Flavius Josephus: Eyewitness to Rome's First-century Conquest of Judea (review)

168 SHOFAR Fall 1994 Vol. 13, No.1 offers from first-century Sepphoris demonstrates that "the overwhelming majority or virtually all the inhabitants of Sepphoris in the first century C.E. were jewish." Thus the absence of evidence for first-century synagogues there supports the view that the earliest synagogues were no doubt simply homes in which devout jews came together rather than buildings built for this purpose. While there were buildings constructed in the Diaspora to be used explicitly for synagogues centuries earlier, undoubtedly it was not so in Palestine. Historians of Christianity will be interested to read Baumgarten's essay, "Literary Evidence for jewish Christianity." He describes the PseudoClementine texts, written by the Nazareans, who were a "heretical" jewishChristian sect sympathetic to rabbinic judaism. The essays having to do with the synagogues and archaeology include black and white illustrations. After reading this excellent book, one can only hope that more such collections of essays around a common theme will follow. Essays tend to be more concise than monographs, a commendable step in the direction of much-needed bibliographic birth-control. Stuart D. Robertson History and jewish Studies Purdue University Flavius Josephus: Eyewitness to Rome's First-century Conquest of Judea, by Mireille I-Iadas-Lebc1, translated by Richard Miller. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.; 1993. 269 pp. $20.00. This biography of josephus, first published in France in 1989, is written for the sake of the French reader not well acquainted with early jewish history. In the "Prologue" Hadas-Levcllaments that in her country josephus' writings have been neglected. He is not well known. Hence this biography. It is translated into elegant English prose by Richard Miller. I was refreshed to find here a biography of an ancient person not freighted with the abundance of notes customarily weighing down "scholarly" books about antiquity. I do not mean to suggest that this is not a "learned" treatment of josephus. Indeed it is. The author offers the reader considerable historical, cultural, and religious background along the way, together with evidence that she knows the issues in josephusscholarship . But she wears this erudition lightly and comfortably. Book Reviews 169 In a concluding chapter on josephus' "Posthumous Fate," the author provides a strong essay discussing both Christian and Jewish use of josephus' writings. Before launching into josephus' life-story Hadas-Level provides the reader with a concise resume ofjosephus' life: "Name-Joseph . .. Family status-married four times: 57?, 67, 69, 76 ... three children (Hyrcanus b. 73, justus b. 77, Simonides-Grippa b. 79)," etc. This is followed by a list of the dramatis personae who strut and fret across the stage of his lifestory , together with a thumb-nail sketch of each: "Agrippa I-Great grandson of King Herod and of Mariamme, daughter of the Hasmonean Hyrcanus II, friend of the Roman emperor Caligula. Reigned over judea from 41 to 44 CE.... Justus son of Pistos-A native of Tiberias and leader of one of the three parties in that city; he often changed camps and later wrote a history (now lost) of the war, an act that infuriated josephus and that inspired him to answer with his Life," etc. Then at the end of the book, there are helpful chronologies, listing in order the prefects and procurators ofjudea, as well as two time-lines, first ofjudean history from the Maccabean revolt to Bar Kokhba's uprising, and then of the Roman Empire from the Battle of Pydna in 169 B.CE. to the reign ofAntoninus Pius (138-161 CE.). Finally, the author provides several helpful maps. The portrait" Hadas-Level paints of josephus is, in her own words, of "a child prodigy, a brilliant young man trusting in his star, an eloquent intellectual repelled by the spilling of blood, an ambitious man unwilling to die at the age of thirty, a mind more political than warlike, a careful rationalist who loathed mystical exaltation, a courtier in his talent for compromise and, added to all that, a profoundly believing jew" (p. 238). Reading this biography, which draws widely from the entire body of josephus' works, made me realize how all that he wrote was, more or less, autobiographical. Indeed, the]ewish War...