The Jewish War: Book 3

[cahn]

Last week: The Jews are basically in an abusive relationship with Rome and have no good options; they choose the particular bad option of picking a war with Rome that they can't win. The Romans are terrible. Also continuing discussion here about Britannicus, Messalina, and the Praetorians.

This week: Vespasian comes down like a ton of bricks. That whole !!!! part of Josephus happens, where he gets stuck in the cave with a bunch of others and invents and wins the Josephus problem (well, in the text it says they draw lots, so he doesn't actually really cite what developed into the problem) (*) and surrenders to the Romans once he and another guy are the only ones left, and prophesies to Vespasian that he will become emperor. (selenak: Is it Feuchtwanger's invention to add the nomenclature of Messiah in there too? That definitely... upped the ante.)

(I'll comment more on this tomorrow -- I got done with the reading late and obviously barely got this written.)

Next week: first part of book 4? Where to?

(*) E. wanted to know what I was reading, so I told her about the Josephus problem, and she said, "Real-world applications of math!"

Comments

Emperor vs Messiah

[selenak]

As far as I can tell, Feuchtwanger did add the term "Messiah", HOWEVER here's what good old Suetonius has to say in his Vespasian biography in "Twelve Caesars":

The time had arrived, according to a belief as venerable as it was well established, and which had become general across the East, that a man was fated to come from Judea to rule the world. This prophecy - which subsequent events would reveal to have been foretelling the emergence of a Roman emperor - was interpreted by the Judeans as referring to themselves (...). (T)there was a Judean called Josephus, one of the high-ranking prisoners, who declared in a tone of supreme confidence, even as the chains were going on, that they would soon be struck off on the orders of this same man - who by then would have become Emperor.

So the term "Messiah" isn't used here, but the way Suetonius describes the prophecy itself makes it sound like a bit more than just "the next Emperor". It does sound, to coin a phrase, Messianic. And of course in the novel, the outrageousness of the term "Messiah" is both significant in what it says about Josephus at this point and why Vespasian listens. (And it echoes Justus' earlier comment "God is in Italy" now, which Joseph has subsequently adopted and later forgets who said it first.) (Also Lion Feuchtwanger, writing in the years 1931 -1932, is very aware of both the fact that of course the Christians have interpreted this passage in Suetonius to refer to Jesus and that people declaring themselves or being declared not just a political leader but a saviour are becoming more and more popular in his present.) I'll say a bit more about this part in RL Josephus' writings in my own comments on Book 3. My suggestion for Book 4 is to interrupt at the end of chapter 6 in my translation, which ends with "Despite the Zealotes didn't exactly behave as if they disbelieved the prophecies, they themselves contributed to their fulfillment"(Josephus describing the Zealots as the Worst).