The Life, Against Apion
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
This volume contains H. St. J. Thackeray’s translation of Josephus’ autobiography and his treatise defending Judaism.
Top Highlights
“At about the age of sixteen I determined to gain personal experience of the several sects into which our nation is divided.* These, as I have frequently mentioned,b are three in number—the first that of the Pharisees, the second that of the Sadducees, and the third that of the Essenes.” (Page 5)
“The masses have long since shown a keen desire to adopt our religious observances; and there is not one city, Greek or barbarian, nor a single nation, to which our custom of abstaining from work on the seventh daya has not spread, and where the fasts and the lighting of lampsb and many of our prohibitions in the matter of food are not observed.” (Pages 405–407)
“But, should anyone of our nation be questioned about the laws, he would repeat them all more readily than his own name. The result, then, of our thorough grounding in the laws from the first dawn of intelligence is that we have them, as it were, engraven on our souls. A transgressor is a rarity; evasion of punishment by excuses an impossibility.” (Page 365)
“Above all we pride ourselves on the education of our children, and regard as the most essential task in life the observance of our laws and of the pious practices, [61] based thereupon, which we have inherited.” (Page 187)
“All who ever saw our temple are aware of the general design of the building, [103] and the inviolable barriers which preserved its sanctity. It had four surrounding courts, each with its special statutory restrictions.* The outer court was open to all, foreigners included; women during their impurity were alone refused admission. [104] To the second court all Jews were admitted and, when uncontaminated by any defilement, their wives; to the third male Jews, if clean and purified; to the fourth the priests robed in their priestly vestments. The sanctuary was entered only by the high-priests, clad in the raiment peculiar to themselves.” (Pages 333–335)
- Title: The Life, Against Apion
- Author: Josephus
- Series: The Loeb Classical Library: English
- Volume: I
- Publishers: William Heinemann, Harvard University Press
- Print Publication Date: 1926
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Josephus, Flavius; Judaism › Apologetic works--Early works to 1800
- Resource ID: LLS:LFGNSTPN
- Resource Type: text.monograph.ancient-manuscript.translation
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:12:59Z