Book 2: 2.1–654. 22 Chapters.

Shutt, 19.
Book II:
From the death of Herod to Vespasian’s appointment as commander against the
Jews.

Highlights:
The Jewish sects, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes (BJ 2.119-66; cf. Ant. 18.11-25).
The part played by Josephus himself in Galilee (BJ 2.568ff.)

(1) The first part of book 2 provides a brief account of the activities of Herod’s sons
and the two periods of direct Roman rule interspersed with the reigns of Agrippa I
and Agrippa II (J.W. 2.1-276). (J.W. 2.1-276 = ch. 1.1–14.1).

(2) The remainder of book 2 provides a detailed account of when and how the war
began and the first moves by the main protagonists (J.W. 2.277-654). (J.W. 2.277-654
= ch. 14.2–22.2).

• At 2.272-76 Josephus reports how “the revolutionary part in Jerusalem (2.274) bribe the Roman
procurator Festus Albinus, who was notorious for his hostile attitude towards the Jews, in order
to gain “immunity for their seditious practices” (2.274).
• 2.276: Josephus says that “the seeds” of the “impending fall” of Jerusalem were sown when the
rebels started to act against their countrymen like the Roman procurator Albinus, a declared
enemy of the Jews.
• An inversion of roles is inherent in the very even which Josephus calls the beginning of the fall
of Jerusalem (2.276).
• 2.345-401: Agrippa II’s party strongly reject the war and oppose the rebels. Thus the war against
the Romans necessarily has as a consequence the stasis in Jerusalem between those in favour and
those against the war.
• 2.356: Agrippa briefly referred to the conquest under Pompey the Great as the turning point
when the Jews became permanent subjects of the Romans.
• 2.357: The Jews have been Roman subjects for generations now; theirs is a tradition of
obedience, not armed resistance.
• 2.359-60: The Romans are now the uncontested rulers of the world.
• 2.365-87: Agrippa bolsters this point (Romans: uncontested rulers) by providing a long list of
peoples and countries which had to do likewise, including even the Athenians and Spartans,
paradigms of freedom and independence.
• Elaborate elements as the speeches associated with major characters at key stages in the
narrative indicate the extent to which the Jewish War is a crafted work (e.g., the speech of
Agrippa II on the nature of Roman rule at the start of the war, J.W. 2.345-404).
• 2.390: The Romans could not have reached this position of superiority without the help of God
(Josephus): “the only refuge, then, left to you is divine assistance. But even this is ranged on the
side of the Romans, for, without God’s aid, so vast an empire could never have been built up.” A
fight against the Romans, it is implied, would oppose God’s will.
• 2.391-93: Any fight against the Romans would necessarily entail a violation of precisely those
religious rules and rites which the rebels prevented to save from profanation by fighting against
the Romans.
• According to Josephus, the beginning of the war (2.409) is marked by the rebels’ simultaneous
attacks against Masada and the Temple in Jerusalem, the two places with the greatest symbolic
value in the whole narrative (2.408-409).
• [abd] Moreover, inasmuch as the other two great revolts against Rome (115–117 and 132–135)
were messianic and inasmuch as even Josephus himself describes the appearance of Menahem,
the rebel leader, as resembling that of a king (JW 2.17.8 §434)—hence like a political messiah—we
may guess that there was indeed a messianic aspect to the revolt.
• 2.517: The Jews give up all respect for their religious feasts and the Sabbath.
• Josephus, by his own admission, was a leader in the rebel forces (2.569-71).

The war against the Romans results in an abolishment of all traditional religious customs and a
violation of the most sacred Jewish rites; this culminates in the Temple first being turned by the
rebels into a “base and refuge, the magazine for their armament,” then pillaged and finally ending
up as a common grave.

From the Herodian succession conflicts to Josephus’s control over the northern defenses, with a
Jerusalem preview (4 B.C.E.–66/67 C.E.). Archelaus’s rule is displaced by succession hearings
before Augustus, a story interrupted by revolts in Judea (4 B.C.E.). The main narrative
intertwines regional politics, especially Judean–Samarian issues, with Roman attempts at
governance from Jerusalem or Caesarea. A failed diplomatic effort to judaize Caesarea generates
violence throughout southern Syria and a failed intervention by the legate from Antioch,
resulting in the loss of his legion to Judean militants. The final section is about the Jerusalem
leadership’s reluctant preparation for inevitable Roman retaliation: hence Josephus’s assignment
to Galilee.