The Works of Josephus

Josephus is our only source of knowledge for much of the history of Judaism in the First Century CE.   His books provide essential background for an understanding of both the beginning of modern Judaism and of the New Testament in its historical setting. 

Four of his works have survived. 

The Jewish War
The history of the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in the years 66-74 AD/CE , as experienced by Josephus himself. 

           Antiquities of the Jews
 The history of  the Jews prior to the revolt, based on the Bible, other Jewish writings, and the works of  previous historians. 

Against Apion
A defense of Judaism, answering an attack by a Roman author. 

The Life
Josephus' autobiography. 


 

 These works can be read on the Internet in English and in Greek.

    The Works of Flavius Josephus - The complete text of the Whiston translation. 

   The Works of Josephus in Greek - The Greek text of B. Niese, with textual analysis and translation links, located at the Perseus Project web site. 
 

Free in Text Format
from Project Gutenberg

The Complete Works of Josephus
translated by William Whiston

The Jewish War (460 KB)
Antiquities of the Jews (1,030 KB)
The Life (60 KB)
Against Apion (90 KB)

Project Gutenberg has made available text versions of the Works of Josephus which the reader can download and use in any fashion; the format is easy to search with standard text search tools. This differs from the Wheaton site which is in HTML (web page) format and has use restrictions. The text version comes in four zip files (1640 KB).

Click on the links to download the zip files. Then click on the zip file on your local disk to expand it into a text file.

For other download sites, see the Project Gutenberg web site.

 
 Flavius Josephus Home Page