Justus of Tiberias

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Justus of Tiberias (Tiberias, ca. 35 AD - Galilee, ca 100 AD) was a Jewish author and historian living in the second half of the 1st century AD. Little is known about his life, except as told by his political and literary enemy Flavius Josephus.[1]

Life[]

Justus, the son of Pistus,[2] was born in Tiberias, a highly Hellenistic Galilean city and was a man of learning. He was close to the Tetrarch Herod Agrippa II and became a leading citizen of his hometown. [3]

During the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73), he ran into conflict with Josephus, a Jewish leader in Galilee. When the Romans had reconquered Galilee, Justus sought sanctuary with the Tetrach Agrippa. Vespasian, who led the Roman troops, demanded that Justus be put to death, but Agrippa spared him and merely imprisoned him. The tetrarch even appointed Justus as his secretary, but later dismissed him as unreliable.

Justus wrote a history of the war in which he blamed Josephus for the troubles of Galilee. He also portrayed his former master Agrippa in an unfavourable light, but did not publish the work until after Agrippa's death. Justus also wrote a chronicle of the Jewish people from Moses to Agrippa II. Both his works survive only in fragments.

Flavius Josephus, Justus' rival, criticized the Tiberian's account of the war and defended his own conduct in the Autobiography, from whose polemical passages we derive most of what we know about Justus' life. Josephus charges that Justus was the sworn enemy of the Romans and an associate of the Zealots, doing everything in his power to draw Tiberias and Galilee into the revolt against Roman rule. In addition, Josephus states that Justus organized an attack on the Greek cities of the Decapolis, whose inhabitants were faithful allies of the Romans, adding that this attack is also mentioned in the memoirs of Vespasian. According to Josephus, Justus, while in Beirut, was accused of treason against the Romans and would certainly have been sentenced to death but for Vespasian's friendliness to Agrippa. Given Josephus's enmity toward Justus, the reliabiliy of these charges are doubtful.[4]

Works[]

Justus's works have been lost and they currently survive only in small fragments from other works:[5]

According to Jerome, Justus also wrote a Brief commentary of the Holy Scriptures, but no other references of that work survives and it is unclear wheter it was an authentic work or a pseudoepigrapha. Commenting the Chronicle, Photios laments that Justus failed to make any mention of Jesus of Nazareth.[11][12]

References[]

  1. ^ Shaye J. D. Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian, pages 114-144 (Leiden: Brill, 1979). ISBN 0-391-04158-4
  2. ^ Josephus, War p. 9
  3. ^ Joan Comay, Who's Who In Jewish History: After the Period of The Old Testament, page 210 (David McKay Company Inc., 1974; revised version by Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, Routledge, 1995). ISBN 0-415-26030-2
  4. ^ "Justus of Tiberias". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  5. ^ Joan Comay, page 210.
  6. ^ Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus
  7. ^ Eusebius, Church History, Book 10, Chaper 3
  8. ^ Jerome, De viris illustribus, Chapter 14
  9. ^ Photios, Bibliotheca, Chapter 33
  10. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book 2
  11. ^ Photios, Bibliotheca, Chapter 33
  12. ^ James Carleton Paget, Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians In Antiquity, page 202, citing Photius' work Bibliotheke 33 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010). ISBN 978-3-16-150312-2

External links[]

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