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3. Flavius Josephus
- University of California Press
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29 C h a P t e r t h r e e Flavius Josephus Josephus was a Pharisee priest, a Jewish historian, and a military leader who wrote around the time of the death of Christ. His opposition to Jewish nationalism and his infatuation with the roman empire have negatively affected his reputation among Jews, but his accounts of Jewish history are often the only versions that still exist outside of the Bible. It is from him that we learn extensively about Moses’ brilliant early career as an egyptian general, and there is no reason to question that version’s authority. In addition, Josephus offers a firsthand account (in The Wars of the Jews) of the fall of Jerusalem. The dream of rebuilding solomon’s Temple, it will be recalled, is one of the projects that inspire the Freemasons (and is it an accident that the enslaved Israelites were primarily masons, workers in brick if not builders of pyramids?). The official english translation of the works of Josephus, however, first published in 1736, is another story.1 The reader needs to look at but also past the copious notes by William Whiston, the translator, “Christianizing” the story of Moses, and bringing it in line with his eighteenth-century beliefs. since Josephus was writing just after the death of Christ, some of the myths that grew up around Christ also undoubtedly affect Josephus’s original tales. In addition, Josephus’s original Aramaic version has been lost, so all translations are based on the Greek, which may or may not correspond to 30 / Flavius Josephus Josephus’s intentions. reading a politically dubious historian translated by someone constantly trying to “convert” the text makes this version of the story particularly challenging—and interesting. The first spillover between the story of Jesus and the story of Moses concerns the king’s motivation for killing the children. Pharaoh, warned that the Israelites would be led out of egypt by one born at that time, orders the deaths of all the male children. Unlike the biblical tale of drastic population control, this is a tale of rivalry like the one recounted in Matthew: now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came three wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. . . . And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. . . . And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. . . . Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. . . . But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead who sought the young child’s life. (2:1–3, 8, 12–13, 16, 19–20) Here is what Pharaoh says in exodus: “And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we” (1:9). Pharaoh orders the killing of newborn males, first attempting to work [44.200.77.59] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:43 GMT) Flavius Josephus / 31 through midwives but, when that does not work, charging all his people to drown them in the river: “And the woman [Jochebed] conceived, and bore a son and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took...