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Lucid Guide
Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome—His Life, His Works and Their Importance
Per Bilde
(Sheffield, UK: Academic Press [Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement Series 2], 1988) 272 pp. $45.00
The two centuries preceding the fall of the Second Temple (70 A.D.) are among the best documented in Jewish history and the history of Palestine. This is due to the four books by Flavius Josephus. This gifted and prolific author (b. 36/37 A.D.) used numerous and varied sources, but he also witnessed and participated in some of the most dramatic chapters described in his works, namely the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. If one were to write the history of the latter half of the Second Commonwealth without utilizing Josephus (as an exercise, of course), the result would be a meager, anemic report, full of queries, inaccuracies and innumerable lacunae.
The importance of Josephus to Palestinian archaeology cannot be exaggerated. The list of data for which Josephus is the only source is very long indeed. For instance, he is our only literary source about Masada or the harbor of Caesarea. His description of the topography and archaeology of Jerusalem is hardly paralleled in ancient literature. In short, without Josephus much of the archaeology of Palestine would have reverted to the state of prehistory. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Josephus is not a faultless historian. He has a predilection for the dramatic and the pathetic as well as a tendency to exaggerate, especially with his demographic data. And he had more than one axe to grind—he had to curry favor with his Roman imperial patrons, and he had to defend himself against accusations from Jews, some of whom blamed him for being pro-Roman and the others, anti-Roman. To many of his people, he must have seemed a despicable turncoat.
All the same, with all his faults and apologetic traits, it can be proven in almost all cases that can be checked against actual finds that he is correct, sometimes amazingly so, when it comes to the archaeological data. For instance, he tells us that the wall of Masada is 7 stadia (about 1,420 yards) long, and so indeed it is. The width of the wall, he asserts, is 8 cubits (some 4 yards), and this too is a correct datum. The interesting thing is that he could not have seen the walls of Masada from close quarters, let alone have measured them. For 60 years preceding the First Revolt, the desert fortress was occupied by a Roman garrison and was most probably out-of-bounds for civilians. The data on Masada, and the wealth of other material, was derived from official Roman documents based on field reports. These documents are mentioned three times in the writings of Josephus and are undoubtedly the source of much of his accurate data, archaeological and otherwise. Josephus also mentions 55 classical authors whose works (most of them lost now) he used. In short, to say that Josephus is an invaluable source is an understatement.
The literature on Josephus is understandably vast. In his monumental work, Louis Feldman discusses some 3,000 books and articles. Bilde’s book deals with about one-tenth as many, but even those 300 items are a veritable maze. Bilde’s book is a guide to this labyrinth. In a lucid, succinct manner, it deals with the various aspects of the study of Josephus.
The book comprises six chapters. After an introductory chapter in which Bilde touches on the main issues to be discussed, he presents the life story of Josephus, with ample description of the historical background. The next chapter, the longest of all, describes the four books written by Josephus—The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Life and Against Apion—and the history of their transmission. Josephus enjoyed immense popularity in the Christian Church, popularity that helped not only to motivate his writings but also to preserve them in relatively good condition. The fourth chapter is devoted to a discussion of the many trends in modern Josephus research, while the final two (“Interpreting Josephus” and “The Use of Josephus”) are devoted to expressions of the author’s views on Josephus’s historical reliability. Bilde believes that Josephus’s personal involvement in many of the events that he describes does not result in a historically distorted interpretation and rendering of those events. On the whole, Bilde’s arguments are convincing.
This book will prove a great help to any scholar or student of the important and fascinating period described by Josephus—the heyday of Judaism and the period in which Christianity came into being.
Lucid Guide
Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome—His Life, His Works and Their Importance
