Pillar IV
Jewish History
From Josephus, our great witness to the Second Temple era, through the medieval chronicles to the modern surveys. Public-domain texts render on-site in later cycles.
Antiquities of the Jews
Ioudaikē Archaiologia
Flavius Josephus · c. 94 CE
Josephus' twenty-book history of the Jewish people from creation to the eve of the revolt against Rome — our single greatest narrative source for the Second Temple era.
HistoryPublic domainRead on site · 255 ch.
Read on site →The Jewish War
Bellum Judaicum
Flavius Josephus · c. 75 CE
An eyewitness history of the revolt of 66–73 CE and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.
HistoryPublic domainRead on site · 108 ch.
Read on site →Against Apion
Flavius Josephus · c. 97 CE
A defence of the antiquity and dignity of the Jewish people and their law against Greco-Roman detractors.
ApologeticPublic domainCatalogue · reader in progress
The Life of Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus · c. 99 CE
Josephus' own account of his life and his conduct as a commander in the Galilee.
AutobiographyPublic domainCatalogue · reader in progress
Seder Olam Rabbah
attributed to Yose ben Halafta · 2nd c. CE
The classical rabbinic chronology of biblical history, foundational to the traditional Hebrew calendar count.
ChronologyPublic domainCatalogue · reader in progress
Josippon
Anonymous (medieval) · 10th c.
A medieval Hebrew history of the Second Temple period, drawing on Josephus, widely read in the Jewish Middle Ages.
HistoryPublic domainCatalogue · reader in progress
History of the Jews
Heinrich Graetz · 1853–1875
The great eleven-volume modern survey of Jewish history from the beginnings to the 19th century.
HistoryPublic domainCatalogue · reader in progress