Joseph Flavius: biography, personal life, photo

In 37, when in Rome Guy Caligula recently ascended to the throne, Josef Flavius was born in Judea. This name is a Roman version, which he adopted much later. At birth, the baby was named Yosef bin Matityagu.

Origin

He belonged to a noble family. His father was a famous priest, and his mother had the blood of the royal Jewish dynasty of the Maccabees. Here it should be noted that, according to the tradition of this people, titles were passed along the male line, and belonging to the genus - according to the female line. Therefore, some sources on the contrary did not think that Josephus was king of the blood.

And yet he still led the life of a noble young man. It is enough to look at the formation of Flavius. He knew the Greek language, which in the future will write his famous works.

Education and Career

In those years, numerous sects and religious teachings were popular in Judea. For example, it is enough to bring Christianity. Josephus, at the age of 16, first joined the Essenes and spent three years in hermitage.

At the end of the second decade, the young man became a member of the religious and social movement of the Pharisees, who exerted a great influence on the internal life of the Roman province.

Josephus, thanks to his origins and ingenuity, enlisted many influential connections. When he visited Rome in 64, he managed to free several Jews convicted on false charges. He did this because of his acquaintance with Poppey, the wife of Emperor Nero, who soon died of poisoning.

The Jewish War

However, the peaceful life in the Empire was coming to an end. National contradictions finally quarreled Jews and the metropolis. Emperor Nero appointed in the province governor Hessia Flora. He was a greedy man who oppressed the local population.

The country of Israel could not stand such an attitude and rose up. The driving force of this phenomenon was the faction of the Zealots. This was a socio-political trend among the Jews, who wanted to rid the country of the influence of the Roman Empire and Hellenistic culture.

Warlord

Now every resident had to decide on whose side he was. First, Josephus joined those who wanted to resolve the conflict peacefully. But in 66, the Roman governor in Syria, Cestius Gallus, had already attacked Israel. Therefore, Joseph left nothing but to defend himself. Due to his fame and origin, he began to lead the defense of the northern half of the country - the Galilee.

The young commander managed to gather 10,000 well-armed soldiers and strengthen the city in this province. However, success was temporary, and it ended when Vespasian's troops entered the country. Fortified fortresses surrendered without a fight one after another, until there was only one city of Iotopata. Joseph Flavius also ran there. The Jewish war took a nasty turn, and it was decided not to surrender the enemy to fortification.

Transition to the side of the Romans

The city lasted 47 days. Entered Roman troops killed 40 thousand Jews. Joseph managed to escape with a small detachment in the cave, the entrance to which was blocked. Vespasian offered the squad to surrender, which was refused. At the same time, Joseph advised comrades to accept the offer. Finally, he managed to convince the crowd to kill one person a day, once the exit is still blocked. For this draw lots. In the end, only two remained alive: the commander himself and another Jew.

These two surrendered to the victor, and Joseph took the surname of Flavius in honor of Vespasian. When the Jew was brought to the camp of the Romans, he predicted the suppressor of the uprising the imperial title. At first Vespasian decided that Joseph was simply deceiving him and was trying to earn his trust by cunning. However, soon news came from the capital that Nero was dead, and among the contenders there was a stiff quarrel.

Vespasian decided not to waste time and immediately went to Europe, where he actually won the throne. When he left Judea, he appointed his son Titus as successor there, and left Joseph at the court as an interpreter and a parlementer.

The war was not over, and the Romans went to Jerusalem. When the siege began, Joseph tried to convince his fellow tribesmen to surrender to the Romans, which invariably received a refusal. Eventually the city fell and was plundered. Joseph managed to persuade Titus to free two hundred people who had locked themselves in the sacred Temple. In addition, he was given numerous books stored there.

Literary Activity

With the onset of the world, Joseph began to live under the imperial court. Even as a middle-aged man, he started writing and wrote many works. These were works that reflected not only the artistic but also the military experience that Josephus owned. "The Jewish War" is his most famous book. It consists of several volumes. The story covers the period of the war in which Joseph himself participated. The story ends with the fall of Jerusalem. This description is preceded by a story about the prerequisites and previous events in this province.

Josephus' book The Jewish War often combines with the Jewish Antiquities, a large-scale study of Jewish history from the time of biblical stories. Work was written as evidence that this people has a huge legacy. Today, this seems obvious, but in the ancient and Roman times, foreigners often believed that the Jews originated from Egypt and do not have their roots.

Another important book is "Autobiography". The writer tried to answer the question about himself, who is Josephus Flavius. In it he gives an analysis of all his actions during the Jewish War, when the writer took the side of the Romans.

Another work "Against Apion" was written in the spirit of the dispute and is addressed to a well-known grammar. He was an Alexandrian scholar, who before that had written a work on Jews and often criticized them. Josephus Flavius, using the example of Moses and his laws, argued that Apion was wrong.

All of the above books by the author have reached us safely, what is their main value. The works of many ancient writers were lost and forgotten during the Dark Ages. In the Renaissance in the 16th century, the publication of books in Greek, written by Josephus Flavius, appeared. A photo of his bust adorns many textbooks.

Mutual relations with Christianity

Since the historian lived in the second half of the first century, he managed to document numerous events described in the Gospels. In particular, he talks about Jesus and his death on the cross, the death of John the Baptist, and so on.

However, in modern historiography, there are numerous disputes on this score. Some experts believe that these stories were deliberately inserted into the works after the author's death. This is indicated by various facts, for example, that Jesus in books is called Christ, although the chronicler was not a Christian. But no matter how Josephus wrote, his biography continues to arouse the interest of specialists.