Agrippa First: The Last King of Judaea (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) (Texte und Studien zum antiken ... (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) [Hardcover]

Daniel R. Schwartz (Author)

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Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

Product Details

• Hardcover: 233 pages
• Publisher: Coronet Books (June 10, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3161453417
• ISBN-13: 978-3161453410
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,319,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, Complete, and Remarkable, March 10, 2008

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David E. Blair (Columbia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Agrippa First: The Last King of Judaea (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) (Texte und Studien zum antiken ... (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum) (Hardcover)

Bearing on the study of second temple Judaism and the second Judean state, Christian origins, Josephus studies, and Roman history, this remarkable monograph is primarily concerned with the life and significance of Agrippa 1 who is often styled as the last King of the Jews. This book is witten for a specialist audience. However, any person with a working knowledge of some or all of the above mentioned topics who reads and studies this work will almost assuredly be rewarded for their effort. While not a household name in North America, Daniel R. Schwartz is a major contemporary scholar of second temple Judaism. Born in the United States, he moved to Israel at the age of nineteen where he studied under Menahem Stern and has collaborated with the eminent scholar Menachem Mor. He has authored or edited over ten books and has written well over one hundred articles that appear in scholarly journals. His writings are primarily published in Hebrew and secondarily in English. This is only the second book length work devoted to Agrippa 1 that I am aware of. The other being authored by Wolf Wirgin in the 1960's.

Despite Agrippa 1's pivotal importance to the history of the era just prior to the fall of the second Judean state and early Christian origins, a lack of primary source material has made in depth assessments of his life and career rare. In other works, we are most often presented with a harmonized gloss of Josephus devoid of the contradictions and anomalies present in "War..." and "...Antiquities." Also, a little of Philo is usually mixed in for seasoning. In his massive three volume history of the second Judean state, Solomon Zeitlin devotes only thirty pages to this subject and his work is more perceptive and complete than most. That this truncation is grossly inadequate is readily apparent after reading this book by Schwartz. Without the discovery of further primary sources pertaining to this topic, this monograph should stand up indefinitely as the definitive work on Agrippa 1. This is so because Schwartz has exhaustively mined the available sources both primary and secondary, and he has provided every alternative reading imaginable, and finally the author has analyzed and synthesized the material brilliantly.

Structurally the book is divided into three sections. The first is an extensive opening chapter which is a detailed source criticism of Josephus' works pertaining to Agrippa 1. The second is a multi chapter consideration of Agrippa's career and life. This is divided by topics which are generally arranged in chronological order. The third and closing section consists of eleven appendices that bear on the areas covered in the first two sections. They provide further research support for the preceding text as well as many less influential alternative readings excluded from the main narrative. The book is heavily footnoted and much of concern is included in these notes. In addition, two indexes are supplied. One is a subject and ancient source index while the other is an index of secondary authors cited. While no bibliography is provided, back checking from the authors index is a relatively simple method of ascertaining the secondary materials consulted by Schwartz. And amazingly, this index contains over six hundred names!

As to content, the author finds five distinct sources in Josephus's considerations of Agrippa 1. At least two of these were specific to one or the other of his works. Agrippa's life in Rome prepared him to skillfully operate within the political climate that existed there. However, Schwartz finds that both Philo and Josephus grossly exaggerate Agrippa's influence over the emperors with whom he was intimate. Agrippa was always a supplicant and never a prime mover. Even, at the end, when he was back in Palestine and nominally ruling over all of the territory formerly held by Herod the Great, he was but a client King whose power was markedly inferior to that of Marsus, the Roman Governor of Syria. Ultimately, without fully digesting this book, one is almost certain to have a somewhat distorted view of Agrippa 1's career, influence, and power. I have barely scratched the surface of the content of this book. I highly recommend that you seek this book out. Read it and study it. It is pivotal to an understanding of late second temple Judaism and very important to any consideration of the topics mentioned above.