Deborah

Josephus

Biblical Antiquities 30.5–7; 33.1–3

1st Century

30.5–7

And when the people had fasted seven days and sat in sackcloth, the Lord sent to them on the seventh day Deborah, who said to them, “Can the sheep to be slaughtered give answer to its slaughterer? [see Isaiah 53:7]. But both the slaughterer and the slaughtered are silent even though he is sorrowful over it. And now you were like a flock…
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Deborah the prophet appears in the book of Judges, chapters 4 and 5. Barak, the military leader of the Israelite tribes, demands that Deborah accompany him into battle against Sisera, the commander of the enemy Canaanite army. In Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities, Deborah’s role as a religious leader is expanded. She describes herself as a “woman of God” and admonishes the Israelites to obey God and keep the covenant. Her words include an exhortation to the people before her death, echoing the messages Moses gives to the people in the final chapters of Deuteronomy. For Deborah’s hymn after defeating the Canaanites in Biblical Antiquities, see “Deborah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving.”

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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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