(2 of 2)
A New Religion. In Rome, a happier prophecy also came true: Vespasian became Emperor. As a protégé of the court, Josephus was able to devote the rest of his life to his massive histories: The Jewish War, and Antiquities, a 20- volume history of the Jews. While fulsomely admiring his adopted country, Josephus sought to explain and vindicate the Jewish people, to communicate the unique sense of theocracy (he is credited with coining the word) that was to pervade the Christian world. He wrote: "The whole nation is fashioned for religion. Practices which other nations call mysteries and sacred rites, but are unable to keep up for more than a few days, we keep up with joy and unshakable determination throughout our lives."
Josephus lived in relative ease until his death circa 100, somehow surviving the change in emperors and sporadic attacks on his character by both Romans and Jews. He also remained true to his faith, convinced of the ultimate "Providence of God." Though Christianity spread throughout the known world in Josephus' lifetime, he treated the new religion with the detachment of a historian and a Pharisee; there had been no end of self-professed Messiahs in the years before the Diaspora. But Jesus, according to Antiquities, was "a very able man, if man is the right word; for he was a worker of miracles, a teacher of those who were glad to hear the truth, and he won over many Jews and many Gentiles. And the group called Christians after him is not extinct now."