Why Josephus Matters

Centre Place
Centre Place
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Published 2023-06-13
The Jewish Roman historian and military commander Flavius Josephus was a prolific author, who wrote accounts of the First Roman-Jewish War alongside a larger history of Judaism. Born Yosef Ben Matityahu in the Roman province of Judea at Jerusalem, he was initially a general in the Jewish revolt before switching sides and serving the Roman military commander Vespasian. Yosef claimed that Jewish messianic prophecies predicted that Vespasian would become Emperor. And when Vespasian seized the throne, he patronized Yosef who took the name Flavius Josephus (after Vespasian’s clan name). Josephus is our single most important source for the history of Judea in the First Century AD (the time of Jesus), but his own bias and agenda require his works to be read with care. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will review Josephus’ works and will highlight some of the most important takeaways.

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All Comments (21)
  • @_pawter
    Once again an excellent lecture that builds a coherent picture from all the disparate bits and pieces I had already. I'm glad you have such a large back-catalogue of lectures for me to plunder when I can spare 2 hour blocks of time. The pastor of my church used to be a high school history teacher and can read ancient Greek, so I hope to share with him the best bits: he has 3 small children, a burgeoning congregation, and little spare time.
  • @cae02
    Thanks. Appreciate all the hard work putting these together, presenting and publishing. Keep ‘em coming!!! (p.s. Miss the live audience)
  • @michaelcannon3370
    thumbs up for the bolo tie lol. he has filled in gaps of info that I had wondered about but didn't know where to look or start. great resource I'll follow him
  • @garyschneider6644
    This series is a wonderful find. I will be listening to other of John’s lectures.
  • @rxw5520
    This may be my favorite one yet. I love how he touched on other ideas from previous lectures in a new context..
  • @johnydevassia
    Congratulations for the deepest study and the subtle presentation
  • @geridayao8924
    Who do they often neglect to point out that he was also a pharisee?
  • @Nexthendrix2112
    I named my dog Josephus, and I took him to training where he almost fought with another dog named Titus… what are the chances?
  • @alangriffin8146
    Of course John had a complete works of Josephus as a teen. Love it!
  • @PGB55
    This channel and John keep doing such a great job of summarizing so much scholarship in an honest way. I've yet to hear any contradictions with the more academic / detailed presentations, discussions, debates, etc. elsewhere. Always puts a nice bow on a lot of disparate topics.
  • @apollo8352
    I really appreciate your conclusions based on sound logic.
  • @_CR_
    Excellent lecture … thank you very much
  • @histguy101
    I was under the impression that Latin manuscripts of Josephus are all Renaissance translations, and that Josephus was not very popular in the west during the middle ages.
  • @nash984954
    Love the scholarship in and of these videos. How to copy them, buy them etc?