The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

with this proposal even though among those who participated in the decision were people like
Simon whose calm and prudent discretion even Josephus had to acknowledge (192).
If those in Jerusalem proceeded in such a manner without actually consulting Josephus,
then this only proves once again that he really was the insurgent that we were to see in him –
after the departure of his fellow envoys!
It is less important for us to follow the individual tricks by which Josephus attempted to
elude the new legation now coming from Jerusalem, which was to relieve Josephus from his
office. The main point is and remains that [Josephus’] following had a firm footing in Galilee
due to fear of the robbers; conversely, however, Josephus’ followers reproached his opponents
along with the Jews in Jerusalem that they wished to begrudge the [115] land its peace and
quiet (207; 211 ff.). On this basis Josephus was able to prompt the Galileans, now for their part,
to send a committee of representatives to Jerusalem (266 ff.), so that the mandate “to remain
in Galilee” would now be imparted to him by the authorities.
The success of the Galileans’ performance in Jerusalem met with Josephus’
expectations; the legation that was to recall Josephus was [itself] recalled in conformity to the
request of the Galileans (267) and the rulership, which Josephus had exercised unlawfully up to
that point in Galilee by relying on his agreement with the robbers, was transferred to him
henceforth in valid form (310). Thus he, to whom a legation was entrusted originally, now is
appointed administrator of the land: ἡ προστασία τῆς χώρας is [now] his own (312). In view of
all the events described, one understands that Josephus quickly passed over many a fact in his
report and illuminated others in a distorted fashion; he was indeed standing before the
ultimately intractable challenge of producing, in lawful format, a presentation of his violent
rise to power. How great his position of power was in Galilee, however, is recognized best in
that nothing else could be done in Jerusalem other than to approve the status created by
Josephus. The power of the robbers stood right behind Josephus!
But it also did so in a completely different sense. The robbers, with whom Josephus had
come into contact and whom he was to have disarmed, were not murderers and plunderers in
the usual meaning; rather, law-abiding radical Judaism was at the same time embodied within
them, which contended against any compromise and therefore even persecuted the
statesmanlike leadership in Jerusalem (War 2.256) and in the land (ibid. 265 etc.), yet loathed
the Roman enemies of the land even more intensely. These zealots even went so far as to
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