Moses Establishes the Gerousia

Josephus

Jewish Antiquities 4.216–218

93–94

For it is not fit that causes should be openly determined out of regard to gain or to the status of the suitors, but rather, the judges should esteem what is right before all other things. For otherwise God will by that means be despised and esteemed inferior to those the dread of whose power has resulted in unjust sentencing. For justice is the power of God. Therefore, he who favors those of high status supposes them more potent than God himself. But if these judges are unable to give a just sentence regarding the causes that come before them (which is not infrequent in human affairs), let them send the cause undetermined to the holy city, and there let the high priest, the prophet, and the Gerousia determine as it shall seem good to them.

Translated by William Whiston, adapted by Aaron Samuels.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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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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