The Josephan Judge Jephthah

Abstract

This article offers a detailed comparison of Josephus' account (Ant. 5.255-270) of the judge Jephthah both with its biblical prototype (Judg 10,6-12,7) as attested by the ancient text-witnesses (MT, LXX, etc.), and with another, virtually contemporary, retelling of the Jephthah story, i.e. that of Pseudo-Philo in L.A.B. 39-40. Josephus' version involves abbreviations, expansions, rearrangements and other modifications of the biblical data. As a result of his application of these rewriting techniques, Josephus presents his Greco-Roman readers with a streamlined, easier-to-understand rendering of the Jephthah story in which, e.g., the divine role is downplayed, and Jephthah's vow is explicitly censured. In comparison to both the Bible and Josephus, Pseudo-Philo eliminates whole components of the story shared by them (e.g., the slaughter of the Ephraimites, 12,1-6// 5.267-269), while also going beyond both in his highlighting the tragic figure of Jephthah's daughter.