The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

exchange he placed their books on the market. That his business was no mean one is proven by
the wealth that Epaphroditus left behind. Josephus, who had perched himself upon a fence and
was out of the question both as Roman officiosus as well as for the Jews, finds a foothold on
neutral literary terrain. In Rome the demand for books about Judaism was naturally not slight
during these years; we know how the great Roman literature was concerned with the Jews and
through the fall of Jerusalem this interest was again aroused. The Roman stepping through the
Arch of Titus, likely required clarification about this peculiar people whose sacrificial
implements were illustrated here. So the publisher Epaphroditus then takes Josephus under
his protection as an authority in the field of Judaism and supports him during the composition
of the Antiquities by granting [him] an external means of livelihood (Ant. 1.8; cf. page 30 ff.).
As a result Josephus was definitively released from his association with Roman politics,
and after he had gained [his] new protector there was no reason to seek a connection with it
again. Thus his true Jewish convictions could be voiced again, without which the composition
of a work such as the Antiquities is not conceivable. [260] The period of Josephus’ life, which
had begun with his captivity in Jotapata, had come to an end when he lost his association with
the emperor after Domitian’s ascension to the government and he gained a politically neutral
protector in Epaphroditus. From this Roman period of Josephus we have the War, in whose title
“Jewish War” it is already externally settled once and for all that the account had been
presented from the Roman standpoint. The Jewish Antiquities shows us, in contrast to this, the
Jew who, free of all external fetters, stands up for the history of his people. I believe that the
release from the association with the Roman emperors is sufficient to explain fully Josephus’
new disposition; only Josephus’ character, which I have admittedly assessed as very low, has
me pose the question of whether he did not also expect a certain rehabilitation with respect to
his compatriots by forcefully emphasizing his Jewish point of view. Egoism and a natural sense
of nationalism could henceforth go hand in hand and no longer needed to clash.
Only from the errors of modern source criticism can it be explained that this extremely
important change in Josephus’ nature has not been recognized. The Jewish Antiquities is
considered as a whole [to be] a work of Jewish apologetics; it combines calm historical
narrative with sections whose sole purpose is to defend the position of the Jews, which was
under attack, and to prove the esteem that the [Jews] have enjoyed among distinguished
people. Inwardly the work is borne by pure Jewish tradition; Jewish legends, lists of Jewish
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