Three Annual Pilgrimages

Josephus

Jewish Antiquities 4.203

93–94

Let those from the far ends of the land that the Hebrews will come to possess assemble together three times each year in the city where the Temple will be, to give thanks to God for His bounty and entreat Him for the things they will want thereafter, so that by assembling and feasting together they may be well-disposed toward each other.

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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Josephus, writing in Rome after the Temple’s destruction, paraphrases and expands on the requirement in Deuteronomy 16:16 that Israelites make three pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year.

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Pilgrimage and Festival Observance in Early Judaism

2nd Century BCE–3rd Century CE
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Ancient Jewish Festivals

4th Century BCE–6th Century CE

The Israelite annual festivals originated as agricultural celebrations marking seasonal cycles. Over time, these observances were mythologized into a nation-forming narrative centered on the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

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1st Century BCE–6th Century CE

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