Bibliography
| Title: Josephus and Judaism from 70 to 100 of the Commen Era Type: Generic Year: 1985 Abstract: "It is obvious that in order to evaluate properly the works of Josephus, we must keep in mind his motives--his desires not only to report the past, but also to please patrons, praise friends, attack enemies, publicize his erudition and promote his self-interest. We may do this to some extent by careful examination of his works and by comparison of them with each other. From such an analysis, we can extract a factual outline of Josephus' life during the years in which he was writing. This chronicle of his life will introduce us to his friends, enemies and patrons, whose lives can then in turn be scrutinized--the better because some of them played prominent roles in the history of those times. If observed changes in Josephus' interests, opinions, knowledge and style can then be significantly related to major events or important persons in his life, then it should be possible to give some account of the factors listed above as necessary for the evaluation of his work; conversely, his work can then be made to yield reliable information about the history of Judaism after 70. So, the first chapter is a detailed account of Josephus' life after 67, and of his works, with special emphasis on influential connections. The second chapter demonstrates Josephus' great progress, while at Rome, in knowledge of both classical and, surprisingly, Jewish traditions. Having ascertained the importance of the upper priesthood and the Herodian family to Josephus, in chapters 3 and 4 I examine changes in his attitudes to both groups, and attempt, on the basis of non-Josephan information on these groups after 70, to explain these changes. It is suggested that both groups remained influential for about 20 years after the destruction, a serious decline having set in sometime in the eighties. This suggestion is far more secure for the Herodians than the priests. Chapter 5 contains conclusions, and an appendix proposes redating the present version of Bellum Judaicum book 7 to the reign of Nerva or Trajan." Keywords: Bellum |