Well, I have been reading the most interesting stuff every evening before bed this week. I have heard about this for years but never thought to check it out until recently:
That is Flavius Josephus. Thank you, Wikipedia. I am only just now getting into the first book I found on my library's app. It's a work that is split into several sections.
That, my friends, is just the contents for one book of twenty. If you are interested in reading it and don't have a library app for your phone, here is a link to the entire set courtesy of Project Gutenberg, bless them. What's nice is that the contents are composed of links so you can jump through the work easier.
Because I only had the barest awareness of Flavius Josephus and his writings, I went over to Got Questions to get a quick rundown before I started reading. Got Questions is fairly reliable for highlighting any warnings about books and other sources of information. I highly recommend using that site or discussing with a trusted fellow Christian before venturing into unknown territory (churches, study sources, etc) of learning. Be discerning, always.
Of course, I am only on the first book (BOOK I. Containing The Interval Of Three Thousand Eight Hundred And Thirty-Three Years. — From The Creation To The Death Of Isaac) and when I started reading, I immediately recognized that he is re-telling the books of the Torah. He starts with "in the beginning" and gives Moses credit for authorship of the original telling. And let me identify Flavius correctly with this from an Amazon book search I did:
Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – c. 100), born Joseph ben Matityahu, was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer.
And, yeah, I did have to go look up the definition of "hagiographer" (a writer of the lives of the saints). Learn a little something every day...
Now, what is so beautiful about this is that so many people try to downplay the historical reality of most people mentioned in the Bible - like Moses, or Noah, etc - but Flavius is a verified person and he is recounting his Jewish history. This is the way most cultures pass along their history, like griots, sharing stories of their "roots" and genealogy.
I wish that this is a work that had been included in my high school education. There is so much history given in such detail and it's a much more interesting read than the textbooks my schools used. At the very least, these works should be used by parents in teaching their children. This is, after all, our history - Judeo-Christian history and I was never even aware of its existence until I was in my late 20s.
There is too much content for me to even start discussing this huge work but I did want to share the links. Amazon has copies in all kinds of formats - electronic, audio, paper, etc - and I plan to get at least a paperback copy so that I can make notes in the margins.
Now I have to get back to reading. Between this and the Bible, I am "booked up" for years.
Peace
--Free
