These last three books of Josephus’s
Antiquities detail Jewish history between the establishment of direct Roman rule in Judea in 6 CE and the outbreak of the Judean rebellion against Rome in 66 – a rebellion that culminated in 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Along the way, these books also constitute the main source for the context in which Christianity was born. This volume offers a translation of Josephus’s Greek text, along with a commentary that aims to clarify the history to which Josephus testifies and also its meaning for him as an exiled Jerusalemite and rebel-turned-historian.
Daniel R. Schwartz, Ph.D. (1979), is the Herbst Family Professor emeritus of Judaic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published monographs and translations on ancient Jewish history, including
Reading the First Century: On Reading Josephus and Studying Jewish History of the First Century (Mohr Siebeck 2013).
Series Preface: The Brill Josephus Project Foreword Abbreviations An Analytical Table of Antiquities 18–20
Introduction I Expectations
II Disappointment
III Nevertheless
IV Intended Readership
V Josephus and His Sources
VI Text
VII Translation
VIII Annotations
MAPS Map of Roman Judea
Map of the Arsacid Kingdom in the First Two Centuries CE
TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY Book 18 Book 19 Introduction to Book 19
Book 20
APPENDICES 1 Chronological Survey of the Roman Governors of Judea, 6–66 CE
2 On Possibilities, Probabilities, and Simon Cantheras's Pedigree (
Ant. 19.297)
3 An Ancient Table of Contents
Bibliography Opening Note about the Indexes Index of Subjects Index of Ancient Persons and Places Index of Modern Authors
Readers interested in Jewish history in the first century, which saw the rise of Christianity and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple; readers interested in the Jewish context of nascent Christianity; readers interested in the early Roman empire and its provinces; and readers interested in Josephus or more generally in ancient historiography .