The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

Dabarittans from the outset (596) and openly deposits the plunder with an inhabitant of
Tarichea with the intention of returning it to its rightful owner. But the Dabarittans become
angry because they are to receive nothing from the plunder, and because they had correctly
seen through Josephus’ intention. Therefore, precisely that which is given in Life 130 - 131 in
contradiction to the remaining presentation of the Life: “Josephus intending to return the
plunder to Agrippa and the Dabarittans correctly recognizing this true intention of Josephus”
finds its correspondent and its model in the War; because that which exists in the Life as a
strange element fits perfectly into the overall view of the War. From this it follows that Life
130 - 131 developed under the influence of the War. But if we strike out this passage
that disrupts the coherence of the Life, then an impeccable coherence remains by bringing
together [sections] 129 and 132: “The Dabarittans spread the rumour that Josephus intends to
betray the land to the Romans (129); as this rumour of Josephus’ treason now speeds
throughout Galilee, even the inhabitants of Tarichea [come to] believe it etc.” (132).
Lastly, one more test of our evidence. If [sections] 130 - 131 are a later insertion arising
under the influence of the War, then as a result the information [61] about the deposit of the
money with Dassion and Janneus (131) no longer applies to the original context of the Life;
thus, before the addition of 130 - 131 was made on the basis of the War, the money must have
still been in Josephus’ hands according to the Life. This consideration is correct: when the wild
mob appears before Josephus’ house, he immediately knows that it is a matter of releasing the
money that he withheld and he consequently requests, “people to be sent to him who were to
take possession of the money” (146). When Josephus recorded this sentence, he could not yet
have had any idea about the deposit of the money as disclosed in 131. This is more than amply
proven further by Josephus’ conduct in the War; according to this [version] the money had
been deposited from the outset (596) in agreement with the overall view of this writing, thus
Josephus no longer has this [money] at his own disposal and therefore when the mob comes
before his house, he must first ask what they wanted from him (611) and there is also no word
about the money in the answer. One sees how consistently both presentations have been
executed initially. But when Josephus then wove into the Life later additions based upon the
view of the War, he neglected to rectify all the old passages thoroughly. Therefore a stark
contradiction from all sides exists in Life 130 – 131.
Two findings from our investigation are already established; Josephus recounted the
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