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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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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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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