Josef (Tobiade)

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Joseph (bl. 240 to 210 BC) was a member of the Tobiaden family. He held the office of general tax tenant for the Ptolemaic province of Syria / Phenicia until the outbreak of the Fourth Syrian War .

The Tobiaden family, which belonged to the Judean landed nobility, was originally wealthy in the East Bank. There is Tobias, father of Josef, 258/57 BC. Attested as the commander of a Jewish-Macedonian cavalry unit. Joseph was also the nephew of the Jerusalem high priest Onias II and stayed mainly in Jerusalem. He urged the high priest, on behalf of the opposition, to abandon his anti-Ptolemy policy. Onias II bowed to the pressure. Although he remained high priest, political power passed to Joseph. As prostates he represented the people to the king.

After this ascent, Joseph traveled to the king in Alexandria . He outbid his competitors and received the office of general tax leaseholder for Syria / Phenicia and command of 2,000 soldiers. In return, he had promised double the tax revenue, and he kept his word. Josef used his power to rigorously enforce the tax demands. He conquered Ascalon and Scythopolis when those cities refused to pay the increased taxes. He had the urban upper class executed and their property confiscated. The Jewish population was also burdened by the increased taxation. The vast majority became impoverished.

His youngest son Hyrcanus tried in 210 BC. Chr. To oust his father from his lucrative offices and thus triggered the split in the Tobiad family. Hyrkanos had to withdraw to the East Bank.

The source for Joseph's biography is the Tobiaden novel, which Flavius ​​Josephus evaluated in his work Jewish antiquities . For the author of the Tobiaden novel, Josef was the model and role model of a successful person: “a capable and generous man who brought the Jewish people out of poverty and weakness into a more brilliant state of life…” The critical examination of the ideal of life for which Josef was so successful Klaus Bringmann sees in the biblical book Kohelet , which was written around this time. Peter Schäfer believes that the rulership practice of the Ptolemies and the Tobiad family as their henchmen created the “fateful equation of 'poor' and 'pious' as well as of 'rich' and 'Hellenized'”, “which later became dangerous should develop a social-religious mixture. "

literature

  • Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity. The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab conquest . 2nd Edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150218-7 .
  • Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in Antiquity. From the Babylonian exile to the Arab conquest. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-94138-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in antiquity. From Babylonian exile to the Arab conquest , Stuttgart 2005, p. 81.
  2. ↑ Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity , Tübingen 2010, p. 24.
  3. ↑ Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity , Tübingen 2010, p. 24 f.
  4. ↑ Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in antiquity. From Babylonian exile to the Arab conquest , Stuttgart 2005, p. 97.
  5. ↑ Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in antiquity. From Babylonian exile to the Arab conquest , Stuttgart 2005, p. 81 f. See Josephus, Ant. XII, 224.
  6. ↑ Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in antiquity. From Babylonian Exile to the Arab Conquest , Stuttgart 2005, pp. 82–84.
  7. ↑ Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity , Tübingen 2010, p. 26.
personal data
SURNAME Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member of the Tobiaden family
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr.