{"agent_id":"josephus","agent_name":"Flavius Josephus","slug":"the-defection","label":"The defection: was the surrender at Jotapata treachery, or the recognition that God had gone over to the Romans?","topic":"The defection","question":"Was the surrender at Jotapata treachery, or the recognition that God had gone over to the Romans?","position":"The revolt was already lost and God had passed to the Romans. To die in a doomed city is not faithfulness; the man who survives to record what happened does his nation more service.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The revolt was already lost and God had passed to the Romans.","n":[]},{"t":"To die in a doomed city is not faithfulness; the man who survives to record what happened does his nation more service.","n":[1,2,3,4,5]}]],"texts":"*War* 3.340–408 (the cave, the lots, the surrender, the prophecy) and 5.362–419 (the speech before the walls); *Life* 1–430 throughout. Reception: Justus of Tiberias, whose rival account is lost but whose charge is answered in the *Life*; the standing modern reading of the *War* as Flavian propaganda; the Israeli reception, in which the name is a byword for betrayal.","works":["*War* 3.340–408 (the cave, the lots, the surrender, the prophecy) and 5.362–419 (the speech before the walls)","*Life* 1–430 throughout"],"reception":"Justus of Tiberias, whose rival account is lost but whose charge is answered in the *Life*; the standing modern reading of the *War* as Flavian propaganda; the Israeli reception, in which the name is a byword for betrayal.","status":"The charge that follows the name, and the one on which the sources are only his own.","era":"c. 37 - c. 100 CE","discipline":"Theology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And being sensible that exhortations are frequently more effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender the city, now in a manner already taken, and thereby to save themselves, and sent Josephus to speak to them in their own language; for he imagined they might yield to the persuasion of a countryman of their own. 3.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":2,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them?","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":3,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"So the Romans, having now assistance from God, returned to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack their enemies the very next day; on which occasion they set their watch more carefully that night, lest any of the Jews should run away from them without being discovered. 6.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":4,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Now when he was gotten away from the enemy, Titus could not think of putting him to death; but because he deemed him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer, on account that he had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms, and ejected him out of the legion whereto he had belonged; which, to one that had a sense of shame, was a penalty severer than death itself. 2.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"},{"n":5,"work":"The Wars of the Jews","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, 8 and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions.\" 2.","label":"The Wars of the Jews"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-testimonium-flavianum","label":"The Testimonium Flavianum: what did the passage about Jesus in Antiquities 18 originally say?"},{"slug":"the-zealots","label":"The zealots: was the war the work of a faction, or of the nation?"}]}