Antiquities of the Jews, fit the seventeenth, covering Book XII

A few books ago we learned how after the destruction of the First Temple and the deportation of the majority of the people to Babylonia, Nebuchadrezzar installed Gedaliah b. Aḥikam as the governor of Judah. All the Jews who had fled to neighbouring countries came back to live in Judah, but when Gedaliah was assassinated, they were afraid of repercussions from Nebuchadrezzar, and wanted to flee to Egypt.

Jeremiah tried as hard as he could to dissuade them (( Jer. 42:15-18 )

Jeremiah was referring to the impending campaign by Nebuchadrezzar against Egypt; but what happened to these Jews in the longer run? Enslaved by the Persians, according to Antiquities XII.2.45, but there is a happy ending:

( Ptolemy sets free over 100,000 slaves )

This passage is embedded in a longer section, describing how the Septuagint, the first translation of the Torah, came to be written (which was: because the librarian of the Library of Alexandria wanted them in his collection, and couldn't read Hebrew). Later rabbinic thought held this to be a catastrophic event, but that wasn't how it was perceived at the time (XII.2.52):

( 'we greatly rejoiced at thy intentions ... the multitude made prayers, that the translation of our law may come to the conclusion thou desirest...' )

Have you spotted the difficulty with the above passage? The Septuagint is so called because it was translated by seventy-two elders. Josephus says this is six from every tribe, but ten of the tribes are supposed to have been assimilated and lost centuries ago by that point. ( We know who the elders were, and, kind of, which tribes they were from )

Anyhow, back to the story: Eleazar sends the scholars to Alexandria along with gifts.

( Sifrei Torah written in golden letters )

Torah written in golden letters!? This is certainly not permitted nowadays (for since Talmudic times values of "nowadays")!

XII.2.97 describes how Grace Before Meals was said in the third century BCE (at least in the presence of a king, which may not indicate anything about how it was normally said): ( Read more... )

XII.4.225:

( The Spartans believed they were of the same stock as the Jews )

On to the Chanukah story, where the narrative fleshes out again, as Josephus is using 1 Maccabees as his source. ( Read more... )

I wasn't expecting to see the Romans appearing in the narrative so early (167 BCE); they don't appear on the scene directly until over a hundred years later. But even this year apparently the fear of interfering with Roman protectorates had the nations of the Levant quaking in their boots.

( Where the expression 'line in the sand' comes from )

We learn in Jewish education about Antiochus ransacking the Temple and sacrificing pigs on the altar; and forbidding study of the Torah, circumcision and observance of Jewish law. Turns out that wasn't all (XII.5.251): ( Read more... )

A large chunk of chapter 4 of Book XII concerns the Tobiad Romance, concerning another branch of the same family whose story we learn in the apocryphal book of Tobit. Aha, I think; I know this story from somewhere else. It's in that book, Ancient Jewish Novels, that I happened to stumble across in the bookshop outside Old Street station, and couldn't go past without buying.

So I go back to that book to see where it originally comes from, and it turns out that book had taken it from Antiquities of the Jews... (Though undoubtedly it originally had another source, now lost, from which Josephus excerpted it.)

I mentioned beforehand that Josephus was justified in his catty attitude towards the Samaritans. This (XII.5.257) is why: ( Read more... )

XII.6.265:

Now at this time there was one whose name was Mattathias, who dwelt at Modin, the son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of Asamoneus, a priest of the order of Joarib, and a citizen of Jerusalem.

What's a priest of the order of Joarib? ( Read more... )

You know, sometimes I look at old blog posts or emails, and I'm appalled by my ignorance of that period. ( Musings )

( Before פיקוח נפש (overriding the Sabbath to save life) )

( Something about the Chanukah story they don't teach you in cheder )

Yehudah ha-Maccabee followed of course the restrictions upon how to wage war delineated in Deuteronomy ch. 20 (XII.7.301): ( Read more... )

This despite the odds being ridiculously against them (3000 ill-armed men against forty thousand foot soldiers, seven thousand horsemen, Syrian auxiliaries and Hellenised Jews). I'm not surprised their military success was then later adjudged a miracle.

( Why Chanukah was so-named; what does Josephus know that he's not letting on about? )

Interesting to see that though the other nations were against the Jews in their struggle against the Seleucids, the Nabataeans were on their side (XII.8.335-6):( Read more... )

A piece of good news in the wars (XII.8.349):( Read more... )

Did you know that Antiochus admitted on his deathbed he had done wrong by the Jews (XXI.9.357)? ( Read more... )

( If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to let this one speak for itself... though can you figure out what animal is being depicted? )

I'd vaguely heard about the Temple of Leontopolis in Egypt. Here's how it came to be (XII.9.387): ( Read more... )

I'd previously been told that although the Hasmoneans captured the Temple on the 25th of Kislev, the Seleucids retook it soon after, and it was not recaptured until the 13th of Adar. ( Actually, it turns out this is not quite the case. )

Incidentally, this shows that in the Book of Maccabees there's yet another movement called the Chassidim, in addition to the spiritual descendants of the Ba`al Shem Tov today, the mystics of mediaeval Germany, and possibly also the חֲסִידִים רִאשׁוֹנִים (ḥasidim rishonim, early pious men) referred to by the Mishna or not. ( Read more... )

By the time of the Maccabees, the legend of the shamir was evidently in place, as the new altar was built of unhewn stone (XII.7.318):( Read more... )

One thing I'm surprised we don't learn in cheder is that the Temple service was restored on the anniversary of the day it had been broken off (XII.7.320):( Read more... )

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Hasmoneans were not actually High Priests in the early years of their rebellion. XII.10.414 describes how they became so:( Read more... )

Josephus notes