JAMF: Part 1

The Problem Joseph ben Matityahu was born during Caius Caesar’s reign in the first century. Joseph descended from a royal lineage of monarchs and high priests. His paternal legacy developed from a sacerdotal heritage highly esteemed for moral fortitude and spiritual empathy. Matthias, father of Joseph, was eminently noble and righteously reputed. Maternally, the aristocracy of his mother claimed the as their point of origination, yielding to the Roman Republic in 37 BCE with the appointment of the Roman client king Herod, progenitor of the Herodian dynasty.

The time of Joseph was one of ceaseless tumult. Political upheaval, social strife, and persecution spawned cultural desecration for all of posterity. Perpetual discord unraveled the fabric of humanity by societal threads leaving only fringes of hope. This was the age of Joseph ben Matityahu.

Favorably recognized from the social ranks, the privilege of Joseph afforded him a higher education, shaping his perception of the world around him. Joseph discarded hypothetical conjecture in favor of truth and documented fact. His acquisition of knowledge was voluminous, exceeded only by his fervor for true understanding. Joseph grew wise. He learned and understood. He knew.

Joseph achieved clarity through edification with an enlightened social consciousness. His sense of purpose developed from profound faith. Consequently, Joseph became many things. Wealthy, aristocratic, and educated, he was a cultural scholar, a military historian, and a Roman citizen whose status contradicted his heritage. More importantly, Joseph was a witness.

Joseph was a military commander until surrendering to Rome during the Siege of Yodfat in 67 CE. He recounted the siege where a Roman legion trapped his small militia of forty soldiers in a cave outside Jotapata during the Great Revolt. After exhausting all options, the band of soldiers chose to decide their fate by lot rather than relent to captivity. However, Joseph did not intend to capitulate.

The cave became a catacomb. His small militia formed a circle in which every third man met his fate at the hand of his closest colleague. Given the number of people, a starting point, and direction, Joseph determined the most likely position in the ring to avoid ruin and took his place in the circle.

A count began at a designated point proceeding in circular fashion in a specified direction, bypassing a certain number of people to determine the next person’s to fate. Repetition produced a dreadful anxiety as their ranks reduced until only one person survived. Joseph lived to see another day though he entered Roman captivity. Upon his release, he emerged in Roman society as Flavius Josephus. His calculated survival resulted from a mathematical deception forever known by mathematicians and computer scientists as the Josephus problem.