Flavius Josephus: biography, personal life, photo

2025 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-05 09:21

In the year 37, when Gaius Caligula recently ascended the throne in Rome, Josephus was born in Judea. This name is a Roman variant, which he adopted much later. At birth, the baby was named Yosef ben Matityahu.

Origin

He belonged to a noble family. His father was a famous priest, and his mother had the blood of the royal Jewish dynasty of Maccabees. It should be noted here that, according to the tradition of this people, titles were transmitted through the male line, and belonging to the clan - through the female line. Therefore, some sources, on the contrary, did not believe that Josephus was of royal blood.

And yet he still led the life of a noble young man. Just look at the education of Flavius. He knew the Greek language, in which he would write his famous works in the future.

Education and career

In those years, numerous sects and religious teachings were popular in Judea. Let's take Christianity as an example. Flavius Josephus, at the age of 16, first joined the Essenes and spent three years as a hermit.

At the end of the second decade, the young man became a member of the religious and social movement of the Pharisees, who providedgreat influence on the internal life of the Roman province.

Joseph Flavius, thanks to his origin and ingenuity, secured many influential connections. When he visited Rome in 64, he succeeded in freeing several Jews on false charges. He did this thanks to his acquaintance with Poppea, the wife of Emperor Nero, who soon died, most likely from poisoning.

Jewish War

However, peaceful life in the Empire was coming to an end. National contradictions finally quarreled between the Jews and the metropolis. Emperor Nero appointed a viceroy of Hessius Florus in the province. He was a selfish man who oppressed the local population.

The country of Israel could not stand this attitude and rebelled. The driving force behind this phenomenon was the faction of the Zealots. It was a socio-political movement among the Jews that wanted to rid their homeland of the influence of the Roman Empire and Hellenistic culture.

Warlord

Now each citizen had to decide which side he was on. First, Josephus joined those who wanted to resolve the conflict peacefully. But in 66, the Roman governor in Syria, Cestius Gallus, had already attacked Israel. Therefore, Joseph had no choice but to defend himself. Due to his fame and origin, he began to lead the defense of the northern half of the country - Galilee.

The young warlord managed to gather 10,000 well-armed soldiers and fortify cities in this province. However, the success was temporary, and it ended when the troops of Vespasian entered the country. The fortified fortresses surrendered without a fight, one after another, until only one city of Iotopati remained. Flavius Josephus also led there. The Jewish war took a bad turn, and it was decided not to surrender the fortifications to the enemy.

Siding with the Romans

The city lasted 47 days. The Roman troops that entered killed 40,000 Jews. Joseph managed to hide with a small detachment in a cave, the entrance to which was blocked. Vespasian offered the detachment to surrender, to which he was refused. At the same time, Joseph advised his comrades to accept the offer. Finally, he managed to persuade the audience to kill one person once a day, since the exit was blocked anyway. For this, lots were drawn. In the end, only two survived - the commander himself and another Jew.

The two surrendered to the victor, and Joseph took the surname Flavius in honor of Vespasian. When the Jew was brought to the Roman camp, he predicted the imperial title to the suppressor of the uprising. At first, Vespasian decided that Joseph was simply deceiving him and was trying to earn his trust with cunning. However, soon news came from the capital that Nero was dead, and there was a fierce strife among the applicants.

Vespasian decided not to waste time and immediately went to Europe, where he actually won the throne. Leaving Judea, he appointed his son Titus as successor there, and left Joseph at court as an interpreter and truce.

The war was not over yet, and the Romans went to Jerusalem. When the siege began, Joseph tried to convince his fellow tribesmen to surrender to the Romans, which invariablyreceived a refusal. Eventually the city fell and was sacked. Joseph managed to persuade Titus to release two hundred people who had locked themselves in the sacred Temple. In addition, numerous books stored there were given to him.

Literary activity

With the advent of peace, Joseph began to live at the imperial court. Already being a middle-aged man, he took up literature and wrote many works. These were works that reflected not only artistic, but also military experience, which was owned by Josephus Flavius. The Jewish War is his most famous book. It consists of several volumes. The story covers the period of the war in which Joseph himself participated. The story ends with the fall of Jerusalem. This description is preceded by an account of the background and previous events in this province.

Joseph's book "Jewish War" is often combined with "Jewish Antiquities" - a large-scale study of Jewish history from the time of biblical stories. The work was written as evidence that this people has a great heritage. This seems obvious today, but in ancient times and the Roman era, foreigners often believed that the Jews came from Egypt and did not have their roots.

Another important book is Autobiography. The writer tried to answer the question about himself, who is Flavius Josephus. In it, he gives an analysis of all his actions during the Jewish War, when the writer went over to the side of the Romans.

Another work "Against Apion" was written in the spirit of a dispute and addressed to a well-known grammarian. This wasan Alexandrian scholar who had previously written a work on the Jews and often criticized them. Flavius Josephus, using the example of Moses and his laws, proved that Apion was wrong.

All of the above books of the author have come down to us in safety, which is their main value. The writings of many ancient writers perished and were forgotten during the Dark Ages. During the Renaissance in the 16th century, the publication of books in Greek, written by Josephus Flavius, appeared. A photo of his bust adorns many textbooks.

Relationship with Christianity

Since the historian lived in the second half of the 1st century, he was able to document numerous events described in the gospels. In particular, he talks about Jesus and his death on the cross, the death of John the Baptist, etc.

However, in modern historiography, there are numerous disputes on this subject. Some experts believe that these plots were deliberately inserted into the works after the death of the author. Various facts point to this, for example, that Jesus is called the Christ in the books, although the chronicler was not a Christian. But no matter how Josephus writes, the biography of this person continues to arouse the interest of specialists.