This paper by Cliff Carrington is a good introduction to the sources used to create the Christian Tradition, as found in the New Testament. I will follow this with a further and more complete list.
Introduction
Dramatis Personae:
(The dates are indicative not definitive.)
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The Herods:
Antipater (Antipas), murdered 43 BCE:
Father of Herod, backed Pompey, then assisted Julius Caesar, and was appointed by him ruler of Judea.
Herod the Great, 73-4 BCE, ruled Judea 31-4 BCE:
After Caesar’s death Herod backed, Sextus Caesar, Crassus, Mark Antony, and finally Augustus; who confirmed his rule and extended his territory. He built, or started, the temple in Jerusalem which the Romans later destroyed.
Herod Agrippa I, 10 BCE-44 CE, ruled Judea 41-44 CE:
Grandson of Herod, he was raised with Claudius in Antonia’s household. Financed by Alexander Lysimachus he became a good friend of Caligula. He later assisted Claudius to the throne. Appointed king of Judea by Claudius, and by intrigue he later gained the territories governed by two of his brothers. After spending most of his life as an impoverished prince he died at the peak of his prosperity.
Herod Agrippa II, 27-100 CE:
Son of Agrippa I, educated in Claudius’ household. He attended Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and assisted Vespasian in the war, then to the throne. After the war he was granted extensive territories by Vespasian. Josephus claimed him as a friend and patron.
Sisters of Agrippa II:
Bernice (Berenice):
First married to Marcus, son of Julius Alexander Lysimachus, the Alabarch of the Alexandrian Jews. Upon his early death she was married to Herod of Chalcis, her father’s brother. Upon his death she remained unmarried under the protection of her brother, Agrippa II. She became Titus’ mistress, until they had to part to allow Titus to become emperor.
Mariamne:
Married to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and soon divorced. She eventually married Demetrius the Alabarch of the Alexandrian Jews.
Drusilla:
Married to Azizus, king of Emesa, and soon divorced. She eventually married Felix, the Governor of Judea.
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The Alexandrian Connection:
Philo Judaeus 25 BCE-42 CE:
Jewish Neopythagorean philosopher, who tried to blend Greek philosophy with Judaism. He was also active in Alexandrian public affairs, and was an ambassador to Caligula for the Alexandrian Jews. We have no record of his proper name, as his nickname simply means a ‘Jewish Philosopher’.
Julius Alexander Lysimachus, Alabarch, 10 BCE-mid 1st C. CE;
Younger brother of Philo, Alabarch of the Alexandrian Jews, richest family in Alexandria, tax-gatherer of Egypt, and provider of several king’s ransoms. He financed Herod Agrippa I to claim his kingdom. Lysimachus donated the great bronze gates for the Temple at Jerusalem. He was the Steward, or Overseer, of the estate of Antonia, the youngest daughter of Mark Antony, and mother of the Emperor Claudius.
Tiberius Julius Alexander, 20 CE – late 1st C. CE:
Son of Alexander Lysimachus, nephew of Philo, renounced Judaism for the Roman civil service, where he held Equestrian rank. He was governor of Judea 46-48, and later stood as Rome’s hostage for king Tiridates of Parthia in 63. He was the 2nd in command at the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 69-70, (which incidentally destroyed the bronze gates that his father had donated). Alexander was the Prefect of Alexandria under Nero, Galba, Otho; and was the first Roman official to proclaim Vespasian Emperor. Made Governor of all Egypt by Vespasian, 71.
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The Flavians:
Titus Flavius Vespasian, 9-79 CE (69-79);
Born in common circumstances, his father was a customs collector, he rose to become a commander of legions in Britain and Germany. He was put in charge of the Judean campaign by Nero. He had two sons by his wife, but when she died he returned to his long-term mistress Caenis, the confidential secretary to Antonia, the youngest daughter of Mark Antony and the mother of Emperor Claudius. His elder brother, Flavius Sabinus, was Prefect of Rome, Police Chief. Sabinus’ position meant that he was the most powerful man in the City of Rome after the Emperors, under Nero, Galba, Otho and Vitellius. Flavius Sabinus was killed in the Capitol of Jupiter by Vitellius’ men the day before Vespasian’s victorious army entered Rome. Although Vespasian had been born a commoner he created a new Imperial dynasty and resurrected the Roman Empire after the degeneration of the Julio-Claudians ended with the death of Nero.
Titus Flavius Vespasian, 39-81 (79-81);
Vespasian’s eldest son, educated in the imperial household with Claudius’ son Britannicus, his bosom companion; “and was taught the same subjects from the same masters.”. Britannicus was to be the next emperor following his father Claudius; but for Nero. He witnessed his friend’s poisoning by Nero, and drained the dregs of the fatal draft but survived. Served as military tribune in Britain and Germany, commanded a legion in Judea, and commanded the destruction of Jerusalem. In the process he oversaw the establishment of what we know as Rabbinic Judaism, later located at Jamnia. Titus returned to Rome where he was his father’s imperial colleague, and successor. He was the Overseer for the establishment and control of libraries and universities throughout the empire. Titus was also a master forger who organised a very useful and comprehensive Intelligence department throughout the Empire? Titus was an excellent administrator who set up a long-lasting professional civil service which served the succeeding emperors for centuries.
Titus Flavius Domitian, 51-96 (81-96);
Last Flavian-born emperor, staged a palace purge of Jews and was assassinated in the aftermath. By disrupting Titus’ Jewish intelligence operations he was probably indirectly the cause of the next two Jewish revolts in 115 and 135, and the ultimate rise of Christianity out of Judaism. He was followed by the ‘Good’ or Adoptive Flavian Emperors; Nerva, 96-98; Trajan, 98-117; and Hadrian, 117-138. The elderly Nerva had been a longstanding friend of the family and shared a Consulship with Vespasian. Trajan’s father had served as a fellow Legionary Commander alongside of Titus, under Vespasian in the Jewish war. Hadrian had family connections through Trajan and followed Vespasian’s policies.
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The Historians:
Josephus, 37-100;
Jewish general then turncoat, assisted Vespasian and Titus in the Jewish war, and was retired to Vespasian’s household in Rome after the war to write propaganda/history for the Romans: the ‘Jewish War’, ‘Jewish Antiquities’, ‘Contra Apion I & II’, and his ‘Life’. He dedicated his later works to the Imperial Secretary, Epaphroditus, who served the emperors from the time of Nero (54-68), (whose death he assisted), until his execution under Domitian in 96. Josephus’ death is not recorded.
Josephus, Life, 76.
“The treatment I received from the Emperors continued unaltered. On Vespasian’s decease Titus, who succeeded to the empire, showed the same esteem for me as did his father, and never credited the accusations to which I was constantly subjected. Domitian succeeded Titus and added to my honours. He punished my Jewish accusers.”
Tacitus, 55-120;
Roman historian under the Flavians, anti-Jewish, conservative, sceptical of miracles although he recorded Vespasian’s.
Tacitus, Histories, 1.
“My official career owed its beginning to Vespasian, its progress to Titus and its further advancement to Domitian.”
In the first book of his Histories he also wrote his disclaimer: “It was only after the rise of the Flavians that we Romans believed in such stories.”
Suetonius, 69-140;
Flavian historian, casual about Jews, mentions Josephus’ Flavian prophecy amongst others. Both he and Tacitus record the miracles of Vespasian’s healing the blind and lame in Alexandria. His style of writing allows him to transmit much information in a few words, usually at the end of a paragraph or sentence. The information that Titus was a ‘master’ forger comes from one of these loaded paragraph endings. From another ending we find that Titus established a long lasting civil service which was employed by the following ‘good’ emperors.
Pliny the Younger, 61-113;
Entered the civil service under the Flavians, of whom he was a family friend. His guardian uncle was Pliny the Elder, the natural historian, Vespasian’s close friend, who later died as Titus’ Admiral at the eruption of Vesuvius. Pliny the Younger served the Flavians until his death under Trajan, of whom he was also a close friend. Friend of both Tacitus and Suetonius, they are mentioned in his letters.
Related posts:
- Josephus as a primary source for the New Testament
- Josephus as a source: difficult and dangerous
- The Royal Library of Alexandria in the first century
- The Gospels According to Hadrian (part one)
- Pliny correspondence with Trajan: Christians or Chrestians?
- Augustus: the Roman Messiah
- An army of divine men and the secret army of Mithras
- Archaeology of a first-century wizard
- Acts of the Chresmologoi: the Role of Oracles and Chronicles in the Creation of Divine Men
- Aulus Pudens in the Chichester inscription
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