Flavius Josèphe

Flavius Josèphe (in Greek old Ἰώσηπος / Iốsêpos ), born יוסףבןמתתיהו Yossef Ben Matityahou ha Cohen , Joseph wire of Matthias the priest) is a historian Jewish of language Greek, born in 37 and died about the year 100 of the common era.

Biography

Josèphe belongs to a sacerdotal family of Judaea, related to the monarchy of the Hasmonéens.

In 64, under Néron, it is sent to Rome to negotiate the release of imprisoned priests. In 67, governor of Galileo, it takes share with the Jewish rebellion against the Romans.

The Roman troops are led by Flavius Vespasien and his/her son Titus, which will become both emperors. Persuaded of the Roman superiority military, it tries to play the intermediaries, which is worth to him a reputation of traitor in the Jewish world. Captive fact by Vespasien, it predicts its accession with the throne to him. It is possible that it took part with Agrippa II and Bérénice in the plot leading the Flaviens to the imperial throne. It is then released in 69 and attends the seat, then with the catch of Jerusalem by Titus in 70.

Towards 70, Josèphe divorces his first wife and Marie a Jewish woman Alexandria of which it will have two children, of which a son Flavius Hyrcanus.

In 71, it is established with Rome, where it acquires the Roman citizenship under the name of Titus Flavius, borrowing the gentilice of the Flaviens, of the customers of which it forms part.

It is in Rome that it writes its historical writings, nonChristian independent source over the period of the second Temple of Jerusalem. It brings back in particular the seat and the catch of Massada in 74.

Towards 75, he divorces again, and contracts a third marriage which will give him two more wire, Flavius Justus and Simonides Agrippa.

In Hist. eccl. (3.9.2), Eusèbe de Césarée reports that a statue of Josèphe was set up in Rome.

Principal works

  • Bellum Judaicum or the War of the Jews : account in 7 books of the last rising of the Judaea (66) and of the catch of Jerusalem by Titus (in 70). Originally written in Araméen, then translated into Greek before publication in 75 - 79.
  • Its Autobiography (in Greek Ἰωσήπου βίος / Iôsephou Bios ) which forms a complement of the War of the Jews, where it justifies its choice to have followed the Romans.
  • the judaïques Antiquities: account of twenty books, completed in 94, inspired by the Roman Antiquities of Denys d' Halicarnasse, adapting the history of the Jewish people to Roman mentality. If the first part is only one adaptation of the Bible, the last ten books constitute a historical document of very first order.
  • Its last work, Against Apion is a defense of the Jewish traditions and an answer to the questions which the publication of the Jewish Antiquités could raise against the Greek and Roman judéophobes, from which the arguments are completely different from those exposed to the 1st century.

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