My “massive book” of this year has been The Complete Works of Josephus. Any reputable history of Israel or the Jewish people references something from Josephus, with some only known by his exhaustive attempts at a complete history. In typical bookworm challenge (and a little prideful “I can read that!”), I started this 1,184-page tome in January. As we near the end of July, I’ve just finished book one, The Antiquities of the Jews. The back cover sums it up in one tidy sentence: “A history of the Jews from Creation to the Roman occupation of Palestine.” Easy, right?
Much of the beginning is familiar to anyone who’s picked up a Bible. It truly begins with Creation, with the “constitution of the world,” as the sub-chapter heading declares. But as it goes through the familiar history, some parts stood out for including further historical details that aren’t mentioned in our well-loved Bible readings.
1. The origin of the name “Hebrews” itself (book 1.6.4). Josephus slips this in during a long genealogy. In the line of Shem, third son of Noah, is a descendent named Heber, “from whom they originally called the Jews Hebrews.” Shem himself is often considered the father of the Hebrews, ancestor to Abram-turned-Abraham. I’m not sure why the entire nation was named after Heber. Beyond his lineage, I can’t find much about him. But his name means “to pass over,” which is fitting for the history of the Jews.
2. The priest-king Melchizedek (book 1.10.2). He only shows up a couple times in the Bible, but we know him as righteous, a prototype of Jesus Christ. He was king of Salem, offering aid and provisions to Abram in his battle against Sodom. Salem was later called Jerusalem. This beautifully entwines his righteousness with Jesus even further!
3. The role of Moses’s father (book 2.9.3). Moses’s Biblical tale begins with his mother concealing his existence, but Josephus includes a vision of his father, Amram: He prayed fervently, fearing the fate of the Hebrews under Pharaoh. But God promised them relief, revealing not only that his son would be the one to deliver them, but also his brother would obtain the priesthood of God. No wonder Moses’s mother had such faith when releasing her son into the wild.
The Antiquities contain the most comprehensive history of King Herod and his sons, revealing much not in the New Testament. It progresses through the many dynasties that followed the fall of the line of David, confusingly intertwined with other nations. The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Romans; Israel was under the control of nearly every surrounding nation at some point, making the political intermarriages and who rules what sector impossible to follow. By the time Jesus’s era arrives, it’s easy to see how the nation was under such turmoil, and why Pontius Pilat was as involved as he was in the crucifixion.
There’s a small reference to Jesus himself (book 18.3.3), a blip in the whole of Jewish history:
Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and then thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
Most Christians will likely read this to learn of Israel in Jesus’s time, which can be summed up as “political drama” and persistent turning away from God. There are entire sections that don’t mention God at all, so it’s a surprise when He’s brought up again. In the Bible, the prophets foretell the destruction of the nation, and here we see it happening. The Antiquities ends with Roman occupation, and the first seeds of revolt. The tale is about to get more interesting as I delve into The War of the Jews.
