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The writings of Flavius Josephus provide much of what we know about the first century CE - which witnessed the birth of Christianity, the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, and the concomitant rise of rabbinic Judaism. However, Josephus was an author, not a video camera, and what he wrote often reflects much apart from what actually happened in the first century: Josephus´ works were affected both by his literary models and by current events, and they functioned in various ways for Josephus as an individual and also as a Jew and a Roman, writing in a time of tumult and radical change. Daniel R. Schwartz argues that by building from the bottom up - first establishing the text and its meaning, then moving on to issues of Josephus´ models, sources, and purposes - we may nevertheless reconstruct, with some confidence, the events and processes of this crucial era.

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Daniel R. Schwartz lehrt an der Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Er ist einer der besten Kenner der Geschichte des Antiken Judentums. Seine zahlreichen Publikationen sind in vielen Sprachen verfügbar.

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Daniel R. Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel). He has published extensively on Josephus and the History of the Second Temple period, including a commentary on 2 Maccabees.

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