The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

Had the Roman emperors, or whomever else one might think of, been so petty as to
hold Josephus’ past against him after such a long time, long after he had been forgiven, then
they could easily let him trip over facts that he himself admits. On the contrary, however, he
points out quite emphatically (347), – without having been provoked to this in any way by
Justus’ writing – that he had wanted to force the Sepphorites to fight against Rome, but their
shrewdness had prevented this. How is one to reconcile Josephus’ alleged fear of political
exposure in Rome with the author’s deliberate production of this presumably little known fact,
when denial would have been at least as easy, since it dealt with an intention of Josephus that
had failed. Under these circumstances there can be no talk of Josephus’ wishing to deny his
activity in the conflict against Rome. Also in 104 Josephus stresses that the Sepphorites, who
wished to remain true to Rome, stood in opposition to him personally precisely for that reason,
and in 209 he recounts the vision that showed him his actual life mission – the campaign
against Rome. An acute interpretation of these passages 5 should actually have always sufficed
to prevent the formation of an opinion that Justus had allowed himself to be led by the desire
[10] to expose Josephus politically through his writing, even if one could not recognize that in
reality the antagonism between Josephus and Justus lay in a completely different area. This,
however, is the main issue in my opinion.
Essential to the understanding of the relations between Josephus and Justus is the long
παρέκβασις (Life 336 - 367), which deals systematically with Justus. Here Josephus turns
directly against Justus “and other historians”, 6 who lie blatantly, unconcerned about the truth.
“Justus, at least, has lied about me and his hometown ὑπὲρ τοῦ δοκεῖν φιλόπονος ε῏ναι, i.e. in
order to create the impression that he has dedicated considerable effort to his work (338).”
Josephus, who wishes with this to denounce the real intentions of his opponent, does not in
any way accuse him of political aims or of the intent to expose Josephus politically, but accuses
him rather of a motivation that is partly literary and partly related to business. From
Ziebarth’s survey in his book about the Greek school system (2nd edition, p. 142 ff.) we know
the importance that φιλοπονία had attained in intellectual competition. We still have lists of
5
In direct contrast to the point of view currently in effect, we shall later find that the War
shows the greatest respect for Roman readers while the Antiquities and the Life show greater
freedom in this sense.
6 In truth however, Josephus is thinking exclusively of Justus (cf. 367). In our passage he is
using the plural form, which is as widespread as it is often misunderstood.
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