Editing Josephus (section)

== Works ==
[[File:Josephus flavius, english 1602.jpg|thumb|The works of Josephus translated by [[Thomas Lodge]] (1602)]]
The works of Josephus are major sources of our understanding of Jewish life and history during the first century.{{sfn|Ehrman|1999|pp=848–849}}
* ({{circa}}&nbsp;75) ''War of the Jews'', ''[[The Jewish War]]'', ''Jewish Wars'', or ''History of the Jewish War'' (commonly abbreviated ''JW'', ''BJ'' or ''War'')
* ({{circa}}&nbsp;94) ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', ''Jewish Antiquities'', or ''Antiquities of the Jews/Jewish Archeology'' (frequently abbreviated ''AJ'', ''[[AotJ]]'' or ''Ant.'' or ''Antiq.'')
* ({{circa}}&nbsp;97) ''Flavius Josephus Against Apion'', ''[[Against Apion]]'', ''Contra Apionem'', or ''Against the Greeks, on the antiquity of the Jewish people'' (usually abbreviated ''CA'')
* ({{circa}}&nbsp;99) ''[[The Life of Flavius Josephus|Life of Josephus]]'', or ''Autobiography of Josephus'' (abbreviated ''Life'' or ''Vita'')

=== ''The Jewish War'' ===
{{Main|The Jewish War}}
His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians"—usually thought to be the Jewish community in [[Mesopotamia]]—in his "paternal tongue" (''War'' I.3), arguably the Western [[Aramaic language]]. In AD 78 he finished a seven-volume account in [[Greek language|Greek]] known as the ''[[The Wars of the Jews|Jewish War]]'' ([[Latin]] ''Bellum Judaicum'' or ''De Bello Judaico''). It starts with the period of the [[Maccabees]] and concludes with accounts of the fall of [[Jerusalem]], and the subsequent fall of the fortresses of Herodion, Macharont and Masada and the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the empire and the uprising in [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]. Together with the account in his ''Life'' of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus's own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s (''Life'' 13–17).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Josephus: The Life of Flavius Josephus |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/autobiog.html#S13 |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>
[[File:Von alten jüdischen Geschichten. Vom jüdischen Krieg.jpg|thumb|1581 German translation of Josephus's ''[[The Jewish War]]'' in the collection of the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]]]]
In the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Josephus would have witnessed the marches of [[Titus]]'s triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying treasures from the despoiled [[Temple in Jerusalem]]. It was against this background that Josephus wrote his ''War''. He blames the Jewish War on what he calls "unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics" among the Jews, who led the masses away from their traditional aristocratic leaders (like himself), with disastrous results. For example, Josephus writes that "[[Simon bar Giora|Simon [bar Giora]]] was a greater terror to the people than the Romans themselves."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Josephus |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Jews/Book_IV#Chapter_9 |title=The War of the Jews}}</ref> Josephus also blames some of the [[Roman governor]]s of [[Iudaea Province|Judea]], representing them as corrupt and incompetent administrators.

=== ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ===
{{Main|Antiquities of the Jews}}
The next work by Josephus is his 21-volume ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', completed during the last year of the reign of the Emperor Flavius [[Domitian]], around 93 or 94 AD. In expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an ''apologia'' for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people. Josephus claims to be writing this history because he "saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings",{{sfn|Josephus|1737|loc=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Preface preface §1]}} those writings being the history of the Jews. In terms of some of his sources for the project, Josephus says that he drew from and "interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures"{{sfn|Josephus|1737|loc=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Preface preface §2]}} and that he was an eyewitness to the wars between the Jews and the Romans,{{sfn|Josephus|1737|loc=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Preface preface §1]}} which were earlier recounted in ''Jewish Wars''.

He outlines Jewish history beginning with the creation, as passed down through Jewish historical tradition. [[Abraham]] taught [[science]] to the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]], who, in turn, taught the [[Greeks]].{{sfn|Feldman|1998|p=232}} [[Moses]] set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which, like that of Rome, resisted [[monarchy]]. The great figures of the [[Tanakh]] are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders. He includes an autobiographical appendix defending his conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces.

Louis H. Feldman outlines the difference between calling this work ''Antiquities of the Jews'' instead of ''History of the Jews''. Although Josephus says that he describes the events contained in ''Antiquities'' "in the order of time that belongs to them,"{{sfn|Josephus|1737|loc=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Preface preface §3]}} Feldman argues that Josephus "aimed to organize [his] material systematically rather than chronologically" and had a scope that "ranged far beyond mere political history to political institutions, religious and private life."{{sfn|Feldman|1998|p=13}}

=== ''Life of Flavius Josephus'' ===
{{Main|The Life of Flavius Josephus}}
An autobiographical text written by Josephus in approximately 94–99 AD – possibly as an appendix to his ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (cf. Life 430) – where the author for the most part re-visits the events of the War and his tenure in Galilee as governor and commander, apparently in response to allegations made against him by Justus of Tiberias (cf. Life 336).

=== ''Against Apion'' ===
{{Main|Against Apion}}
Josephus's ''[[Against Apion]]'' is a two-volume defence of [[Judaism]] as [[classical antiquity|classical]] [[religion]] and [[philosophy]], stressing its antiquity, as opposed to what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent tradition of the Greeks. Some [[anti-Judaic]] allegations ascribed by Josephus to the Greek writer [[Apion]] and myths accredited to [[Manetho]] are also addressed.

=== Spurious works ===
* (date unknown) ''[[Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades]]'' (spurious; adaptation of "Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe" by [[Hippolytus of Rome]])