Books in Brief
Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome—His Life, His Works and Their Importance
Per Bilde (Sheffield, UK: Academic Press [Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement Series 2], 1988) 272 pp. $45.00
The two centuries preceding the fall of the Second Temple (70 A.D.) are among the best documented in Jewish history and the history of Palestine. This is due to the four books by Flavius Josephus. This gifted and prolific author (b. 36/37 A.D.) used numerous and varied sources, but he also witnessed and participated in some of the most dramatic chapters described in his works, namely the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. If one were to write the history of the latter half of the Second Commonwealth without utilizing Josephus (as an exercise, of course), the result would be a meager, anemic report, full of queries, inaccuracies and innumerable lacunae.
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