The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

loodshed), but also the formulation of details [Einzelformulierung] coincides (εὔνοιαν; ἔφασκεν
= ὡμολόγουν; usw.). Therefore section 103 already existed when War 623 was formed, by which
it follows that section 103 belongs to the old part of the Life, whereas section 100 is a doublet to
section 103 with the purpose of interweaving the insertion. Factually this includes sections 101
- 102. Josephus takes over from the War the motive of the strike against Gischala, which he had
introduced into the War as a substitute for the strike against Tiberias, and transfers it
subsequently into the Life. Hence both texts affect each other: ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην τὸν κοινὸν
ἐπίβουλον (War 2.622) becomes εἰδότες τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὡς πονηρός ἐστιν καὶ ἐπίορκος (Life 102);
συγκαταφλέξειν γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ὑποδεξαμένην πόλιν (War ibid.) becomes ἄρδην ἀφανίσειν
σὺν αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ Γίσχαλα [89] (Life ibid.). Some details had to be changed, however: the plot
had still remained consistent in the War and consequently John could flee directly to Gischala
before the counter-thrust [Gegenbewegung]. On the other hand, in the Life the first act was
already concluded when John departed for Gischala. As a result, a new conception had to be
provided from which the desire for an attack on Gischala could be derived.
The answer to the question of when Josephus introduced the insertion 100 - 102 into
the administrative report is yielded by our findings of the preceding paragraph. There we
found Josephus twice “improving” his administrative report: once directly while composing
the War when he was borne by the wish to effect an agreement between the two texts; and
then after the year 100 when he was finally formulating the administrative report into the Life,
whereby he took into consideration the remodification of the War that was planned and begun
in 93/94. Surely the insertion 100 - 102 belongs to the first group and, in analogy to this, to 130
- 131; in both segments we cannot but recognize the wish to incorporate into the
administrative report the new guiding principles that were decisive for Josephus when he
composed War I, in order to effect a converging agreement between the two reports. But more
important for us at this moment than even this question is the realization that the findings of
the preceding investigations are now fully confirmed as well: the nucleus of the Life, our
administrative report, is the oldest written specification [Festlegung] of the
events by Josephus and it comes before the War. Admittedly [the War] derives
its stock of facts from the administrative report, but [the War] provides it with
a new political trend and for this purpose it twists the individual details of its
source: Tiberias is deleted as Josephus’ opponent, and in the same way
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