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Flavius Josephus

Category:QuotesPublished on Sunday, 24 February 2008 17:00

Flavius Josephus,in some regards, is anenigma.He

was a Jewish military leader from theGalileeof the

Priestly class who somehow managed to survive the

First Jewish-Roman War(66-73 CE). He went on to

become a Roman citizen and served Rome during the

Flavian Dynasty,hence the taking of the title "Flavius"

(his Hebrew name was Yosef ben Matityahu). The factthat he lived through the destruction of Jerusalem and

the Temple in 70 CE, makes him of extraordinary

importance as a historian of the period and is proving

invaluable in pin-pointing the location of the scattered

Ten Tribes of Israel during his lifetime.

Important Quotes from Josephus

Some scholars contend theHouse of Joseph,the Northern Kingdom of Israel, wasre-united with the House of Jewdah shortly after the Babylonian Captivity of

Jewdah was ended (537 BCE). Josephus would beg to differ. Boldis mine.

Antiquities of the Jews -Book XI(Ch. 5)

When Esdras had received this epistle, he was very joyful, and began to worship

God, and confessed that he had been the cause of the king's great favor to him,

and that for the same reason he gave all the thanks to God. So he read the epistle

at Babylon to those Jews that were there; but he kept the epistle itself, and sent acopy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media. And when these Jews

had understood what piety the king had towards God, and what kindness he had

for Esdras, they were all greatly pleased; nay, many of them took their effects

with them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem;

but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country;

wherefore there are but twotribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans,
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while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense

multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers. Now there came a great number

of priests, and Levites, and porters, and sacred singers, and sacred servants to

Esdras. So he gathered those that were in the captivity together beyond

Euphrates, and staid there three days, and ordained a fast for them, that theymight make their prayers to God for their preservation, that they might suffer no

misfortunes by the way, either from their enemies, or from any other ill accident;

for Esdras had said beforehand that he had told the king how God would preserve

them, and so he had not thought fit to request that he would send horsemen to

conduct them.

The next passage is a bit lengthy, but well worth the read. It answers several

important questions and provides a great deal of context.

Antiquities of the Jews -Book IX(Ch. 14)

When Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, had it told him, that the king of Israel

[Hoshea] had sent privately to So, the king of Egypt, desiring his assistance against

him, he was very angry, and made an expedition against Samaria, in the seventh

year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not admitted by the king, he

besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth year of the reign of

Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and quite

demolished the government of the Israelites, and transplanted all the people into

Media and Persia among whom he took king Hoshea alive; and when he had

removed these people out of this their land he transplanted other nations out of

Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is [still] a river of that name in Persia,) into

Samaria, and into the country of the Israelites. So the ten tribes of the Israelites

were removed out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven years after their

forefathers were come out of the land of Egypt, and possessed themselves of the

country, but eight hundred years after Joshua had been their leader, and, as I

have already observed, two hundred and forty years, seven months, and seven

days after they had revolted from Rehoboam, the grandson of David, and hadgiven the kingdom to Jeroboam. And such a conclusion overtook the Israelites,

when they had transgressed the laws, and would not hearken to the prophets,

who foretold that this calamity would come upon them, if they would not leave

off their evil doings. What gave birth to these evil doings, was that sedition which

they raised against Rehoboam, the grandson of David, when they set up

Jeroboam his servant to be their king, when, by sinning against God, and bringing
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them to imitate his bad example, made God to be their enemy, while Jeroboam

underwent that punishment which he justly deserved.

And now the king of Assyria invaded all Syria and Phoenicia in a hostile manner.

The name of this king is also set down in the archives of Tyre, for he made anexpedition against Tyre in the reign of Eluleus; and Menander attests to it, who,

when he wrote his Chronology, and translated the archives of Tyre into the Greek

language, gives us the following history: One whose name was Eluleus reigned

thirty-six years; this king, upon the revolt of the Citteans, sailed to them, and

reduced them again to a submission. Against these did the king of Assyria send an

army, and in a hostile manner overrun all Phoenicia, but soon made peace with

them all, and returned back; but Sidon, and Ace, and Palsetyrus revolted; and

many other cities there were which delivered themselves up to the king of

Assyria. Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not submit to him, the kingreturned, and fell upon them again, while the Phoenicians had furnished him with

threescore ships, and eight hundred men to row them; and when the Tyrians had

come upon them in twelve ships, and the enemy's ships were dispersed, they

took five hundred men prisoners, and the reputation of all the citizens of Tyre was

thereby increased; but the king of Assyria returned, and placed guards at their

rivers and aqueducts, who should hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. This

continued for five years; and still the Tyrians bore the siege, and drank of the

water they had out of the wells they dug." And this is what is written in the Tyrian

archives concerning Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria.

But now the Cutheans, who removed into Samaria, (for that is the name they

have been called by to this time, because they were brought out of the country

called Cuthah, which is a country of Persia, and there is a river of the same name

in it,) each of them, according to their nations, which were in number five,

brought their own gods into Samaria, and by worshipping them, as was the

custom of their own countries, they provoked Almighty God to be angry and

displeased at them, for a plague seized upon them, by which they were

destroyed; and when they found no cure for their miseries, they learned by theoracle that they ought to worship Almighty God, as the method for their

deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to the king of Assyria, and desired him to

send them some of those priests of the Israelites whom he had taken captive. And

when he thereupon sent them, and the people were by them taught the laws, and

the holy worship of God, they worshipped him in a respectful manner, and the


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plague ceased immediately; and indeed they continue to make use of the very

same customs to this very time, and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutlans, but

in the Greek tongue Samaritans. And when they see the Jews in prosperity, they

pretend that they are changed, and allied to them, and call them kinsmen, as

though they were derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliancewith them; but when they see them falling into a low condition, they say they are

no way related to them, and that the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or

marks of kindred from them, but they declare that they are sojourners, that come

from other countries. But of these we shall have a more seasonable opportunity

to discourse hereafter.

Here we see the Assyrians also desired to take the Kingdom of Judah, not just the

already captive Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Antiquities of the Jews -Book X(Ch. 1)

It was now the fourteenth year of the government of Hezekiah, king of the two

tribes, when the king of Assyria, whose name was Sennacherib, made an

expedition against him with a great army, and took all the cities of the tribes of

Judahand Benjaminby force; and when he was ready to bring his army against

Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to him beforehand, and promised to

submit, and pay what tribute he should appoint. Hereupon Sennacherib, when he

heard of what offers the ambassadors made, resolved not to proceed in the war,

but to accept of the proposals that were made him;

Below, Josephus give an intriguing descriptions of both the Jews and Joes being

carried captive across the Euphrates.

Antiquities of the Jews - Book X (Ch. 9)

And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews, as it hath been delivered

down to us, it having twice gone beyond Euphrates; for the people of the ten

tribeswere carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians, in the days of king Hoshea;after which the people of the two tribesthat remained after Jerusalem was taken

[captive] by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as to

Shalmanezer, he removed the Israelites out of their country, and placed therein

the nation of the Cutheans, who had formerly belonged to the inner parts of

Persia and Media, but were then called Samaritans, by taking the name of the
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country to which they were removed; but the king of Babylon, who brought out

the two tribes, placed no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea

and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years; but

the entire interval of time which passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to the

carrying away of the two tribes, proved to be a hundred and thirty years, sixmonths, and ten days.

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