The Historians' History of the World 02 [Israel, India, Persia, Phoenicia, Minor Nations of Western Asia]

Flavius Josephus, a Jew, was born about the year 37 A.D. and died about 95 A.D. He is the one secular historian whose writings had great importance in perpetuating the knowledge of the Jewish history throughout later classical and mediæval times. Indeed, thanks to the subject upon which he wrote, Josephus has continued to be better known to the general public than almost any other classical author. Josephus, though a Jew, spent most of his life in Rome, and he appears to have taken it as his mission to justify his race to his western associates. As is well known, the Jews were not favourably regarded among the Greeks and Romans; hence the character of the narrative of Josephus. His chief work on the history of the Jews is based very manifestly upon the sacred records of his people. It is, in short, in the main a bald transcript, with certain additions and omissions, of the biblical record. It can hardly be maintained that the transcript was made with entire candour and honesty. In the nature of the case, these merits were hardly to be expected of Josephus. He was a Jew, a member of a despised and insignificant race, striving to prove to the most cultured people in the world that the contempt in which they held his compatriots was not merited. His whole effort, therefore, is to magnify the importance of the Jews, to minimise their faults. It is true he introduces into his narrative, here and there, much matter that is not to be found in the Bible records. To a certain extent such matter may be drawn from other Jewish sources that have not come down to us; but it is quite impossible to draw the line between such matter and other matter which the imagination of Josephus may have invented, not indeed as to bald facts, but as to the elaboration of details. The work of Josephus has an added importance in that it brings the history of his race down to his own time; that is to say, to the latter part of the first century A.D. For later events, in some of which the author himself participated as a military leader, the work of Josephus is the highest, if not indeed the sole authority, and we have quoted from him frequently. For the earlier period, Josephus depended upon the traditions of his race.

Jost, Israel Marcus, Geschichte der Israeliten, Berlin, 1820-1847, 12 vols.; Allgemeine Geschichte des israelitischen Volkes, Leipsic, 1850; Geschichte des Judentums und seiner Sekten, Leipsic, 1857-1889, 3 vols.—Justinius, Historiæ Philippicæ et totius Mundi Origenes et Terræ Situs, Venice, 1470.—Jungfer, H., Die Juden unter Friedrich dem Grossen, Leipsic, 1880.—Justi, F., Geschichte der altorientalischen Völker im Altertum, St. Petersburg, 1884.