Josephus on Herod's Attitude towards Jewish Religion: The Darker Side (original) (raw)
2002, Journal of Jewish Studies
rr he history of Herod and his reign is the largest thematic section in Josephus' Antiquities.1 In the War too his story occupies a relatively large space.2 In both books the main source utilized by Josephus is the Universal History of Nicolaus of Damascus.3 But while in the War Herod is usually portrayed in a positive manner, this is not the case in the Antiquities. In this book one is immediately aware of the fact that Herod is quite often depicted in a negative manner.4 The Antiquities is rife with hostile evaluations of the king,5 most of them, so it seems, based on Josephus' own observations of Herod's personality.6 One of the most persistent negative undercurrents is Herod's disregard for Jewish law and Jewish religious feelings. The aim of this paper is to find out how Josephus handles this material, and what-Can be learned from it about Herod. I will divide the discussion of the evidence into two parts. The first will deal with those cases where Josephus explicitly denounces Herod's actions as injurious to Jewish law. The second part will deal with those incidents mentioned by Josephus, but not commented upon by him as transgressing Jewish religious laws. The order of the discussion follows Josephus' chronological placement of the various events in the Antiquities, which as we shall see is much more detailed in these matters than the War. The first case comes rather early in the story. The young Herod, while serving as the governor of Galilee had Ezekias and many of his men killed.7 The leading men among the Jews (evidently the aristocratic faction opposing the rising power of Antipater and his sons) denounced Herod to Hyracanus, claiming that Herod had done it 'in violation of our law, which forbids us to slay a man, even an evildoer, unless he is first convicted by the Synhedrion to suffer this fate.'8 It is true that Josephus does not speak here directly, but he
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