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Title: Josephus Complete Works by William, A.M. Whiston ISBN: 0-7852-1427-5 Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers Pub. Date: 15 November, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.97 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Captivating reading
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Getting the "news" from 20 centuries ago!
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: The begining of the beginning of the Middle East conflict.
Comment: 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/Talmud, 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 in Jerusalem today is all that's left 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 and realized that the Romans were too powerful and would kill them all. So he devised a scheme to escape with his own life in a rather dastardly fashion: he urged his fellow rebel leaders to all commit suicide together before the Romans captured them, and then managed to be the last one to take the poison. Of course, being the last one alive, he didn't follow through with his own suicide. Later on, after being captured by the Romans, he managed to save himself by predicting that the Roman general 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, 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.
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Title: Eusebius: The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine (Penguin Classics) by Eusebius, G.A. Williamson ISBN: 0140445358 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes ISBN: 0140278079 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Josephus and New Testament (Recent Releases) by Mason ISBN: 156563795X Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Eusebius, the Church History: A New Translation With Commentary by Eusebius, Paul L. Maier ISBN: 0825433282 Publisher: Kregel Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.99 |
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Title: The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition by Flavius Josephus, William Whiston ISBN: 0913573868 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers Pub. Date: 01 September, 1980 List Price(USD): $14.97 |
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