The Jewish War

The Jewish War or Judean War  (in full Flavius Josephus's Books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans, Φλαβίου Ἰωσήπου ἱστορία Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους βιβλία, Phlabiou Iōsēpou historia Ioudaikou polemou pros Rōmaious biblia), also referred to in English as The Wars of the Jews, is a book written by Josephus, a Jewish historian of the 1st century.

It is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 170 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 AD. The book was written about 75, originally in Josephus's "paternal tongue", probably Aramaic, though this version has not survived. It was later translated into Greek, probably under the supervision of Josephus himself.

The sources of knowledge of the First Jewish–Roman War are: this account of Josephus, the Talmud (Gittin 57b), Midrash Eichah, and the Hebrew inscriptions on the Jewish coins minted, and Book V of Tacitus' Histories.

The text also survives in an Old Slavonic version, as well as Hebrew which contains material not found in the Greek version, and which is lacking other material found in the Greek version.

Literature

 * The Jewish War: Revised Edition. ISBN 0-14-044420-3.
 * H. Leeming and K. Leeming: Josephus' "Jewish War" and Its Slavonic Version: A Synoptic Comparison. Ancient Judaism & Early Christianity, Brill (1999). ISBN 90-04-11438-6.