J O 3 



tfon of Mattliias and feveral friends wiiliout ranfom ; he 

 had permifTioii alfo to fave what he ploafed out of the ruins ; 

 but hff contented himfelf with a copy of the facrod writings. 

 The emperor heaped upon Iiim his favours, and as a marlc of 

 his gratitude, he aiTiimcd their family furname of Flavins. 

 He employed his leifurc in drawing up thofe works which 

 have im:norta1ized his name. Thele are, i "TheHillory 

 of the Jewilh war, and th; taking of Jerufalcm," in fevcn 

 books. It was written in the language of iiis own country, 

 ar,d he afterwards publilhcd it in Greek for the benefit of 

 other nations. He profelTes to have written witli great fide- 

 lity, and appeals, for the truth of his liillory, to hving wit- 

 nefles. He prefented the work to Vefpafinn and Titus, of 

 whom the latter ordered it to be publiflied, and figned it with 

 his own hand to Ihew that it was authentic. 2. " The Jewi(h 

 Antiquities" in twenty-four books, or the hillory of the 

 Jews from the creation to the 12th year of Nero, in which 

 the war began. To this is fabjoined his life, written by him- 

 felf, and dedicated to Epapliroditu.-:, of whom we know 

 nothiug but from Jofephus himfclf, who defciibes him as a 

 lover of all kinds of learning, but as principally delighted 

 wth the knowledge of hiilory, and this on account of his 

 having been himfelf concerned in great affairs, and many 

 turns of fortune, and having ilievvn a wonderful vigour of an 

 excellent nature, and an immoveable virtuous refolution in 

 them all. 3. He wrote alfo " Two books againil Apion 

 fcf Alexandria," which is a vindication of the Jewilh peo- 

 ple againll the calumnies of that Egyptian author. "A 

 Difcourfe on the Martyrdom of the Maccabees ' is fomc- 

 times afcribed to him, but its genuinenefs is dlfputed, and 

 Ml". Whiifon who tranfiated the other works would not give 

 this a .place in his volumes. The works of Jofephus, 

 though (lighted by the Jews, nre held in high eftimation by 

 ChriSians ; his llyle is pure, agreeable, and fometimcs elo- 

 quent ; he has been called the Greek Livy ; and, like that 

 Roman writer, he is fond of difplaying the powers of his 

 ov/n imagination by long fpeeches. The hillory of the 

 Jewifh war, of which he was a fpeftator, is a moft inte- 

 relHng narrative. The bed editions of the works of Jo- 

 fephus, are thofe of HuJfon in two vols, folio. Oxford, 

 1720, and of Haverc:inip, in tv.'o vols. Amilerdam 17:6. 

 There have been a multitude of Englifli trandations ; to that 

 of Whiilon we have .ilready referred. Univer. Hill. Lard- 

 ner, vols, i and vii. edit. 178S. And Jofephus's own Life. 

 JOSHUA, a canonical book of the Old Teftament, con- 

 taining a hillory of the wars and tranfattions of the perfon 

 •w-hofc name it bears, who fuccceded Mofes in the govern- 

 ment of the Ifraolites, in the year 14^1 B.C. at the age of 90 

 years, and was their conduflor to the land of Canaan. He 

 was the fon of Nun, of the tribe of Eptiraim, and born in the 

 ^dnd of Gofhen, in the year 1536 B.C. At the period of 

 the Exod::s (which fee), Jofhi.a was dininguilhcd by his 

 talents and virtues, fo that he was taken into the confidence 

 of Mofes, and fele£ted to command th; Ifraelites, when 

 they were attacked by the .i\.malekites, in their march from 

 mount Horeb to mount Sinai. He was likev.-ife honoui'ed 

 ■with the privilege of accompanying Mofes to mount Sinai, 

 and of remaining with bim forty days, when he recci\t;d di- 

 rcftions for the future government of the Ifraeiites, and the 

 Isiws written on the firfl tables of Hone. He alfo accompa- 

 nied Caleb, and other ten perfons who were deputed to exa- 

 mine the land" of Canaan, previous to the invafion of it by 

 the Ifraeiites. When Mofes was apprized of his approach- 

 ing dcfTolution, he confirmed Jofhua as hii fucccfibr in themoft 

 public and folenin manner. Although he w^s advanced in 

 years when he conduced the Ifraeiites to Canaan, he per- 

 formed this arduous.underlaking. with fmguiar prudence and 

 Vol. XIX.. 



JOS 



valour. When they were pafTuig the river of Jordan, in the 

 extraordinary manner whicli is recorded in their hillory, he 

 diredcd two monuments to be creftcd as a memorial of their 

 miraculous paffage, one on the fpot where the ark had Hood 

 in the bed of the river, and the other on the fliure ; and from 

 the hanksof Jordan he proceededtowards the plainsof Jcrichoj^ 

 and pitched his tent for the firll time in Canaan, the land of 

 whith he was taking polfcflion at Gilgal. For the conflifts 

 • and fucceffes that attended his futr.re progrefs, we refer to 

 his hillory. Having furveyed and divided tlie lands among 

 the feveral tribes (B.C. 144J), he governed Ifr.T.'l in peace; 

 and when he became fcniible that the termination of his liffc 

 could be at no great dillance, he fummoned all the tribes 

 of Ifi-ael to Schechem, and recited the extraordinary opera- 

 tions of the providence of God in their favour, and havin? 

 awakened in their minds a becoming fenfe of gratitude, en- 

 forced upon them the wifdom and duty of perfeverini' obe- 

 dience to his laws, and exhorted them to renew the covenants 

 by which they had already engaged to worfliip and fervc 

 him. This tianfaftion was then folcmnly regillcred, and a 

 monument for perpetuating it was erefted near a great oak 

 which wa.s in Schechem. Soon after this event, "i>;z. in the 

 year B.C. 1426, Jofliua, having exhibited ample evidence 

 of the propriety of his name, which denoted " Saviour," 

 died in his retirement at Timnath-fera, at the age of i 10 

 years. The book of Jolhua, fuppoled to have been written 

 by himfelf, and to have received fome additions from Samuel 

 and Ezra, (fte BiBLBandC.vxox,) may be divided into three 

 parts ; the lirll of which is a hillory of the conquell of the 

 land of Canaan ; the fecond, which begins at the twelft.*! 

 chapter, is a defcription of that country, and the divifion of 

 it among the tribes ; and the third, comprifed in the twolall 

 chapters, contains the renewal of the covenant he caufedthe 

 Ifraeiites to make, and the death of their victorious leader 

 and governor. The whole comprehends a term of fevcn^ 

 teen, or, according to others, of twenty-feven years. 



JOSIAH, king of Judaii, deferves particular mention 

 on account of his wifdom and piety, and fome memorable- 

 events that occurred in the courfe of his reign. He fuc- 

 ceeded to the throne, upon the alfaffination of his father 

 Amen, at the age of eight years, in the year B.G. 640, and 

 at a period when idolatry and wickcdnefs,. encouraged by 

 his father's profligate example, very generally prevailed, 

 Jofiah, who manifelled the influence of pious and virtuoui 

 principles at a very early age, began in his fixteenth year to 

 projecl the reformation of the kingdom, and to adopt mean.i 

 for reiloring the worfhip of the true God. At the age of 

 twenty years he vigorouily. purfued the execution of the 

 plans which he had meditated. He began 'with abolifliing 

 idolatry, firl; at .Terufalem, and then through different parts 

 of the kingdom ;■ dell roving the altr.rs which had been 

 erefted, anjltlie idols which had been the objedts of venera- 

 tion and worfliip. He then proceeded, in his twenty-lixth 

 year, to a complete relloration of the v.-or(hip of God, and 

 the regular ferviee of the temple.. Whilll Le was profe- 

 ci'.ting this pious work, and repairing the temple v/hich had 

 been long negleftcd, and whicli had funk into a Hate of dil.^- 

 pidation,! the book of the law, which had been coitcenled in the 

 temple, was happily difcovgred. This was probably a copy of 

 the I\-ntal.uch, which had been lodged there fbr fecuri'ty by 

 fome pious prielk in the reign of Ahaz or ManaiTi h. Joliali, 

 defirous of averting from himfclf and the kingdom threatened 

 judgments, determined to adhere to the dire<flions of the 

 lawj in the hulinefs of reformation which he had undertaken, 

 and to obferve the fettivaU enjointd by Mofes-, wliichi 

 had been IhamefuUy neglefted. \Vith this view he alfemblcd 

 all the elders o-f the people in the temple at Jerufalcm, and 

 3 D haTing 



