Customer Reviews

Josephus Complete Works

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This is a great book, a must read.

A lot of reviewers are Christians who value this book for providing the historical background to the New Testament, since Josephus lived very close to that time period. Yes, definitely, this book has value for that purpose.

Much of the book is a re-telling of the history of the Jews, stuff from the Old Testament/Tanakh, which Josephus knew well from his origins as a Pharisee.

In my view, though, the book is most important for a reason only briefly mentioned by other reviewers - the book answers a central question that has always struck me whenever I read about the modern history of the Jewish people and the re-establishment of the State of Israel - how did it come to pass that the Jews lost their homeland in Palestine in the first place? Few modern Jewish historians ever go back that far and write about this subject.

In this book, Flavius Josephus gives a detailed and grisly eyewitness account of the destruction of Jerusalem and the slaughter of over 1.3 million Jews (he provides the number of dead in this book), and later enslavement of tens of thousands of the survivors, by the Romans in 70 A.D. This all came about as a result of the unyielding Jewish rebellion against Roman rule.

It was this destruction of Jerusalem, and the Great Temple, that directly led to the Jewish Diaspora. (The Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, is all that's left today of the Temple).

Which was what caused the Jews to be dispersed all over Europe. Which eventually led to the Holocaust. Which led to the Zionist movement (initially only a fringe movement with few converts willing to move back to Palestine) succeeding in finding the converts and refugees willing to return to the heartland of their faith. The rapid flood of Jews into Palestine and the war that resulted from the re-establishment of the State of Israel all led to the displacement of the then current inhabitants, the Arab Palestinians. Which of course brings us to where we are today.....

Few Jews seem to care much for Josephus, and certainly he gives them good reason to be thought of as a traitor. After all, he did start out as one of the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans, and ended up as a Roman collaborator in the destruction of Jerusalem.

After initial success fighting against the Romans, Josephus became trapped in one of the rebelling towns. When his fellow rebels could not be dissuaded to surrender, he proposed that they all commit suicide by drawing lots and having each man in sequence kill the one before him. Josephus managed to be the last one in line, and then, being the last one alive, didn't follow through with his own suicide.

After being captured by the forces of the Roman general Vespasian, Josephus then managed to save himself by making a prediction that Vespasian would become emperor. I found it interesting that Vespasian, who was no fool, clearly thought that Josephus was just sucking up to him and did not release him right away. Instead, Vespasian kept Josephus imprisoned until, miraculously, Josephus's prediction came true (after Nero's suicide and a civil war with a succession of three other Roman generals claiming the throne, Vespasian emerged victorious as the new emperor).

No, Josephus was not a really admirable sort of fellow. And as his account is one of the few that describes the destruction of Jerusalem (and of many other mass killings of Jews during this time, including the story of what happened at Masada), it is easy to see why Jews would not want to re-visit this part of their history.

In his description of the siege of Jerusalem, there are plenty of details of the internecine hatred that existed between the Jews and the various other peoples of the Middle East, even back then. A lot of these other people took advantage of this siege to get their revenge against the Jews stuck in Jerusalem.

Yes, read this book, and you will come to understand that the origins of the Middle East conflict of today goes back some 2,000 years, back to the time that Jerusalam was destroyed and the Jewish people dispersed. This book tells how all of that happened, and how it all started.

Without repeating what most of the other reviewers said, I do recommend this book to anyone interested in Biblical history.

Josephus had access to materials long since lost, which helps shed great light on things. He himself often refers to other documents that are unknown.

Take a little caution - Josephus was a Pharisee. Jesus continually condemned the Pharisee's of placing man-made tradition above the word of God. Josephus depends on a lot of tradition as well as historical documents.

This edition was translated by William Whiston, who lived in the 17th century. The translator often adds footnotes, which are sometimes confusing. The translator also renders speech into that mode often referred to as "King James English", which makes the dialogue sometimes hard to follow.

This was is a very good deal. Not only is it hardcover but it includes all of Josephus' works and for a very good price. It is a definate necessity for anyone interested in New Testament history.

Anyone interested in the modern view of the Jewish faith and the Jewish people must start in the past, and this book is the canonical reference. In addition, anyone who is interested in Biblical history and apologetics will be interested in the reading of this book, as well as those involved in the study of the ancient Greek language. The translator includes passages in original Greek for these readers, and as one who was learning ancient Greek at the time I read it, it was helpful to have these included in the book. It would take an established expert however to judge whether the translation of Whiston, who lived in the time of Isaac Newton, is in any sense an adequate one.

One also learns briefly of the life of Josephus, and gains an insight as to why Josephus chose to write this lengthy history of the Jewish people. What is most interesting about the reading of Josephus is his reliance on Jewish scriptures for delineating the history of the Jewish people before his time. He departs from this however when discussing the events of his own time. In addition, the reader obtains a discussion of the famous passages in Josephus on the historical authenticity of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, these being questioned by some scholars of Josephus.

This is a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in Palestine as it was during the intertestimental period. Himself a Jew who was taken captive by his Roman conquerors, Flavius Josephus became an accomplished historian of his day and his writings demonstrate an intimate knowledge of the Romans and Jews of his time. His writings offer insights into Jewish history, religion and customs as well as the war which ended Jewish independence for nearly two thousand years.

As with any account of history, this one bears its own biases and preferences. Begin with a personal study of Josephus and his background and what we know of the production of his historical accounts. From this starting point, however, nothing will prove more satisfying than reading the words of Josephus (in translation) for yourself! This volume begins with the historian's own autobiography and it only gets better as one continues to read.

Whiston's translation is so lucid and enduring that you could probably pull a forensic psychological profile of Josephus from his translation.

This tome gives a whole new flavor to Hebrew history. Antiquities isn't merely a re-telling of the Old Testament; there's fresh new material in there about the Legislator (Moses), and many other great characters from Israelite history.

One gets a sense, through the text, of the conflicted Josephus: A man who was a Pharisee by early training and in his heart, yet a Roman intellectually and through adoption. Late in life, Josephus became a sort of Christian (whether or not through his Ebionitism he was able to accept Christ as divine is uncertain), but he was always devoted - at least academically - to his Jewish ethnicity. He was also a survivor and, in my opinion, probably possessed an expediency that the martyrs would have found distasteful.

Through it all, his histories have generally been given great credence by historians who, since they can corroborate some of it, come to rely on most of it. I use Josephus along with Smith's Bible Dictionary as two of my half-dozen principal tools in adding flavor and color to my Bible studies.

The works of Josephus are a must read for every Christian. The author offers an eye-witness account of the war between the Jews and the Romans, and unbelievable details on the destruction of Jerusalem. Compare the prophecies from Revelation to the details given by Josephus, and you will get a whole new understanding about the meaning of Revelation, and the fact that Revelation is really not about some future event, but in fact about the destruction of Jerusalem (also called Sodom, Egypt and Babylon by John in Revelation).

Read what Josephus wrote about prophecy fulfillments, such as

- angelic armies in the clouds (Wars 6.5.3)

- false prophets (Wars 6.5.2)

- the destruction of Jerusalem was worse than any since creation (Wars 5.10.5)

- the jews fought each other and did more damage than the romans (Ezekiel 38.21, Wars 2.17.1-1)

- Josephus describing the jewish revolt against the romans as a "beast" (Revelation 16:10, Wars 4.7.4; 4.9.8; 5.1.1; 5.2.5)

- the jews set fire to their own temple first, not the romans (Rev 17:16, Wars 6.2.9)

- pools of blood and intense fires like John describes in Revelation (Wars 2.18)

- genealogical records destroyed in the fire (Wars 6.6.3)-

- roman soldiers sacrificed their own animals in the temple (Wars 5.1.2,3,5)

- cannibalism took place in Jerusalem (Wars 5.1.4)

- there were hailstones the weight of a talent and blasphemy of the jews (Revelation 16:21, Wars 3.7.9; 5.6.3)

- a prophet named Jesus came and pronounced three woes against Jerusalem (Wars 6.5.3)

- daily sacrifices ceased in the middle of the week (Daniel 9:27, Wars 6.2.1).

This book is simply amazing, and it is not only an excellent historical reference, but also a great resource for theology students. With the price that amazon gives you, this is a MUST BUY, no question about it.

I think the book of Josephus is a must for anyone that wants to fully understand the Bible. To understand the history of the Bible is the key to fuuly understanding the scripture.

This is a great book to complete or add to your knowledge of the times when Jesus lived. Josephus was a scholar and not a christian or follower of Jesus, but really documented life around him as he saw it. A lot that he wrote gives the manner and customs of the time and makes 2000 yrs ago come to light. He is very detailed and a great journalist. A must for any biblical scholar of today.

The book arrived in timely manner, was well-wrapped, in great condition for a used book - and have been enjoying it immensely!!

Thank you Amazon!!