Rethinking the Jewish War: Archeology, Society, Traditions

This interdisciplinary collection of fifteen papers probes key aspects of the First Jewish Revolt from a wide variety of perspectives: archeology, Roman military, administration, and ethos, Second Temple Jewish society, and rabbinic and early Christian reception. Delivered at a large international conference organized at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem in 2018, the contributions respond to many classic questions about the reliability of Josephus and interact in various ways with Steve Mason’s major study, A History of the Jewish War (Cambridge, 2016), including his controversial views on the scope and religious nature of the conflict. Mason’s own response comprises the final chapter.