my knowledge, ran away to the king; the occasion of which I will here
relate. Upon the beginning of the war between the Jews and Romans, the
people of Tiberias resolved to submit to the king, and not to revolt
from the Romans; while Justus tried to persuade them to betake
themselves to their arms, as being himself desirous of innovations, and
having hopes of obtaining the government of Galilee, as well as of his
own country [Tiberias] also. Yet did he not obtain what he hoped for,
because the Galileans bore ill-will to those of Tiberias, and this on
account of their anger at what miseries they had suffered from them
before the war; thence it was that they would not endure that Justus
should be their governor. I myself also, who had been intrusted by the
community of Jerusalem with the government of Galilee, did frequently
come to that degree of rage at Justus, that I had almost resolved
to kill him, as not able to bear his mischievous disposition. He was
therefore much afraid of me, lest at length my passion should come to
extremity; so he went to the king, as supposing that he would dwell
better and more safely with him.
71. Now, when the people of Sepphoris had, in so surprising a manner,
escaped their first danger, they sent to Cestius Gallus, and desired him
to come to them immediately, and take possession of their city, or else
to send forces sufficient to repress all their enemies' incursions
upon them; and at the last they did prevail with Gallus to send them a
considerable army, both of horse and foot, which came in the night time,
and which they admitted into the city. But when the country round about
it was harassed by the Roman army, I took those soldiers that were about
me, and came to Garisme, where I cast up a bank, a good way off the city
Sepphoris; and when I was at twenty furlongs distance, I came upon it by
night, and made an assault upon its walls with my forces; and when I had
ordered a considerable number of my soldiers to scale them with ladders,
I became master of the greatest part of the city. But soon after, our
unacquaintedness with the places forced us to retire, after we had
killed twelve of the Roman footmen, and two horsemen, and a few of the
people of Sepphoris, with the loss of only a single man of our own. And
when it afterwards came to a battle in the plain against the horsemen,
and we had undergone the dangers of it courageously for a long time, we
were beaten; for upon the Romans encompassing me about, my soldiers were
afraid, and fell back. There fell in that battle one of those that had
been intrusted to guard my body; his name was Justus, who at this
time had the same post with the king. At the same time also there
came forces, both horsemen and footmen, from the king, and Sylla their
commander, who was the captain of his guard: this Sylla pitched his camp
at five furlongs' distance from Julias, and set a guard upon the roads,
both that which led to Cana, and that which led to the fortress Gamala,
that he might hinder their inhabitants from getting provisions out of
Galilee.
72. As soon as I had gotten intelligence of this, I sent two thousand
armed men, and a captain over them, whose name was Jeremiah, who raised
a bank a furlong off Julias, near to the river Jordan, and did no
more than skirmish with the enemy; till I took three thousand soldiers
myself, and came to them. But on the next day, when I had laid an ambush
in a certain valley, not far from the banks, I provoked those that
belonged to the king to come to a battle, and gave orders to my own
soldiers to turn their backs upon them, until they should have drawn the
enemy away from their camp, and brought them out into the field, which
was done accordingly; for Sylla, supposing that our party did really
run away, was ready to pursue them, when our soldiers that lay in ambush
took them on their backs, and put them all into great disorder. I also
immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces, and met those of the
king's party, and put them to flight. And I had performed great things
that day, if a certain fate had not been my hinderance; for the horse
on which I rode, and upon whose back I fought, fell into a quagmire, and
threw me on the ground, and I was bruised on my wrist, and carried into
a village named Cepharnome, or Capernaum. When my soldiers heard of
this, they were afraid I had been worse hurt than I was; and so they
did not go on with their pursuit any further, but returned in very great
concern for me. I therefore sent for the physicians, and while I was
under their hands, I continued feverish that day; and as the physicians
directed, I was that night removed to Taricheee.
73. When Sylla and his party were informed what happened to me, they
took courage again; and understanding that the watch was negligently
kept in our camp, they by night placed a body of horsemen in ambush
beyond Jordan, and when it was day they provoked us to fight; and as we
did not refuse it, but came into the plain, their horsemen appeared out
of that ambush in which they had lain, and put our men into disorder,
and made them run away; so they slew six men of our side. Yet did they
not go off with the victory at last; for when they heard that some armed
men were sailed from Taricheae to Juli, they were afraid, and retired.
74. It was not now long before Vespasian came to Tyre, and king Agrippa
with him; but the Tyrians began to speak reproachfully of the king,
and called him an enemy to the Romans. For they said that Philip, the
general of his army, had betrayed the royal palace and the Roman forces
that were in Jerusalem, and that it was done by his command. When
Vespasian heard of this report, he rebuked the Tyrians for abusing a man
who was both a king and a friend to the Romans; but he exhorted the king
to send Philip to Rome, to answer for what he had done before Nero. But
when Philip was sent thither, he did not come into the sight of Nero,
for he found him very near death, on account of the troubles that then
happened, and a civil war; and so he returned to the king. But when
Vespasian was come to Ptolemais, the chief men of Decapolis of Syria
made a clamor against Justus of Tiberias, because he had set their
villages on fire: so Vespasian delivered him to the king, to be put to
death by those under the king's jurisdiction; yet did the king only put
him into bonds, and concealed what he had done from Vespasian, as I have
before related. But the people of Sepphoris met Vespasian, and saluted
him, and had forces sent him, with Placidus their commander: he also
went up with them, as I also followed them, till Vespasian came into
Galilee. As to which coming of his, and after what manner it was
ordered, and how he fought his first battle with me near the village
Taricheae, and how from thence they went to Jotapata, and how I was
taken alive, and bound, and how I was afterward loosed, with all that
was done by me in the Jewish war, and during the siege of Jerusalem,
I have accurately related them in the books concerning the War of the
Jews. However, it will, I think, be fit for me to add now an account of
those actions of my life which I have not related in that book of the
Jewish war.
75. For when the siege of Jotapata was over, and I was among the Romans,
I was kept with much Care, by means of the great respect that Vespasian
showed me. Moreover, at his command, I married a virgin, who was from
among the captives of that country [25] yet did she not live with me
long, but was divorced, upon my being freed from my bonds, and my going
to Alexandria. However, I married another wife at Alexandria, and was
thence sent, together with Titus, to the siege of Jerusalem, and was
frequently in danger of being put to death; while both the Jews were
very desirous to get me under their power, in order to haw me punished.
And the Romans also, whenever they were beaten, supposed that it was
occasioned by my treachery, and made continual clamors to the emperors,
and desired that they would bring me to punishment, as a traitor to
them: but Titus Caesar was well acquainted with the uncertain fortune
of war, and returned no answer to the soldiers' vehement solicitations
against me. Moreover, when the city Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus
Caesar persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would of the ruins
of my country; and did that he gave me leave so to do. But when my
country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to be of any value, which
I could take and keep as a comfort under my calamities; so I made this
request to Titus, that my family might have their liberty: I had also
the holy books by Titus's concession. Nor was it long after that I
asked of him the life of my brother, and of fifty friends with him, and
was not denied. When I also went once to the temple, by the permission
of Titus, where there were a great multitude of captive women and
children, I got all those that I remembered as among my own friends
and acquaintances to be set free, being in number about one hundred
and ninety; and so I delivered them without their paying any price of
redemption, and restored them to their former fortune. And when I was
sent by Titus Caesar with Cerealins, and a thousand horsemen, to a
certain village called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place
fit for a camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified, and
remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at
this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him
of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have
the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of
them died under the physician's hands, while the third recovered.
76. But when Titus had composed the troubles in Judea, and conjectured
that the lands which I had in Judea would bring me no profit, because a
garrison to guard the country was afterward to pitch there, he gave me
another country in the plain. And when he was going away to Rome, he
made choice of me to sail along with him, and paid me great respect: and
when we were come to Rome, I had great care taken of me by Vespasian;
for he gave me an apartment in his own house, which he lived in before
he came to the empire. He also honored me with the privilege of a Roman
citizen, and gave me an annual pension; and continued to respect me to
the end of his life, without any abatement of his kindness to me; which
very thing made me envied, and brought me into danger; for a certain
Jew, whose name was Jonathan, who had raised a tumult in Cyrene, and
had persuaded two thousand men of that country to join with him, was the
occasion of their ruin. But when he was bound by the governor of that
country, and sent to the emperor, he told him that I had sent him both
weapons and money. However, he could not conceal his being a liar from
Vespasian, who condemned him to die; according to which sentence he was
put to death. Nay, after that, when those that envied my good fortune
did frequently bring accusations against me, by God's providence I
escaped them all. I also received from Vespasian no small quantity of
land, as a free gift, in Judea; about which time I divorced my wife
also, as not pleased with her behavior, though not till she had been
the mother of three children, two of whom are dead, and one whom I named
Hyrcanus, is alive. After this I married a wife who had lived at Crete,
but a Jewess by birth: a woman she was of eminent parents, and such as
were the most illustrious in all the country, and whose character was
beyond that of most other women, as her future life did demonstrate. By
her I had two sons; the elder's name was Justus, and the next Simonides,
who was also named Agrippa. And these were the circumstances of my
domestic affairs. However, the kindness of the emperor to me continued
still the same; for when Vespasian was dead, Titus, who succeeded him
in the government, kept up the same respect for me which I had from his
father; and when I had frequent accusations laid against me, he would
not believe them. And Domitian, who succeeded, still augmented his
respects to me; for he punished those Jews that were my accusers, and
gave command that a servant of mine, who was a eunuch, and my accuser,
should be punished. He also made that country I had in Judea tax free,
which is a mark of the greatest honor to him who hath it; nay, Domitia,
the wife of Caesar, continued to do me kindnesses. And this is the
account of the actions of my whole life; and let others judge of my
character by them as they please. But to thee, O Epaphroditus, [28]
thou most excellent of men! do I dedicate all this treatise of our
Antiquities; and so, for the present, I here conclude the whole.
Footnotes
[Footnote 1: We may hence correct the error of the Latin copy of the
second book Against Apion, sect. 8, [for the Greek is there lost,]
which says, there were then only four tribes or courses of the priests,
instead of twenty-four. Nor is this testimony to be disregarded, as if
Josephus there contradicted what he had affirmed here; because even the
account there given better agrees to twenty-four than to four courses,
while he says that each of those courses contained above 5000 men,
which, multiplied by only four, will make not more than 20,000 priests;
whereas the number 120,000, as multiplied by 24, seems much the most
probable, they being about one-tenth of the whole people, even after the
captivity. See Ezra 2:36-39; Nehemiah 7:39-42; 1 Esdras 5:24, 25, with
Ezra 2;64; Nehemiah 7:66; 1 Esdras 5:41. Nor will this common reading or
notion of but four courses of priests, agree with Josephus's own further
assertion elsewhere, Antiq. B. VII. ch. 14. sect. 7, that David's
partition of the priests into twenty-four courses had continued to that
day.]
[Footnote 2: An eminent example of the care of the Jews about their
genealogies, especially as to the priests. See Against Ap. B. 1 sect.
7.]
[Footnote 3: When Josephus here says, that from sixteen to nineteen, or
for three years, he made trial of the three Jewish sects, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, and the Essens, and yet says presently, in all our
copies, that he stayed besides with one particular ascetic, called
Banus, with him, and this still before he was nineteen, there is little
room left for his trial of the three other sects. I suppose, therefore,
that for, with him, the old reading might be, with them; which is a very
small emendation, and takes away the difficulty before us. Nor is
Dr. Hudson's conjecture, hinted at by Mr. Hall in his preface to the
Doctor's edition of Josephus, at all improbable, that this Banus, by
this his description, might well be a follower of John the Baptist, and
that from him Josephus might easily imbibe such notions, as afterwards
prepared him to have a favorable opinion of Jesus Christ himself, who
was attested to by John the Baptist.]
[Footnote 4: We may note here, that religious men among the Jews, or at
least those that were priests, were sometimes ascetics also, and, like
Daniel and his companions in Babylon, Daniel 1:8-16, ate no flesh, but
figs and nuts, etc. only. This was like the austere diet of the
Christian ascetics in Passion-week. Constitut. V. 18.]
[Footnote 5: It has been thought the number of Paul and his companions
on ship-board, Acts 27:38, which are 276 in our copies, are too many;
whereas we find here, that Josephus and his companions, a very few years
after the other, were about 600.]
[Footnote 6: See Jewish War, B. II. ch. 18. sect. 3.]
[Footnote 7: The Jews might collect this unlawfulness of fighting
against their brethren from that law of Moses, Leviticus 19:16, "Thou
shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbor;" and that, ver. 17,
"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy
people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" as well as from
many other places in the Pentateuch and Prophets. See Antiq. B. VIII.
ch. 8. sect. 3.]
[Footnote 8: That this Herod Agrippa, the father, was of old called
a Great King, as here, appears by his coins still remaining; to which
Havercamp refers us.]
[Footnote 9: The famous Jewish numbers of twelve and seventy are here
remarkable.]
[Footnote 10: Our Josephus shows, both here and every where, that he was
a most religious person, and one that had a deep sense of God and his
providence upon his mind, and ascribed all his numerous and wonderful
escapes and preservations, in times of danger, to God's blessing him,
and taking care of him, and this on account of his acts of piety,
justice, humanity, and charity, to the Jews his brethren.]
[Footnote 11: Josephus's opinion is here well worth noting:-- That every
one is to be permitted to worship God according to his own conscience,
and is not to be compelled in matters of religion: as one may here
observe, on the contrary, that the rest of the Jews were still for
obliging all those who married Jewesses to be circumcised, and become
Jews, and were ready to destroy all that would not submit to do so. See
sect. 31, and Luke 11:54.]
[Footnote 12: How Josephus could say here that the Jewish laws forbade
them to "spoil even their enemies," while yet, a little before his time,
our Savior had mentioned it as then a current maxim with them, "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy," Matthew 5:43, is worth
our inquiry. I take it that Josephus, having been now for many years an
Ebionite Christian, had learned this interpretation of the law of Moses
from Christ, whom he owned for the true Melah, as it follows in the
succeeding verses, which, though he might not read in St. Matthew's
Gospel, yet might he have read much the same exposition in their own
Ebionite or Nazarene Gospel itself; of which improvements made by
Josephus, after he was become a Christian, we have already had several
examples in this his life, sect. 3, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, and shall
have many more therein before its conclusion, as well as we have them
elsewhere in all his later writings.]
[Footnote 13: Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notion of
witchcraft, but that our Josephus was too wise to give any countenance
to it.]
[Footnote 14: In this section, as well as in the 18 and 33. those small
vessels that sailed on the sea of Galilee, are called by Josephus, i.e.
plainly ships; so that we need not wander at our evangelists, who still
call them ships; nor ought we to render them boats, as some do, Their
number was in all 230, as we learn from our author elsewhere. Jewish
War. B. II. ch. 21. sect. 8.]
[Footnote 15: Part of these fortifications on Mount Tabor may be those
still remaining, and which were seen lately by Mr. Maundrel. See his
Travels, p. 112.]
[Footnote 16: This Gamaliel may be the very same that is mentioned
by the rabbins in the Mishna, in Juchasin, and in Porta Mosis, as is
observed in the Latin notes. He might be also that Gamaliel II., whose
grandfather was Gamaliel I., who is mentioned in Acts 5:34, and at whose
feet St. Paul was brought up, Acts 22:3. See Prid. at the year 449.]
[Footnote 17: This Jonathan is also taken notice of in the Latin notes,
as the same that is mentioned by the rabbins in Porta Mosis.]
[Footnote 18: This I take to be the first of Josephus's remarkable or
divine dreams, which were predictive of the great things that afterwards
came to pass; of which see more in the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8.
sect. 9. The other is in the War, B. III. ch. 8. sect. 3, 9.]
[Footnote 19: Josephus's directions to his soldiers here are much the
same that John the Baptist gave, Luke 3:14, "Do violence to no man,
neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." Whence Dr.
Hudson confirms this conjecture, that Josephus, in some things, was,
even now, a follower of John the Baptist, which is no way improbable.
See the note on sect. 2.]
[Footnote 20: We here learn the practice of the Jews, in the days of
Josephus, to inquire into the characters of witnesses before they were
admitted; and that their number ought to be three, or two at the
least, also exactly as in the law of Moses, and in the Apostolical
Constitutions, B. II. ch. 37. See Horeb Covenant Revived, page 97, 98.]
[Footnote 21: This appeal to the whole body of the Galileans by
Josephus, and the testimony they gave him of integrity in his conduct
as their governor, is very like that appeal and testimony in the case of
the prophet Samuel, 1 Samuel 12:1-5, and perhaps was done by Josephus in
imitation of him.]
[Footnote 22: It is worth noting here, that there was now a great
Proseucha, or place of prayer, in the city of Tiberias itself, though
such Proseucha used to be out of cities, as the synagogues were within
them. Of them, see Le Moyne on Polycarp's Epistle, page 76. It is also
worth our remark, that the Jews, in the days of Josephus, used to dine
at the sixth hour, or noon; and that in obedience to their notions of
the law of Moses also.]
[Footnote 23: One may observe here, that this lay Pharisee, Ananias,
is we have seen he was, sect. 39, took upon him to appoint a fast at
Tiberias, and was obeyed; though indeed it was not out of religion, but
knavish policy.]
[Footnote 24: The character of this history of Justus of Tiberias,
the rival of our Josephus, which is now lost, with its only remaining
fragment, are given us by a very able critic, Photius, who read that
history. It is in the 33rd code of his Bibliotheca, and runs thus: "I
have read [says Photius] the chronology of Justus of Tiberias, whose
title is this, [Footnote The Chronology of] the Kings of Judah which
succeeded one another. This [Justus] came out of the city of Tiberias
in Galilee. He begins his history from Moses, and ends it not till the
death of Agrippa, the seventh [ruler] of the family of Herod, and the
last king of the Jews; who took the government under Claudius, had it
augmented under Nero, and still more augmented by Vespasian. He died
in the third year of Trajan, where also his history ends. He is very
concise in his language, and slightly passes over those affairs that
were most necessary to be insisted on; and being under the Jewish
prejudices, as indeed he was himself also a Jew by birth, he makes not
the least mention of the appearance of Christ, or what things happened
to him, or of the wonderful works that he did. He was the son of a
certain Jew, whose name was Pistus. He was a man, as he is described by
Josephus, of a most profligate character; a slave both to money and
to pleasures. In public affairs he was opposite to Josephus; and it is
related, that he laid many plots against him; but that Josephus, though
he had his enemy frequently under his power, did only reproach him in
words, and so let him go without further punishment. He says also, that
the history which this man wrote is, for the main, fabulous, and chiefly
as to those parts where he describes the Roman war with the Jews, and
the taking of Jerusalem."]
[Footnote 25: Here Josephus, a priest, honestly confesses that he did
that at the command of Vespasian, which he had before told us was not
lawful for a priest to do by the law of Moses, Antiq. B. III. ch. 12.
sect. 2. I mean, the taking a captive woman to wife. See also Against
Apion, B. I. sect. 7. But he seems to have been quickly sensible that
his compliance with the commands of an emperor would not excuse him, for
he soon put her away, as Reland justly observes here.]
[Footnote 27: Of this most remarkable clause, and its most important
consequences, see Essay on the Old Testament, page 193--195.]
[Footnote 28: Of this Epaphroditus, see the note on the Preface to the
Antiquities.]
End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of Flavius Josephus, by Flavius Josephus