The Antiquities of the Jews (Footnote

Flavius Josephus

shk 2014 · Shitur nga Simon and Schuster

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Collected here in one unabridged edition are all 20 books of Flavius Josephus' The Antiquities of the Jews. Antiquities of the Jews was first published in 94 AD, it is history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus' gentile patrons. It begins with the creation of Adam and Eve, and follows the events of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible, often adding information that we might not otherwise have today. This work, along with Josephus's other major work, The Jewish Wars, provides valuable background material to anyone wishing to understand first-century Judaism and the early Christian period. "I have undertaken the present work . . . for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures. And indeed I did formerly intend, when I wrote of the war, to explain who the Jews originally were,-what fortunes they had been subject to,-and by what legislature they had been instructed in piety, and the exercise of other virtues,-what wars also they had made in remote ages, till they were unwillingly engaged in this last with the Romans. . ."-Flavius Josephus

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A member of a wealthy priestly family in Judea, Josephus was a Pharisee originally named Joseph ben Matthias. An active supporter of anti-Roman activity, he became governor of Galilee, a post he held with honor and valor until Galilee was taken by the Romans in a.d. 67. He won the favor of the Roman general Vespasian, whose name---Flavius---he took as his own and through whose patronage he later became a Roman citizen. Although often criticized for becoming a supporter of Rome, in his work Against Apion he passionately defends Jewish religion and culture. Josephus wrote both in Greek and in Hebrew. His writings are neither remarkably fine representatives of classical culture nor the product of deep learning in Jewish literature and history. They do, however, tell the reader a great deal not known from other sources. The Jewish War (75--79), based to a great extent on what Josephus himself saw, heard, and experienced, describes the tragic events of the Jewish revolt against Rome. Antiquities of the Jews (93) covers the history of the Jews from creation to the war with Rome, with special attention given to the Maccabees and the dynasty of Herod.