WORKS.--1. _The Jewish War_ ([Greek: Peri tou Ioudaïkou polemou]), the oldest of Josephus' extant writings, was written towards the end of Vespasian's reign (69-79). The Aramaic original has not been preserved; but the Greek version was prepared by Josephus himself in conjunction with competent Greek scholars. Its purpose in all probability was, in the first instance, to exhibit to the Babylonian Jews the overwhelming power of Rome and so to deter them from repeating the futile revolt of the Jews of Palestine. Of its seven books, the first two survey the history of the Jews from the capture of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the outbreak of war in 67, and here Josephus relies upon some such general history as that of Nicolaus of Damascus. The rest deals with the events of the war (67-73) which fell more or less within his own knowledge. Vespasian, Titus and Agrippa II. testified (he tells us) to his accuracy. Representatives of the Zealots would probably have protested against his pro-Roman prejudices. 2. _The Jewish Antiquities_ ([Greek: Ioudaïkê Archaiologia]) covers in twenty books the history of the Jews from the creation of the world to the outbreak of the war with Rome. It was finished in the thirteenth year of Domitian (93). Its purpose was to glorify the Jewish nation in the eyes of the Roman world. In the part covered by the books of the Bible Josephus follows them, and that mainly, if not entirely as they are translated into Greek by the Seventy (the Septuagint version). Being a Pharisee, he sometimes introduces traditions of the Elders, which are either inferences from, or embroideries of, the biblical narrative. Sometimes, also, he gives proof of some knowledge of Hebrew and supplements his scriptural authorities, which include 1 Esdras, from general Greek histories. For the later period he uses the Greek Esther, with its additions, 1 Maccabees, Polybius, Strabo and Nicolaus of Damascus. But towards the end he confesses that he has grown weary of his task, and his history becomes meagre. The work contains accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus, which may account for the fact that Josephus' writings were rescued from oblivion by the Christians. But the description of Jesus as "a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man," can hardly be genuine, and the assertion "this was the Christ" is equally doubtful, unless it be assumed that the Greek word _Christos_ had become technical in the sense of false-Christ or false-prophet among non-Christian Jews.