The Wars of the Jews; or the history of the destruction of Jerusalem

Flavius Josephus' history of the Jews' wars (from after the Babylonian captivity to the Diaspora... which was apparently not what we're told about it today... tends to be a bit repetitive. The Jews kept resisting by various inventive means, and the Romans just kept coming - also with some inventiveness but mainly with equal persistence and unified leadership (if you don't count the minor civil war Vespasian eventually won).Technically, though, this (free) edition falls down in one respect. It is very well scanned (or well-corrected after scanning) - there are a few characteristic scanner errors, but probably fewer than ten for the whole work. That's good... unfortunately, the notes (which are important) have a serious bug. When you click on a footnote, you often get that footnote number - but in a different section. What's worse, when you click "return" to escape the wrong footnote, it returns you to the proper location in its own chapter, not the location at which you were reading.On the whole, unless you're on a very tight budget I'd have to recommend one of the for-pay editions of this work. If you're limited to free books, this one is quite legible aside from the frustrating footnote bug.

This is a fascinating history told by a Jewish General that defected to the Romans after being captured. The most famous part of this book is the story of the destruction of Jerusalem. It goes into great detail and is the main source for the story of the Jewish war with the Romans.The Kindle edition was free, but I ended up purchasing the Audible edition for a minimal price since they offered it for very cheap for owners of the Kindle edition (which I got for free). The syncing process worked perfectly and I went back and forth between the Kindle and the audiobook. This is a great feature.Recommended for students of ancient history and of warfare.

An engrossing history of the struggles of the Jewish people, and especially the siege, and finally the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Facts about the destruction of the city and the temple which I had not heretofore learned are presented in careful detail. Josephus goes into fascinating, minute detail. It is not light reading, and I found the many footnotes that took me away from the main body of the book somewhat bothersome, as I had to navigate back to the earlier chapters again and again. However, for anyone desiring a complete picture of God's judgment on His people and His city, this is a tremendous reference book.

This is not a rigorous academic history in the modern sense. It is part collected stories, part personal experiences and part philosophy. What makes this interesting is that it is written by a man who actually participated in some of the events he is writing about.Unlike a modern history there are no dates. Everything is referenced by who was the ruler at the time. This can lead to confusion because within a royal family the names get recycled frequently.Josephus is frequently quoted out of context and accused of not being accurate. It is enlightening to read his book from start to finish. Taken as a whole this book paints a more believable picture of Judea in the first century than some of the stories I was exposed to growing up.

This is the story of the end of the Hebrew religion as it was known in what we call the Old Testament. The sacrificial system was permanently ended with the destruction (by the Roman army under Titus) of the Jewish temple in AD 70. The event was foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24, and, as He said, not one stone was left standing. (A portion of its western foundation is still there, now called "The Wailing Wall.")The only problem with the book is the very difficult English translation by a Mr. Whiston in about 1750. It is a very wooden translation of the Greek, which was itself translated from the original Aramaic. But all the slogging through is well worth it. An amazing story!

For any student of history, Josephus is absolutely essential reading. The content of this volume is essential to understanding Roman history, Jewish history, and the rise of Christianity; it is insightful, written shortly after the events happened, and by someone who was both fully Jew and fully Roman.Unfortunately, this particular version appears to be a scanned reprint. It has many, many errors in spelling that appear to have been introduced by an unedited (or carelessly edited) scanning process. The confusion introduced by misspelled place and people names wore me down after the first hundred and twenty pages, and made me go looking for a more expensive (but more carefully edited) version of this essential content.Content = 5-stars; execution = 1-star; for average of 3 stars.

Never having read Josephus before I did not know what to expect. Let me just say, I had no idea. First, it was a great read. The translation captures his style which is unique and different from contemporary writing. I was aware that the Romans took down the walls of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. but had no idea how much they did not want to do so. And neither was I aware of how much of the suffering the Jews inflicted on each other. It was a brutal period and I am very glad I took the time to read it. Highly recommended.

It seems the Jews were their ow.n worst enemy. The slaughter of Jews by Jewish zealots was worse than what the Romans did.

its a bit difficult to start off with ,the language of flavius if your not used to big antique words ,but its so incredibly detailed and gets easier when describing the actual wars .starts off with descrption of the geopolitical power systems and goes onto describe the wars in great, great detail-amazing? with the sieges of towns like ceaseria and jopotata and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and everything in between like the 5,000 jews killed in the ships trying to escape Joppa . i have read this to try to understand the book of revelation as i am trying to understand the theory that speaks of the apocolypse/wrath of God having been poured out between ad 67-ad 73, - it sure makes sense

This is the Whiston translation, from the 18th century. It has established itself as a text in its own right. More recent translations are available, but Whiston reads more smoothly, across a gap of almost 400 years, than you might expect.Older classic texts prepared for kindle are often a disaster, with the OCR guessing wildly and studding the text with the shrapnel of a dozen alphabets, and with formatting veering out of control. This is not the case here. There are very minor glitches, but the text is clear and readable. It deserves a strong thank you and well done.

Knowing today`s Middle East fairly well, and attaching great importance to the Christian New Testament, I have in the past found a small book of selections from Josephus useful. Now with this availability of the whole work at the touch of a few buttons very available and adaptable, I can browse easily and swiftly through this marvellous eye-witness account of events that helped change Europe and Asia (as we now think of them) for centuries. These events recorded OUTSIDE of the Bible throw great light on the facts and the faith INSIDE, as recorded in the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles - and incidentally, each supports the general historical reliability of the other.

very educational if you understand history. to interlectual for me

Great in depth read, i would recommend this to anyone who loves their history. And its free which is fab!