Flavius Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathias in the
city of Jerusalem around A.D. 37, the same year the Roman Emperor Tiberius
died. His father Matthias ben Joseph was a descendant of Hasmonean,
or Maccaabean kings and priests. It was therefore only natural that
at age 16 Josephus embarked on a spiritual search spending time with several
religious orders including the Pharisees. At age 19 he returned to
his home in Jerusalem aligning himself with the Pharisees. It was around
this time (A.D. 54), that Sicarii revolutionist began to focus their attention
on the Roman occupation. But instead of attacking Roman officials outright,
the Sicarii focused their attacks on their own people, as Josephus himself
writes, “against those that were willing to submit to the Romans…[treating]
them in all respect as if they had been their enemies.” (Josephus.
Concerning
Masada and Those Who Kept It… Chapter 8, page 1). Killing the high
Priest Jonathan, the Sicarii would set off a chain of events that would eventually
lead to the Great Rebellion or the Jewish War. In A.D. 63, when several
Jewish priests were held by the Emperor Nero, Josephus, now 26, traveled
as an emissary to Rome to negotiate their release. It is also around
this same time that the Sicarii began a series of raids against Roman power.
Hostage taking became a common practice for the Sicarii, and the Jewish War
begins outright in the summer of A.D. 65.
Although he believed this cause to be hopeless, Josephus accepted the appointment
as Governor and commander of the revolutionary forces in Galilee, trusted
with the defense of the area. Instead of building up the garrison in
Galilee however, Josephus spent most of his time controlling internal factions
within the Jewish community. He was in charge of the defenses
for the city of Jotapata. But when the city fell to the forces of the
Roman General Vespasian, Josephus and 40 of his men hid in a secret cave
located beneath the city. After three days the Romans discovered their
hiding place and ordered their surrender. Guaranteeing the lives of
all who gave in, the men, refusing to give up, preferred death to capitulation
to Rome. Drawing lots, they preceded to kill each other. Only
Josephus survived. Brought before Vespasian, Josephus presented himself
as a prophet, asserting that Vespasian was destined to become Emperor of
Rome. When this prophecy came true, Josephus was rewarded handsomely.
While acting as an assistant to Vespasian’s son, Titus, he was unable to
persuade the defenders of Jerusalem to surrender the city, and thus he became
a witness to its destruction in A.D. 70. After this, Josephus continued
to reside within the Flavian court, living in a villa given to him by Vespasian.
Josephus is known to have penned at least four major works. His most
famous, the history of the
Jewish War, written around A.D. 78, is
the only source scholars have depicting the events of that struggle, including
the events at Masada. Unfortunately his account seems overly one sided,
favoring the Romans and allowing his history to flatter Vespasian.
In addition it seems to act as a warning to other provinces against the folly
of opposing Rome. His most ambitious piece, the rewriting of the first
books of the Bible translated into Greek,
Jewish Antiquities, was
published around A.D. 93. Between A.D. 95 – 100 two further works are
published.
Against Apion an attack on the Egyptian historian
Apion and a defense of Jewish history, and
The Life of Josephus, an
autobiography.
For the most part Josephus was considered a traitor to his own people, and
the validity of his “histories” has come under question. His lack-luster
involvement with the building up of the garrison at Galilee may have more
to do with his belief that the revolt was pointless and less to do with “controlling
internal factions within the Jewish community.” His account of the
Siege of Jotapata, where he suggested to his men that suicide was a sin and
that it would be better to draw lots and kill each other (the first killing
whoever drew the second lot and so on), may have never actually taken place,
as it is suspiciously close to the Masada story. At the very least
Josephus is accused of arranging the outcome of the drawings. “It has
been suggested” historian Mark Biggs writes, “that Josephus slyly counted
the lots.” (Biggs, Mark W.
Military History Magazine: Forty Days at Jotapata.)
There are also questions regarding his description on the fall of Gamala.
Josephus claims that he recorded the account based on the eyewitness testimony
of the two only survivors of the siege, the daughters of Philip. According
to his account, once the city’s walls were breached the 9,000 inhabitants
chose suicide rather than capture, throwing themselves from the high cliffs
on which the city was built. Yet there is very little actual evidence
for this, and while archeological evidenced clearly shows that a battle did
take place, historians believe that the deaths took place at the hands of
the Roman army.
