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Review Summary: Flavius' Jewish Wars |
Date: 2008-04-15 |
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Details: Anyone interested in the history of Israel around the time of Jesus will be fascinated by this chronicle of events unbiased by Christian beliefs or Jewish influence. |
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Review Summary: The Jewish War |
Date: 2008-03-16 |
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Details: The Jewish War by Flavious Josephus is an excellent read about the beginings of Roman rule in the Middle East to the Jewish War of 66-67 AD. The Penguin Classics edition is a well translated, lade out and well edited edition of Josephus's discription of events. It is a wealth of information for anyone who wants to learn about the First Jewish War. |
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Review Summary: An excellent translation.. |
Date: 2007-02-26 |
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Details: Josephus was a traitor,yes,and he was not an eyewitness to it all. His sources were an invaluable help to him in writing this account.And once again the Jewish people get short shrift. Yet this book is a necessary evil and should be read,not on its own,but with other sources for a rounded history. Everything we read can be put together like a jigsaw puzzle providing us with the insights needed to understand the Middle East today. |
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Review Summary: A tale of horror for the Jewish people |
Date: 2006-05-10 |
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Details: This tells the story of the terrible tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem, and the end of Jewish rule in the holy- land. It is written by the Jewish general and turncoat Josephus whose powerful skills as historian are compromised by his questionable behavior in regard to his own people.
Josephus does sympathize with the Jewish people, and writes as their defender. But he is also the hireling of the Romans and is careful to present them in an overly sympathetic light.
This is one of the great historical works of Antiquity. It is a classic.
And yet what mixed feelings it arouses . Admiration at Josephus' skill as writer , admiration for his attempting to bring credit and praise to the Jewish people, or some part of it- and contempt for his treachery.
This work contains too the scene of Masada's fall and the powerful speech of its last defenders before their collective suicide.
This is a crucial historical document.
But the tale it tells is a tale of horror for the Jewish people. |
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Review Summary: The Jewish War Was a Bloody Wars. |
Date: 2004-11-15 |
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Details: The Jewish War recorded by Josephus (not the second war; 132-135) but the first one is masterfully recorded in this edition. At the same time, I don't wnat to sound as though I read it simply for the sake of reading a 'materpiece of literature' but because I sincerely wanted to know, from a first hand perspective, what is was like for someone to go through this. Since were don't have many poor and average people's accounts, we have to settle for Joseph who does a pretty good job.
The Barbary shown in the war is attrocious; rape, canniblism, fanatacism, pillaging, turning on one's own friends, etc. Josephus himself tells a story about how he basically convinced 40-some of his friends to kill themselves so that he could escape. The fact of the matter is that a lot of reading between the lines is needed in this book because of the way he writes. I highly recommend it, though. At the same time, not for evyerone. |
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out of 20 Reviews
