The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

een almost obsolete; for soon after 100 Justus can venture an attack to which Josephus
basically can have no rejoinder, factually speaking; therefore he places the argument on a
personal level. Of course he liked to dwell on [the fact] that this same Justus, who claimed to
have a monopoly on Greek education, acted as the conveyor of pure Jewish tradition, and he
liked to stress his own Judaism time and again in contrast to him; only he forgot in the process
that Justus, who had learned his Greek in his youth, had always remained true to his people,
whereas he, who had acquired a Greek education only late, had broken off his association with
the Jewish priesthood since he was living in Rome as officiosus and later as Epaphroditus’ man
of letters. And all reference to schools etc. was of no help when it was pointed out to him that
his work was not based on the Hebrew Bible, as the Jews now demanded.
Epaphroditus, the publisher of the Antiquities, required [274] an account. Josephus
assails him over and over again, he tries to prove his ability to discredit Justus politically and
literarily; and yet we can say historically that it was the latter who was right; the future
belonged to Jewish orthodoxy, to the Hebrew Bible, not to the LXX, not to Hellenistic Judaism,
not to the Antiquities. Josephus, who was around 70 years old, sees the catastrophe overtaking
him; if Epaphroditus now shakes him off on grounds of Justus’ attacks, [and if] he deems the
Antiquities as something worthless like [Justus does], then the last things remaining to
Josephus, [namely] literary fame, or more, his [very] literary existence, are taken [from him];
because his major venture of the Antiquities was a failure, it was not the book documenting
Judaism [Urkundenbuch des Judentums] that it was intended to be, and should have been. And
yet, the versatile [Josephus] still had one last resort remaining [to him]: granted the LXX was
henceforth rejected as a book of the Jews, but in part [it was] rejected precisely because the
Christians have turned it into their holy [own] book. The time was no longer to be far off when
Jews and Christians quarrelled with regard to the LXX; the Antiquities was not lost if it
were to be transferred over to Christianity. Just like the LXX was to be preserved only
through, and in conjunction with, the New Testament, which presupposes it everywhere, [so]
Josephus could save his Antiquities from oblivion only by supplying it to the Christians. Pangs
of conscience did not exist for Josephus; he had betrayed his people long ago after he had
deceived his government; he viewed Agrippa one minute as his patron, the next minute as his
ferocious enemy; John of Gischala was a villain to him one minute and the next, a hero; today
he cursed what he had worshipped yesterday if only his own interests were thus served. No
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