The Lives of Abraham and Moses According to Josephus

Copyright © 2006 by A.J. Schrager.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

Orders@Xlibris.com

30573

Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

THE LIFE OF MOSES ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

COMMENTARY

CLOSING COMMENTS

FOREWORD

In writing The Bridge of Time, Beyond the Present, a portion of the manuscript dwelt upon the Bible as it relates to history and to time. The Bibles used were the King James Version and the Living Bible.

After reading and re-reading the Bible over a number of years, certain aspects began to stand out, which, upon reflection, became very puzzling. For example, if you look at Genesis to the time of Abraham, it encompasses the first eleven (11) chapters of the Bible to the story of Abraham in all of eleven and a half (11 ½) pages. From Abraham to the end of the Old Testament is covered in approximately 980 pages.

The time from Adam to Abraham encompassed 20 generations. Granted that the ages of the patriarchs stated ranged from several hundred years to nearly one thousand, Adam and his progeny did not take many years to sire their offspring. From Abraham to Moses it is seven generations. From Moses to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ it is approximately 1,400 years.

Another puzzlement (amongst many) is the statement that the first five books of the Old Testament are attributed to Moses, which take in the account of the death of the ascribed author.

In the process of researching The Bridge of Time, Beyond the Present, I became aware of Josephus, a.k.a. Flavius Josephus, born Joseph ben Matthias. Before the completion of the manuscript for The Bridge of Time, Beyond the Present, the idea was formulating in the back of my mind to retell the story of Abraham and of Moses according to Josephus, because so much information was coming forth that is not to be found in the biblical accounts of their lives.

Although Josephus has brought forth many details of the lives of Abraham and Moses (and at times he quotes them verbatim), that are not to be found in the Bible, he does not answer all the questions that can be encountered. In some instances, he furnishes more details than the Bible does, and in some instances his accounts differ from the versions in the Bible. All in all, it gives one a much clearer understanding of the lives of Abraham and Moses. Abraham was the progenitor of the two great families of man, i.e. the Ishmaelites and the Israelites, being the first man to perceive God as the supreme and only deity of mankind, and Moses was the man God chose to talk to, to lead his fellow men from bondage before God sent His only son to redeem the peoples of the earth.

Before we commence with the narratives of their lives, by your leave, let’s look into the source of our material, a look into the man that recorded history for posterity’s sake almost two millennia ago. Our sources will be: The World of Josephus by G. A. Williamson, published 1964, and The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian by William Whiston A.M., published in London and in New York in the 19th Century (translated in the 18th Century), entitled The Antiquities of the Jews. Williamson gives us an insight into the man and his works. Whiston translates his works. Although others have translated Josephus’ Antiquities, and may have some variances in the translation, the work of Whiston is monumental in itself and happens to be one of the resources we have.

Williamson has this to say:

"This paradox of a man, as he has been aptly called, was a Jew who of his own choice became a Roman; a priest of Jehovah who became at least half pagan; a politician, orator and soldier who served both sides in the same war; a man who began as Joseph ben Matthias and ended up as Flavius Josephus; and a historian who, thoroughly aware of both the Roman and Jewish strand in the history of his times, and with some knowledge of the Christian strand also, employed the leisure years of his life to such a good purpose that through his writings we know more of what happened in little Palestine, than we know of the course of events in any of the great dominions of Rome, in that, perhaps, in any century.¹

Born AD 37; in 64 AD he paid his first visit to Rome; in 66 AD he became Governor of Galilee where he made elaborate preparations to resist the coming Roman invasion; the following summer he surrendered to the enemy in the most astounding circumstances; and put himself right with the commander by foretelling his future elevation to the imperial purple. From then on he assisted the Romans to the limits of his powers and on the termination of hostilities, accompanied the son of the new emperor to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life as a pensioner in the emperor’s house, immersed in the peaceful occupation of writing history until he died in the year 101 AD."²

Williamson continues:

Finally, we must set ourselves a task that is perhaps more important than any other—that of giving a true and intellectual picture of the two worlds that meet in our author’s pages, of life in the two countries in which he lived and fought and wrote, and which combined to make life the strange thing that it was, and his works the precious inheritance that has come down to us—‘a possession for all time’ as truly as was the work to which the author first applied that famous phrase.³

We continue with illumination from Williamson:

"There was a common language then, a language understood in every country east of Italy and in many regions west. The language was not Latin, but Greek; the language of the University and of the marketplace, of literature, commerce and everyday correspondence. It was the second language of the Galilean apostles, the language which they wrote and which they taught in every land . . . It was the language in which were written all the works of Josephus except the lost first draft of The Jewish War. It was in common use even in Rome itself."⁴

After the fall of Jerusalem, Josephus went to Rome, as a pensioner in the emperor’s household. Devoting his life now to writing the History, four of his works have come down to us, one of them runs twenty books and sixty thousand lines. Two more works were in the planning and probably part-written, if never published.

The preliminary work was collected from every source, leaving it to Josephus to study and evaluate—and reduce the material to manageable proportions. Thence came the actual writing or dictating of a million or so words. All his works were based on written sources; none are the product of the author’s memory or imagination. His sources of information were numerous and must have taken a very long time to read and annotate. Every single word was written on a roll or rolls without division and probably without an index so that tracking down of a wanted passage presented formidable difficulties.⁵

Josephus’ task was made more difficult, as all the authorities and summaries were written in Greek—which was the tongue of the educated Romans for that matter, employed throughout the east half of the Roman Empire. Therefore any book meant for general distribution must of necessity be written in Greek—but Josephus, raised as a Judean whose language was Aramaic, thought in Aramaic and only used Greek when compelled.

In his Antiquities, Josephus is quoted by Whiston, I have taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of Greek, and understand the elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactions.⁶

Whiston continues:

"There is another and perfectly legitimate way in which we may surmise that the assistants made our author’s task easier. It would have been impossible to write any of his books, except perhaps the Life, without constant references to sources. In the case of a work on so grand a scale as Antiquities, it was necessary to make a close study of the great many sources, some of them voluminous. It was right and natural that this should be collected and studied by persons who could read them easily and select relevant passages for final acceptances or rejection by their employer. These could be summarized or rewritten without modification, for there were no copyright laws, and Josephus could copy Berossus as freely as Eusebius was later to copy Josephus. We shall not be far wrong if we picture a number of readers and writers busy at work in the study of Vespasian’s former residence while Josephus collated and directed their labors."⁷

Josephus took 18 years to write Antiquities and finished in the 13th year of the reign of Caesar Domitan. He was then 56 years old, and that was 93 AD.

Williamson quotes Whiston: The personal character of Josephus may be regarded as an historical enigma. Josephus received elaborate praise and intense criticism as you may imagine:

(a)   Bishop Porteus’ warmly approving commendation roundly asserted: The fidelity, the veracity and the probity of Josephus are universally allowed.

(b)   Scaliger declares: He deserves more credit than all the Greek and Latin writers put together.⁸

(c)   However, Gratz had an opposite view: This complacency, this utter failure to view his own duplicity, cunning and perfidy with any feelings other than pride and self-congratulation, and boasting. Gratz went on: It would be difficult to believe all the instances of craft and duplicity on the part of Josephus, had he now himself dwelt upon them with unexampled shamelessness. He went on: His version could not be perfectly truthful, seeing how far his own interests had been involved.

(d)   Prowne took the same view, but justly emphasizes the other side of the coin: It is indeed well for us that, except where his own conduct is in question, he is such a comprehensive, well-informed, precise and conscientious narrator.⁹

And lastly, I have two more quotes which round out the picture of Josephus, the historian: Most indebted of all was Eusebius of Caesaria, who quotes Josephus over and over again and sometimes at great length. Through all the centuries, that followed the fall of Constantinople, Greek writers continue to draw upon him, and in our twentieth century he remains an authority whom no serious student of history would dare to neglect.¹⁰

Lastly, and the last line of tribute by Williamson: Josephus, the writer, deserves our warmest thanks; Josephus the man—not lovable, not estimable, barely tolerable, but a fascinating one.¹¹

PREFACE

Two millennia ago a man named Flavius Josephus, born Joseph ben Matthias, wrote a voluminous book about history, which was published 93 years after the death of Jesus Christ.

The title was The Antiquities of the Jews. The work appeared at least 100 and almost 200 years before the Bible, with the Old Testament, took its form nearly as we find it today, translated in the St. James version circa 1611, and, in modern day, paraphrased in the Living Bible, with the New Testament added.

If the reader of these pages wonders why this effort is undertaken, it is because Josephus recorded for posterity, that which the scribes have been laboring over for hundreds of years before him, and their work took the form, more or less, as we find it today, as stated before, approximately 100 to 200 years later. Josephus brings to us much more information than the scribes that compiled the Old Testament could not, or would not, include in their effort.

The efforts of the scribes became the Bible. The efforts of Josephus were bypassed for nigh 1800 years, after which two translators undertook to convert the monumental works from Greek to English, and thence re-publish Josephus in the 19th Century. One of the translators was William Whiston A.M., whose works were published under the title of The Genuine Work of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian, being the complete works of the Learned and Authentic Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus, comprising the Antiquities of the Jews, a History of the Jewish Wars, three Dissertations concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, etc. and the life of Josephus as written by himself with a sequel to the History of the Jews continued to the present time which was written by William Whiston.

William Whiston was a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. The monumental volume was published in London and New York in the 19th Century. There is no date to the publication, but by all appearances it would have appeared from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of the 19th Century.

On the very