On Triads, Teleology, and Tensions in Antiquities 18–20

Daniel R Schwartz

doi:10.3390/rel11010041

Abstract

Josephus liked to organize material in three-part structures, which imparted a sense of completion by indicating to readers that an end had been reached. This study focuses on Books 18–20 of Josephus’s Antiquities, which are organized as such a triad: Book 18 opens Roman rule in Judea and adumbrates the final clash and catastrophe, Book 19 creates some suspense by detailing two possible interruptions that could have changed the course of history but in the end came to nothing, and so Book 20 resumes the story from the end of Book 18 and takes it down to the destruction of Jerusalem. Moreover, all three books, together, form a unit in a larger triad: the story told, in the second half of Antiquities, of Judea’s move from sovereignty under the Hasmoneans (Books 12–14), to nominal sovereignty under Herod (Books 15–17), to subjugation to Rome (Books 18–20). This focus on political history is, however, contradicted in various ways, both by Josephus’s development from a Judean into a Jew of the Diaspora, who focused more on religion than on state, and by various sources used by Josephus, that pulled in other directions.

Highlights

IntroductionBooks 18–20 of Josephus’s Antiquities, of which Louis Feldman’s 1965 Loeb Classical Library edition remains a masterful contribution to Josephan scholarship, recount the history of Judea from
Books 18–20 of Josephus’s Antiquities, of which Louis Feldman’s 1965 Loeb Classical Library edition remains a masterful contribution to Josephan scholarship, recount the history of Judea fromJudea and the outbreak of the rebellion that would culminate a few years later with the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the city as well
I will first argue that these three books are arranged in a clear tripartite structure, and that, taken together, they fulfill a clear purpose, defined by their location, within the tripartite structure of the second decade of Josephus’s Antiquities

Summary

Introduction

Books 18–20 of Josephus’s Antiquities, of which Louis Feldman’s 1965 Loeb Classical Library edition remains a masterful contribution to Josephan scholarship, recount the history of Judea from. Judea and the outbreak of the rebellion that would culminate a few years later with the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the city as well (in 70 CE). In this brief essay, I will first argue that these three books are arranged in a clear tripartite structure, and that, taken together, they fulfill a clear purpose, defined by their location, within the tripartite structure of the second decade of Josephus’s Antiquities. Those factors are, on the one hand, the change in Josephus’s own circumstances and interests, in his move from Judea to Rome and the destruction of the Temple, and, on the other hand, his use of sources that reflect other circumstances and interests

Teleology in Antiquities 18–20

Two Sources of Tension