One of the most frequent phenomena in Josephus' books, especially in The Jewish War, is human death. Death has been a baffling subject for the human mind since the beginning of history. It becomes a more embarrassing issue when the whole of our community is threatened by such a situation as that of the Jewish War. In the present essay, I will make an attempt to survey the world of Josephus with the purpose of gleaning what Josephus thought of human death from his writings. First of all, Josephus' view of death in relation to life will be studied. Then, I will focus on the concept of 'noble death' and the reward for such deaths in Josephus. Finally, there will be an attempt of learning what kind of cultural context shaped Josephus' concept of human death as such.

Between Life and Death

Sometimes, death seems to be desired by people because of the present afflictions. When Vespasian and his troops sieged Jotaphata, the Jews inside the wall were suffering from the lack of water. "Josephus had a number of dripping garments hung round the battlements, with the result the whole wall was suddenly seen streaming with water" to let the Romans give up waiting for the Jews' surrender owing to the exhaustion of water. The Jews "preferred death in battle to perishing of hunger and thirst" (JW 3.189). Dying in battle is regarded as much less painful than dying gradually in hunger and thirst. A quick death in battle was rather a relief from the present pain (JW 5.355). In the face of severe famine, death was rather a rest. Titus encompassed Jerusalem with a wall to prevent the escape of the Jews.

For the Jews, along with all egress, every hope of escape was now cut off; and the famine enlarging its maw, devoured the people by households and families. The roofs were thronged with women and babes completely exhausted, the alleys with the corpses of the aged... For many fell dead while burying others, and many went forth to their tombs ere fate was upon them... famine stifled the emotions, and with dry eyes and grinning mouths these slowly dying victims looked on those who had gone to their rest before them (JW 5.512-515).

For from of old, since the first dawn of intelligence, we have been continually taught by those precepts, ancestral and divine - confirmed by the deeds and noble spirit of our forefathers - that life, not death, is man's misfortune. For it is death which gives liberty to the soul and permits it to depart to its own pure abode, there to be free from all calamity; but so long as it is imprisoned in a mortal body and tainted with all its miseries, it is, in sober truth, dead, for association with what is mortal ill befits that which is divine (JW 7.343-344).

Josephus' positive emphasis on life is dominant everywhere else in his writings, and most of all is well expressed in his own speech. Josephus' speech to his fellows in a cavern is full of the advocacy of life. Though "it is honorable to die in war," it must be by the hand of the conqueror (JW 3.363). "If they [the Romans who wants to save their lives] are moved to spare an enemy, how much stronger reason have we to spare ourselves?" (JW 3.367). Josephus' premise is that life should be preserved in awe. He concurs with the idea that it is honorable to die for liberty (JW 3.365a). Yet, "it is equally cowardly not to wish to die when one ought to do so, and to wish to die when one ought not" (JW 3.365b). In Josephus' opinion, "there could be no more arrant coward than the pilot who, for fear of a tempest, deliberately sinks his ship before the storm" (JW 3.368). Therefore, suicide is an act of impiety towards God who created human beings (JW 3.369). "And God - think you not that He is indignant when man treats His gift with scorn? For it is from Him that we have received our being, and it is to Him that we should leave the decision to take it away" (JW 3.371). Death is not the first but the last resort one should take when one does not have any escape with just reason.

Josephus' account of Eleazar's death in the battle with Antiocus Epiphanes rather belittles the report of his source. The author of 1 Maccabees commented the event as a heroic death: "he gave his life to save his people and to win everlasting name, kai. e;dwken evauto.n tou/ sw/sai to.n lao.n auvtou/ kai. peripoih/sai evautw/| o;noma aivw,nion" (1 Macc 6:44). In Ant 12.374, Josephus simply writes that Eleazar ended his life as such, tw|/ tro,pw| tou,tw| to.n bi,on kate,streyen. Only the act of killing many enemies at the risk of his life is portrayed to be brave (euvyu,cwj). Even in War 1.43-45, the act is a sort of failure as an omen for the losing of the battle. What he would have gained was only "the reputation of courting death in the bare expectation of a brilliant exploit." It was "nothing more than to attempt great things, holding life cheaper than renown (euvklei,a)." Josephus, in this account, sees Eleazar to have lost his life in vain for fame. Life is more valuable than fame. Josephus does not want to praise Eleazar's death for fame.

Dying for Honor

However, there are many deaths that deserve people's admiration. Herod was carrying out a campaign against Jewish bandits who were hidden in the caves of Arbela. Herod offered survival to those who would surrender, for he did not want to destroy them. None of them actually surrendered. Herod had to watch a horrible spectacle. An old man ordered his wife and seven children to come forward to the entrance of the cave and slew one by one. Having thrown their corpses down the precipice, the old man finally threw himself to die (JW 1.311-313). Herod was deeply affected by the scene that he tried to save them. Josephus does not give any further explanation except his pictorial description of the horrible incident. A general statement about the bandits in the caves would be his comment: "many preferred death to captivity" (JW 1.311). The old man seemed to think that the disgrace of surrender to Herod was worse than death. He chose to die in order not to lose honor.

A man of Jotapata, after all the tortures by Vespasian, did not betray a word about the state of the town. He was finally crucified but encountering his death with a smile (JW 3.321). Overcoming all the pains including the ordeal of fire, the man smiled in the honor of the victory of not betraying his people at his death. Jesus the chief priest in his address from the walls to the Idumeans says: "For my own part, though I should prefer peace to death, yet having once declared war and entered the lists, I would rather die nobly than live a captive" (JW 4.250). Honor is worth having even in exchange for life. Essenes considers death better than immortality, if it come with honor (JW 2.151b).

Differing from the silence of the Jewish scripture, Josephus concludes King Saul's death as a honorary death.

For he, although he knew of what was to come and his impending death, which the prophet had foretold, yet determined not to flee from it or, by cling to life, to betray his people to the enemy and dishonour the dignity of kingship; instead, he thought it noble to expose himself, his house and his children to these perils and, along with them, to fall fighting for this subjects. He preferred to have his sons meet death as brave men rather than leave them behind, while still uncertain what kind of men they might prove to be; for thus, as successors and posterity, he would obtain glory and an ageless name (Ant 6.344-345).

The most frequent and favored theme of death in Josephus is "dying for the law." Two respected doctors, Judas and Matthias once exhorted their disciples to cut down the golden eagle Herod had erected over the temple gate, which was against the law. Josephus delivers us what they taught their disciples: "it is a noble deed to die for the law of one's country [of the father], kalo.n ei-nai... u`per tou/ patri,ou no,mou qnh,skein; for the souls of those who came to such an end attained immortality and an eternally abiding sense of felicity; it is only the ignoble, uninitiated in their philosophy, who clung in their ignorance to life and preferred death on a sick-bed to that of a hero" (JW 1.650). They were burnt alive (JW 1.655).

Josephus' description of the Essenes's uprightness in this matter is remarkable. They cheerfully die for the law.

They make light of danger, and triumph over pain by their resolute will; death, if it come with honour, they consider better than immortality. The war with the Romans tried their souls through and through by every variety of test. Racked and twisted, burnt and broken, and made to pass through every instrument of torture, in order to induce them to blaspheme their lawgiver or to eat some forbidden thing, they refused to yield to either demand, nor ever once did they cringe to their persecutors or shed a tear. Smiling in their agonies and mildly deriding their tormentors, they cheerfully resigned their souls, confident that they would receive them back again (JW 2.150-153).

Josephus draws a similar picture for an incident related to Pilate. When Pilate secretly brought the busts of the emperor that were attached to the military standards into Jerusalem, crowd went to Caesarea and implored Pilate to remove the standards from Jerusalem. They prostrated themselves around his house and did not retreat for five whole days and nights. As Pilate surround them with this troops, Jews cried out that "they were ready rather to die than to transgress the law" (JW 2.174, Ant 18.59). At last Pilate gave up.

For Josephus, if there is one clear reason Jewish people die for, it is certainly the law of God. To live according to the law is the most glorious. However, if it is not possible to live in keeping the law, to die for the law is glorious as much. Josephus defends his people: "Each individual, relying on the witness of his own conscience and the lawgiver's prophecy, confirmed by the sure testimony of God, is firmly persuaded that to those who observe the laws and, if they must needs die for them, willingly meet death, God has granted a renewed existence and in the revolution of the ages the gift of a better life" (Ag Apion 2.218). Josephus was proud of this attitude of his people more than anything else. "There should be nothing astonishing in our facing death on behalf of our laws with a courage which no other nation can equal" (Ag Apion 2.234).

After Death: Its Influence and Result

Though we see the concept very rarely, God's vengeance is expected in the case of innocent death. When John Hyrcanus attacked his brother-in-law Ptolemy at Dagon, Ptolemy tortured Hyrcanus's mother and brothers and threatened to kill them by hurling them down from the fortress (JW 1.57). Hyrcanus's mother implores her mother not to be moved by Ptolemy's menace. Josephus' interpretation of her act is: "to her, death at Ptolemy's hands would be better than immortality (avqanasi,a), if he paid the penalty for the wrongs which he had done to their house" (JW 1.58). The assumption is that innocent death could invoke God to punish the wrong-doers.

Herod condemned his sons and tried to execute them. One old soldier named Tiro complained about the act and warned Herod: "But take care that the death of his [Antipater's] brothers does not one day rouse against him the hatred of the army; for there is not a man there who does not pity the lads, and many of the officers are freely expressing their indignations" (JW 1.546). Innocent death will bring about pity and indignation among people and it will have negative effect upon the one who caused the death.

As for the reward and punishment after one's death, Hellenistic flavor is too strong to deny. Granted that Josephus attempted to write a history by using Greek categories, and that he as an ancient historian freely formulated speeches in his narratives, his consistent use of the concept of the immortality of soul should not be treated simply as employing Hellenistic terminology. Josephus said to his fellow men in a cave in order to persuade them to surrender.

All of us, it is true, have mortal bodies, composed of perishable matter, but the soul lives for ever, immortal: it is a portion of the Deity housed in our bodies. If, then, one who makes away with or misapplies a deposit entrusted to him by a fellow-man is reckoned a perjured villain, how can he who casts out from his own body the deposit which God has placed there, hope to elude Him whom he has thus wronged? (JW 3.372).

(JW 7.350-351). Titus's speech given to his soldiers is also promoting the reward of immortality for the warrior's death (JW 6.46-48).

According to Josephus, Essenes believed that they would receive their souls after righteous death (JW 2.153), for they believed that the soul immortal and imperishable (JW 2.154; Ant 18.5). Pharisees also had the belief in a certain from of after-life accompanying reward and punishment. "They believe that souls have power to survive death and that there are rewards and punishments under the earth for those who have led lives of virtue or vice: eternal imprisonment is the lot of evil souls, while the good souls receive an easy passage to a new life" (Ant 18:14; cf. JW 2.162-165). As we have already seen above, Josephus himself as a good Pharisees believes in the reward after death if one has been faithful to the law in this life (Ag Apion 2.218).

A Virtue: The Contempt of Death

If we summarize by one phrase the most favorable attitude one should have toward death in such a precarious world as that of Josephus' stories, it should be certainly "the despising of death. To encounter death with willingness and composure for good purpose is a noble act for Josephus. "Despise of death" or "contempt of death" (qana,tou katafro,nhsij, qana,tou perifro,nhsij) is one of the greatest virtues to be admired by people. Josephus defends the Jewish laws like this: "I think, it will be apparent that we possess a code excellently designed to promote piety, friendly relations with each other, and humanity towards the world at large, besides justice, hardiness, and qana,tou perifro,nhsin" (Ag Apion 2.146).

I would therefore boldly maintain that we have introduced to the rest of the world a very large number of very beautiful ideas... What more beneficial than to be in harmony with one another, to be a prey neither to disunion in adversity, nor to arrogance and faction in prosperity; in war qana,tou katafronei/n, in peace to devote oneself to crafts or agriculture; and to be convinced that everything in the whole universe is under the eye and direction of God? (Ag Apion 2.293-294).

Place of Josephus' Understanding of Human Death

Bravery, boldness, and faithfulness that do not know the fear of death as they stand for the law, their country and true honor are the very picture Josephus wants to present to his Greco-Roman readers. How do we evaluate the stance of Josephus' description of human death? What we have is not his intended work of philosophical thesis on human death. It is difficult to derive his philosophy of death in general, for what we have gleaned from his writings are all placed in the context of war. In spite of the limitation we have, however, it is not difficult to see that his view on human death has certain distance from that of the Hebrew scripture. Death, in the Hebrew scripture, is generally treated as a termination of individual life. People simply die of many reasons. Individuals die and community goes on. The significance of death is generally negative in the Hebrew scriptures.

The term death is used in the literature of the OT in at least three senses: (1) as a metaphor for those things which detract from life as Yahweh intends it, among them illness, persecution, despair, and nonparticipation in the life of the covenant community; (2) as a "power" in opposition to the created order; (3) for biological cessation, usually in the sense of the end of a given individual's historical existence, and less frequently as the inevitable fate of all humans.

Josephus as a faithful Pharisaic Jew fundamentally maintains the mood of the Hebrew scripture as is shown in his view on death above. However, overall contour of his description of death is represented by "noble death" and "the immortality of soul" prevalent in Greco-Roman world. The picture of noble death as represented by his phrase "the contempt of death" is typically shown in Seneca, Epictetus, Silius Italicus, Plutarch, Tacitus, and Lucian. As for the immortality of soul, E. P. Sanders ascribes Josephus' description to his "attempt to use Greek categories." However, Josephus' Hellenism in his writings are too prominent to simply be put aside as his circumstance in writing. For instance, it is amazing, though through an oratorical hyperbole on the mouth of Eleazar, that Josephus made a statement that the immortality of soul had been taught by the Jewish law. Josephus was proud of having been a faithful Jewish priest who could have died for his country and for the law of God and made a strenuous effort to represent his religion, no matter how much he is writing for Hellenistic readers. A typical Palestinian Jew, Josephus is a good example of the cultural mixture of Hellenism and Judaism even in Palenstine.

In the study of the Judaism of the second temple period, one of the distinctions traditionally drawn is that between Palestinian and Hellenistic Judaisms. The basis for this distinction is the division drawn by scholars between Palestinian 'normative' Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism. However, the picture is not that simple and there is a trend moving away from that direction within the scholarship.

The Hellenization of the Palestine

To understand the situation of the second temple period Judaism, it is desirable to go back to the era of Alexander the Great in the fourth century. Alexander the Great had a vision of Hellenizing the Orient beyond his military conquest. For this purpose he brought Greek colonists and technicians of various kinds to the territories he had conquered to establish centers where the Greek language and life style would be transplanted. He had the concept of a new humanity - the Asiatic peoples infused with the civilizing influence of the Greeks. After Alexander, there was no strong centralizing power that was able to keep the eastern Mediterranean world politically unified, but Greek language and civilization continued to influence and mold great masses of people. Rome's overtake of the world around 200 bce resulted in becoming an heir of Alexander. The world where our Josephus was born was certainly a Hellenized world.

Palestine was by no means an exception. Even before the priest Jason usurped the high priesthood at the beginning of the reign of Antiochus IV, there was high Hellenization in the land. The general picture was that the Jews regarded Hellenistic culture, though they had the exception of participation in the gymnasium and unlimited association with Greeks, as permissible and sometimes even desirable. According to Goldstein, we do not find any ancient source which condemned Hasmonian rulers for Hellenizing while pious Jews and Hasmonian princes bore Greek names and spoke Greek. The Qumran texts never mention the sin of imitating the Greeks. No ancient Jewish or Christian writer attacks Herod for being a Hellenizer. A pious Jew translated the book of Esther into Greek by altering it to fit the patterns of Greek romances. Rabbis in Jewish Palestine used Greek widely and praised the Greek language.

The Use of Greek in Palestine

One of the most significant elements of culture is language. Language contains centuries of thought pattern and the structure of the people's mind to which it belongs. It is not an exaggeration that the basic structure of a different culture has been already transplanted to a society if it begins to use the language of another culture in public. For, language constitutes the subconsciousness of a culture.

Since the time of Alexander, Greek was the home language of the numerous towns founded by him and his successors all over the East as well as the official language and a lingua franca. Greek survived the Macedonian ruler dynasties that used it for over two centuries and a half. The Ptolemies went, the Seleucids vanished, the Attalids died out, but Greek remained the cultural and commercial language in Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. Rome also adopted it for their governments of these areas. The use of Latin was mainly restricted to the army and to the judiciary as far as it was carried out by Roman officials. Even in the latter case the verdicts, as papyri from Egypt show, were translated into Greek.

The same situation applied to the land of Palestine under the subsequent Ptolemic and Seleucid governments which naturally upheld the official position of Greek. Even in the wake of the Maccabean insurrection against the temple cult of Antiochus IV, the use of Greek played no part in this religious and later more patriotic movement. The second generation of the Maccabeans already had double, Hebrew-Greek names such as Yehohanan/Hyrcanus or Judah/Aristobulus, and their coinage was very soon bilingual. "The fact that so characteristically Jewish an institution as the Sanhedrin derived its name from Greek word sune,drion is an indication of the deep influence of the Greek language even in the heart of Palestinian Judaism." It has also been claimed that more than 1,100 Greek terms are used in the Talmud.

Pure blooded Jews often had Greek names themselves. Among early Christians of Jewish origin we may mention Andrew and Philip in the Gospels. The names of these two disciples of Jesus are Greek. In Thomas called Didymus we have first the Aramaic and then the Greek word for 'twin'. In Acts an alphabetic list of Greek and Latin named Jews would be Aeneas of Lydda, Alexander of Ephesus, Apollos of Alexandria, Aquila of Pontus and Aritstarchus of Thessalonica. The story of Cornelius in Acts assumes that Peter's visit to Caesarea, the encounter of a Christian Jew and a non-Jew of Roman origin did not need an interpreter. So if Cornelius did not speak Aramaic, he and Peter could only converse in Greek. Jesus and his disciples, all of whom were from Galilee where the majority of the population was Gentile and Greek-speaking, might be bilingual.

Education and Literature in Palestine

Hellenism is characterized by its emphasis on education to form a desirable humanity. More striking impact on the culture is given through the education than any other elements such as commerce or politics. Martin Hengel gives detailed evidences of influence of Hellenistic education in Palestine. The gymnasium was built in the immediate vicinity of the temple 'under the acropolis' by Jason, "and as soon as the gong gave the sign, the priests gladly left temple and sacrifice to take part in what was going on in the palaestra." Though we have no detailed knowledge about the training given in the gymnasium in Jerusalem, it is easily imagined that it would have been hardly different from the form usual in other Palestinian and Phoenician cities. According to 2 Maccabees 4:13, these events marked 'an extreme of Hellenization' (avkmh, tij ~Ellhnismou/) in Jerusalem.

Greek literatures were also known among the Palestine intellectuals, a certain knowledge of Homer is alluded:

That Homer was recognized as the canonical book of Greek education in Jewish Palestine circles even later is shown by the criticism made by the Sadducees, reported in Jad. 4.6. and coming from the first century AD: 'We object against you Pharisees that you say that the holy scriptures make the hands unclean whereas the books of Homer (seper homirim) do not make the stereotyped description of Greek literature in general, and we may see here a sign that it had found a way into the everyday language of Palestine Jew a long time before.

From the perspective that Hellenism gained ground as an intellectual power in Jewish Palestine early and tenaciously as such, Hengel concludes that all Judaism must really be designated 'Hellenistic Judaism' in the strict sense from about the middle of the third century bce. The only differentiation we may make, according to Hengel's assertion, is between the Greek-speaking Judaism of the Western Diaspora and the Aramaic/Hebrew-speaking Judaism of Palestine and Babylonia.

Interaction Between Palestine and Diaspora

While the Jews in Palestine were people under the heavy influence of Hellenism on the one hand, the Diaspora Jews in Hellenistic world were not the full prey of Hellenistic paganism at all on the other. The Diaspora Jews were not so much a Hellenistic people who had the Palestinian origin as the Jews who lived in Hellenistic world. We see a certain uniqueness which was insoluble to the their environment. They did not give up the essence of their heritage for the surrounding culture, as the Palestinian Jews did not fail to preserve the heritage of Judaism under the consistent influence of Hellenism. "The Jews were adept at accommodation without giving up anything vital."

Harry A. Wolfson describes the attitude of the Jews with the example of Scripture in relation to pagan cultures in which they lived. The Jews were not afraid to adopt the terminologies used in other religions in describing their own religion. But no matter what terms they might use, the fundamental difference was never blurred for them between truth and falsehood in religious belief, and right and wrong in religious worship. In order to understand the nature of Judaism throughout its history, and especially during the Hellenistic period, our recognition of this twofold aspect of their attitude appears to be of the utmost importance. "Those who seem to see evidence of religious syncretization in every use of a pagan term by a Hellenistic Jew simply overlook this one important aspect in the attitude of Judaism toward other religions."

Judaism in the Hellenistic Diaspora knew how to be open and responsive to Greek thought without sacrificing fidelity to their Scripture. Even though the influence of other religions was inescapable in their lives, Judaism in the Diaspora as a whole demonstrated "amazing internal strength and unanimity." It is true that there was an openness to the Greek culture and intellectual world, but participation in heathen cults was never a temptation for a Jew. In the Diaspora where they had accepted and adopted the Greek language, the Jews firmly held to the confession of the God of Israel. They were prepared even to

suffer ridicule and persecution for this confession, for they believed for certain that the truth was on their side.

Jerusalem always remained the center of Jewish life wherever they might have stayed for life. All Jews are said to have paid more than a half-shekel every year for a temple-tax (Matt 17:24-27; 20:2, 9) to contribute to the temple in Jerusalem. At the time of the pilgrim festivals, many Jews made the journey to Jerusalem, which helped to maintain the tie to the homeland and the holy city. On the other hand, people in Jerusalem also sought to cultivate ties with the Jewish communities in the Diaspora (cf. Acts 9:2; 28:31). Though the influence of Hellenism had stimulated the Jews to learn from the Greeks as such, the effort of define the limits of their relationship to them also went along with that to assert the distinctiveness of their life in accordance with the Law. Their unique faith in the exclusive monotheism and the sense of election by Yahweh bound them together without regard to the places where they were scattered around.

The presence of the Diaspora Jews in Jerusalem should not be ignored. Besides the pilgrimage to Jerusalem at feasts, the existence of a synagogue of the Alexandrians in Jerusalem is known to us from Jewish sources. "It was allowed to recite the Shema in Greek and likewise the Eighteen Benedictions." There must be a considerable reciprocal interchange of thought between the Judaism of Palestine and that of the Diaspora. "Palestinian Judaism is not to be viewed as a watertight compartment closed against all Hellenistic influences: there was a Graeco-Jewish 'atmosphere' even at Jerusalem itself." Diaspora Judaism is not to be viewed as a syncretic illegitimate which deviated from the main thought of Judaism of the first century, either. There is thus no justification for making too rigid a separation between the Judaism of the Diaspora and that of Palestine. Both of them were experiencing inescapable Hellenization while both of them maintained certain criteria within their religion. Josephus' way of seeing human death is a typical example of this nexus of cultural complex. Josephus' thought on human death, as we have examined, must be understood in the context of the Hellenized Palestinian Judaism as well as in his unique situation as a Roman noble who was a faithful Jew at the same time.

Josephus as a traditional Jew sees death as the destruction of life that is created by God. He fundamentally prefers life to death. However, reality in life and history forced him to reshape this traditional Jewish view of death, as it had already been taking place in Jewish apocalyptic writings before Josephus. In such a situation as Jewish War that was full of death, death and more death, Josephus surely had to give significance to that tedious and still mysterious human phenomenon. Many have died and were dying for the law. There must have been such thing as "noble death," which was exemplary for other people, in human life. Reward after such deaths was a necessity for the righteous God. At this point Josephus was of Hellenism which had already been there as well as of Judaism which had been always there. Josephus as a son of his age believes that the law taught the immortality of soul. God of Israel placed the contempt of death in the heart of God's chosen people.