Josephus
as Prophet
A question of particular concern
is how Josephus regarded himself. He lets us know that he himself is able to
foretell the future, which is in some way associated with the written
prophecies (J.W. 3.8.3 §§351-53):
suddenly there came back into his
[Josephus's] mind those nightly dreams, in which God had foretold to him the
impending fate of the Jews and the destinies of the Roman sovereigns. He was an
interpreter of dreams and skilled in divining the meaning of ambiguous utterances
of the Deity: a priest himself and of priestly descent, he was not ignorant of the
prophecies in the sacred books. At that hour he was inspired to read their
meaning, and, recalling the dreadful images of his recent dreams, he offered up
a silent prayer to God.
He predicts to Vespasian that he
will become emperor and claims a reputation for foretelling the future
correctly (J.W. 3.8.9 §§399-408):
He [Vespasian] found, moreover,
that Josephus had proved a veracious prophet (ατρεκη ... κατελάμβανεν) in other matters ...
he had foretold to the people of Jotapata that their city would be captured
after forty-seven days and that he himself would be taken alive by the Romans.
Vespasian, having privately questioned the prisoners on these statements and found
them true, then began to credit those concerning himself.
The language and concepts used
seem to give a clear message to the reader that Josephus is himself a prophet.
He even asserts that he is a messenger (αγγελος) sent on a mission by God (J.W. 3.8.9 §400). Why then does
he not refer to himself specifically as a "prophet"? There are
probably two reasons for this. The lesser is that he identifies himself as a
priest and claims to obtain at least part of his skill through this fact. The
other is more subtle but also more likely: a blatant claim to be a prophet
might cause a reaction. Some people were suspicious of prophets, but it would
also be preferable that others acclaim him than that he do it himself. It was
not a case of modesty, for Josephus is far from modest. But in this case he
probably thought that "the wise would understand," and those who did
not were probably not important, anyway. (Lester L. Grabbe, “Thus Spake the
Prophet Josephus . . . : The Jewish Historian on Prophets and Prophecy,” in Prophets,
Prophecy, and Prophetic Texts in Second Temple Judaism, ed. Michael H.
Floyd and Robert D. Haak [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 427;
London: T&T Clark, 2006], 245)
