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Josephus As Political Philosopher: His Concept of Kingship

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Josephus As Political Philosopher: His Concept of Kingship University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Josephus As Political Philosopher: His Concept Of Kingship 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 Recommended Citation 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]. Josephus As Political Philosopher: His Concept Of Kingship Abstract 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. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Ancient History First Advisor Wilker Julia Keywords Bible, Greco-Roman, Josephus, Judaism, Kingship, Political theory Subject Categories 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
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