From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond

Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives

Carson Bay, Michael Avioz, Jan Willem Van Henten (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

664 Seiten

2024
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-69328-9 (ISBN)

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This volume marks the state-of-the-art concerning research on Flavius Josephus, Sefer Yosippon, and reception history of both. The essays contained herein draw together and build upon past research to establish a new foundation for future work on these important texts.

Two millennia ago, the Jewish priest-turned-general Flavius Josephus, captured by the emperor Vespasian in the middle of the Roman-Jewish War (66–70 CE), spent the last decades of his life in Rome writing several historiographical works in Greek. Josephus was eagerly read and used by Christian thinkers, but eventually his writings became the basis for the early-10th century Hebrew text called Sefer Yosippon, reintegrating Josephus into the Jewish tradition. This volume marks the first edited collection to be dedicated to the study of Josephus, Yosippon, and their reception histories. Consisting of critical inquiries into one or both of these texts and their afterlives, the essays in this volume pave the way for future research on the Josephan tradition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and beyond.

Carson Bay, PhD (2018), Florida State University, is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Bern. He has published on Josephus, his Latin reception and Pseudo-Hegesippus, and the Hebrew Sefer Yosippon. His book Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (Cambridge University Press, 2023), won a 2023 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award. Michael Avioz, PhD (2002), Bar-Ilan University, is Full Professor in the Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. His research focuses on biblical historiography and early biblical interpretation. He is author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including Josephus’ Interpretation of the Books of Samuel and, most recently, Legal Exegesis of Scripture in the Works of Josephus (T&T Clark, 2020). Jan Willem van Henten, PhD (1986), Leiden University, is Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Amsterdam, and Extra-Ordinary Professor of Biblical Studies at Stellenbosch University. He is editor of The Books of the Maccabees: Literary, Historical, and Religious Perspectives (Peeters, 2022) and co-author of Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity: From the Books of Maccabees to the Babylonian Talmud (Brill, 2023, with Friedrich Avemarie and Yair Furstenberg).

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors

1 An Introduction to Josephus, Yosippon, and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of a Josephan Legacy in Modern Scholarship

Carson Bay, Michael Avioz and Jan Willem van Henten

Part 1: Flavius Josephus: Context, Greek Text, and Literary Features

2 Interpreting Josephus Contextually: Composition, Audiences, Messages, and Meaning

Steve Mason

3 Josephus and the Bible

Erich S. Gruen

4 Ancient Jewish Court-Tales, Scriptural Adaptation, and Greco-Roman Discourses of Exemplarity: Joseph, Esther, and Agrippa I in Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae

David R. Edwards

5 The Language of the Law: Narratology and Register Variation in Josephus’ Cultic Laws and Constitution

Silvia Castelli

6 Free Speech and Moses’ Laws: The Limits of παρρησία in Josephus’ Works

Ursula Westwood

Part 2: Sefer Yosippon and Latin Josephus: Manuscripts and Text Criticism

7 The Hebrew Manuscripts of Sefer Yosippon

Saskia Dönitz

8 Beyond Flusser: The Text of Latin Antiquities 13 and Sefer Yosippon

David B. Levenson

Part 3: Sefer Yosippon: Traditions, Intertexts, and (Re-)Interpretations

9 The Beginning of the End: Yosippon’s ‘Aeneid’ and Adso’s Apocalypse

Ruth Nisse

10 The Maccabean Mother and Her Seven Sons in Sefer Yosippon 15: Interconnections with Previous Versions of the Martyrdom and Important Motifs

Jan Willem van Henten

11 Killing Matthias: De excidio 5.22 and Sefer Yosippon 81 (פא)

Carson Bay

12 Yosippon as an Innovative and Creative Genius

Steven Bowman

13 Sefer Yosippon as a Source for Hasmonean History: The Mysterious Story of John Hyrcanus and the Parthians

Kenneth Atkinson

14 Sefer Yosippon and Sefer Masaʿot: A Reconsideration

Daniel Stein Kokin

Part 4: Beyond Josephus and Yosippon: Reception, Afterlives, and Legacy

15 English Versions of Josephus in the Nineteenth Century: Omissions and Additions

Martin Goodman

16 Josephus on the School Bench

Meir Ben Shahar

17 ‘Josephus Proudly Presents’: Figurations of Josephus Presenting His Work in High Medieval Latin Manuscripts (12th and 13th Centuries)

Katharina Heyden

18 Between Josephus and Yosippon: Lamdan’s Masada

Yael S. Feldman

19 Schalit’s Modern Hebrew Translation of Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae: A Reassessment

Michael Avioz

20 Zena Ayhud (The History of the Jews): The Text and Context of the Ethiopic Version of Sefer Yosippon

Yonatan Binyam

21 The Christian Reception of Sefer Yosippon in Western Europe

Nadia Zeldes

22 Un-writing the End: Histories and Counter-histories in the Early Modern Yosippon

Andrea Schatz

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Ancient and Medieval Sources

Index of Subjects

Erscheinungsdatum	10.07.2024
Reihe/Serie	Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism ; 215
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	1256 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
ISBN-10	90-04-69328-9 / 9004693289
ISBN-13	978-90-04-69328-9 / 9789004693289
Zustand	Neuware