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After all this it is fitting that we should know something in regard to
the origin and family of Josephus, who has contributed so much to the
history in hand. He himself gives us information on this point in the
following words: "Josephus, the son of Mattathias, a priest of
Jerusalem, who himself fought against the Romans in the beginning and
was compelled to be present at what happened afterward." He was the
most noted of all the Jews of that day, not only among his own
people, but also among the Romans, so that he was honored by the
erection of a statue in Rome, and his works were deemed worthy of a
place in the library. He wrote the whole of the Antiquities of the
Jews in twenty books, and a history of the war with the Romans which
took place in his time, in seven books? He himself testifies that the
latter work was not only written in Greek, but that it was also
translated by himself into his native tongue. He is worthy of credit
here because of his truthfulness in other matters. There are extant
also two other books of his which are worth reading. They treat of the
antiquity of the Jews, and in them he replies to Apion the
Grammarian, who had at that time written a treatise against the
Jews, and also to others who had attempted to vilify the hereditary
institutions of the Jewish people. In the first of these books he
gives the number of the canonical books of the so-called Old
Testament. Apparently drawing his information from ancient
tradition, he shows what books were accepted without dispute among the
Hebrews. His words are as follows.
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