Nadene Goldfoot
Josephus was a Palestinian Jew born in about the year 100 CE who wrote of the History of the Jews of the 1st century BCE and CE and of the War of 66 to 70 when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed because he was there. He wrote for the Romans and the Jews in Aramaic and in Latin, evidently. He even wrote his own biography.
You might even say that he was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple of Solomon that was the aftermath of The Great Revolt of 66 to 70 CE
I don't think that any of us have ever understood the horrors that came out of the Great Revolt against the Romans. It's never been depicted by cinema of the likes of it or the part that Josephus played as the leader of the revolt. He had the credentials but was weak, soft, not a killer like the Romans were.
The Romans had been occupying Judea since 63 BCE. Tensions within the occupied Jewish community fomented due to the Roman collection of punitive taxes and religious persecution.
This included the Emperor Caligula’s demand in 39 CE that his own statue be placed in every temple of the Empire. Furthermore, the Empire assumed the role of appointing the High Priest of the Jewish religion.
In the fall of AD 66 the Jews combined in revolt, expelled the Romans from Jerusalem, and overwhelmed in the pass of Beth-Horon a Roman punitive force under Gallus, the imperial legate in Syria. A revolutionary government was then set up and extended its influence throughout the whole country. Vespasian was dispatched by the Roman emperor Nero to crush the rebellion. He was joined by Titus, his son, and together the Roman armies entered Galilee, where the historian Josephus headed the Jewish forces. Josephus’ army was confronted by that of Vespasian and fled. After the fall of the fortress of Jatapata, Josephus gave himself up, and the Roman forces swept the country. On the 9th of the month of Av (August 29) in AD 70, Jerusalem fell; the Temple was burned, and the Jewish state collapsed, although the fortress of Masada was not conquered by the Roman general Flavius Silva until April 73.
He was Josephus, better known to his family as Yoseph ben Mattityahu ha-Cohen bc: 38 to 100 CE. He was a politician, soldier and historian. He came from a priestly family of Cohens. His education was a fair and general one and in the year 64, went to Rome on a semi-public mission, so he must have been able to speak Latin. He was being held by the Romans and only alive because he was writing history for them, so his writing must always be read knowing this, slanted to please the Romans.
When the Jews of Palestine revolted in 66 and temporarily regained their independence in 66, he was regarded as an expert in political affairs and was sent as representative of the Revolutionary government to Galilee where he assumed the supreme military command. He was like the head General. He quarreled violently with the patriotic extremists who accused him of temporizing tendencies.
Then the Romans attacked Galilee in 67, and he directed the resistance and was besieged in Jotapata, but on the capture of the city and facing death, went over to the Romans. From then on he called himself Flavius, the family name of Vespasian. In a way, he was now owned by Vespasian.
The siege of Yodfat (Hebrew: יוֹדְפַת, also Jotapata, Iotapata, Yodefat) was a 47-day siege by Roman forces of the Jewish town of Yodfat which took place in 67 CE, during the Great Revolt. Led by Roman General Vespasian and his son Titus, both future emperors, the siege ended with the sacking of the town, the deaths of most of its inhabitants and the enslavement of the rest. It was the second bloodiest battle of the revolt, surpassed only by the Siege of Jerusalem, and the longest except for Jerusalem and Masada. The siege was chronicled by Josephus, who had personally commanded the Jewish forces at Yodfat and was subsequently captured by the Romans.
He went with Vespasian and his son, Titus during the siege of Jerusalem and tried to persuade the Jews to abandon their resistance. One wonders if he wasn't really a hostage at this point. He must have been privy to their plans and knew how futile their resistance would be, ending with defeat and the death of most.
After the crushing of the revolt, he was given some confiscated estates in Judea, but from then on, lived in Rome. How could he have emotionally lived in his dead friend's homes? He couldn't.
He has been the only writer of this period. the only authority is his own writings in which he tried to show his integrity as a patriotic leader and his devotion to the Roman cause at the same time.
He wrote:
1. The Jewish War (towards the end of Vespasian's reign, and based probably on a previous work written by Josephus in Aramaic).
2. The Antiquities of the Jews (giving the history of the Jews from the beginning to the outbreak of the War with Rome written in 93)
3. Autobiography (defending himself against the allegations of a rival historian, Justus of Tiberias, that he had been responsible for the Jewish War, the account of his part in the events of 66-70 given in this differs in many respects from that in the first-named work.
Justus of Tiberias (Tiberias, ca. 35 AD - Galilee, ca 100 AD) was a Jewish author and historian living in the second half of the 1st century AD. Little is known about his life, except as told by his political and literary enemy Flavius Josephus. Justus, the son of Pistus, was born in Tiberias, a highly Hellenistic Galilean city and was a man of learning. He was close to the Tetrarch Herod Agrippa II and became a leading citizen of his hometown.
During the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73), Justus ran into conflict with Josephus, a Jewish leader in Galilee. When the Romans had reconquered Galilee, Justus sought sanctuary with the Tetrach Agrippa. Vespasian, who led the Roman troops, demanded that Justus be put to death, but Agrippa spared him and merely imprisoned him. The tetrarch even appointed Justus as his secretary, but later dismissed him as unreliable.
Justus wrote a history of the war in which he blamed Josephus for the troubles of Galilee. He also portrayed his former master, Agrippa, in an unfavourable light, but did not publish the work until after Agrippa's death. Justus also wrote a chronicle of the Jewish people from Moses to Agrippa II. Both his works survive only in fragments.
4.Against Apion (Defending the Jewish people against the accusations of the Alexandrian Sophist, Apion. A sophist can be a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece associated in popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning; and a person who reasons with clever but fallacious(based on a mistaken belief) arguments. Apion was Greek grammarian and sophist of Alexandria, noted for his bitter hatred of the Jews; born in the Great Oasis of Egypt between 20 and 30
In his bio, Josephus is adamant about is priestly heritage and seems very proud of being a Cohen. He said he's not only from a sacerdotal (priestly) family but from the 1st of the 24 courses- tribes) of Cohens. Today we have identified Cohens by their DNA which turns out to be identified as the J1 haplotype, possibly also J2. He said he was of the chief family of the 1st course (tribe).
By his mother he is of royal blood for the children of Asmoneus,(ASMONEUS, or Asamonaeus (so Josephus), great-grandfather of Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus of our Chanukah story. . Nothing more is known of him, and the name is only) from whom that family came from, had both the office of the high priesthood (Aaron) and the dignity of a king for a long time together. So he must have Aaron, Moses's brother and one of the kings of Judah in his heritage.
Genealogy
His great grandfather =Simeon Psellus. He lived at the same time as the son of Simeon, the high priest. He must have been referring to Simeon the Righteous or Simeon the Just who was a Jewish High Priest during the Second Temple period. He is also referred to in the Mishnah, where he is described as one of the last members of the Great Assembly.((310–291) or (300–273) BCE),
Simon's ancestors were contemporary to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Seleucid dynasty over Judea. He was a wealthy man who served as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon belonged to the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, the first of the twenty-four orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon lived when the Hasmonean rulers Simon Thassi (reigned 142–135 BC) and his son John Hyrcanus I (reigned 134–104 BC) ruled over Judea.
Simon had nine children; among them was his son Matthias Ephlias. Through his son, Simon was an ancestor of the Roman Jewish Historian of the 1st century, Flavius Josephus. Josephus in his writings calls Simon the Patriarch of his family.
Josephus said: "The 1st of all high priests was Hyrcanus."
John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean leader and Jewish high priest of the 2nd century BCE. In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as Yoḥanan Cohen Gadol, "John the High Priest".
Simeon Psellus had 9 sons. One was Matthius, called Ephlias. He married the daughter of Jonathan, the high priest.
Jonathan was the 1st of the sons of Asmoneus, who was high priest and was the brother of Simon, also a high priest.
Matthius had a son, Matthius Curtus.
In the 1st year of the government of of Hyrcanus, his son's name was Joseph born in the 9th year of the reign of Alexandra. Who Alexandra is, I do not know. This is in the feminine form.
His son, Matthias, was born in the 10th year of the reign of Archelaus.
Josephus said he was born to Matthias in the 1st year of reign of Caius Caesar. Gaius Caesar (/ˈsiːzər/; 20 BC – 21 February 4 AD) was the grandson and heir to the throne of Roman emperor Augustus, alongside his younger brother Lucius ...Had the C turned into a G by our time? Gaius Julius Caesar (20 BCE – 21 February 4 CE), most usually known as Gaius Caesar or Caius Caesar, was the most established child of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder.
Josephus's children were:
1. Hyrcanus-born in the 4th year of the reign of Vespasian
2. Justus-born in the 7th year of the reign of Vespasian
3. Agrippa-born in the 9th year of the reign of Vespasian.
Josephus had found his genealogy in the public records.
He was very proud of his father, Matthias. eminent because of his nobility, but also had a higher commendation on account of his righteousness so had a great reputation in Jerusalem.
Josephus was brought up with his full brother, Matthias, both having the same mother and father. Josephus discovered he had both a great memory and a great understanding . When 14 years old, he was commended for his love of learning, and the high priests and important men of Jerusalem came to him for his opinion on the points of law.
When he was 16, he evidently held a trial about the several sects; the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essens, as he wanted to choose the best, but even at that, couldn't decide, so that made life harder on him having the 3 opinions all the time.
One of the 3, Banus, lived in the desert. He lived on what he could find in the desert including his clothing. He bathed frequently in cold water to preserve his chastity. Josephus lived with him for 3 years doing the same things. He returned to Jerusalem when 19 years old and started following in the steps of the Pharisees, who are similar to the sect of the Greek Stoics.
When he was 26 years old, he took a voyage to Rome. It was a dangerous voyage with 600 on board. They were in the Adriatic Sea and it sunk, so they all had to swim for all night. Then about 80 of them including Josephus, saw a ship of Cyrene at daybreak. They arrived at Dicearchia, which the Italians called Puteoli. There he met the actor, Aliturius, who Nero loved. Aliturius was Jewish by birth. Poppea, Caaesar's wife, heard about Aliturius and the plays he acted in. Josephus asked Poppea to speak for the priests held in bondage to free them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
At this time, Felix was procurator of Judea. He met priests sent there who were in bonds (bondage?) , and were to plead their case before Caesar. They were good people, and were eating only figs and nuts. "Antonius Felix (possibly Tiberius Claudius Antonius Felix, in Greek: ὁ Φῆλιξ; born circa 5–10) was the 4th Roman procurator of Judea Province in 52–60, in succession to Ventidius Cumanus."
Josephus returned and saw that revolt plans were developing but could not persuade anyone to stop, that they would fail as the Romans were very advanced technically. "The madness of desperate men was quite too hard for me."The people of the revolt had taken Antonia, the citadel.
Josephus lived in the Temple with the high priests and the chief of the Pharisees, He saw Manahem and the main men of a band of robbers put to death. They saw the Jerusalemites in arms and they didn't know what they should do.
Josephus and the others with him in the Temple pretended they were in agreement with those in revolt. They told them to be quiet and that then the enemy might go away.
Josephus thought Gessius Florus (Gessius Florus was the 7th Roman procurator of Judea from 64 until 66) would come and put an end to these seditious proceedings. Born in Clazomenae, Florus was appointed to replace Lucceius Albinus as procurator by the Emperor Nero due to his wife Cleopatra's friendship with Nero's wife Poppaea. He was noted for his antagonism toward the Judean and Jewish population, and is credited by Josephus as being the primary cause of the First Jewish–Roman War.
What we know today:
Jewish resistance
The home of Mattathias, a priest in the village of Modiʿim (now Modiʿin), 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Jerusalem, quickly became the centre of resistance. With him were his five sons, John Gaddi, Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabeus, Eleazar Avaran, and Jonathan Apphus.
Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, gives Mattathias’s great-grandfather the surname Asamonaios. From this title comes the name Hasmonean that was applied to the dynasty that descended from the Maccabees in the following century.
Mattathias sparked the resistance movement by striking a Jew who was preparing to offer sacrifice to the new gods and by killing the king’s officer who was standing by. Then he and his family took to the hills. Many joined them there, especially the Hasideans, a pious and strict group deeply concerned for the Law of Moses.
These at first refused to fight on the Sabbath and at once lost a thousand lives. Mattathias then insisted that all groups of resisters should fight if required on the holy Sabbath. The guerrilla war that followed was as much a civil war as a war of national resistance. Mattathias treated all degrees of collaborators with the same bitterness as he did the Syrian enemy.
Most of the knowledge we have of the conflict comes from Roman-Jewish scholar Titus Flavius Josephus, who first fought in the revolt against the Romans, but was then kept by future Emperor Vespasian as a slave and interpreter. Josephus was later freed and granted Roman citizenship, writing several important histories on the Jews.
These are the ancestors of Josephus, considered the traitor to his people for going over on the Roman side. How history can be shocking!
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, Josephus
Josephus, Complete Works by William Whiston who translated, Kregel publications, Grand Rapids, Mivhigan-with Christian explanations,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_the_Just
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1641-apion
https://www.historyhit.com/66-ad-was-the-great-jewish-revolt-against-rome-a-preventable-tragedy/#:~:text=Jews%20rioted%20when%20Nero's%20appointed,Holy%20Land%20from%20earthly%20powers.
No comments:
Post a Comment