18 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION

traitor, and it was his misfortune to be without illusions or
self-sacrifice at a time which demanded the abandonment of
both egoism and discretion.

Of the four works from his pen that have survived, three
form part of his plan for raising the Jews in the estimation of
the cultured Romans. These are : (1) The Jewish War (mql
TOV "lovdaiKov notepov), in seven books, authorized for publica-
tion by the Emperor; (2) Jewish Antiquities ('lovdaixf)
*Aqyaioloyia), a history of the Jewish people from their begin-
nings to the time of the Great Rebellion, in twenty books ; (3)
Contra Apion (the Greek title is lost but must have been TIQO<;
tovs "EMtfvas or neql trj<; ra>v 'lovdalwv d^ato'T^rog),1 an
apologia for the Jewish race, inspired by the anti-Semitic
insults of a Greek grammarian named Apion; (4) The Life
($laovtov 'Icoarjttov fttog), which appears as an appendix to the
Antiquities, is a personal defence dealing especially with the
accusations made against him by his fellow-countryman, Justus
of Tiberias.

We have in Josephus an educated man who writes both
Greek and Aramaic 2 with equal skill. It is unfortunate that
in general we know nothing of his sources except from his own
use of them, so that we are unable to form an estimate of their
authority or of the way in which he has handled them. On the
other hand we get a clear idea of his attitude, which is not that
of the historian who chronicles and explains, but of the apologist
who accommodates his facts and the conclusions he draws from
them to his own preconceived ideas and theories. His authority,
which was very great in ancient and mediaeval times,3 is now
much diminished. He is accused of such daring flights of fancy
as the transformation of the Pharisees and Sadducees into
philosophical sects who discuss free-will and the immortality
of the soul; of wilful omissions, such as that of all reference
to the Messianic expectations of the Jews—since he thought it
wiser not to draw the attention of the Romans to one of the
chief causes which Israel gave them for anxiety ; and of inter-

1 Porphyry, De dbstinentia, iv, 11 ; Orig., C. Celsum, i, 16 ; iv, 11 ;
Eus.} H.E., iii, 9.

2 Josephus wrote the B. J. in Aramaic, and then made a Greek version
of it (C. Apion, i, 9), It is, however, unlikely that he had any remark-
able knowledge of Greek ; he had his manuscript revised before publica-
tion (cf. CCLXVm, chap. xiv). He was also the author of various works
which have not survived.

3 LXX7,1 (4th edit.), 93, recalls St. Jerome's saying, Ad Eustochium,
35 : Josephus Grcecus Lwius; E. Jackson (CCLXVTII, p. xi) still con-
siders Mm an historian of exceptional value. This is an exaggerated
estimate.