Justus of Tiberias

Justus of Tiberias (Tiberias, AD – Galilee, AD) was a 1st century Jewish author and historiographer. All that we know of his life comes from the Vita which Flavius Josephus apparently wrote in response to the assertions made by Justus in his History of the Jewish War, published around 93/94 or shortly after 100. Justus's works have been lost and they currently survive only in small fragments from other works.

After the Great Jewish Revolt (66–70), Justus was the secretary of King Agrippa II and waited until his death to publish his History of this revolt. He is also known as the author of two other writings which disappeared much later. Thus in the ninth century, Bishop Photios of Constantinople was still able to access a copy of the Chronicle of the Jewish Kings''' written by Justus.

Biographical elements The Jewish Historian Justus of Tiberias is a son of Pistos. Both are presented as authorities of the city of Tiberias when Flavius Josephus was governor of Galilee in 66/67. He is best known as a historiographer. But the writing that makes us know it, although it seems to have disappeared almost immediately, is his History of the Jewish War, by the reaction it provoked in Flavius Josephus.

Justus accused of being responsible for the revolt In response to the Justus's History, Josephus indeed published his Vita in order to counter various assertions which told a very different story from what the latter had published in his Jewish War twenty years earlier. He attacks Justus at length, even though he had not even mentioned him — nor his father Pistos — in The Jewish War written twenty years earlier. Most of what we know about Justus, moreover, comes from a long digression by Josephus who attacks him in this Vita (336–367). — but without citing any explicitly — and for “not having had access, unlike him, to the field notes of Vespasian and Titus".

However, despite Josephus' efforts to blame Justus for the uprising in Galilee, several facts he mentions in his Vita contradict this accusation. Thus, Justus was opposed to the destruction of Herod's palace in Tiberias, Josephus himself says that Justus was not a member of the pro-war faction, but the leader of a faction in intermediate positions. Some of Justus' close relatives were also killed by the revolutionaries in Gamla. Josephus would then have released them, recommending that they show duplicity because if he was well aware of the invincibility of the Romans, they had to pretend to support the war against Rome because of the "brigands" (lestai) Josephus appropriates here “the discriminatory vocabulary of the Romans. On several occasions in The Jewish War, he calls "brigands" the Jewish rebels, such as the Sicarii, the Zealots or the members of the Fourth philosophy. Finally, even before Vespasian's offensive in Galilee (spring 67), Justus was no longer in Tiberias, but had joined King Agrippa in Beirut when the latter was going to join his army with Vespasian's three legions to begin the reconquest of all of Palestine, starting with Galilee.

After the Great Jewish Revolt (66-70), he was imperial secretary at the court of Agrippa, king of Batanea and the eastern part of Galilee Then in the long digression in which Josephus attacks Justus (V 356), he suggests that if Agrippa drove Justus away and forbade him to "appear ever before him" from an indefinite moment, it was because he would have realized that he was being dishonest “in the office of secretary with which he [had] honored him." For Shaye J. D. Cohen, “Josephus labels Justus as a forger, an accusation sometimes leveled against official secretaries,”

It was only after Agrippa's death that Justus published his History of the Jewish War, which triggered the writing of the Vita' of Flavius Josephus. or in 100. See on this subject the § Date of the death of Agrippa in the item Agrippa II.

After the publication of the Autobiography of Flavius Josephus, the two men disappear from history.

Justus' History of the Jewish War Justus' book about the Great Jewish revolt was an account of the war (Vita 336 and 338) which included the campaign in Galilee, the actions of Josephus and which challenged his version of the siege of Jotapata (Vita 357). He also recounted the siege of Jerusalem (V 357-358).

Disputing the veracity of the story told by Josephus In his book, Justus declared to tell a superior story to those already published which took care to respect the historical facts. Justus is the author of a War of the Jews, probably written in Greek, which he only publishes after the death of Agrippa (92 ou 100) whom he presents in an unfavorable light. This work is mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome. of Stridon, but indirectly, Flavius having probably worked for the disappearance of the work of his rival.

He is also the author of a Chronicle of the Jewish Kings from Moses to Agrippa II, briefly summarized by Photius. Photius of Constantinople describes it as being written in sketchy forms. It is likely that several later authors used this material in their own works, such as Sextus Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Diogenes Laërtius; and the Byzantine historian George Syncellus. Commenting this Chronicle, Photios laments that Justus failed to make any mention of Jesus of Nazareth.

According to Jerome, Justus also wrote a Brief commentary of the Holy Scriptures, but no other references of that work survives and it is unclear whether it was an authentic work or a pseudoepigrapha.

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