hebrew Bible written around 200 bce, is clearly familiar with Hellenistic norms and philosophical notions. Josephus wrote The Jewish War while under imperial patronage in Rome in the late 70s. However, the Roman governors and the Temple authorities had found practical solutions to deal with these problems. Edinburgh: Clark, 1973–1987. Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. More significantly, however, the term refers to the changing cultural world that Alexander brought to the Near East. Rome had nevertheless pacified Galilee by October of 67, taking Josephus captive in the process. The Jewish war The zealot rebellion against Rome (66 to 73 AD) The Jewish war (or Great revolt) in the roman province of Judea, was the consequence of roman oppression leaded by Gessius Florus (governor of Judea) against Jews of Galilea & Judea. "The Jewish War The major works of Josephus (c. 37-after 97 CE) are History of the Jewish War, from 170 BCE to his own time, and Jewish Antiquities, from creation to 66 CE. Indeed, it might be said that Josephus did for Jewish historiography in Greek what Philo did for Jewish philosophical writings; both seem fully at home in their chosen genre. Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome: His Life, His Works and Their Importance. Roman rule over Judea began in 63 bc, after a centuries-long struggle over the blending of Greek culture and Jewish tradition exploded into civil war. The Jewish War - Josephus Foreword to This Edition Introduction Josephus' Life Josephus' Works Josephus as a Historian THE JEWISH WAR Preface 1. In November 67, John had abandoned his guerilla war and gone to Jerusalem, where he became an important leader, behaving himself as a king. Get email notification for articles from Elon Gilad Follow. Some optimism was permitted. Williamson was born in 1895 and was a Classical Exhibitioner at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a First Class Honours degree. Vespasian appointed his son Titus as one of his lieutenants; his younger son Domitian was kept in honorable detention at the imperial court - to make sure that his father would not rebel. The First Jewish–Roman War was the first and biggest of the Jewish–Roman wars in the Judaea province. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). When does the story of the “Great Revolt” of the Jews against Rome properly begin? Josephus claims to have written The Jewish War in response to the wide circulation of incorrect histories. While the Persian authorities more or less allowed the Jews to manage their own religious institutions and affairs, the Persians kept firm control on the administrative, political, and judicial institutions of the satrapy. At the end of 64, there had been a comet,note[Tacitus, Annals 15.47.] 3, Bks. יָוָן, Yavan), country in S.E. Josephus begins The Jewish War with the rise of the Hasmonean kingdom in the 160s bce. In Josephus’s account, the procurators—there was a rapid turnover of them—could not have been worse. The Roman general Pompey intervened and attacked Jerusalem in 66 bc. Nor did the Romans find his work compelling enough to adopt it into some kind of canon that would survive to posterity. Helped by a weakening of Seleucid power, the result of Antiochus’s misjudgments and of shifting allegiances in his realm, the Maccabees won. They hailed their leader as king of the Jews and went to Jerusalem, where they laid siege to the remaining Roman garrison. For Josephus, as he makes clear in book 2, Roman insensitivity and incompetence were the immediate causes of the Jewish revolt. Early Christians preserved his writing for reasons, as we shall see below, little related to their historical value or usefulness. Ancient Period Michael E. Stone. At this point, Josephus exhorted the Jews of Jerusalem to surrender, using arguments very much like Agrippa’s arguments of four years earlier. He died in 1982. Of course this was tactless and brutal, but it it would not have led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple if there had not been one or two deeper causes. In 66 ce, the Jews revolted. He confirmed a supporter of his, a minor Jewish (some say half-Jewish) noble, as a subordinate king of Judaea. Jewish life in Judaea remained unsettled. Throughout history Jews have often been seen…, The Jewish Theological Seminary: Tabular Data, The Jewish Theological Seminary: Narrative Description, The Jewish Theological Seminary: Distance Learning Programs, The Jew's Beech (Die Judenbuche) by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, 1842, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Johns Hopkins University: Distance Learning Programs, The Johns Hopkins University: Narrative Description, The Johns Hopkins University: Tabular Data, https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/jewish-war, Establishment of Second Temple in Jerusalem; formation of Persian province of Yehud/Judah, Alexander conquers the Near East (dies 323 bce), Struggle between Ptolemies and Seleucids over Palestine, the region that contained Judaea (which had been renamed from judah), Antbchus III (Seleucld) gains control of Judaea, Maccabean revolt; beginning of the Hasmonean dynasty, End of Hasmonean dynasty; beginning of Herod the Great’s reign, Octavian defeats Marc Antony; takes title of Augustus, Death of Herod the Great arid the division of Palestine among his sons, Outbreak of Jewish Revolt; Josephus in Galilee, Vespasian returns to Rome; his son Titus takes charge of the siege. Were the Rabbis really competing at this time for authority, and if so, who were their competitors? In fact, few Jews appear to have taken advantage of this opportunity. He sends Titus to finish the war. Just as Josephus presented himself as earlier trying to effect a peaceful resolution to the war before the outbreak of hostilities, he here again portrays himself working to promote cooperation between the Roman rulers and their Jewish subjects. According to his account, he and the other rebel leaders hid in a cave and entered into a suicide pact, in which they would kill each other instead of falling into Roman hands. World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historic Events That Influenced Them. Josephus’s account of the war, especially his descriptions of God’s abandonment of the Jews and the destruction of the Temple, also fit well with early Christian theological assertions that God had abandoned the Jews and now favored the Christians. With Jerusalem wracked by sectarian conflict (an explanation, incidentally, often used by Greek historians to account for the downfall of a polis), the Roman commander Vespasian marched on Judaea in 68. The Flourishing of Jewish Sects in the Maccabean Era: An Interpretation. It is often called The Great Revolt.It happened from 66–70 AD, and ended with the Empire winning. It appears that a group of Jews wanted to transform Jerusalem into a polis. Most scholars today, though, see Jews oddly rehabilitated the image of Josephus in the Middle Ages. Cohen, Shaye J. D. Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian. He also translated Josephus: The Jewish War (1959) and Procopius: The Secret History (1966) for the Penguin Classics. The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ. He was also an excellent military leader. His occasional digressions on Jewish religious life in Roman Palestine, his comments on Jewish communities outside Judaea, and his observations about Roman history are all irreplaceably enlightening. Palestine had long been Hellenised. As understood by the au-thor of 2 Maccabees, the war was really about Hellenism, which was locked in mortal combat with Judaism. And spread it did. Josephus reports 97,000 prisoners and 1.1 million casualties of the war. After a bitter struggle, the Romans took the city; its commander was taken prisoner and saved his life by applying the messianic prophecy to Vespasian and predicting him imperial rule (1 July; go here and here for the full story). Josephus andjudean Politics. Josephus’s description of the revolt itself begins toward the end of book 2. The Hasmoneans managed both to expand their landholdings and to play the political “game” of promoting their own people’s interests successfully enough to stay in power. Also by him are an autobiographical Life and a treatise Against Apion. To the extent that Josephus was known to the Jews, it was through Josippon, which at times was thought to have been written by Josephus himself. The diplomacy in all these explanations is self-evident. He is almost our only, and certainly our best, source on the religious sects of Judaism in the Second Temple period. Whatever happened, it did not succeed in healing the wounds of the war. This somehow resulted in a civil war. By blaming the Jewish revolt on the incompetence of some prior Roman rulers (not, of course, Vespasian and Titus) and on a small group of selfish Jewish fanatics, he tries to free the Judaean Jews of blame for the revolt. 13 Jan. 2021 . Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. But the procurators were not only thieves. In 132 revolt broke out again, this time from the Judaean desert. At the same time, Nero appointed a new commander: Titus Flavius Vespasianus, also known as Vespasian. These factions, loosely tied to religious ideologies, promoted Jewish independence from Rome. One might suppose that he therefore wrote his own account to set the record straight. Book 7 describes the mop-up operations and ties up other loose ends as well. Even by the time it was rebuilt, the importance of the Temple in Jerusalem had already been well entrenched in Jewish sacred writings.