Now I like Josephus! He may have a tendency to exaggerate, he may be slightly proud, he may even be wrong, but I like him. His books give you the 'feeling' for biblical days and show just how difficult life was at that time. There are huge swathes of the world that fare no better today! There is however always a problem with cheap books. Either they are stained, marked or, as in this case, out of copyright productions. This edition was translated by one William Whiston in 1737! Not only am I reliably informed that he is none to accurate his English idiom is so out of date as to be unreadable to the modern eye! Having been brought up on the 'Authorised Version' I find it easier to read than someone born in the last forty years would, even so at times it made no sense whatsoever.
Josephus, as you know, was a Jew charged with defending Galilee from the invading Roman army led by Vespasian. He claims to have been a moderate and unwilling to oppose the might of Rome, but he would wouldn't he? He managed to surrender himself to Vespasian and claiming the gift of prophecy foretold that the general would become Emperor! A year later Nero was removed and after a short debate, at the point of a sword, Vespasian was indeed declared Emperor of Rome! Josephus was released and became a friend to Titus, the son, now also called Caesar, who took over the army from his father. Josephus took their side and attempted to persuade the zealots in Jerusalem to surrender. This made him an enemy to the Jews, a problem he was left with for life. However once all was settled he took up residence in Rome and granted a pension he settled down to write the story of the war appropriately named, The Jewish War,' and later wrote the Antiquities. The whole idea of the book was to explain the Jewish nation to the Greek world. (Yes I know Rome dominated but they all spoke Greek and the Jews referred to them all as Greek, and anyway it doesn't matter now!) Antiquities is basically the history found in the Old Testament paraphrased for the Roman world. He continues right up to the days of the war giving us the only real information from that time. Tacitus and Philo wrote also but Tacitus work is incomplete and as I have not read the other you can google that yourself! Apparently he diverges from Flavius Josephus, but with historians what's new?
While the speeches are put into the mouths of the speaker, Thucydides style, he certainly had some actual information of the history of the times from official records. Our author therefore becomes one of the most important historical evidences for the time as few others wrote so much about the Roman army organisation, the people and actions of the time in regions far from Rome. Rome of course was all that really interested the Roman historians! I suspect his reams of interest in the palace intrigues had more to do with the readers desire for 'soap opera' tales. They sold well then as they do now. In spite of his failings a read of this book, (those well versed in the O.T. need only start in the days after Alexander arrives), a read of this book gives a 'feel' for the world before and after Jesus, who gets a passing mention as does John the Baptist. One thing is clear the number of 'messiahs,' prophets, leaders, who came and went, each gathering a crowd around them, puts the reaction of the authorities to Jesus in their place. We can understand their fear and we can understand why most people of the day probably had little contact with the real Messiah at any time, there were so many! Just like today I suppose!
