Josephus As Political Philosopher

220 Pages·2017·1.22 MB·English

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Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations
2017
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Jacob Douglas Feeley
University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations
Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Jewish
Studies Commons
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Feeley, Jacob Douglas, "Josephus As Political Philosopher: His Concept Of Kingship" (2017). Publicly
Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2276.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2276
This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2276
For more information, please contact [email protected].
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Scholars who have discussed Josephus’ political philosophy have largely focused on his concepts of
aristokratia or theokratia. In general, they have ignored his concept of kingship. Those that have
commented on it tend to dismiss Josephus as anti-monarchical and ascribe this to the biblical anti-
monarchical tradition. To date, Josephus’ concept of kingship has not been treated as a significant
component of his political philosophy. Through a close reading of Josephus’ longest text, the Jewish
Antiquities, a historical work that provides extensive accounts of kings and kingship, I show that
Josephus had a fully developed theory of monarchical government that drew on biblical and Greco-
Roman models of kingship. Josephus held that ideal kingship was the responsible use of the personal
power of one individual to advance the interests of the governed and maintain his and his subjects’ loyalty
to Yahweh. The king relied primarily on a standard array of classical virtues to preserve social order in the
kingdom, protect it from external threats, maintain his subjects’ quality of life, and provide them with a
model for proper moral conduct. While monarchical government depended largely on the personal power
of the king, the king was obligated to uphold Mosaic Law, which would affirm his allegiance to Yahweh
and prevent him from governing tyrannically. The one area in which the king shared power with another
authority figure was in administering cult. Josephus held that the ideal king largely delegated
responsibility over cultic rituals to the priesthood. Josephus was therefore not anti-monarchical; he had a
hybrid theory of monarchical rule that constituted a substantial component of his broader political
thought. In addition to casting light on an overlooked aspect of Josephus’ theory of government, my
thesis also demonstrates that Josephus’ historical writings provide essential information about his
political philosophy.
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Dissertation
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Ancient History
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Wilker Julia
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Bible, Greco-Roman, Josephus, Judaism, Kingship, Political theory
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Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Jewish Studies
This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2276
JOSEPHUS AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER: HIS CONCEPT OF KINGSHIP
Jacob Douglas Feeley
A DISSERTATION
in
Ancient History
Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania
in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
2017

Supervisor of Dissertation

____________________________
Julia Wilker, Associate Professor of Classical Studies

Graduate Group Chairperson
____________________________
Jeremy McInerney, Davidson Kennedy Professor

Dissertation Committee
Cynthia Damon, Professor of Classical Studies
Eric Gruen, Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics Emeritus
JOSEPHUS AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER: HIS CONCEPT OF KINGSHIP
COPYRIGHT
2017
Jacob Douglas Feeley

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
License

To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
To Elana, Zev, and Ariav

iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like first and foremost to thank my advisor, Julia Wilker, for her encouragement,
guidance, and feedback throughout the course of this project. I am grateful to Erich
Gruen, who read and commented on multiple drafts of every chapter. Cynthia Damon,
too, read multiple drafts and provided incisive criticism. Annette Yoshiko Reed gave me
the idea to write about Josephus’ view of kingship, and showed me the value of using
Antiquities to get a grasp of Josephus’ thought. My father and mother, Malcolm and
Margo Feeley, offered valuable support and were always available to talk with me about
the process of writing a dissertation. My good friend Martin Hershenzon also provided
helpful feedback and constant encouragement, and my colleague Eyal Meyer was a great
source of inspiration. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Elana, and my two boys, Zev
and Ariav, the companionship of whom was a tremendous source of comfort and
inspiration throughout the process of writing this dissertation.

iv
ABSTRACT

JOSEPHUS AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER: HIS CONCEPT OF KINGSHIP
Jacob Feeley
Julia Wilker
Scholars who have discussed Josephus’ political philosophy have largely focused on his
concepts of aristokratia or theokratia. In general, they have ignored his concept of
kingship. Those that have commented on it tend to dismiss Josephus as anti-monarchical
and ascribe this to the biblical anti-monarchical tradition. To date, Josephus’ concept of
kingship has not been treated as a significant component of his political philosophy.
Through a close reading of Josephus’ longest text, the Jewish Antiquities, a historical
work that provides extensive accounts of kings and kingship, I show that Josephus had a
fully developed theory of monarchical government that drew on biblical and Greco-
Roman models of kingship. Josephus held that ideal kingship was the responsible use of
the personal power of one individual to advance the interests of the governed and
maintain his and his subjects’ loyalty to Yahweh. The king relied primarily on a standard
array of classical virtues to preserve social order in the kingdom, protect it from external
threats, maintain his subjects’ quality of life, and provide them with a model for proper
moral conduct. While monarchical government depended largely on the personal power
of the king, the king was obligated to uphold Mosaic Law, which would affirm his
allegiance to Yahweh and prevent him from governing tyrannically. The one area in
which the king shared power with another authority figure was in administering cult.
Josephus held that the ideal king largely delegated responsibility over cultic rituals to the
v
priesthood. Josephus was therefore not anti-monarchical; he had a hybrid theory of
monarchical rule that constituted a substantial component of his broader political thought.
In addition to casting light on an overlooked aspect of Josephus’ theory of government,
my thesis also demonstrates that Josephus’ historical writings provide essential
information about his political philosophy.

vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..............................................................................................IV
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................V-VI
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................1-23
CHAPTER 1: JOSEPHUS ON ROYAL VIRTUES...............................................24-83
CHAPTER 2: SOVEREIGNTY AND THE LAW...............................................84-125
CHAPTER 3: KINGS AND THE PRIESTHOOD.............................................126-162
CHAPTER 4: ARISTOCRACY AND KINGSHIP............................................163-197
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................198-201
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................202-211
vii
INTRODUCTION

This dissertation has two goals: the first is to show that Josephus had a systematic
theory of monarchy; the second is to demonstrate that Josephus’ historical works can and
should be appreciated as works of political philosophy.1
Scholarship on Josephus uses him as a sort of encyclopedia, dipping into his
writings for the purpose of gaining information used to prove or disprove a claim about
Jews in the Greek and Roman world, Roman provincial rule, or the early Christian
movement.2 In contrast, this thesis explores the political thought of Josephus. It treats him
as a political thinker who had a sustained and systematic conception of kingship, and in
elaborating on it drew from Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions. The subject of kingship
is particularly well suited for illustrating Josephus’ political philosophy because so much
of his historical writings, especially his longest work, the Jewish Antiquities, cover the
reigns of kings, both Jewish and non-Jewish.
I. Methodology
In approaching Josephus as a political philosopher, my work builds on but also
departs substantially from several common approaches and methods that in the past few

1 Translations of Josephus’ works, with occasional modifications, follow the Brill Josephus Project edited
by Steve Mason. For those books from Antiquities that have not been translated by the Brill Josephus
Project, I have used the Loeb Classical Library edition; these include Antiquities, Books 11-14 and 16-20.
For Antiquities 19.1-273, however, which recounts the conspiracy to assassinate Caligula, I have used T.P.
Wiseman’s translation in The Death of an Emperor. Significant departures from these translations are noted
within the dissertation. Translations of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings
come from Robert Alter’s The Five Books of Moses and Ancient Israel. Passages from all other biblical
books come from the Jewish Publication Society English-Hebrew Tanakh. For the Dead Sea Scrolls, I have
used the translations in the Dead Sea Scroll Study Edition, edited by Florentino García Martínez and Eibert
Tigchelaar. In general, translations of Classical authors come from the Loeb Classical Library edition;
exceptions are noted within.
2 For a relatively recent treatment and critique of this approach, see S. Mason (2003c). For a sustained
defense of it, see D. Schwartz (2013).
1