《Selections from Josephus》 - 免费有声读物
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Selections from Josephus
Admission to the Order. The Novice’s Probation and Oath
Admission to the Order. The Novice’s Probation and Oath
A candidate anxious to join their sect is not immediately admitted. For one year, during which he remains outside the fraternity, they prescribe for him their own rule of life, presenting him with a small hatchet, the forementioned loin-cloth and white raiment. Having given proof of his continence during this probationary period, he is brought into closer touch with the rule and is allowed to share the purer kind of holy water, but is not yet received into the life of the community. For, after this exhibition of endurance, his character is tested for two years more, and only then, if found worthy, is he enrolled in the society.
But, before he may touch the common food, he is made to swear tremendous oaths[343]:—first that he will practise piety towards God,[344] next that he will observe justice towards men; that he will wrong none whether of his own mind or under another’s orders; that he will for ever hate the unjust and fight the battle of the just; that he will for ever keep faith with all men, especially with the powers that be, since no ruler attains his office save by the will of God;[345] that, should he himself bear rule, he will never abuse his authority nor, either in dress or by other outward marks of superiority, outshine his subjects; to be ever a lover of truth and to make it his aim to convict liars; to keep his hands from stealing and his soul pure from impious gain; to conceal nothing from the members of the sect and to report none of their secrets to others, even though threatened with death. He swears, moreover, not to communicate any of their doctrines to any one otherwise than as he himself received them; to abstain from robbery; and in like manner carefully to preserve the books of their sect and the names of the angels. Such are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes.
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Jewish historian, military leader and Roman citizen, Titus Flavius Josephus, provides the most thorough history of the 1st century Roman Empire deals with the Jewish people. Born in Jerusalem during the reign of Caligula; present with the Roman Army of Vespasian and Titus at the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, Josephus stands preeminent among early Christian period writers.
"I have selected the passages most relevant to Christian origins and New Testament study," writes Henry St. James Thackery of King's College, UK, leading biblical scholar on Josephus and Koine Greek translator.
"Some figures which in the New Testament are little more than names, become clothed with life" by Josephus as he "gives us the background of Jewish and world history in the time of our Lord and the infant church. ... And we have full and life-like portraits of Roman governors and generals."
More than 400 footnotes and extensive appendix notes have been woven through the audio recording that the listener might experience Thackery's insights and teaching, as if in his class at King's. Many of the names and places are read with Erasmian Koine Greek pronunciation. (Summary by Rebecca Eden Walker)
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