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Summary: Fascinating insights into pivotal point in history
Review: If ever there was a history book that you couldn't put down , this is it . The plotting and behind the scenes action is blended with clash of metal , the recoil of catapults and the wailing of those caught in the tempest of ancient Middle East politics , religion and power struggles . From such details as the consequences of one of the Roman soldiers decidng to "moon" the crowds gathered at the Temple , to the upheavals throughout the Roman Empire as Nero and his following Emperors fall one after the other in rapid succession . Eventually Rome being stabilised by the general in charge of the Judean war , Vespasian , becoming emperor . A classic of military history but also an exciting read .
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Summary: A Fine Modern Translation of Josephus' Chronicle
Review: Part history, part memoir, Josephus' account of the events leading up to and during the Jewish revolt against Rome from A. D. 66 to A. D. 73 is still regarded by many historians as the primary account of the war. Admittedly, it is a heavily biased account, a mea culpea written to restore Josephus' tarnished reputation among his fellow Jews and to heap praise on his benefactors, the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. I commend Penguin Classics for issuing a very readable translation that was written in 20th Century English. Anyone interested in getting a glimpse into what Rome or ancient Judea was like during the first century before or after the birth of Christ will find this essential reading.
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Summary: A Forgotten Classic in an accessible yet scholarly edition
Review: The "real" Josephus is a very hot topic among Christian theologians looking for the actuality behind the gospels and students of Judaica trying to go beyond Josephus' usual superficial "traitor" image. If you can't read the original Greek, the next best thing is to read the Loeb (Harvard U. Press) Classics edition with facing English and Greek text. However, even that format might be heavy going for the more casual, but curious, reader. The Penguin edition is far from a watered down popularized version of the Loeb. It is a condensed rendering without sacrificing essential detail. The liberties taken by Williamson largely consist of rearranging J's clumsy seven parts into 23 easily digested chapters. The most valuable part of this edition, however, is not Willliamson's lucid translation but E. Mary Smallwood's outstanding notes and appendices. Her historical asides provide a crash course in the then-current scholarship on the Josephus Problem. The narrator is a self-serving,wiley ex-Priest of the Jerusalem Temple who was a "general" on the crucial Galilee front, until he was taken captive under mysterious circumstances. He cleverly prophesized" that his captor, Vespasian, would be the next emperor. Meanwhile, J served his former enemy as an intelligence analyst and intermediary. Eventually, after the fall of Judaea, he became a protege Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus, soon to be successor. Using his own notes and memory (quite selective and filtered) and the official field reports as well as the war diaries of Vespasian and Titus, Jewish expatriate Josephus wrote what amounts to the official Roman military history of the war against the Jews. Yet he did not totally sell out. He managed to portray his countrymen as mounting a valiant, though nherently futile, effort. This is no dry dusty "classic" -- it is an exciting, dramatic illustration of how Roman military power deals with an intractable and fanatic province. Apart from Julius Caesar's accounts of his military exploits, there are few such detailed expositions of imperial Rome at war. If you have any interest in the crisis of Judaism, the birth of Christianity, the Roman War Machine, or simply a cracking good adventure yarn...this book is for you. Josephus' story behind the history would make an excellent topic for a screenplay. Jim Bloom
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Summary: Josephus's works are treaures in the Jewish history
Review: The Jewish War is a very valuable source in studying the Jewsih history under the Roman domination. The book covers the facts happened from the occupation of the Greek in Jews, to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In other words, it is crossing from the Old Testament to the New Testament. However, most of the events it recorded are not covered in the Scripture. Such events as the domination of the Greek and the Macabee reovlt, a period between the two Testaments, are always missed by the Christian since it is not recorded in the Bible. Also, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, famous to most of the Christian, but only know little. So, this book supplies a lot of information for the background of the Old and New testaments. Herod, Flenix, King Agrippas, they were the names that are familiar with. Therefore, to better understand the New Testament, this book is a must. In imitating Herotodus's style in writing history, Josephus left a lot of other information when depicting the Jewish-Roman war. This book is thus a good source-book for the solidery system of the Roman. How the Roman soldiers matched, how they fought, how they used their battling machinery etc. , and also the geographic information of Palestine and Israel. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: The Jewish War Was a Bloody Wars.
Review: The Jewish War recorded by Josephus (not the second war; 132-135) but the first one is masterfully recorded in this edition. At the same time, I don't wnat to sound as though I read it simply for the sake of reading a 'materpiece of literature' but because I sincerely wanted to know, from a first hand perspective, what is was like for someone to go through this. Since were don't have many poor and average people's accounts, we have to settle for Joseph who does a pretty good job.
The Barbary shown in the war is attrocious; rape, canniblism, fanatacism, pillaging, turning on one's own friends, etc. Josephus himself tells a story about how he basically convinced 40-some of his friends to kill themselves so that he could escape. The fact of the matter is that a lot of reading between the lines is needed in this book because of the way he writes. I highly recommend it, though. At the same time, not for evyerone.
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Summary: Eyewitness to the destruction of Herod's Temple
Review: This book would appeal to anyone interested in the destruction of Jerusalem and Herod's Temple. Josephus was born around 37AD and was a commander in the Jewish army (if really that structured)at the early stages of the Jewish revolt that began in 66AD and lasted some 7 years. Josephus was captured by the Romans prior to the attack on Jerusalem. He provides what can be considered an eyewitness account of what took place there. However, as many other reviews have pointed out, his account has to be taken with a grain of salt. Overall, I think his depiction is accurate, but some figures or numbers given are probably exagerations. Josephus had to slant his writings due to the fact he was then living in Rome under the auspices of Titus and Vespasian. Josephus would not dare to write an account that was unflattering to the Roman rulers. If he had, the writings would not exist today and Josephus himself would most likely have perished earlier than he did. Josephus briefly mentions the three Jewish sects of the 1st century AD, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. Though he seems to hold the Essenes in high regard, he himself became a member of the Pharisees after a decision making process. One thing that stands out in my mind after reading this book and that is the description of the beliefs of the Pharisees. The Pharisees ascribed everything to Fate or God. This is imporant as far as the events of the book are concerned because Josephus states both Fate and God were on the side of the Romans. You can tell that Josephus knew the Romans would eventually win the battle. Josephus was more concerned with the saving of the Temple. Josephus describes the different factions that caused the revolt and how they were "ungodly." These "terrorists" were gung-ho for a revolt against the Romans while the average citizen was terrified. Deserters were killed by the so-called Jewish terrorists and their partisans. Josephus claims to have tried to talk some sense into these rebels, but to no avail. It seems that Josephus blames the destruction more on the Jewish rebels or "terrorists" than he does the Romans. He goes into gruesome details of the infighting that took place inside of Jerusalem's walls even before the Romans arrived. It was due to the sins of these "bad" Jews that brought the wrath of God upon them. He even claims this was foretold in a prophecy. Josephus is ultimately unable to get these rebels to surrender and thus save the Temple. The Temple was used as a fortress and became the focal point of the war. These terrorists defiled the Sanctuary and the city of Jerusalem and would not give up their madness. The Romans had allowed the Jews to practice their faith and maintain their Temple pretty much as they willed. The rebels, being so eager to throw off the Roman yolk and to perhaps rule the country themselves, refused to give up their agenda. Thus the utter destruction of the Temple. Though you can imagine the Romans were a little less humane than was portrayed in this writing. Yet, you do get the feeling that Zealots or radical Jews were largely to blame. At the least, foolish for their attempt to defeat the Romans at that time. They probably should have listened to the reason of Josephus.
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Summary: Historical eyewitness
Review: This is a classical historical eyewitness account of the Jewish revolt 66-70 CE against Roman rule. It covers the following events: the outbreak of the war, campaign in Galilee, the isolation of Jerusalem, the fall of the city in the hands of Titus, destruction of the temple, the triumphal return of the conquerors to Rome, and the Massada episode. The first version was written in Aramaic but latter translated to an impeccable Greek, the narration covering many details concerning Roman war tactics (Flavius Josephus was himself a general, first for the Jewish rebels and later an advisor to Titus). It fails to our present concept of how history should be written in the sense that Flavius Josephus puts in too much of his personal life, with considerable self-adulation.
There are controversies as to how reliable is Flavius Josephus account (destruction of the Temple, for example), to what extent facts where distorted in order to set Flavius favorably in the eyes of his fellow Jews and in the eyes of his Roman benefactors. Whatever the criticisms to his personal life or the fallacies in his historical account, the fact remains that his writing is a rich source of information of a war brought about by the religious tension between the Jewish populace who had become impoverished through high taxation and the Roman government. Much ironical it may sound, but Jospehus with his shrewdness and a strike of luck was destined to remain alive so that we may enjoy and gain knowledge of a specific time in history.
Rating:
Summary: Historical eyewitness
Review: This is a classical historical eyewitness account of the Jewish revolt 66-70 CE against Roman rule. It covers the following events: the outbreak of the war, campaign in Galilee, the isolation of Jerusalem, the fall of the city in the hands of Titus, destruction of the temple, the triumphal return of the conquerors to Rome, and the Massada episode. The first version was written in Aramaic but latter translated to an impeccable Greek, the narration covering many details concerning Roman war tactics (Flavius Josephus was himself a general, first for the Jewish rebels and later an advisor to Titus). It fails to our present concept of how history should be written in the sense that Flavius Josephus puts in too much of his personal life, with considerable self-adulation.
There are controversies as to how reliable is Flavius Josephus account (destruction of the Temple, for example), to what extent facts where distorted in order to set Flavius favorably in the eyes of his fellow Jews and in the eyes of his Roman benefactors. Whatever the criticisms to his personal life or the fallacies in his historical account, the fact remains that his writing is a rich source of information of a war brought about by the religious tension between the Jewish populace who had become impoverished through high taxation and the Roman government. Much ironical it may sound, but Jospehus with his shrewdness and a strike of luck was destined to remain alive so that we may enjoy and gain knowledge of a specific time in history.
Rating:
Summary: well done
Review: Unlike another reviewer, I can't say Josephus is impossible to put down -- too much dry military history for that. But nevertheless (and despite the author's biases) this is a very enlightening book. What I get out of Josephus is how different Temple-era Judaism must have been from rabbinic Judaism -- more violent, tougher, more riven by dissension, perhaps a bit more like today's Arabs than I would like to think. When I read Josephus's early chapters on the Hasmonean dynasty (the not-very-nice descendants of the Maccabees), I kept saying to myself "You mean Jews did THAT? Egad!"
Rating:
Summary: well done
Review: Unlike another reviewer, I can't say Josephus is impossible to put down -- too much dry military history for that. But nevertheless (and despite the author's biases) this is a very enlightening book. What I get out of Josephus is how different Temple-era Judaism must have been from rabbinic Judaism -- more violent, tougher, more riven by dissension, perhaps a bit more like today's Arabs than I would like to think. When I read Josephus's early chapters on the Hasmonean dynasty (the not-very-nice descendants of the Maccabees), I kept saying to myself "You mean Jews did THAT? Egad!"
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