The Life of Flavius Josephus | Page 3

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Prepared by David Reed [email protected] or [email protected]

The Life of Flavius Josephus.
by Flavius Josephus

Translated by William Whiston

1. The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, but hath descended all
along from the priests; and as nobility among several people is of a different origin, so
with us to be of the sacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family. Now, I
am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general, but from the first of the
twenty-four (1) courses; and as among us there is not only a considerable difference
between one family of each course and another, I am of the chief family of that first
course also; nay, further, by my mother I am of the royal blood; for the children of
Asamoneus, from whom that family was derived, had both the office of the high
priesthood, and the dignity of a king, for a long time together. I will accordingly set down
my progenitors in order. My grandfather's father was named Simon, with the addition of
Psellus: he lived at the same time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all
the high priests was named Hyrcanus. This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of whom
was Matthias, called Ephlias: he married the daughter of Jonathan the high priest, which
Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asamoneus, who was high priest, and was the
brother of Simon the high priest also. This Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus, and
that in the first year of the government of Hyrcanus: his son's name was Joseph, born in
the ninth year of the reign of Alexandra: his son Matthias was born in the tenth year of
the reign of Archclaus; as was I born to Matthias in the first year of the reign of Caius
Caesar. I have three sons: Hyrcanus, the eldest, was born in the fourth year of the reign of

Vespasian, as was Justus born in the seventh, and Agrippa in the ninth. Thus have I set
down the genealog of my family as I have found it described (2) in the public records,
and so bid adieu to those who calumniate me [as of a lower original].
2. Now, my father Matthias was not only