Who Was Josephus?

BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Josephus? The Controversial Backstory of the Famed Historian. When Yosef ben Matityahu, a great warrior, defected to the Romans and became Josephus Flavius (Dr. Henry Abramson, Aish.com).

Scholars and students of ancient Israel are heavily indebted to a Jewish historian named Josephus. Born Yosef ben Matityahu to an aristocratic family of Kohanim around the year 37 CE, he lived through one of the most tumultuous centuries in Jewish history, culminating in the disastrous Roman-Jewish war of 66-74 CE and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, events he recorded in his many books in great detail and gripping prose.

His backstory, however, is quite complicated, even troubling.

[...]

It's a story worth retelling now and again.

For another recent overview essay on Flavius Josephus, see here. And for that suicide pact during the siege of Jotapata (Yodfat), see the posts on the "Josephus Problem" linked to there.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.