Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/40

36 the Romans, He became a personal friend of Vespasian and the constant companion of his son Titus.

Traitor though he was to the national cause, Josephus was a steadfast champion of the Jewish religion. All his works are animated with a desire to present Judaism and the Jews in the best light. He was indignant that heathen historians wrote with scorn of the vanquished Jews, and resolved to describe the noble stand made by the Jewish armies against Rome. He was moved to wrath by the Egyptian Manetho’s distortion of the ancient history of Israel, and he could not rest silent under the insults of Apion. The works of Josephus are therefore works written with a tendency to glorify his people and his religion, But they are in the main trustworthy, and are, indeed, one of the chief sources of information for the history of the Jews in post-biblical tines. His style is clear and attractive, and his power of grasping the