ABSTRACT
Josephus, author of the history of the Roman-Jewish war of 66–73 CE, illumines some of the conditions which held back the creation of a stable and lasting school system. Submission to Rome was necessary if Jewish education was to be established on a sound political and economic basis. Josephus’ leitmotif in his history of the war of 66–73 CE is the futility of revolt against Rome. The Zealots even more than the Romans, in Josephus’ view, were guilty of bringing the Jewish state down. As a surviving eyewitness of the national catastrophe, he records the nation’s fate for posterity. Josephus in effect makes the case – to the Romans – for the survival of Torah-based Judaism under Roman rule, through accommodation with Rome. Though Josephus was seen in his own time and by later generations as a traitor to his people, his belief that Jewish militancy was a threat to Jewish survival was essentially accepted in rabbinic Judaism after the Bar-Kokhba revolt. Josephus anticipates the post-Bar-Kokhba transformation of Judaism from messianic militant nationalism to pacifist Torah study.
