Reddit reviews The Jewish War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)

I read "The Jewish War" by Josephus and it was very interesting how the radicalization and terrorist acts of his day mirrors that of today. It was particularly interesting to see how fundamentalist jews brought upon themselves the destruction of their capital but also their countryside (lots of people died of course) by continually aggravating the moderate and quite accommodating Romans whom they had absolutely zero chance of winning against. For years the Romans endured various attacks but made no retribution against the Jews as a whole, favoring peaceful co-existence and making allowance for their religion until it came to the point that the Romans just had enough. Despite some voices among the jews saying that they must make peace, simply because they couldn't possibly win against the Romans, the rebellion proceeded. In their hubris the Jews celebrated victory and even as the Romans were winning against them they continued to believe that they had a chance to win until it became painfully evident to them that they were facing crushing defeat. The terrorists died horribly, along with civilians of all ages.

What I took away from it was that the main complaint that the radicals had was that the Romans dictated how their country was run, which they did to a large extent although the Jews had some freedom of decisions. This didn't mean the Jews were made to live bad lives in oppression, simply that they weren't their own masters, and apparently this was enough to really enrage some people. Also the Romans made use of their resources. But all in all, people lived and did business like people normally do and nothing was terrible, daily life was trotting along as it customarily does.

With that in mind, I don't think you can appease the muslim radicalists in any way, because they're enraged simply because the west has the upper hand. Ok fine, maybe the west shouldn't impose on their oil/resources, but in the end of the day the west isn't making their people starve, they seem to be good at arranging that for themselves. They have this belief that with the west gone they will be better off, but in reality they won't, because they will still have problems. I really don't think you can reason with them. They have an idealistic view of how great it would be if the west weren't there but it's not like their own governments are all rainbows and unicorns.

Or what do you think?

Deuteronomy 2:2-6 doesn't show that "the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir"= the Edomites.

> why do you think Finney couldn't see the trouble he was causing for the modern world?

I honestly don't blame Finney because the result of his changes wasn't easy to see. The only reason that I can see it is the benefit of hindsight.

> 2) "But the humble Christian who lacks doubt doesn't hesitate to kill heretics because he is sure that he is right and they are wrong."

> That doesn't really seem like humility. That seems more like arrogance.

How do you define humility? The average medieval Christian seems humble to me, and is as I described.

> Also, speaking of society, what are your thoughts on Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 8:13, Ephesians 6:12, 1 Samuel 16:7, Romans 12:9, and Galatians 6:1?

> Based on these, I think we should view things like God sees them. Hate the evil we see in the world, but not the people. I might be wrong on this view though.

I don't see anything in the passages you references supporting your conclusion. I see no distinction between a bad person and the bad that he does. Of course if he can be changed to a good person, then there is no more reason to hate him. But as long as he is bad, he should be hated.

In Hebrew there is no distinction between "evil" and "bad". In Hebrew, both are "ra". A bad person is "rasha". Both badness and bad people are condemned.

This post of mine seems relevant:

http://www.mikraite.org/Translating-Psalm-94-tp1538.html

Livy is excellent, especially his first book. Of course Livy himself was a historian. I am not that well read on Rome, but here are some other books I liked:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140444203/

https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Gaul-Classics-Julius-Caesar-ebook/dp/B002RI9MTS/

https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Caesars-Suetonius/dp/0140455167/

https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Ass-Transformations-Lucius-Classics/dp/0374531811/

The last is fiction but gives a good sense of that time (and is fun to read).

I haven't read Cato the Elder or Younger, but all primary sources are worth looking into.

> What questions(major or minor) have you had as a kid or now that you will probably never know the answer to?

Not much really comes to mind. When I have a serious question and I do enough research, I usually find an answer that satisfies me (even though I can never be fully sure that it is correct). The usual unanswerable questions don't really interest me.

I suppose one question I have is how Judaism went so horribly wrong. This happened during a time period for which we don't have enough of a written record to provide the answer.