The Wars of the Jews

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Penguin Classics 1981 edition of Josephus' The Jewish War

The Wars of the Jews (or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, or as it usually appears in modern English translations, The Jewish War) is a book written by the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus. It is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman War in AD 73. The book was written about 75, originally in Josephus's "paternal tongue", probably Aramaic, though this version has not survived. It was later translated into Greek, probably under the supervision of Josephus himself.

Although Josephus' account was the only knowledge that we have of this war, the neutrality and integrity behind this writing must be questioned. Josephus was a Jew captured by the Romans and it was under the command of the Roman emperor that this account of The Jewish War was written. Within it, without actually making accusations the Jews are portrayed as weak and unorganized.^{[citation needed]}

The most blatant possibility of bias in the account is Josephus' implication that the Jews were the cause of the war. Supposedly the last remaining sons of the Maccabees (see the Hannukah story) were fighting for the throne and to solve their quarrel, they invited the Romans in. The two brothers then let the Romans basically take over the command, which the Romans happily accepted. The Romans then put the weaker brother in power and controlled a sort of puppet regime. It was then Roman taxes which inspired the Jewish "nationalists" (if nationalism was a relevant concept in ancient times), or zealots, to rebel and start the war.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reference

The Jewish War: Revised Edition ISBN 0-14-044420-3.

[edit] External links

Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Flavius Josephus The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem