Flavius Josephus, Philo Judaeus, and the Apocrypha

Beyond various works found in the Dead Sea Scrolls that had been lost for thousands of years only to be discovered recently in the last century, the works of Flavius Josephus firstly and Philo Judaeus secondly have been considered by some intertestamentary scholars to be among the very best for giving a view into the problems and historical context found between the end of the Jewish scripture and the beginning of the New Testament (Scott, 35). I firmly respect the historical depth that Josephus had for Jewish history from among a time period when mainly only fragments exist today from other works and I also respect the firm grasp that Philo has on the thinking of his time, but both Philo and Josephus neither lived Christian lives nor held any trust in Christ. In fact Josephus convinced a group of Jews to inter into a strategic mass suicide while he on the other hand did not kill himself (Scott, 36), and Philo tried strongly to reconcile Hellenism and Judaism together (Scott, 39) as today this would be a little like teaching people that the Bill of Rights is another way of writing the Ten Commandments. Although seeking advice from Philo and Josephus about the time just prior to and during the New Testament is like asking an atheist to explain the context of God's work in the world today, many important historical facts, political problems, and differences can be discovered that contrast our own time with that of the time of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry.

As a general rule, things that are alive and healthy will reproduce and exist for generations into the future as life reproduces according to its kind. Finding intertestamentary works, that have not been seen for thousands of years, in caves, under rocks, and in clay jars in arias forgotten about and uninhabited may not always be a blessing because the wicked are like chaff that dries up and is blown away (Psalm 1:4). When Jesus Christ saw a fig tree that did not produce any fruit, he cursed it and it died almost instantly (Mark 11:21), and today in the land of Palestine that many intertestamentary texts have been found in that had been lost for thousands of years even the land has become so strongly cursed that it no longer flows with milk and honey but instead is like a big desert without even many of the animals mentioned in the Bible that had been indigenous to the land (Scott, 42).

As a result of the fate that befalls the wicked, the worst intertestamentary literature has often been lost for thousands of years without the notice of history like in the case of the Nag Hammadi Library. The better literature has stayed with us throughout the generations kept in the closet like in the case of Josephus and Philo. The best intertestamentary literature is the Apocrypha because not only has it been used for centuries by Greek speaking Jews in the form of the Septuagint prior to the New Testament (the Septuagint would have even been instrumental in evangelizing Greek Jews during the time of early Christianity), but also the text of the Apocrypha is included in the Latin Vulgate that not only has had three times the number of years of daily use as the King James Bible (over a millennium and a half for the Vulgate) but also was painstakingly translated by Jerome that spent decades of diligent constant work making the Vulgate so that the Bible could be made available in the common language of Latin so that the common person could have availability to the Word of God.

Although the apocrypha has a long legacy of timeless value and reception, what remains true is that the apocrypha is not perhaps as reflective of the history and thinking of the Jews between the two testaments as what Josephus would for example be who sought to write a careful history or like Philo would be who worked diligently to reconcile the thoughts of the Greek intellectuals with the Hebrew patriarchs. The confusion brought by competing cultures, lack of the education of the masses, and wickedness of the ancient world made for a combination of problems such that some elements of historical record and intellectual thought may not in any way correspond to reality at all but instead could be invented for political reasons (note for example the story of the burning of the Temple of Artemis that has no supporting archeology for its recorded destruction by fire, the lost city of Atlantis noted by Plato that most likely did not exist, and even the concept of the Aryan race from our time). Overall, out of the incredible political works of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the incredible fantasy works of the Nag Hammadi Library made my Gnostics, the Talmud made by disgruntled Pharisees after the destruction of the second temple to reflect upon the, 'good old days', and other such works of extreme purpose, Philo and Josephus only do better for our edification in the details that they convey for trying to reconstruct the past, so for this reason the apocrypha and perhaps even the Targums similarly give more trustworthy reflection into the intertestamentary period because of their trusted reception and historical use.

Bibliography:

Lea, Thomas, and David Alan Black. The New Testament: Its Background and Message, 2^nd ed. Nashville, Tennessee: H&B Academic, 2003.

Scott, Julius. Jewish Background of the New Testement. Grand Rapids, Mishigan: Baker Academic, 1995.