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Josephus

Josephus

Also known as Yosef ben Matityahu

37 CE–100 CE · Zugot · Jerusalem

Josephus (c. 37–100 CE), born Yosef ben Matityahu into a Jerusalem priestly family of Hasmonean descent, was a scholar who around 64 CE travelled to Rome to free imprisoned priests and was struck by Roman power. When the Great Revolt erupted in 66 CE he was made commander of the Galilee; he defended the fortress of Yodfat (Jotapata) for 47 days before surrendering to Vespasian in 67 CE, famously prophesying that the general would become emperor. Freed when that came to pass (69 CE), he took the Flavian family name, accompanied Titus to the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), and settled in Rome with citizenship and a pension. There he wrote The Jewish War and the Antiquities of the Jews — the principal surviving histories of Second Temple Judaism — before his death around 100 CE.

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Stop 1 of 337–66Born

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

Born into a Jerusalem priestly family of Hasmonean descent; a learned envoy who around 64 CE travelled to Rome to secure the release of imprisoned priests.

Jerusalem in this era

Jerusalem in the Zugot era was a city perpetually caught between empires, its Jewish identity sharpened by the very pressures that threatened it. After Alexander's conquest, Hellenistic culture flooded the Mediterranean world, and Jerusalem's elite adopted Greek dress and ideas, while the majority of Jews held fiercely to Torah and tradition—a tension that would ignite the Maccabean revolt in 167 BCE and establish the independent Hasmonean kingdom. By the time Rome's Pompey marched in (63 BCE), Jerusalem was fractured between Hellenizers and pietists, and later, Herod the Great—a client king of Rome—rebuilt the Temple into a wonder of the ancient world even as he terrorized the populace. It was in this fervent, dangerous atmosphere that two towering sages, Hillel and Shammai, debated the law in the Temple courtyards and in the emerging beit midrash, each founding a school of interpretation that would define Jewish learning for centuries. The city's marketplaces throbbed with merchants and pilgrims; its Temple remained the spiritual heart of the diaspora, drawing Jews from across the empire for the great festivals.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Yonatan ben Uziel, Akavya ben Mahalalel, Rabban Gamliel HaZaken, Dosa ben Harkinas, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel I, Berenice

Across the traditions, in Jerusalem at the same time

See other sages who lived in Jerusalem→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Josephus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Josephus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.