Works of Josephus
It is most appropriate that among the more elegant
volumes in the Jefferson collection is a splendid edition of The
Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian. Of folio
size, it contains: "Twenty Books of the Jewish Antiquities, with
Appendix, or Life of Josephus, written by himself: Seven Books of the
Jewish War: and Two Books against Apion." The publisher is
pleased to boast that it is "Illustrated with new Plans and
Descriptions of the Tabernacle of Moses; and of the Temples of
Solomon, Zorababel, Herod and Ezekiel; and with correct Maps of Judea
and Jerusalem." The translation into English "from the
original Greek, according to Havercamp's accurate Edition," is
by William Whiston, M.A., "Sometime Professor of Mathematics in
the University of Cambridge." Whiston was both a mathematician
and a Christian divine, a friend of Sir Isaac Newton and his
successor to the professorship of mathematics. This edition is the
first printing of Whiston's justly famed and widely popular
translation, published in London in 1737 by W Bowyer "for the
author."
Thomas Jefferson read the early history of
the Jewish people and its struggle to rid itself of Roman
domination in this copy of The Genuine Works of Flavius
Josephus, the Jewish Historian. Translated from the original
Greek by William Whiston, London, 1737, this is the first edition
of the Whiston translation that remained the standard for more
than a century and a half. (Rare book and Special Collections
Division, Jefferson Library, Library
of Congress Photo)
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The volume was published for the translator, not
the author, for the author Josephus lived more than sixteen centuries earlier in the Holy Land. Born in
the year 38 CE of a noble family of priestly descent, he boasts,
"By my mother I am of royal blood ... from the children of
Asmoneus." He received both a religious and classical education
and was apparently gifted in diplomacy, being at age twenty-six
entrusted with a mission to Rome to secure the release of a group of
priests who had been imprisoned and sent to Rome by the procurator
Felix-a mission Josephus successfully accomplished.
Flavius Josephus was a leader of the
rebellion against Rome (68 CE) who capitulated and became a
penisoner of the Roman Emperor Vespasian. He wrote a history of
the Jews and of the War of Rebellion in Greek, the scholar's
language in the Roman empire. Edward Bernard (1638-1696),
professor of astronomy at Oxford, prepared this schollarly
Greek-Latin edition, of which only a part was published. Printed
in 1686-87, it appeared with a new title page in 1700 (Flavii
Josephi Antiquitatum Judaicarum, Oxford, 1700, Rare book and
Special Collections Division, Jefferson Library, Library
of Congress Photo)
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In the year 66 CE, at the outbreak of the Jewish
rebellion against Rome, Josephus was appointed military commander of
Galilee. Although he was among those who sought accommodation with
the imperial power, he nevertheless fought against the Roman legions.
Defeated, he betrayed colleagues who had chosen group suicide over
enslavement and surrendered to the enemy. His life spared, he became
a pensioner of the Roman emperor, who had him brought to Rome. There
in 75 CE, at age thirty-eight, he wrote The Jewish War, which he
claims, "was the greatest of all [wars], not only that have been
in our times, but, in a manner of those that ever were heard of, both
of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations
against nations." Eighteen years later, he wrote the Antiquities
of the Jews, "to explain who the Jews originally were; what
fortunes they had been subject to; and by what legislator they had
been instructed in piety and the exercise of other virtues; what wars
they also had made in remote ages, till they were unwillingly engaged
in this last, with the Romans." Both works were classic
creations, informative and absorbing. Editions of Josephus began to
appear in the early years of printing, translations multiplied, and,
second only to the Bible, it was the most popular work in Colonial
and early republic America.
Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From
the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress,
(DC: Library of Congress, 1991).
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