Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
As a non-Biblical source, Jewish historian Josephus also recounts that Herod had John imprisoned and killed due to "the great influence John had over the people", which might persuade John "to raise a rebellion". Josephus also writes that many of the Jews believed that Herod's later military disaster was God's punishment for his treatment of ...
Josephus said that John Hyrcanus had five sons but he named only four in his histories: Judah Aristobulus I, Antigonus I, Alexander Jannai, and Absalom. It is the fifth brother who is said to have unsuccessfully sought the throne at the death of Aristobulus I according to Antiquities of the Jews 13.12.1.
In comparison, Josephus did not want to offend Greek pagan readers of his work, and is ambivalent toward the Maccabees. [68] [69] The book of 1 Maccabees is considered mostly reliable, as it was seemingly written by an eyewitness early in the reign of the Hasmoneans, most likely during John Hyrcanus's reign.
Josephus's works are the chief source next to the Bible for the history and antiquity of ancient Israel, and provide an independent extra-biblical account of such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, John the Baptist, James, brother of Jesus, and Jesus of Nazareth.
According to Josephus, on Passover, the Sicarii of Masada raided Ein Gedi, a nearby Jewish settlement, and killed 700 of its inhabitants. [1] [2] [3] Josephus' account is the only known record of the pillage and its perpetrators. Pliny the Elder however described the destruction of Ein Gedi after the end of the war:
Herod I (Herod the Great, c. 72 – c. 4 BCE), was a Roman client king whose territory included Judea.Upon his death, his kingdom was divided into three, each section ruled by one of his sons.
Josephus was always accessible in the Greek-reading Eastern Mediterranean. The Jewish War was translated into Latin ( Bellum Judaicum ) in the fourth century by Pseudo-Hegesippus in abbreviated form as well as by an unknown other in full, and both versions were widely distributed throughout the Western Roman Empire and its successor states.
Josephus wrote that 1.1 million people, the majority of them Jewish, were killed during the siege – a death toll he attributes to the celebration of Passover. [206] It has also been noted that the revolt had not deterred pilgrims from visiting Jerusalem, and a large number became trapped in the city and perished during the siege. [ 207 ]