A Second Year with Josephus

Failed last year, thought I'd try again this one.  Before I petered out, I read about 1500 paragraphs of Josephus. I read Life, Apion, and read about 430 paragraphs into Book 1 of Jewish War.  That's about 30 paragraphs a day.  So here's my revised schedule for finishing War Book 1:

Jan. 1: 430-460
Jan. 2: 460-490
Jan. 3: 490-520
Jan. 4: 520-550
Jan. 5: 550-580
Jan. 6: 580-610
Jan. 7: 610-640
Jan. 8: 640-673

Jewish War 1:187-430

Well, I'm almost a month behind, but I have been reading. The portion I've read since the last post covers a period of about fifty years, from the time of Pompey's engagement to the establishment of Herod the Great.

We hear of brigands in Galilee during this period (e.g., 1.204, 304). There is the story about them hiding in caves and a father tossing his family and himself down (1.313), I remember mention of a cliff face in Israel just off the Sea of Galilee in reference to this.

There is the mention of a law indicating that a person cannot be put to death without a trial (1.209), interesting in the light of Stephen's stoning. Lots of death.

The material is fun if you remember Julius Caesar from history. On these pages we see Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cassius, Marc Antony, Cleopatra, and of course Augustus. Herod sided with Antony, but is fully accepted by Augustus after Antony bites the dust.

Herod repeatedly confirms that Arabia includes the area just to the east of Damascus. Petra, for example, is in Arabia (1.267). He interestingly refers repeatedly to Fate, destiny, and the like.

I was a little surprised to find reference to "Herodians" in 1.319. I thought I had read somewhere that they were only mentioned in the gospels (e.g., Mark 12:13--slightly different spelling). A speech in 373ff is of possible interest in comparison with the speeches of Acts.

378 mentions the universal law of mankind. 401ff talks of Herod's refurbishment of the temple, which began around 20BC. He built his palace, built cities, made a harbor. Basically, spent an aweful lot of money.

Way Behind: Jewish War 1.1-186

Way behind, but I've read the first 186 of War 1.

Mostly boring--so and so attacked so and so. Then so and so attacked so and so. Josephus is also often wrong in his reconstruction, at least when you compare him to 1 Maccabees, which is almost 200 years earlier. Mostly on the Maccabees.

Of interest are his comments on Judah the Essene (1.78-80), on the Pharisees (1.110-12), and on Pompey's entrance into the Holy of Holies (1.152).

Mention of soul (1.84) and he supports Paul's Arabia as the Nabatean kingdom with Petra as capital.

Schedule for Jewish War Book 1

Feb. 1: 1-34
Feb. 2: 35-68
Feb. 3: 69-102
Feb. 4: 103-36
Feb. 5: 137-70
Feb. 6: 171-204
Feb. 7: 205-38
Feb. 8: 239-72
Feb. 9: 273-306
Feb. 10: 307-340
Feb. 11: 341-74
Feb. 12: 375-408
Feb. 13: 409-42
Feb. 14: 443-76
Feb. 15: 477-510
Feb. 16: 511-44
Feb. 17: 545-78
Feb. 18: 579-612
Feb. 19: 613-46
Feb. 20: 647-73

Apion Book 2 finished... (2.181-296)

... and only a week behind. :-)

This last section largely deals with the excellence of the Law in comparison with other races, especially the Greeks. Here are some interesting bits:

• God is the beginning, middle, and end of all things (2.190).
• Again, Hebrews watch, Josephus speaks of the temple and its operations as if they were still going on (2.193ff).
• Josephus understands the Law to imply monogamy and sex only for procreation (2.199).
• Interesting interpolation on women I discuss elsewhere (2.201).
• Stuff on soul (2.202-3)
• Prophecy background to 2 Peter 1 (2.218).
• Josephus' view of resurrection (2.218).
• Allegorical defense of the ancient myths (2.255).
• God permeates the universe (2.284)
• Everything in the universe is under the eye and direction of God (2.294).

Now on to the Jewish War.

Apion 2.79-175

Almost a week behind, but hope to finish Apion this weekend.

Interesting and strange rumors about Jewish practices--like kidnapping and sacrificing a Greek (95).

Interesting description of the temple holiness layers (103-5).

Interesting comments on sin:
"to those who believe that their lives are under the eye of God all sin is intolerable" (160).

"our leader [Moses] made the Law the standard and rule, that we might live under it as under a father and master, and be guilty of no sin through wilfulness or ignorance" (174).

The word theocracy is used at 165 in description of Mosaic rule.

God is the One, uncreated, immutable God, whose being itself is beyond knowledge, inscrutable (167).

Godliness for Moses, according to Josephus, is not one virtue but the virtue of which other virtues are only a part (e.g., justice, temperance, etc.) 170.

Apion 2.1-78

Some great stuff! I keep hitting myself for not reading straight through Josephus before. It really enhances so much that I think every PhD in New Testament, even many MAs, should read through significant portions. Alas...

Apion 2 begins with a dedication of the second volume to Epaphroditus that is really similar to the introduction to Acts. "Through the first book, my most honored Epaproditus..." Presumably this was conventional dedication to one's patron.

In the second volume, we finally meet Apion, who led the opposite delegation to Philo to Rome under Caligula after the pogrom of AD38. He wrote a book on Egypt much like Manetho's and dependant on Manetho's.

Good description of Alexandria and where the Jews primarily lived in the city. He mentions a stele in Alexandria that recorded the rights given the Jews by Julius Caesar (37). Josephus is not completely to be trusted. For example, when Claudius in the early 40s issued a verdict on whether the Jews were citizens of Alexandria, he answered that they never really were. Obviously, both Philo and Josephus disagreed.

The Greek text is missing for a significant portion, starting at 52. Fun to see the Greek switch to Latin till 114.

Allusion to the crisis of 3 Maccabees, although there are significant questions about when and if this persecution took place. Josephus also backdates the Jewish position to Alexander, when it seems more likely that Ptolemy 1 Soter settled many Jews there against their will. Ptolemy II Philadelphus seems to have been more favorable.

Mention of primary sources like letters from Caesar are interesting (61).

A significant text for Hebrews scholarship is 2.77, where Josephus speaks of temple practice as if it were still currently taking place. In reality of course, the temple had been destroyed for almost 30 years by the time Josephus was writing. The present tense of Hebrews in relation to the offering of sacrifices is thus no argument for a pre-70 date for the sermon.

Apion 1 finished

Behind, but still in the neighborhood. Finished Contra Apionem Book 1 tonight. Some interesting things in the rest of Book 1 were:

• description of the temple from Hecataeus of Abdera (late 300s BC; Ap. 1.197-99)
• fun story of Ptolemy (I think) marching toward Egypt but his army stops because of an omen--a bird. A Jew gets tired of waiting and shoots down the bird with an arrow to the horror of all. Then he suggests that if the bird could tell the future, it would have known better than to hang around a Jew with a bow (1.201-4).
• description of sabbath observance and worship from someone named Agatharchides (1.209)
• famous depiction of exodus by the Egyptian Manetho, where the Jews were mostly a leper colony (1.229)
• Josephus swears "by Zeus" in 255!

The schedule for book two is:

Jan. 23: 2.1-34
Jan. 24: 2.35-68
Jan. 25: 2.69-102
Jan. 26: 2.102-36
Jan. 27: 2.137-70
Jan. 28: 2:171-204
Jan. 29: 2.205-38
Jan. 30: 2.239-72
Jan. 31: 2.273-96

Circumcision

Some interesting tidbits in Apion 1 today. Josephus is trying to demonstrate that the Jewish race is older than the Greeks. He has extensive quotes from the Egyptian Manetho, from Tyrian and Babylonian historians, then from Greeks themselves, Herodotus, allegedly Pythagoras. He has material on Hiram of Tyre and Solomon sending each other riddles with bets attached, mentions the founding of Carthage and the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Two points of interest come near the end of my reading today in 1.167-71. Here he mentions the Corban oath mentioned in Matthew, where you cannot use something you have dedicated to the Lord for any purpose other than what you dedicate it for. The second is the mention that the Egyptians circumcised first and that the surrounding nations took circumcision from either them or the Arabians.

Manetho also seemed to equate the Jews with the Hyksos.

OT Canon

Behind, but some interesting things in Apion today. In 1.39-41, Josephus gives the books of the OT canon. He gives 22 books as the number. Not clear what all he includes in the 22, but Thackeray accounts for all the books of the Jewish canon.

Criteria for good history

Apion 26: "The proof of historical veracity is universal agreement in the description, oral and written, of the same events."

Most Excellent Epaphroditus

The Life ended interestingly. Josephus mentioned his wives and alluded to his relationships with the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. But the War gets into some of that in more detail.

Most interesting is an allusion to his principal patron, Epaphroditus. Both at the end of the Life (430) and at the beginning of Apion (1), Josephus addresses "most excellent Epaphroditus," using the same adjective that Luke-Acts does. Presumably this is a literary convention for addressing the principal person who funded the writing of a work. It is, once again, another blip on the cumulatively impressive parallels between Josephus and Luke-Acts.

Against Apion begins

Finished Life. I'm a couple days behind but will lay out the schedule for the first book of Contra Apionem:

Jan. 14: 1.1-34
Jan. 15: 1.35-68
Jan. 16: 1.69-102
Jan. 17: 1.102-36
Jan. 18: 1.137-70
Jan. 19: 1:171-204
Jan. 20: 1.205-38
Jan. 21: 1.239-72
Jan. 22: 1.273-320

Ancient historians and truthfulness

Came across this quote in Josephus today: "while veracity is incumbent on a historian, he is nonetheless at liberty to refrain from harsh scrutiny of the misdeeds of individuals, not from any partiality for the offenders, but because of his own moderation" (339).

Mason in his notes (p. 138) also quotes Avenarius (1956), saying that while the profession of truthfulness was everywhere among historians, "Nevertheless, the vast majority were not conscious of the obligation that they undertook, since the assurance had degenerated into a rhetorical flourish."

Saviors and How Long to Jerusalem

I'm through paragraph 270 now of the Life. Josephus calls himself a benefactor and "savior" twice in this section, meaning that he has protected and promoted the health of Galilee.

In 269 he indicates that you could get to Jerusalem from Galilee in three days if you went through Samaria.

Visions and Letters

Over half way through the Life now. A number of interesting things in the paragraphs since my last post. For one, the son of Gamaliel has had it in for Josephus. In fact Josephus seems to have narrowly escaped death at the order of the high priest Ananus (who killed James the brother of Jesus). This was the first time I read past my allotted 34 paragraphs without realizing it (normally I am longing for my allotment to end).

Several examples of the letter form in this section.

The most significant thing is the vision Josephus gets in 208. It is very similar to that Paul gets in Acts 23:11. Indeed, there are a great number of formal similarities in such things between Acts and Josephus. It does not seem likely that Josephus had read Acts. But Life was not written until after AD100, and I have never thought to date Acts so late so as to have read Josephus. The only conclusion I know to draw at this time is that the conventions of history writing were very commonly used and that both Acts and the Life partake of many similar forms.

Josephus and Conversion

One of the key Josephus texts on conversion popped up today: "everyone should worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience and not under constraint" (113).

He is speaking of some non-Jews who freely moved into Jewish territory. Elsewhere he seems to applaud the forced conversions of the Hasmoneans as they acquired territory.

Life (35-102)

Josephus is such a liar.

Anyway, some interesting things to follow up on tithing in these pages. He also mentions an interesting assumption that women taken captive were assumed to lose their viriginity. Reminds me of Afghanistan, where they actually put such women to death on the assumption they have been defiled.

It begins!

What a fun read! Josephus gives his lineage, going back to Jonathan Maccabeus on his mother's side. He was born in AD37-38 in the first year of Caligula's reign. He studied with Bannus, who seems much like John the Baptist and I would gladly assume is Essene (although Steve Mason, the king of Josephus scholarship, disagrees).

We have the usual difficulty trusting Josephus, schmoozer extraordinaire. He and Philo both regularly skew their motives as well as those of their respective parties. Reading them at some points is like listening to a mother who makes excuses for a misbehaving child, even in the face of blatant and obvious guilt. With Josephus, he gives conflicting accounts even between his own writings!

Most interesting is a night shipwrecked at sea on the way to Rome (14-15). It sounds very much like Paul's shipwreck in Acts (with a few differences) and took place at around the same time.