Chapters on Jewish Literature | Page 6

never to rise again, little heart was there for
writing history. Jews sought solace in their existing literature rather
than in new productions, and the Bible and the oral traditions that were
to crystallize a century later into the Mishnah filled the national heart
and mind. Yet more than one Jew felt an impulse to write the history of
the dismal time. Thus the first complete books which appeared in
Jewish literature after the loss of nationality were historical works
written by two men, Justus and Josephus, both of whom bore an active
part in the most recent of the wars which they recorded. Justus of
Tiberias wrote in Greek a terse chronicle entitled, "History of the
Jewish Kings," and also a more detailed narrative of the "Jewish War"
with Rome. Both these books are known to us only from quotations.
The originals are entirely lost. A happier fate has preserved the works
of another Jewish historian of the same period, Flavius Josephus (38 to
95 C.E.), the literary and political opponent of Justus. He wrote three
histories: "Antiquities of the Jews"; an "Autobiography"; "The Wars of
the Jews"; together with a reply to the attacks of an Alexandrian critic

of Judaism, "Against Apion." The character of Josephus has been
variously estimated. Some regard him as a patriot, who yielded to
Rome only when convinced that Jewish destiny required such
submission. But the most probable view of his career is as follows.
Josephus was a man of taste and learning. He was a student of the
Greek and Latin classics, which he much admired, and was also a
devoted and loyal lover of Judaism. Unfortunately, circumstances
thrust him into a political position from which he could extricate
himself only by treachery and duplicity. As a young man he had visited
Rome, and there acquired enthusiastic admiration for the Romans.
When he returned to Palestine, he found his countrymen filled with
fiery patriotism and about to hurl themselves against the legions of the
Caesars. To his dismay Josephus saw himself drawn into the patriotic
vortex. By a strange mishap an important command was entrusted to
him. He betrayed his country, and saved himself by eager submission
to the Romans. He became a personal friend of Vespasian and the
constant companion of his son Titus.
Traitor though he was to the national cause, Josephus was a steadfast
champion of the Jewish religion. All his works are animated with a
desire to present Judaism and the Jews in the best light. He was
indignant that heathen historians wrote with scorn of the vanquished
Jews, and resolved to describe the noble stand made by the Jewish
armies against Rome. He was moved to wrath by the Egyptian
Manetho's distortion of the ancient history of Israel, and he could not
rest silent under the insults of Apion. The works of Josephus are
therefore works written with a tendency to glorify his people and his
religion. But they are in the main trustworthy, and are, indeed, one of
the chief sources of information for the history of the Jews in
post-Biblical times. His style is clear and attractive, and his power of
grasping the events of long periods is comparable with that of Polybius.
He was no mere chronicler; he possessed some faculty for explaining as
well as recording facts and some real insight into the meaning of events
passing under his own eyes.
He wrote for the most part in Greek, both because that language was
familiar to many cultured Jews of his day, and because his histories

thereby became accessible to the world of non-Jewish readers.
Sometimes he used both Aramaic and Greek. For instance, he produced
his "Jewish War" first in the one, subsequently in the other of these
languages. The Aramaic version has been lost, but the Greek has
survived. His style is often eloquent, especially in his book "Against
Apion." This was an historical and philosophical justification of
Judaism. At the close of this work Josephus says: "And so I make bold
to say that we are become the teachers of other men in the greatest
number of things, and those the most excellent." Josephus, like the
Jewish Hellenists of an earlier date, saw in Judaism a universal religion,
which ought to be shared by all the peoples of the earth. Judaism was to
Josephus, as to Philo, not a contrast or antithesis to Greek culture, but
the perfection and culmination of culture.
The most curious efforts to propagate Judaism were, however, those
which were clothed in a Sibylline disguise. In heathen antiquity, the
Sibyl was an inspired prophetess whose mysterious oracles concerned
the destinies of cities and nations. These oracles enjoyed high esteem
among the cultivated Greeks, and, in the second century B.C.E., some
Alexandrian Jews made use of them to recommend