EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Letters of the Apostle Paul
Laura Nasrallah, Harvard University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Understanding the Historical Josephus Notes taken on February 24, 2014 by Edward Tanguay |
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the historical Josephus
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Josephus has a complicated Jewish identity
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he's a debated and controversial character
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he started out as a leader in the movement rebelling against Rome
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then went over to the Roman side and wrote history of the Jewish War at the pay of the Flavian emperors
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he called himself a prophet but was salaried by the Romans
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some see him as a traitor and a collaborator
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his full name is Flavius Josephus, Flavius taken from the Roman imperial household
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Josephus on himself
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born of distinguished priestly family in Jerusalem
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born around 37 AD, a few years after the execution of Jesus as a rebel
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claims he was descended from the Hasmoneans, great military leaders
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claims he was a child prodigy
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returned in 55 to follow the Pharisees, somewhat like the Greek stoic philosophy
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63 AD: chosen to serve as member of Jewish embassy to Rome
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task: secure release of imprisoned priests
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allowed him to move in the highest Roman circles in Nero's court
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books
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"The Jewish War"
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account of Roman suppression from 66 to 73
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"The Antiquities"
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20 volumes
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story of Jews from creation to last procurators before the war with Rome
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"A Life"
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his own story, a defense against attacks from some named Justus of Tiberias
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his story is complicated
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conflicting stories of war with Jews in Jewish War and his life
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talks about himself both as a defender of a Jewish city yet at the time he was captured by the Romans
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claims that he confronts Vespasian in 67 CE, prophesied his elevation to the imperial role and he was spared
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Vespasian frees him
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he also presents himself in a different way
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reluctant of the Jewish revolt
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hard to find the historical Josephus
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was he a war hero or a moderate aristocrat
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a better way to look at him is as a hybridity
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*** he takes over, he adopts the rhetoric of Rome in order to make his nation comprehensible to Rome
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*** he molds Judaism into a form that would be palatable to a Greco-Roman audience