Product Description

(Updated, full-color edition) Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War take on a brilliant new dimension in this revised edition of the award-winning translation and condensation. Now with color photographs, charts, and maps. (20040603)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236849 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Review
Maier has done something for ordinary Christian pastors and lay people. He's brought the earliest years of the church back to life. (Michael L. Sherer Metro Lutheran News )

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

Customer Reviews

Your Choice
I have long owned a translation by Thackeray of the complete works of Josephus in nine volumes from the Loeb Classical Library. Later, I purchased this abridgement and translation by Paul L. Maier of Flavius Josephus' "Jewish Antiquities" and "The Jewish War" which will be useful to many. Please note, this book is available in a 1990 edition and a 1995 edition. Recently, I obtained a copy of "The New Complete Works of Josephus," with Maier as commentator and editor published in 1999. So, in large measure the question I will try to answer here is, who will be served by owning one or the other of these books. With one exception, I no longer recommend the Loeb series as they are superseded in my opinion by Maier's "new complete works." The exception would be for a scholar using these works for research where the multiple volumes format is very convenient albeit expensive. The "essential works" come in at four hundred and sixteen pages of easy to read prose. The "new complete works" is eleven hundred and fifty two pages long. Substantial extra material including Josephus's "Against Apion" and "Vita" are included along with useful commentary by Maier. The translation is the original to English by William Whiston from the 18th Century. However, Maier has brought it linguistically and grammatically up to date which makes it accessible to most readers.

Josephus is by far our most important ancient source outside of the Bible regarding the history of Judaism and the Israelites up until the end of the first great Jewish Revolt circa 70 CE. On the one hand, if what you are looking for is a narrative history that parallels the Bible through the Babylonian captivity plus a basic history of Judea thereafter up to about 70 CE including Judea's interactions with the Hellenistic Empires and the Roman Empire, the "essential works" should suffice. On the other hand, if you need to back check Josephus against other scholarly works or need substantially more detail in either the pre or post exilic eras, the "complete works" ought to be your choice. In the event that you do not accept the Bible as a reliable source of the pre-exilic history of Israel, the first two hundred pages of the "essential works" may amount to, at worst in the opinion of some readers, no more than a paraphrased rendition of sacral mythology.

That many if not most still view the Old Testament as an accurate presentation of history from the creation up to the Babylonian exile and the return should be self evident. Therefore, if you subscribe to the position that the Old Testament is historically relevant and you need to fill in the blanks from the exile to the end of the first great Jewish revolt against the Romans, the "essential works" will be an invaluable read. If your interests are scholarly in any way, the "new complete works" is mandatory. The "essential works" will be way too stripped out of detail to serve as a useful reference source. Furthermore, the extra material and commentary in the "new complete works" may provide you with a fuller appreciation of Josephus and his place in historiography. Regardless of which of the two books you choose to suit your purposes, you will be reading the work of a fine scholar and a most significant ancient historian. In my opinion, each work will be edifying to its appropriate audience. Just make sure you pick the right book to fit your needs.

Great Scholarship
Anyone who has tried to struggle through an old translation of Josephus will appreciate this work. When reading the 18th century translation one gets the sense that this is a great piece of ancient history, but it's just SO tedious. Dr. Maier's abridged translation not only covers all the important passages, but does so in an easy to read English.

The merit of Dr. Maier's translation is found in the footnotes about the controversial passage containing the reference to Jesus as the Messiah. Although scholars agree that the passage contains language inserted by some medieval copyist, there is obviously a dispute about what, if anything Josephus actually wrote. Subsequent manuscript evidence seems to justify Dr. Maier's conclusion almost to the letter.

As for the content of the original writer, Josephus has been criticized as biased, anti-Jewish, and a Roman turncoat. I was surprised to find a different picture of the writer as I read his works. The bias criticism is hardly valid when he's compared to other writers of his time. While one can question his loyalty, the fact remains that if he had not escaped being besieged in Jerusalem, we wouldn't have such a detailed contemporary account of the Jewish War. Furthermore, his Antiquities of the Jews shows a lack of any anti-Jewish sentiment. Therefore his pro-Roman treatment of the Jewish War should be attributed to having a definite perspective given his situation. The fact is that, for good or bad, he backed the winning side in the struggle that earned him a certain animosity for having backed the wrong side. The fact that Judaism survived this time of persecution is attributable to Jews like Josephus who did not sacrifice their lives for what they pragmatically saw as a lost cause.

This is a must read for anyone who is a serious student of Roman or Jewish history as well as any serious student of the New Testament.

3rd Grade Reading Level and Biased
After reading 100 pages in about ten minutes, I wondered if Josephus really wrote as if he were a child. ie: Jack was a man. He lived in a house. He had a wife. He did something. Then, Jack died. Now replace Jack with Adam, Noah, Moses, Isaac, etc. The translator/editor takes far too much liberty with his abridgement and translation. I bought the unabridge version afterward. The writing in the full version is still easy to read and follow, but it gives a much more detailed and fuller story telling. I realize that the original is very long, and editing was necessary for this book. But, the sentence and paragraph structure was dumbed down too much. Also, the current editor adds too much correlation to Jesus. He may be unaware of this, but not all readers are Christian. I bought the book for Josephus' telling of Jewish history (as the title of Josephus' major works would indicate). Not Paul Maier's idea of what is important in Josephus' landmark undertaking.
I would recommend this book to a Christian parent who may want to supplment a child's reading of Biblical stories. I would not recommend this to an adult who is interested in expanding their knowledge of Biblical history.