The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

One sees how splendidly these [segments] join together; in the intervening segment the
Antiquities has then become the source for the War, the late reworking of which is proven here
as well: Josephus attempts to portray his new outlook not only in the Antiquities, but since just
at that very time he had intentions of producing a new version of his history of the war, he
also records [his new outlook] already in occasional comments in his manuscript of the War.
Therefore the new War was to serve an outlook similar to [that in] the reworking of the
Antiquities.
11. Antipater and Malichus
War 216 - 224 = Ant. 268 - 279
After the long insertion of documents that Josephus provided in Ant. 185 - 267, the
parallel narrative recommences with War 216 = Ant. 268, and therefore the phenomena that
were observed previously also emerge again immediately. As long as the text is unconcerned
with Jewish issues, a transcription of the War is reproduced in the Antiquities; but Josephus’
endeavours to strike at the Herodians repeatedly break through alongside this. The War had
distinguished Herod due to the fact that he quickly brought the war contributions over to
Cassius (221), but the Antiquities twists the matter by adding that it had appeared advantageous
to Herod to adulate the Romans already at that point [187] and to draw profit for himself from
the distress of others (274), an idea that had suggested itself to Josephus through the final
words of War 221. Even more striking is a second change: according to War 222, Antipater
advanced [a sum of] 100 talents and by this means he saved Judaea from Cassius’ resentment;
Ant. 276 amends “Antipater” to “Hyrcanus through Antipater” so that Hyrcanus now becomes
the saviour who provided the money “from his [own] estate”. [Here] exists basically the same
procedure as in Ant. 14.127 where Josephus twists the text of War 187 into the opposite
meaning by adding the words “upon Hyrcanus’ orders” (cf. page 166).
As a result, the subsequent report of War 223/4 now became impossible as well:
Malichus who had been saved by means of Antipater’s financial help from the death that
threatened him (222), forgot this good deed of Antipater and planned an uprising “against the
man who so often saved him”, because he “wished to eliminate the one who stood in the way
of his disgraceful deeds”. Antipater fears the man’s violence and assembles an army on the
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