The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation
The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation
The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
the old administrative report [in] Life 28/29: the principal men of Jerusalem had found out that<br />
“the robbers” had weapons at their disposal. Since they (sc. the principal men of Jerusalem)<br />
were for their part unarmed, they were afraid of being subjected to these opponents and [104]<br />
for that reason they sent <strong>Josephus</strong> to Galilee with two other priests, Joazar and Judas, with the<br />
mandate to convince these fellows to lay down their arms. It is seen clearly that the enemies of<br />
Jerusalem are not the Romans but “the robbers”; protection from them is desired; for that<br />
reason a legation consisting of three priests is sent to them; for it is indeed clear that [the<br />
person] who has the mandate to persuade the robbers to lay down their arms is not a<br />
commander but an envoy. <strong>The</strong>refore, according to Life 28/29, <strong>Josephus</strong> set foot in Galilee not as<br />
commander in the <strong>Jewish</strong>-Roman War but as an envoy [sent] to the robbers. It also<br />
corresponds completely to this situation when <strong>Josephus</strong> says about himself in section 65 that<br />
he was sent off as envoy (ὑπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν Ἱεροσολυμιτῶν πρεσβεύσων μετὰ τούτων<br />
πεπόμφθαι πρὸς αὐτούς), and he then refers three times to his fellow envoys Joazar and Judas<br />
as συμπρέσβεις (63; 73; 77). At first <strong>Josephus</strong> also manifestly conducts the negotiations with the<br />
robbers entirely in accordance with the directive that he had been issued in Jerusalem (section<br />
77 ff.). He must certainly realize in so doing that the disarming planned in Jerusalem is<br />
impossible; instead of this he attempted to make the robbers harmless by inducing the<br />
Galileans to pay them fees, in return for which the robbers were to promise to set foot on<br />
Galilean territory only when they were summoned or when they did not receive their fees.<br />
<strong>Josephus</strong> thereupon dismisses the robbers with the strict order that they are not to wage war<br />
with either the Romans or with the surrounding inhabitants; because he was concerned<br />
above all that peace should reign in Galilee (78).<br />
Whoever proceeds from the views of the War or the added segments must again be<br />
amazed. <strong>The</strong> commander, who is to prepare for the war against Rome, sees his principal duty<br />
as keeping robbers, whom he cannot disarm, away from his province and – the Romans – by<br />
payment. One would perhaps like to imagine that he wished in this way to prevent a<br />
premature attack on the Romans, but this is contradicted not only by the designation of the<br />
robbers as enemies (28/29), but even more so [by the fact that] the report 70 ff. actually makes<br />
such considerations irrelevant; because here John of Gischala requests that <strong>Josephus</strong> and his<br />
fellow envoys hand over the grain that is being stored in Upper Galilee. [105] <strong>Josephus</strong> refuses<br />
delivery because he intended to keep the grain either for himself or – for the Romans. <strong>Josephus</strong><br />
93