Josephus Sentence Examples

Josephus used the name Idumaea as including not only Gobalitis, the original Mount Seir, but also Amalekitis, the land of Amalek, west of this, and Akrabatine, the ancient Acrabbim,, S.W.

See Josephus, Antiq.

Originally, however, its formation was very different, as it was intersected by a deep valley, called Tyropoeon by Josephus, which, starting from a point N.W.

Solomon greatly strengthened the fortifications of Jerusalem, and was probably the builder of the line of defence, called by Josephus the first or old wall, which united the cities on the eastern and western hills.

Some writers place it north of the Temple on the site afterwards occupied by the fortress of Antonia, but such a position is not in accord with the descriptions either in Josephus or in the books of the Maccabees, which are quite consistent with each other.

At some period between the time of the Maccabees and of Herod, a second or outer wall had been built outside and north of the first wall, but it is not possible to fix an accurate date to this line of defence, as the references to it in Josephus are obscure.

The writings of Josephus give a good idea of the fortifications and buildings of Jerusalem at the time of the siege, and his accurate personal knowledge makes his account worthy of the most careful perusal.

Although the first definite endeavour to locate the Golden Chersonese thus dates from the middle of the 2nd century of our era, the name was apparently well known to the learned of Europe at a somewhat earlier period, and in his Antiquities of the Jews, written during the latter half of the 1st century, Josephus says that Solomon gave to the pilots furnished to him by Hiram of Tyre commands " that they should go along with his stewards to the land that of old was called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch gold."

The account of Josephus (above) raises several difficulties, especially the identity of Bagoses.

The incidents can be supplemented from Josephus.

There is little doubt that Josephus refers to the same events; but there is considerable confusion in his history of the Persian age, and when he places the schism and the foundation of the new Temple in the time of Alexander the Great (after the obscure disasters of the reign of Artaxerxes III.), it is usually supposed that he is a century too late.

Daniel, Esther, i Esdras, Josephus), the historical narratives are of the scantiest and vaguest until the time of Artaxerxes, when the account of a return (Ezra iv.

The ancient historians, who together cover this period, are strangely indifferent to the importance of the Jews, upon which Josephus is at pains to insist.

In connexion with Alexander's march through Palestine Josephus gives a tradition of his visit to Jerusalem.

According to the tradition which Josephus has preserved the high priest refused to transfer his allegiance, and Alexander marched against Jerusalem after the capture of Gaza.

But Josephus reports of one Onias that for avarice he withheld it.

As tax-farmer he oppressed the non-Jewish cities and so won the admiration of Josephus.

Josephus adds that an Egyptian garrison was left in Jerusalem.

The country was divided into five districts with five synods; and Josephus asserts that the people welcomed the change from the monarchy.

There is a story of a priest named Onias preserved both by Josephus and in the Talmud, which throws some light upon the indecision of the religious in the period just reviewed.

It is to be remembered that, in this and all narratives of the life of Herod, Josephus was dependent upon the history of Herod's client, Nicolaus of Damascus, and was himself a supporter of law and order.

Pollio the Pharisee and Sameas his disciple were in special honour with him, Josephus says, when he re-entered Jerusalem and put to death the leaders of the faction of Antigonus.

Such is the account which Josephus gives in the Antiquities; in the Jewish War he represents the rabbis and their disciples as looking forward to greater happiness for themselves after such a death.

Order was restored by Varus the governor of Syria in a campaign which Josephus describes as the most important war between that of Pompey and that of Vespasian.

The result of this alliance between a revolutionary and a Pharisee was the formation of the party of Zealots, whose influence - according to Josephus - brought about the great revolt and so led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70.

So far as this influence extended, the Jewish community was threatened with the danger of suicide, and the distinction drawn by Josephus between the Pharisees and the Zealots is a valid one.

Josephus' history of the Jews contains accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus, the authenticity of which has been called in question for plausible but not entirely convincing reasons.

But Pilate so conducted affairs as to attract the attention not only of Josephus but also of Philo, who represents for us the Jewish community of Alexandria.

The country, Josephus says, was full of " robbers " and " wizards."

Such deceivers, according to Josephus, did no less than the murderers to destroy the happiness of the city.

By comparison with Florus, Albinus was, in the opinion of Josephus, a benefactor.

Ananus the high priest, their leader, remained in command at Jerusalem; Galilee, where the first attack was to be expected, was entrusted to Josephus, the historian of the war.

Josephus set himself to make an army of the inhabitants of Galilee, many of whom had no wish to fight, and to strengthen the strongholds.

In spite of all this Josephus held his ground and by force or craft put down those who resisted his authority.

The inhabitants of Sepphoris - whom Josephus had judged to be so eager for the war that he left them to build their wall for themselves - received a Roman garrison at their own request.

Before his advance the army of Josephus fled.

Josephus with a few stalwarts took refuge in Tiberias, and sent a letter to Jerusalem asking that he should be relieved of his command or supplied with an adequate force to continue the war.

A deserter announced his arrival to Vespasian, who rejoiced (Josephus says) that the cleverest of his enemies had thus voluntarily imprisoned himself.

Josephus, whose pretences had postponed the final assault, hid in a cave with forty men.

At his suggestion they cast lots, and the first man was killed by the second and so on, until all were dead except Josephus and (perhaps) one other.

So Josephus saved them from the sin of suicide and gave himself up to the Romans.

And so, when Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in fulfilment of Josephus' prophecy, and deputed the command to Titus, there were three rivals at war in Jerusalem - Eleazar, Simon and John.

According to Josephus, Titus decided to spare the Temple, but - whether this was so or not - on the 10th of August it was fired by a soldier after a sortie of the Jews had been repelled.

His zeal, private and public, for Judaism is celebrated by Josephus and the rabbis; and the narrative of Acts xii.

The story in Acts differs slightly from that in Josephus, who describes how in the midst of his elation he saw an owl perched over his head.

Josephus says nothing of his being "eaten of worms," but the discrepancies between the two stories are of slight moment.

It is not certain that it is quoted in the New Testament, but it appears to be included in Josephus' list of sacred books.

John the Baptist condemned his marriage with Herodias, and in consequence was put to death in the way described in the gospels and in Josephus.

In Josephus and the New Testament the name Peraea or ripav Tou 'Iopbavou is most frequently used; and the country is sometimes spoken of by Josephus as divided into small provinces called after the capitals in which Greek colonists had established themselves during the reign of the Seleucidae.

Throughout these years he declined to remove the sentence of excommunication which he had passed upon Michael, and after his death, when the new patriarch Josephus gave absolution to the emperor, the quarrel was carried on between the "Arsenites" and the "Josephists."

It must have early passed out of circulation, as it was unknown to Josephus.

Making friends with Alityrus, a Jewish actor, who was a favourite of Nero, Josephus obtained an introduction to the empress Poppaea and effected his purpose by her help. His visit to Rome enabled him to speak from personal experience of the power of the Empire, when he expostulated with the revolutionary Jews on his return to Palestine.

In the spring of 67 the Jewish troops, whom Josephus had drilled so sedulously, fled before the Roman forces of Vespasian and Titus.

Josephus providentially drew the last lot and prevailed upon his destined victim to live.

Their companions were all dead in accordance with the compact; but Josephus at any rate survived and surrendered.

The Jewish War (I Ept Tou'IovIcdKoli 7ro%Egov), the oldest of Josephus' extant writings, was written towards the end of Vespasian's reign (69-79) The Aramaic original has not been preserved; but the Greek version was prepared by Josephus himself in conjunction with competent Greek scholars.

Of its seven books, the first two survey the history of the Jews from the capture of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the outbreak of war in 67, and here Josephus relies upon some such general history as that of Nicolaus of Damascus.

In the part covered by the books of the Bible Josephus follows them, and that mainly, if not entirely as they are translated into Greek by the Seventy (the Septuagint version).

The work contains accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus, which may account for the fact that Josephus' writings were rescued from oblivion by the Christians.

Josephus wrote a narrative of his own Life in order to defend himself against the accusation brought by his enemy Justus of Tiberias to the effect that he had really been the cause of the Jewish rebellion.

In his defence Josephus departs from the facts as narrated in the Jewish War and represents himself as a partisan of Rome and, therefore, as a traitor to his own people from the beginning.

The defence which Josephus puts forward has a permanent value and shows him at his best.

But there is no evidence that the Jews were involved in these; for the account which Josephus gives of Bagoses' oppression of the Jews represents the trouble as having arisen originally from internal dissensions, and does not hint at anything of the nature of a rebellion against Persia.

Even Josephus does not say that the Persians tried to interfere with the Jews in the exercise of their religion; and nothing less than this would satisfy the language of Ps.

According to Josephus they symbolized the lightning and thunder respectively.

Had the native history of Berossus survived, this would not have been the case; all that is known of the Chaldaean historian's work, however, is derived from quotations in Josephus, Ptolemy, Eusebius and the Syncellus.

The caves were also fortified against the Romans by Josephus.

They possess - not in Hebrew, of which they are altogether ignorant, but in Ethiopic (or Geez)- the canonical and apocryphal books of the Old Testament; a volume of extracts from the Pentateuch, with comments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai; the Te-e-sa-sa Sanbat, or laws of the Sabbath; the Ardit, a book of secrets revealed to twelve saints, which is used as a charm against disease; lives of Abraham, Moses, &c.; and a translation of Josephus called Sana Aihud.

The Latin translations of the Antiquities of Josephus and of the ecclesiastical histories of Theodoret, Sozomen and Socrates, under the title of Historia Tripartita (embracing the years 3 06 -439), were carried out under his supervision.

He supplied Josephus with information for his history.

In the Roman camp the rabbi was courteously received, and Vespasian (whose future elevation to the imperial dignity Johanan, like Josephus, is said to have foretold) agreed to grant him any boon he desired.

Many fanciful legends about Abraham founded on Biblical accounts or spun out of the fancy are to be found in Josephus, and in post-Biblical and Mahommedan literature; for these, reference may be made to Beer, Leben Abrahams (1859); Gri nbaum, Neue Beitrdge z.

This work was valuable for the use which its author made of the Greek of the Septuagint, of the Old and New Testament Apocrypha, of Josephus, and of the apostolic fathers, in illustration of the language of the New Testament.

The sacred feasts of the Essenes and Therapeutae in particular, as described by Josephus and Philo, closely resembled the Eucharistic agape.

On the other hand, Josephus knows nothing of a younger Lysanias, and it is suggested by others that he really does refer to Lysanias I.

Krenkel (Josephus and Lucas, Leipzig, 18 94, p. 97) is that Josephus does not mean to imply that Abila was the only possession of Lysanias, and that he calls it the tetrarchy or kingdom of Lysanias because it was the last remnant of the domain of Lysanias which remained under direct Roman administration until the time of Agrippa.

The expression was borrowed from Josephus by Luke, who wrongly imagined that Lysanias I.

Josephus 7 paraphrases the story more suo, and speaks of Balaam as the best prophet of his time, but with a disposition ill adapted to resist temptation.

Having gained possession of the northern suburb, he attacked the temple mount; but, after five days' fighting, just when (according to Josephus) success was within his grasp, he unaccountably withdrew his forces.

Beside him are the Celts Josephus Scottus and Dungal, the Lombards Paulinus and Paulus Diaconus, the West Goth Theodulf and many Franks.

The Greek versions, as well as Josephus, refer to them as iepbbouXot, which can mean one thing only.

Philo, De posteriori Caini, § 3, explains the name as meaning iroru ryos,"watering" or "irrigation," connecting it with the Hebrew root Sh Th Josephus, Ant.

They discovered astronomy, and inscribed their discoveries on two pillars, one of which, says Josephus, survived in his time.

The date of the completed Luke depends (a) on whether or not we believe Luke himself or a later disciple to be the author, and (b) whether or not we believe that the author of Acts had seen Josephus' Antiquities, published in A.D.

But as two years only of Felix's rule (52-54) fell under Claudius, this procedure would be quite natural on Josephus's part if his recall were dated in 58 or 59, so that four or five years fell under Nero.

But (i.) Nero 2 is really September 56-September 57; (ii.) it is doubtful whether Eusebius had any authority to depend on here other than Josephus, who gives no precise year for Festus - Julius Africanus is, hardly probable, since we know that his chronicle was very jejune for the Christian period - and if so, Eusebius had to find a year as best he could.'

Thus the point that Josephus catalogues the events of Felix's procuratorship under Nero cannot be pressed to bring down Felix's tenure as far as 60 or 61, but it does seem to exclude as early a termination as 56, or even 57.

His works have perished, but extracts from the history have been preserved by Josephus and Eusebius, the latter of whom probably derived them not directly from Berossus, but through the medium of Alexander Polyhistor and Apollodorus.

Josephus, who constantly calls him " the Cappadocian," often quotes from him, but does not mention the title of the work.

Josephus has related the curious circumstances under which he ultimately transferred his personal support from the former to the latter.

The name, though at one time identified with that of the historian Josephus, is perhaps a corruption of Hegesippus, from whom (according to Trieber) the author derived much of his material.

The original accounts we have of them are confined to three authors - Philo, Pliny the Elder, and Josephus.

Josephus himself made trial of the sect of Essenes in his youth; but from his own statement it appears that he must have been a very short time with them, and therefore could not have been initiated into the inner mysteries of the society (De vita sua, 2).

Though their prevailing tendency was practical, and the tenets of the society were kept a profound secret, it is perfectly clear from the concurrent testimony of Philo and Josephus that they cultivated a kind of speculation, which not only accounts for their spiritual asceticism, but indicates a great deviation from the normal development of Judaism, and a profound sympathy with Greek philosophy, and probably also with Oriental ideas.

Josephus informs us that they had no single city of their own, but that many of them dwelt in every city.

Josephus tells us too that the Essenes believed in fate; but in what sense, and what relation it bore to Divine Providence, does not appear.

From Josephus we learn that it.

From 970 to 772 B.C. the bare outline of events is supplied by extracts from two Hellenistic historians, Menander of Ephesus and Dius (largely dependent upon Menander), which have been preserved by Josephus, Ant.

The list of Hiram's successors given by Josephus indicates frequent changes of dynasty until the time of Ithobal I.

Josephus (loc.cit.) is again our authority for the changes of government which followed until the monarchy was revived.

Dr Tristram was the first explorer to identify this fish, and on account of its presence suggested the identification of the "round spring" with the fountain of Capharnaum, which, according to Josephus, watered the plain of Gennesareth.

The ruin of Kerak answers to the description given by Josephus of the city of Taricheae, which lay 30 stadia from Tiberias, the hot baths being between the two cities.

Avaris is generally assigned to the region towards Pelusium on the strength of its being located in the Sethroite nome by Josephus, but Petrie thinks it was at Tell el-Yahudiyeh (Yehudia), where Hyksos scarabs are common.

According to the narrative of the Hebrew text, here differing from the Greek text and Josephus (which read Askelon), it was the last town to which the ark was transferred before its restoration to the Israelites.

The statements, for instance, of Josephus that the Jews were given full citizen rights in the new foundations are probably false (Willrich, Juden and Griechen vor der makkabciischen Erhebung, 18 95, p. 19 f.).

The Hyksos, in whom Josephus recognized the children of Israel, worshipped their own Syrian deity, identifying him with the Egyptian god Seth, and endeavoured to establish his cult throughout Egypt to the detriment of the native gods.

The natural arrangement (which is assumed by Philo and Josephus) would be five and five.

Everything - the repeated statements of Josephus and the facts of Jewish history after A.D.

Attempts have been made in modern times to represent the Apocalyptists as opposed to the Pharisees and as occupying the position in popular estimation which Josephus ascribes to the Pharisees.

Though hard pressed by poverty, he applied himself to study in the schools of Shemaiah and Abtalion (Sameas and Pollion in Josephus).

The fact that Josephus (Vita 38) ascribes to Simon descent from a very distinguished stock ('y vovs acbo pa Aaµirpov), shows in what degree of estimation Hillel's descendants stood.

The mingling of despotism and good-natured familiarity there described (and the spirit is doubtless correctly given by Josephus, whether or not his details are historical) agrees with the picture in Proverbs.

Whenever this occupation took place, Ptolemy became master of Palestine in 312 B.C., and though, as Josephus complains, he may have disgraced his title, Soler, by momentary severity at the outset, later he created in the minds of the Jews the impression that in Palestine or in Egypt he was - in deed as well as in name - their preserver.

In consequence of this deficiency he failed to pay the tribute due from the people to Ptolemy, as his fathers had done, and is set down by Josephus as a miser who cared nothing for the protest of Ptolemy's special ambassador.

References to authorities other than Josephus are given in the course of the article; his Antiquities and War are the chief source for the period.

We are enabled thus to contrast Tacitus with Josephus, who warped his narrative to do honour to Titus.

But in the Aramaic versions Rekem is the name of Kadesh; Josephus may have confused the two places.

In the neighbourhood is a watersource, Ain et-Tabighah, an Arabic corruption of Heptapegon or Seven Springs (referred to by Josephus as being near Capernaum).

If, indeed, it were proved that Acts uses the later works of Josephus, we should have to place the book about A.D.

Three points of contact with Josephus in particular are cited.

Hence the parallel, when analysed, tells against dependence on Josephus.

Of all his labours the most useful is his translation of Josephus (1737), with valuable notes and dissertations, often reprinted.

Longimanus, the son and successor of Xerxes, though countenanced by Josephus, deserves little consideration.

Josephus displays no knowledge of the work, but he may have been animated by the same prejudice as the Pharisees of St Jerome's day, whose displeasure, that father tells us, he had to face in giving to Latin readers a book which was against their canon.

Regarding his authorship of a work on the Jews (utilized by Josephus in Contra Apionem), it is conjectured that portions of the Aiywnrrtath were revised by a Hellenistic Jew from his point of view and published as a special work.

Theoretically it was in the territory of the tribe of Asher, and Josephus assigns it by name to the district of one of Solomon's provincial governors.

The Greek historians name it Ake (Josephus calls it also Akre); but the name was changed to Ptolemais, probably by Ptolemy Soter, after the partition of the kingdom of Alexander.

The testimony of Josephus, who often names the temple hill "Moriah," is of course not original, and of no weight.

According to Josephus, Abilene was a separate Iturean kingdom till A.D.

The hot springs mentioned by Josephus (and also by Pliny) are about half an hour's journey to the south.

Josephus uses the term of the national restoration of the Jews, Plutarch of the transmigration of souls, and Cicero of his own return from exile.

Josephus uses the word of Nazirites and of the temple treasure of Jerusalem.

Josephus might have added that they were disposed to treat aliens as they should have treated their friends.

The best-known of these ("Bagoses" in Josephus) became the confidential minister of Artaxerxes III.

Josephus, who places the reign of Cyrus forty to fifty years too early, makes a similar error.

Since the time of Josephus it has been identified with the Jebel Nebi .-Iarun ("` Mountain of the Prophet Aaron"), a twin-peaked mountain 4780 ft.

In the time of Josephus it seems that the light shekel weighed from 210 to 210.55 grains; the heavy shekel was twice that amount, which is practically identical with the Phoenician weight (224.4 grains).

On his deathbed Herod discovered that his eldest son, Antipater, whom Josephus calls a "monster of iniquity," had been plotting against him.

See Josephus, Cont.

In the hills north of the Buttauf is Jefat, situated on a steep hill-top, and representing the Jotapata defended by Josephus.

Josephus gives a good description of the Galilee of his time in Wars, iii.

The identification of them with the jewels of the breastplate and on the shoulders of the high priest (which apparently has the authority of Josephus) is unwarranted; other ancient guesses are equally baseless.

The latest source, it is true, is without their freshness and life, but it is a matter for thankfulness that the simple compilers were conservative, and have neither presented a work entirely on the lines of P, nor rewritten their material as was done by the author of Jubilees and by Josephus.

A "Fifth" book is contained in the Ambrosian Peshitta, but it seems to be merely a Syriac reproduction of the sixth book of Josephus's history of the Jewish War.

Josephus refers the legend on which it is based to the time of Ptolemy VII.

In the early Church the work was commonly ascribed to Josephus and incorporated with his writings.

He acknowledges that it is a history of Hyrcanus practically on the lines of Josephus, but concludes from its Hebraistic style that it was not from that writer's pen.

The probability, however, is that it was " simply a reproduction of Josephus, the style being changed perhaps for a purpose " (Schiirer).

The Arabic " Book of Maccabees " contained in the Paris and London Polyglotts, and purporting to be a history of the Jews from the affair of Heliodorus (186 B.C.) to the close of Herod's reign, is historically worthless, being nothing but a compilation from i and 2 Macc. and Josephus.

And it is just possible that it is worth notice that, though the name of Ahasuerus corresponds to Xerxes, Josephus identifies him with Artaxerxes I.

The name in Josephus is Asphaltites, referring to the bituminous deposits above alluded to.

Tacitus and Josephus mention boats on the lake, and boats are shown upon it in the Madeba mosaic. The navigation dues formed part of the revenue of the lords of Kerak under the crusaders.

The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (which of course they believed to be under the waters of the lake, in accordance with the absurd theory first found in Josephus and still often repeated) blinded these good pilgrims to the ever-fresh beauty of this most lovely lake, whose blue and sparkling waters lie deep between rocks and precipices of unsurpassable grandeur.

He published in 1837 a student's edition of the Greek Testament, and an edition of the Greek and Latin texts of the History of the Jewish War, by Josephus, with illustrative notes.

They had begun it together in Syria, she copying the pages as he wrote them, with a New Testament and a Josephus for all his library.

Josephus writes that the High Priest wore a headpiece on which... ...was engraved the sacred name.

Josephus commits himself to a fairly precise date for the closing of the Canon.

The difficulty is increased by the fact that the geographical descriptions given in the Old Testament, the Apocrypha and the writings of Josephus are very short, and, having been written for those who were acquainted with the places, convey insufficient information to historians of the present day, when the sites are so greatly altered.

On the other hand, a place can hardly be found for the history of Ezra before the appearance of Nehemiah; he moves in a settled and peaceful community such as Nehemiah had helped to form, his reforms appear to be more mature and schematic than those of Nehemiah; and, whilst Josephus handles the two separately, giving Ezra the priority, many recent scholars incline to place Nehemiah's first visit before the arrival of Ezra.'

Hearing that Vespasian was preparing to besiege Jotapata, a strong fortress in the hills, which was held by other fugitives, Josephus entered it just before the road approaching it was made passable for the Roman horse and foot.

Once more Josephus appealed in vain to John and his followers to cease from desecrating and endangering the Temple.

Josephus informs us that, after the murder of his father, Herod the Great sent him to Rome to the court of Tiberius, who conceived a great affection for him, and placed him near his son Drusus, whose favour he very soon won.

It seems to have soon passed out of use as a precise geographical designation; for though occasionally mentioned by Apocryphal writers, by Josephus, and by Eusebius, the allusions are all vague, and show that those who made them had no definite knowledge of Gilead proper.

But the dynasty was known to Josephus and the Mishna (once) as "the sons (race) of the Asamonaeans (of A.)"; and the Targum of 1 Sam.

In company with two other priests, Josephus was sent to Galilee under orders (he says) to persuade the illaffected to lay down their arms and return to the Roman allegiance, which the Jewish aristocracy had not yet renounced.

Josephus, who as a priest knew the pronunciation of the name, declares that religion forbids him to divulge it; Philo calls it ineffable, and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple); and in another passage, commenting on Lev.

Josephus's Jewish Wars and Antiquities differ by one in the number of years they allot to his reign over the tetrarchies (the former work says three years, the latter four), but agree in the more important datum that he reigned three years more after the grant from Claudius, which would make the latest limit of his death the spring of A.D.

Numerous instructive examples of the active tendency to develop tradition may be observed in the relationship between Genesis and the " Book of Jubilees," or in the embellishments of Old Testament history in the Antiquities of Josephus, or in the widening gaps in the diverse traditions of the famous figures of the Old Testament (Adam, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Ezra, &c.), as they appear in noncanonical writings.

Apart from medieval and other very uncertain data, such as the Sabbath day's journey being 2000 middling paces for 2000 cubits, it appears that Josephus, using the Greek or Roman cubit, gives half as many more to each dimension of the temple than does the Talmud; this shows the cubit used in the Talmud for temple measures to be certainly not under 25 in.