Justus of Tiberias

Justus of Tiberias was an ancient Jewish historian.

Justus lived in the second half of the 1st century and came from Tiberias near Capernaum , a place in Galilee founded in the year 20 and named after Emperor Tiberius . His father was called Pistos and came from a respected family. Otherwise only a few facts have survived; they come from the sometimes very polemical statements from the autobiography of Flavius ​​Josephus and are sometimes quite contradicting. It is certain that Justus had a Hellenistic education and was later very close to King Herod Agrippa II .

Politically, Justus came into opposition to Josephus when he appeared at the beginning of the Jewish uprising in Galilee and wanted to expand control of the rebels there. However, it is at least doubtful whether Justus was anti-Roman. Because the information in Josephus' vita, according to which Justus was a supporter of the uprising, is not necessarily trustworthy. Josephus said he made arrests in Tiberias, but Justus was eventually released. He fled Galilee, so that he did not experience the fighting there himself, and became King Agrippa's private secretary.

Justus was also active in literature. Nothing of his works has survived, they are only mentioned by Josephus and later authors, so that hardly any details are known. Accordingly, he wrote a history of the Jewish War, with which he entered into competition with Josephus' work of the same name . Justus apparently published his history some time after Josephus. The thoroughly biased statements of Josephus about Justus 'work were probably used by later authors who did not have the original of Justus, which was probably superseded by Josephus' description. According to the statement of the Byzantine scholar Photios , Justus also wrote a chronicle about the Jewish kings from Moses to Agrippa II. It was considered that the Chronicle was the actual historical work of Justus, in which the Jewish War was dealt with, so that Justus would have only written one work. In research today, however, it is generally assumed that it was a separate work.

See also No. 734 in The Fragments of the Greek Historians (edited by Felix Jacoby ) and Brill's New Jacoby (texts, English translation, commentary and biographical sketch by René Bloch).

literature

• Heinrich Luther: Josephus and Justus of Tiberias. Dissertation, Halle 1910.
• Tessa Rajak : Josephus and Justus of Tiberias. In: LH Feldman, G. Hata (Eds.): Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity. Leiden 1987, pp. 81-94.
• Abraham Schalit : Josephus and Justus. In: Klio . Volume 26, 1933, pp. 67-95.
• Abraham Schalit: Justus of Tiberias. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . Volume 11. 2nd edition Detroit a. a. 2007, p. 581 f.

Web links

• Richard Gottheil , Samuel Krauss :  Justus of Tiberias. In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906.

Remarks

1. ↑ Luther, Josephus and Justus von Tiberias , p. 43 f. Felix Jacoby is similar .
2. ↑ Schalit, Justus of Tiberias , p. 582.