By: Yoella Gross

In the time of Josephus

Josephus was born in the year 37CE in Jerusalem under
a roman ruled Judea, to a father of priestly descent and
a mother who claimed royal ancestry. In his early
twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero
for the release of several Jewish priests. Upon his
return to Jerusalem, he was drafted as a General of the
Galilean forces.
At the time the Roman Empire’s tactics was dividing
and conquer as it tried to capture the land of the Jews.
They started at the top of Israel, conquering towns
including those in the Galilee. In the Galilee Josephus
and his men were stationed in a fortress in Jotapata,
when they were surrounded by the Romans trying to
attack the walls protecting them. As the Roman forces
broke in the survivors were hiding out in a well and
decided to die rather than surrender to the Romans.
Josephus came up with the suicide resolution, leaving
him the last man standing and the Roman’s prisoner of
war.

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While he was imprisoned by the Romans, Josephus
charmed the general Vespasian, by correctly
prophesising his ascent to become emperor. This is
how he became a trusted member of the Roman
Emperor’s family and changed his name to ‘Josephus
Flavius‘. Eventually he was released from prison and
so become a full Roman citizen.
Josephus claimed that he was a Jew through all of his
time with the Romans but there is a lot of controversy
on how he kept his yidishkiet when being with the
Romans and under the rule of Vespasian. He worked
with the Romans helping them with their tactics of
war. Josephus travelled with the Roman army and was
an advisor to the general Titus, Vespasian’s son’s
attack in destroying the Beit Hamikdash, and capturing
Jewish people in Jerusalem and sending them back to
Rome in chains.
Josephus plays an important role in Jewish history
recording a number of major historical events which he
wrote history books about. His books included books
about the Jewish war between the Romans and the
Jews, also about the debates in Jewish thought about
Greek ideas, Books recording the history before the
Roman occupation and an autobiography about his life.
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Josephus recorded some of the most important events
in our history in his book on the Jewish wars. These
books covered events including: The attack on Gamla,
The siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Beit
Hamikdash.
The Gamarah says that the Beit Hamikdash was
destroyed because of baseless hatred. They were three
main sects in Jerusalem at this time of the siege. The
Sadducees-The people who were happy living under
the Roman rule even if they lost all of their Yiddishkeit,
The Pharisees-They didn’t mind living under the
Romans but they still wanted to practice their Jewish
tradition, and finally the zealots- the fighters who
would rather die than be in the hands of the Romans.
The Pharisees at the time were surrounding Jerusalem,
making sure no one escaped to surrender to Rome.

Rabbi Yochanan devised a plan with his trusted

talmidim in escaping Jerusalem after he went to
Vespasian saying that he would become Emperor
shortly after a messenger came giving the news.
Vespasian asked granted Rabbi Yochanan three
requests one which he had to spare a small town
Yavneh for the basis of learning and Jewish life.
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 Josephus recorded the events with a unique
perspective of someone who grew up Jewish then
joined Roman society. After Josephus went back to
Rome he wrote these books in his later years under the
rule of Titus the emperor.