Josephus was a Jewish historian born to an aristocratic priestly family about 37 A.D. In the autobiographical segments of his own work, Josephus describes himself as a “precocious youth, making trial in turn of three out of the four leading religious sects of his nation,” finally deciding to become a Pharisee (Robert Van Voorst, 81). When the Jews revolted against Rome in 66 A.D., Josephus commanded the doomed Jewish insurgent forces in Galilee, which were crushed by the Roman commander Vespasian one year later.

When brought before Vespasian, Josephus stunned the Roman commander by predicting that Vespasian would someday become the emperor of Rome, basing this prediction on Old Testament oracles such as Genesis 49:10 and Daniel 9:24-27, and suggesting that Vespasian was the promised Messiah. Pleased with Josephus’ words, Vespasian spared his life, but kept him in prison for two years until he actually did become Rome’s emperor. Upon his release from prison, Josephus “became a Roman citizen and a writer in the employ of the Flavian emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, living in an apartment in their palaces. He took a Roman name honoring his patrons by which he is known to subsequent history, Flavius Josephus” (ibid.).

It is important  to understand, therefore, that Josephus was playing mainly to a Roman audience in his writings, and would be careful not to offend his benefactors if he could at all avoid it, for it was as an employee of the royal house of Rome that Josephus wrote his two great works Jewish Wars and Jewish Antiquities. In these works, he attempted partly to present his Jewish countrymen as worthy of legitimate historical consideration but primarily to commend the Romans to his countrymen in order to persuade them to live peaceably under their yoke.

For this reason, Jews have considered Josephus a traitor throughout their history, and he has largely been ignored by subsequent Jewish writers until very recently. Therefore, it is not surprising that, since his death circa 100 A.D., Josephus’ works have been preserved through the ages not by Jews, but by Christians because of his alleged extra-biblical references to the founder of their faith. But are these references authentic? Were they really written by the hand of Josephus? The time has come to take our exploration into Josephus’ text itself, which we will do in our next episode.

Blessings,

Arnie Gentile

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