Josephus was a popular writer among Christians in the fourth century and beyond as an independent historian to the events before, during, and after the life of
Jesus of Nazareth. Josephus was always accessible in the Greek-reading Eastern Mediterranean.
The Jewish War was translated into Latin () in the fourth century by
Pseudo-Hegesippus in abbreviated form as well as by an unknown other in full, and both versions were widely distributed throughout the Western Roman Empire and its successor states. Christian interest in
The Jewish War was largely out of interest in the downfall of the Jews and the Second Temple, which was interpreted as divine punishment for
alleged responsibility for Jesus' death. Improvements in printing technology (the
Gutenberg Press) led to the work receiving a number of new translations into the vernacular languages of Europe; the original Greek text was also published in Basel in 1544. In English, the most influential translations were
Thomas Lodge's 1602 translation (
The Tragic History of the Jews), followed by
William Whiston's 1760s translation (
The Wars of the Jews). On the Jewish side, Josephus was far more obscure, as he was perceived as a traitor. Rabbinical writings for a millennium after his death (e.g. the
Mishnah) almost never call out Josephus by name, although they sometimes tell parallel tales of the same events that Josephus narrated. An Italian Jew writing in the 10th century indirectly brought Josephus back to prominence among Jews: he authored the
Yosippon, which paraphrases Pseudo-Hegesippus's Latin version of
The Jewish War (among other works), and included additional historical snippets at times. Jews generally distrusted Christian translations of Josephus until the 19th century, when sufficiently "neutral" vernacular language translations were made.
Kalman Schulman finally created a translation of the Greek text of Josephus into Hebrew in 1863, although many rabbis continued to prefer the Yosippon version. By the 20th century, Jewish attitudes toward Josephus had softened, as Jews found parts of
The Jewish War inspiring and favorable to the Jews. The last stand at Masada was seen as inspirational rather than tragic, for example. A 1938 / 1941 play,
Jerusalem and Rome, was loosely based on
The Jewish War, and various novels were written. These 20th century interpretations inevitably reflected the concerns of the era, unsurprisingly, such as the
persecution of Jews in Russia and Nazi-era Europe, the nascent
Zionist movement, and the situation of Jewish settlers in the
British Mandate of Palestine. For scholars, Josephus is and remains an invaluable resource for study of the Jewish-Roman war. While he is clearly deferential toward his
Flavian dynasty Roman patrons, he is generally considered a relatively neutral source. == See also ==