Codex 76

[Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews]

Read the Antiquities of the Jews,by Flavius Josephus,[1] in twenty books. He begins with the Mosaic cosmogony, and although his account agrees in the main with that generally accepted, he sometimes differs. The work ends with the war between the Jews and Romans, at the time when Agrippa,[2] son of the great Agrippa,[3] who deprived Jesus, son of Gamaliel, of the high priesthood, and bestowed it upon Matthias, son of Theophilus, was king of the Jews. Antiochus[4] and his general Lysias were the first to introduce a bold innovation in reference to the tenure of the high priesthood. They removed Onias named Menelaus from that office, put him to death, and deprived his son of the right of succession, appointing in his place Alcimus called Iacimus, of the tribe of Aaron, but belonging to a different family. Before this it had been the law from the time of Aaron that the high priest should hold office for life, and that the son should succeed the father. But when Alcimus died, after having been high priest for three years, the office remained in abeyance for seven years. After Matthias and his sons of the Asmonean family were entrusted with the leadership of the Jewish people, and made war on the Macedonians, Jonathan was appointed high priest. To this family also belonged Judas, who was called Aristobulus, who first placed the diadem on his head, thus filling the office of both high priest and king. A year later he died, and left his brother Alexander his successor in the kingdom and priesthood, who held these dignities for twenty-seven years. From. this time the kingship and priesthood combined remained in the Asmonean family until the time of Hyrcanus, whom Pompey, after the conquest of Jerusalem, deprived of his kingdom, but allowed him to hold the office of high priest. After thirty-three years he was taken prisoner by the Parthian generals Barzapharnes and Pacorus, who appointed as king Antigonus, the son of the brother of Aristobulus. After Antigonus had reigned three years and three months, the Roman general Sosius and Herod the First, the son of Antipater, a priest of Ascalon, and of Cypris the Arabian, overthrew him, and took him to Antioch, where he was put to death by Antony. This was the end of the Asmonean dynasty, and Herod was made king of the Jews by the Romans. He bestowed the high priesthood upon any one without distinction, setting an example for his successors to follow. As stated above, the author, in his twenty books, beginning from the creation of the world, goes down to the beginning of the last war between the Jews and the Romans, at the time when Agrippa, son of Agrippa, had been appointed king of the Jews by the Romans and Gessius Florus[5]had succeeded Albinus as governor of Judaea. The Jews, unable to endure Florus’s wickedness and cruelty, revolted, thinking it better to perish at once together in freedom than gradually and in slavery. It was in the second year of Florus’s governorship and the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, that the war broke out, with which the history of Josephus ends. Of his style we have already spoken.

Josephus was by birth a Jew and a priest, belonging to a family descended from a long line of priests on the father’s side. On the mother’s side he was of royal blood, for the children of Asmoneus, from whom her family was derived, had for a long time held both the high priesthood and the rank of king. His father’s name was Matthias. He was born in the first year of the reign of the emperor Gaius, and from boyhood was an earnest student. In his sixteenth year, he began to devote his attention to the three sects of the Jews, and conscientiously examined them, so that after having tried them all he might be able to choose the best. These sects are the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Having gone through them all, he retired into the wilderness, living there for three years with a man who led a solitary and ascetic life. This man’s clothes were made of the leaves of trees, his food consisted of natural herbs and fruit, and he bathed frequently both by night and day, to keep himself chaste. When he was nineteen, Josephus returned to the city and joined the sect of the Pharisees, which is said to resemble the sect called Stoic among the Greeks. In his thirtieth year, he was sent by the people of Jerusalem to investigate the condition of affairs in Galilee, where there was great confusion and things were in a very unsettled state. He was then appointed commander-in-chief of Galilee, and showed himself an efficient administrator. He successfully escaped plots of different kinds laid against him by his political rivals, and by showing a spirit of moderation in dealing with his enemies often brought them over to his side. Having taken up arms against the Romans against his will, after a brave resistance at Iotapata he was taken prisoner by Vespasian, who treated him kindly at the time and still more so after he became emperor. Not only Vespasian, but his sons and successors, Titus and Domitian, entertained the highest regard for him; the Roman citizenship was bestowed upon him, and he became very wealthy. He finished his Historyin the fifty-sixth year of his age, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Domitian.