Which 'Josephus' is Closer to the Original? Pseudo-Hegesippus Book 3 Chapter 7 or Bellum Judaicum Book 3 Chapter 4?

We move on to the next sections in Hegesippus and Jewish War which once again parallel one another because they go back to a common grandfather text. 

Here is the account of Hegesippus:

The Sepphoritanians also attacked their neighboring regions with (demands for) tribute, assistance, military items, claiming a free right for themselves to engage in brigandage under the pretext of the war, which was being waged by the Jews against the Roman empire. Whence Josephus eagerly desiring to avenge the injury of harshness received hastened to make an attack against the city Sepphorin having associated to himself a number of powerful people, in order that he should call them back into the alliance of Judaea or if he were able ovethrow them resisting by their final destruction. But he fell short in each attempt, because he was neither able to dissuade them from the election of the Roman alliance or to overthrow the city, which he himself had strengthened with such great fortifications, that it was not able to be stormed by the far more impressive Romans. And so an assault having been attempted without any effect he sounded the trumpet call and aroused war against the entire region. He laid waste everything by day and night burning buildings, plundering inheritances, killing whomever was fit for fighting that he had seized, throwing the weak into slavery. All Galilaea was filled with burning blood robbery, by the appearance of no exempt misery and of the deformity of all things, when if anything remained from fire and murder, it was held for captivity. For whose evils those things which a little before had been considered too harsh were brought forward.[Pseudo-Hegesippus 3.7]

Here is the account of Jewish War:

NOW the auxiliaries which were sent to assist the people of Sepphoris, being a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, under Placidus the tribune, pitched their camp in two bodies in the great plain. The foot were put into the city to be a guard to it, but the horse lodged abroad in the camp. These last, by marching continually one way or other, and overrunning the parts of the adjoining country, were very troublesome to Josephus and his men; they also plundered all the places that were out of the city's liberty, and intercepted such as durst go abroad. On this account it was that Josephus marched against the city, as hoping to take what he had lately encompassed with so strong a wall, before they revolted from the rest of the Galileans, that the Romans would have much ado to take it; by which means he proved too weak, and failed of his hopes, both as to the forcing the place, and as to his prevailing with the people of Sepphoris to deliver it up to him. By this means he provoked the Romans to treat the country according to the law of war; nor did the Romans, out of the anger they bore at this attempt, leave off, either by night or by day, burning the places in the plain, and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and killing whatsoever appeared capable of fighting perpetually, and leading the weaker people as slaves into captivity; so that Galilee was all over filled with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from any kind of misery or calamity, for the only refuge they had was this, that when they were pursued, they could retire to the cities which had walls built them by Josephus.

As we noted earlier this Sepphoris narrative originally followed the assault by Josephus against Gamala (Gamala Vita 36 - 38; Sepphoris Vita 65 - 67) The holocaust at Gamala must have been particularly severe as even 'first century Josephus' invents a second Josephus to wipe his hands clear of the event. 

We will get to that shortly but notice at once also that Josephus continually makes reference to specific war crimes associated with his actions in Sepphoris too. This is why both Hegesippus and Jewish War gloss over the particulars here. 

The first Josephus builds up the walls of Sepphoris (Vita 37). Then he blames a certain Jonathan for mistreating the Sepphoraeans "So Jonathan and his partners went away from them without success, and came to Sepphoris, the greatest city of all Galilee. Now the men of that city, who inclined to the Romans in their sentiments, met them indeed, but neither praised nor reproached me and when they were gone down from Sepphoris to Asochis, the people of that place made a clamor against them, as those of Japha had done; whereupon they were able to contain themselves no longer, but ordered the armed men that were with them to beat those that made the clamor with their clubs." (Vita 45) Then Josephus makes reference to specific accusations of Justus regarding his involvement in war crimes (Vita 65) and then finally Vita's section which parallels the above mentioned parallel section of Hegesippus and Jewish War:

But about this time it was that the people of Sepphoris grew insolent, and took up arms, out of a confidence they had in the strength of their walls, and because they saw me engaged in other affairs also. So they sent to Cestius Gallus, who was president of Syria, and desired that he would either come quickly to them, and take their city under his protection, or send them a garrison. Accordingly, Gallus promised them to come, but did not send word when he would come: and when I had learned so much, I took the soldiers that were with me, and made an assault upon the people of Sepphoris, and took the city by force. The Galileans took this opportunity, as thinking they had now a proper time for showing their hatred to them, since they bore ill-will to that city also. They then exerted themselves, as if they would destroy them all utterly, with those that sojourned there also. So they ran upon them, and set their houses on fire, as finding them without inhabitants; for the men, out of fear, ran together to the citadel. So the Galileans carried off every thing, and omitted no kind of desolation which they could bring upon their countrymen. When I saw this, I was exceedingly troubled at it, and commanded them to leave off, and put them in mind that it was not agreeable to piety to do such things to their countrymen: but since they neither would hearken to what I exhorted, nor to what I commanded them to do, (for the hatred they bore to the people there was too hard for my exhortations to them,) I bade those my friends, who were most faithful to me, and were about me, to give on reports, as if the Romans were falling upon the other part of the city with a great army; and this I did, that, by such a report being spread abroad, I might restrain the violence of the Galileans, and preserve the city of Sepphoris. And at length this stratagem had its effect; for, upon hearing this report, they were in fear for themselves, and so they left off plundering and ran away; and this more especially, because they saw me, their general, do the same also; for, that I might cause this report to be believed, I pretended to be in fear as well as they. Thus were the inhabitants of Sepphoris unexpectedly preserved by this contrivance of mine.

Nay, indeed, Tiberias had like to have been plundered by the Galileans also upon the following occasion: - The chief men of the senate wrote to the king, and desired that he would come to them, and take possession of their city. The king promised to come, and wrote a letter in answer to theirs, and gave it to one of his bed-chamber, whose name was Crispus, and who was by birth a Jew, to carry it to Tiberias. When the Galileans knew that this man carried such a letter, they caught him, and brought him to me; but as soon as the whole multitude heard of it, they were enraged, and betook themselves to their arms. So a great many of them together from all quarters the next day, and came to the city Asochis, where I then lodged, and made heavy clamors, and called the city of Tiberias a traitor to them, and a friend to the king; and desired leave of me to go down and utterly destroy it; for they bore the like ill-will to the people of Tiberias, as they did to those of Sepphoris.

When I heard this, I was in doubt what to do, and hesitated by what means I might deliver Tiberias from the rage of the Galileans; for I could not deny that those of Tiberias had written to the king, and invited him to come to them; for his letters to them, in answer thereto, would fully prove the truth of that. So I sat a long time musing with myself, and then said to them, "I know well enough that the people of Tiberias have offended; nor shall I forbid you to plunder the city. However, such things ought to be done with discretion; for they of Tiberias have not been the only betrayers of our liberty, but many of the most eminent patriots of the Galileans, as they pretended to be, have done the same. Tarry therefore till I shall thoroughly find out those authors of our danger, and then you shall have them all at once under your power, with all such as you shall yourselves bring in also." Upon my saying this, I pacifie the multitude, and they left off their anger, and went their ways; and I gave orders that he who brought the king's letters should be put into bonds; but in a few days I pretended that I was obliged, by a necessary affair of my own, to out of the kingdom. I then called Crispus privately, and ordered him to make the soldier that kept him drunk, and to run away to the king. So when Tiberias was in danger of being utterly destroyed a second time, it escaped the danger by my skillful management, and the care that I had for its preservation.

About this time it was that Justus, the son of Pistus, without my knowledge, ran away to the king; the occasion of which I will here relate. Upon the beginning of the war between the Jews and Romans, the people of Tiberias resolved to submit to the king, and not to revolt from the Romans; while Justus tried to persuade them to betake themselves to their arms, as being himself desirous of innovations, and having hopes of obtaining the government of Galilee, as well as of his own country [Tiberias] also. Yet did he not obtain what he hoped for, because the Galileans bore ill-will to those of Tiberias, and this on account of their anger at what miseries they had suffered from them before the war; thence it was that they would not endure that Justus should be their governor. I myself also, who had been intrusted by the community of Jerusalem with the government of Galilee, did frequently come to that degree of rage at Justus, that I had almost resolved to kill him, as not able to bear his mischievous disposition. He was therefore much afraid of me, lest at length my passion should come to extremity; so he went to the king, as supposing that he would dwell better and more safely with him.

Now, when the people of Sepphoris had, in so surprising a manner, escaped their first danger, they sent to Cestius Gallus, and desired him to come to them immediately, and take possession of their city, or else to send forces sufficient to repress all their enemies' incursions upon them; and at the last they did prevail with Gallus to send them a considerable army, both of horse and foot, which came in the night time, and which they admitted into the city. But when the country round about it was harassed by the Roman army, I took those soldiers that were about me, and came to Garisme, where I cast up a bank, a good way off the city Sepphoris; and when I was at twenty furlongs distance, I came upon it by night, and made an assault upon its walls with my forces; and when I had ordered a considerable number of my soldiers to scale them with ladders, I became master of the greatest part of the city. But soon after, our unacquaintedness with the places forced us to retire, after we had killed twelve of the Roman footmen, and two horsemen, and a few of the people of Sepphoris, with the loss of only a single man of our own. And when it afterwards came to a battle in the plain against the horsemen, and we had undergone the dangers of it courageously for a long time, we were beaten; for upon the Romans encompassing me about, my soldiers were afraid, and fell back. There fell in that battle one of those that had been intrusted to guard my body; his name was Justus, who at this time had the same post with the king. At the same time also there came forces, both horsemen and footmen, from the king, and Sylla their commander, who was the captain of his guard: this Sylla pitched his camp at five furlongs' distance from Julias, and set a guard upon the roads, both that which led to Cana, and that which led to the fortress Gamala, that he might hinder their inhabitants from getting provisions out of Galilee. [Vita 67 - 71]

Look how much longer and more detailed this account is than the other two accounts we cited earlier. I am certain that Hegesippus and Jewish War represent careful abridgments which go back to the grandfather of both texts - undoubtedly written by 'second century Josephus' in order to preserve the reputation of first century Josephus. It was part of carefully orchestrated plan to gloss over Joseph bar Gorion's disloyalty to the Roman state.

It should be noted that Hegesippus's account is VERY DIFFERENT to what appears in Jewish War. Jewish War completely ignores Justus's accusations of war crimes in Sepphoris. There isn't even so much of a mention of Josephus's atrocities in Jewish War. Rather there is only the mention of bad deeds done by the people of Sepphoris and the Roman armies. Hegesippus is much closer to the original material emanating from Vita when he summarizes the section as "[w]hence Josephus eagerly desiring to avenge the injury of harshness received hastened to make an attack against the city Sepphorin having associated to himself a number of powerful people, in order that he should call them back into the alliance of Judaea or if he were able ovethrow them resisting by their final destruction ... so an assault having been attempted without any effect he sounded the trumpet call and aroused war against the entire region. He laid waste everything by day and night burning buildings, plundering inheritances, killing whomever was fit for fighting that he had seized, throwing the weak into slavery. All Galilaea was filled with burning blood robbery, by the appearance of no exempt misery and of the deformity of all things, when if anything remained from fire and murder, it was held for captivity." Once again Hegesippus is closer to the grandfather text; Jewish War only happens to be more favorable to Josephus so we assume that this reflects Josephus's attempting to free himself from charges related to his actions as a military commander. The reality is that he was getting 'help' from fourth century editors trying to prepare him (posthumously) for full integration with Roman society.