Josephus, FLAVIUS, a celebrated Jewish historian, was born at Jerusalem in 37 A.D. He was of both royal and sacerdotal lineage, being descended, on the mother's side, from the line of Asmonean princes, while his father, Matthias, officiated as a priest in the first of the twenty-four courses. The careful education he received developed his brilliant faculties at an unusually early age, and his acquirements both in Hebrew and Greek literature soon drew public attention upon him. Having successively attended the lectures at the paramount religious schools of his time—'sects,' as he inaccurately terms them—he withdrew into the desert to sit at the feet of one Banos, who is conjectured to have been either a follower of John the Baptist or an Essene. Three years later he returned to Jerusalem, and henceforth belonged to the body of the 'Pharisees,' which in fact comprised the bulk of the people. So highly was his ability esteemed that at the age of only twenty-six he was chosen delegate to Nero. When the Jews rose in their last and fatal insurrection against the Romans Josephus was appointed governor of Galilee. Here he displayed the greatest valour and prudence; but the advance of the Roman general Vespasian (67 A.D.) made resistance hopeless. The city of Jotapata into which Josephus had thrown himself was taken after a desperate resistance of forty-seven days. Along with some others he concealed himself in a cavern, but his hiding-place was discovered, and being brought before Vespasian he would have been sent to Nero had he not—according to his own account, for Josephus is his own and his sole biographer—prophesied that his captor would yet become emperor of Rome. Nevertheless he was kept in a sort of easy imprisonment for about three years. Josephus was present in the Roman army at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus; and after the fall of the city (70 A.D.) was instrumental in saving the lives of some of his relatives. After this he appears to have resided at Rome, and to have devoted himself to literary studies. The exact period of his death is not ascertained. All we know is that he survived Agrippa II., who died 97 A.D. He was thrice married, and had children by his second and third wives. His works are the History of the Jewish War, in 7 books, written both in Hebrew and Greek (the Hebrew version is no longer extant); Jewish Antiquities, in 20 books, containing the history of his countrymen from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of Nero (the fictitious Hebrew Josippon, which for a long time was identified with Josephus' Antiquities, dates from the 10th century A.D.); a treatise on the Antiquity of the Jews, against Apion, in 2 vols., valuable chiefly for its extracts from old historical writers; and an Auto-biography (37–90 A.D.), in one book, which may be considered supplementary to the Antiquities. The other works attributed to him are not believed to be genuine.
The peculiar character of Josephus is not difficult to describe. He was in the main honest and veracious; he had a sincere liking for his countrymen, and rather more pride and enthusiasm in the old national history than he could well justify; but the hopelessness of attempting to withstand the enormous power of the Romans and an aversion to martyrdom caused him to make his terms with the enemy, perhaps in the faint hope of being thus of some use to the national cause. The influence of Greek philosophy and learning is visible in all his writings, and has given to his conception of biblical history a somewhat rationalistic tinge. He speaks of Moses as a human rather than a divinely inspired lawgiver; he doubts the miracle in the crossing of the Red Sea, the swallowing of Jonah by the whale, and, generally speaking, whatever is calculated to teach that there was a special miraculous Providence at work on behalf of the chosen people. The famous passage about Jesus is generally conceded to be an interpolation. His style is easy and elegant, and Josephus has often been called the Greek Livy.
The editio princeps of the Greek text appeared at Basel (Froben) in 1544. Since then the most important editions (with notes) are those of Hudson (Oxford, 1720), Havercamp (Amst. 1726), Dindorf (Paris, 1845–47), Bekker (6 vols. Leip. 1855–56), and Niese (Berlin, 1886 et seq.). Josephus has been frequently translated; the most celebrated versions in English have been those by
L'Estrange (1702), Whiston (1737; new and revised edition by Shillete, 5 vols. 1889–90), Maynard (1800), and Traill and Taylor (1851). See the German books devoted to Josephus by Bärwald (1877), Böttger (1879), Bloch (1879), Destimon (1882), and Oltzki (1886).