The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

The consequences of the altered view of the Antiquities are also brought to bear further
on; in War 319 Machairas has spared no Jew, rather he treated the “Herodians” as if they were
“Antigonians”. Only one who considered Machairas to be a Herodian could speak thus; since
this was not done in the Antiquities, this formulation had to be abandoned as well; in its place
comes the colourless expression that in his fury Machairas killed “friend” and “foe”.
The reason for this reworking is once again very clearly provided in that Josephus
wished to have Antigonus’ action judged more unfavourably: in the War Antigonus had
previously received tidings about Machairas’ true intention, [205] and kept him away for that
reason. No one could take exception to his action. It is different in the Antiquities. By virtue of
[the fact] that Herod’s attempt at bribery is deleted here, Antigonus is the only one to make
such an [attempt]. He is successful in this, but for all that he distrusts Machairas without any
reason now, battles against him “and as a result manifests his (αὑτοῦ, not αὐτοῦ) true
disposition”. This last addition leaves no [room for] doubt about Josephus’ attitude towards
Antigonus as he was recording the Antiquities: in considering his attitude towards the
two parties who were in conflict, to whom Josephus was fundamentally not
well-disposed, he deprecated Antigonus more forcefully than he did Herod. But
this enmity towards Antigonus applied only to his character, whereas for Herod it was the half
Jew and founder of a foreign dynasty who was to be targeted, although he [himself] was able to
exhibit decent traits too in his character.
15. The events up to the siege of Jerusalem
War 321 - 342 = Ant. 439 - 464
Herod, who had encountered stronger resistance in Judaea than he was expecting,
appeals to Antony who is besieging Samosata on the Euphrates; [Herod] supplies him with
troops in order to induce him, on his part, to support Herod more strongly, in which he is then
successful. Herod’s march to Antony in Samosata, which is recounted with few words in War
321, is described extensively in Ant. 439 - 445 with the introduction of a great number of more
specific details; there can be no doubt that there is an underlying source for this, however, it is
also certain that it is not some common source, which the War would have condensed and the
Antiquities would have reproduced more completely; rather an additional source [Nebenquelle]
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