Josephus Research Articles

Cadmo di Mileto, primo storico dell’Occidente: i dati biografici

The present paper offers a re-examination of the evidence about Cadmus of Miletus, who was the first historian to write an historical prose writing according to the ancient sources. In particular, the reappraisal of the criticism, which Felix Jacoby gave on the chronology and even on the historicity of the ancient historian under his life in the Suda , lets us esteem the testimonies of Pliny and Flavius Josephus more likely and speak in favour of the historicity and the chronology to the sixth century B.C., given by these ancient sources for Cadmus.

THE LANDSCAPE PALACES OF HEROD THE GREAT

The palaces of Herod the Great are among the best preserved archaeological remains of royal residences of the late Hellenistic-early Roman era. The late archaeologist and architect, Ehud Netzer, has demonstrated Herod's close attention to landscape settings, admired in the accounts of the ancient historian Flavius Josephus. Archaeological remains of the architectural settings and of the gardens, understood in tandem with those elsewhere in the Mediterranean, demonstrate how Herod participated in the cutting edge of design trends of the day. This essay examines peristyles and strolling gardens, viewing knolls and towers, pools and naumachiae, and other landscape architecture at Herod's palaces in the dramatic landscapes of Jericho, Masada, Herodium, and Caesarea.

The Paris Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, cod. gr. 139) and the Antiquitates Judaicae of Flavius Josephus

The full-page illuminations of the Paris Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. gr. 139) and their place within Byzantine manuscript painting have been the subject of frequent investigation. The miniatures, eight picturing scenes from the life of David, Old Testament king and prophet, and six prefacing the Canticles, have been regularly acknowledged as the most sumptuous and magnificent examples of medieval book illustration. In the past the eight scenes picturing the life of David have been associated with the account of his life from the Bible in the two books of Samuel, but details of the miniatures — and in particular the personifications which appear there — agree more closely with the description of these events in the Antiquitates Judaicae of Flavius Josephus, the biblical paraphrase of the first-century Jewish historian. The six illuminations prefacing the Odes belong to a different literary tradition, but their manner of illustration shows a similar dependence on their respective texts.

Josué 3,1-5,12

We try to observe how the Hebrew text has been received by the sides of the Jewish tradition, which appears in the Masoretic text (TM) or in other sources and commentaries of the text, whether in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin, assuming that they are indebted to a tradition originating in the Hebrew text. This is how the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible Stuttgartensia (M) is compared with the texts, versions and commentaries that are presented. The comparison is made with the oldest available works, but other later ancient and medieval works are not covered. The works consulted as witnesses to the reception of the text, with their abbreviations, are the following:4QJosb (Qumran), G (Seventy), V (Vulgate), TgO Targum Onkelos), TgJo (Targum Pseudo Jonathan), Fl. (Flavius Josephus), CroSam II (Samaritan Chronicles), OT Apocrypha

Pity and Emotion in Josephus’s Reading of Joseph

Pity must be directed toward a harm that is not deserved, following Aristotle (Rhet. 2.8, 1385b.13–16). In her analysis of Josephus’s construction of pity in his paraphrase of Genesis, Francoise Mirguet demonstrates how this principle is exemplified in Josephus’s account of Judah’s appeal to Joseph to release Benjamin for the sake of their father, Jacob (Ant. 2.140–59; cf. Gen. 44:18–34). Here, Judah’s speech endorses the view that only the innocent (the brothers’ father, Jacob) deserves pity and that this should outweigh the punishment justly deserved by the brothers: that Joseph “graciously give [χάρισαι] to our father” what justice demands for the brothers’ wrongdoing, and that he “let pity for [Jacob] be more powerful (δυνηθήτω ... ἔλeος) than our wickedness” (Ant. 2.151). In what follows, I suggest that Judah’s appeal, as constructed by Josephus, is interesting also in other ways for thinking about the significance of pity and the subversion of its construction in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.

Wrocławska synagoga „Pod białym bocianem” i jej genetyczne uwarunkowania

Synagogue architecture in the 19th century Lower Silesia does not Have its own monograph. Most of the publications concern the Synagogue Under the White Stork in Wrocław, which represents the classical architecture. The neoclassical building was designed by an eminent German architect, Carl Ferdinand Langhans (1781–1869) and opened in 1829. His project presented the Synagogue on the longitudinal plan. The main prayen hall is surrounded on three sides with womens galleries. Two levels of galleries to the north and two on the sout flnk single gallery on the eastern Torah ark wall. The orginal interior, now last, was designer by painter Raphael Biow (1773–1836) and his son Hermann Biow (1804–1850). It is considered a sterling example of 17th-century Protestant sacralen art. (church in Chareton, 1622–1623, Salomon de Brosse) and 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam (1671–75), Ellias Bouvman). The core of this article is an attempt to indicate the genesis of an architectural form of the orginal building. It seems that what inflenced most both the architectural form and disposition with their decorations was siscussion led in the 17 th c. in The Republic of the United Provinces. The discussion was aroused both by Villalpando’s work and Josephus Flavius’s considerations. As Carl Gotthard Langhans had the opportunity to get acquainted with ame edifies following the pattern of Salomon’s Temple (Mareker and Hofje van Broukhoven in Leiden and the town hall in Amsterdam among others) we can presume that he passed this knowledge on his son, who later created the seat of Synagogue Unter the White Stork.

Quelques aperçus sur la tradition manuscrite de l’Anabase à propos du manuscrit de Xénophon conservé dans la bibliothèque du monastère Vlatadon à Salonique

The codex Thessaloniki, Vlatadon 36, a manuscript containing the works of Flavius Josephus and Xenophon and dating from the second quarter of the 14th century, until now considered to be of some value for the critical text of Xenophon, is shown to be an indirect apograph of the well-known Xenophon-codex Par. gr. 1630 (a. 1320). Further considerations on the transmission of the Anabasis and the Cyrupaedia show that for both works two distinct editions based on different series of papyrus rolls and therefore dating from late Antiquity have come down to us.

Philo, Josephus, and the Testaments on Sexuality. Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Writings of Philo and Josephus and in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs William Loader

Philo, Josephus, and the Testaments on Sexuality. Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Writings of Philo and Josephus and in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs <i>William Loader</i>

In the Masons’ Yard: Insights from French Gothic Manuscript Painting

One of the great iconic scenes showing the activities of a construction site is the well-known miniature that depicts the building of Solomon’s Temple in a copy of Flavius Josephus’s Antiquités judaïques (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 247). A close examination of the image reveals its exceptional accuracy: it precisely depicts the craftsmen’s work, architectural design, and technical prowess at the building site of the cathedral of Saint-Gatien in Tours. It also shows how such medieval building yards were important crossroads for the circulation and transmission of forms, expertise, and know-how, even between different fields of artistic production. Behind the remarkable assembly of technical, architectural, and formal observations of the cathedral of Saint-Gatien lies a much deeper network of meaning regarding the artist’s technical and architectural knowledge and the value that this so-called Master of the Munich Boccaccio assigned to Gothic forms.

The Search for Antediluvian Astronomy: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Astronomers' Conceptions of the Origins of the Science

Many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomers believed that astronomy had existed before the Flood. It existed in God's mind as an eternal plan, according to which celestial bodies were created and their periods of revolution defined. Further- more, the first people, Adam and his descendants, the biblical patriarchs, had engaged in astronomy. However, there was no consensus among early modern astronomers as to the fate of antediluvian astronomy after the Flood and its relation to their own astronomy. In this article, I present an overview of the various conceptions of ante- diluvian astronomy, to illustrate astronomers' opinions regarding the origin of their science, and how their views gradually changed.The majority of astronomers in the Renaissance, like their contemporaries in other disciplines, believed in the existence of knowledge granted to humans by God at the beginning of history, and held that mankind should seek to return to this ancient knowledge. I call this the approach. Later in the seventeenth century, this conception was slowly replaced by the belief that astronomy is gradually improved in the course of history: the approach. Exploration of the differing approaches to the idea of antediluvian astronomy reveals that the process of replacement of the retrograde approach by the progressivist was difficult and slow. The shift to the idea of astronomical progress, as it is known from the eighteenth century, certainly was not a matter of course, and it called for a change in some of the fundamental metaphysical assumptions relating to the nature of astronomy. In other words, the idea of progress in astronomy was closely related to the abandonment of the belief that astronomy is of divine origin.1. The Idea of Antediluvian AstronomyIdeas on the origin of astronomy and other mathematical sciences in the early modern period were derived mainly from reports by classical authors, most of which stated that Greek mathematical knowledge drew on Egyptian mathematics.' However, as early as in the Hellenistic period, Jewish historians objected to these reports by Greek scholars, and they sought to prove that theirs was the most ancient culture and that all knowledge had originated from their spiritual tradition. In particular, Josephus Flavius (1st century a.D.) fiercely criticised the opinion that the Jews had made no contribution to science, and he presented an impressive genealogy of wisdom provided to mankind by the Hebrews, which had been granted by God's grace.In his work Jewish antiquities, Flavius speaks about Adam's son Seth and his descendants:2[T]hey also discovered the science of the heavenly bodies and their orderly array. Moreover, to prevent their discoveries from being lost to mankind and perishing before they became known - Adam having predicted a destruction of the universe, at one time by a violent fire and at another by a mighty deluge of water - they erected two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, and inscribed these discoveries on both; so that, if the pillar of brick disappeared in the deluge, that of stone would remain to teach men what was graven thereon and to inform them that they had also erected one of brick. It exists to this day in the land of Seiris.To destroy corrupt mankind, God subsequently sent the Flood, which only Noah and his family survived. After the Flood, astronomical knowledge was passed on, apparently thanks to the pillars along with the knowledge of Noah himself, to Noah's sons, who gradually populated the world, as described in detail by Flavius. Of them, Shem's descendants became the ancestors of the Chaldeans.3 According to Flavius, Abraham, who was well versed in astronomy, came from this Chaldean background. When Abraham visited Egypt, Egyptian priests asked him to introduce them to arithmetic and astronomy, because they had no knowledge of these sciences. Flavius concludes that Greek sages subsequently learnt arithmetic from Egyptian priests and brought the knowledge to Greece. …

Philo, Josephus, and The Testaments on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Writings of Philo and Josephus and in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs by WilliamLoader, Eerdmans, 2011 (ISBN 978‐0‐8028‐6641‐7), xi + 476 pp., pb $47.45

Philo, Josephus, and The Testaments on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Writings of Philo and Josephus and in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs by WilliamLoader, Eerdmans, 2011 (ISBN 978‐0‐8028‐6641‐7), xi + 476 pp., pb $47.45

The Jews in the Reformation Era

The Talmud has a dictum: “There is nothing early and nothing late in the Torah”. This disregard for the historical approach has undoubtedly contributed to the relative neglect of historical study by Jews—both the study of their own history and that of the peoples amongst whom they lived. As recently as some two centuries ago, the representative spokesman of the Jewish Enlightenment. Moses Mendelssohn, explicitly proclaimed his boredom when he had to read anything historical. Of course, a corpus of Jewish historical writing does exist—large portions of the Bible, the works of Josephus, the historians of the 16th and 17th centuries C.E. (Abraham ibn Daud, Solomon ibn Verga, Azariah de Rossi, Gedaliah ibn Yahya, David Gans et. al.) but it would be difficult to speak of a historiographical tradition comparable to that established amongst other peoples. Not until the 19th century did this relative lack of interest give way to informed and scholarly investigation into the Jewish past. This was a primary achieve...

Book Review: Josephus’ Rhetoric and the Second Commandment: Jason von Ehrenkrook, Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus

Book Review: Josephus’ Rhetoric and the Second Commandment: Jason von Ehrenkrook, <i>Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus</i>

Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius JosephusEhrenkrookJason von Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus SBL – Early Judaism and its Literature 33BrillLeiden, 2012, xiv, 226, €99.00ISBN 978-90-04-21171-1

Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius JosephusEhrenkrookJason von <i>Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus</i> SBL – Early Judaism and its Literature 33BrillLeiden, 2012, xiv, 226, €99.00ISBN 978-90-04-21171-1

Salomé: History and Decadence

This article explores the oppositions and paradoxes of the representation of the story of Salome and John the Baptist in late nineteenth century French Symbolist poetics by basing the discussion on French dandyism and using Eliot Aronson's concept of cognitive dissonance. It engages the literary and artistic representations of Salome in Joris-Karl Huysmans's Á rebors, Stéphane Mallarmé's "Hérodiade," the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, artistic representations of Salome by Gustav Moreau, and the historical account of the death of John the Baptist by Flavius Josephus. I show how, in the late nineteenth century, French Symbolists reconciled issues between the "fallen institutions" of politics and religion by focusing on Salome and John the Baptist to illustrate the Dandy's reconciliation and substitution of authority within Modernism.

Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus by Jason von Ehrenkrook (review)

Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus by Jason von Ehrenkrook (review)

Les légendes fabriquées de David : variantes textuelles et tensions littéraires en 1 Samuel 16-18

The debate about the short version (LXXB) and the long version (MT) of 1 Samuel 17-18 has never been resolved. It can however have a solution by taking into account the Jewish Antiquities by Flavius Josephus as evidence like any other textual version: the LXXB would not be a full version for 1 S 17,12-32 and the MT, an expansive version for the following passages (17,41-18,30). Literary criticism of 1 S 16-19 helps us understand why there are two versions of the text and how the stories of David have been developed. The Greek translator was confronted with a problem of narrative coherence, since David is presented twice to King Saul. He wanted to restore consistency by removing the second presentation of David to Saul (1 S 17,12-32). This solution seemed more logical to him as the “second David” appears as a repetition if you read the text linearly. But, from the standpoint of literary analysis, the “first David” (1 S 16) is not coherent with the rest of the story (1 S 17,1-11). And, even if 1 S 17 has been the subject of corrective rereading, the whole story is relatively more homogeneous than the previous chapter. Literary criticism, applied to the first book of Samuel and conducted in the manner of an archaeological dig, reveals the accumulation of editorial strata, like archaeological strata within a mound. It is thus possible to envision how the legend of the young shepherd (1 S 17) was developed from the heroic exploits of Elhanan (2 S 21,19) to be linked up with the old legend of Saul - combined with the “Ark Narrative” -, and how the tradition of the musician David - comparable to the tradition of the wisdom of Solomon - was inserted between the two (1 S 16,14-23). The whole “legend of Saul and David” was finally framed by deuteronomistic editing that also introduced the multifaceted character of Samuel at every level of the overall story, for instance in 1 S 16,1-13. After becoming the king of a historically idealised kingdom formed by Israel in the north and by Judah in the south, David became the messianic king of a utopian Israel completely centred on Judea.

Jeremiah 7 and Flavius Josephus on the First Jewish War

Abstract Study of Josephus’ interpretation of the Bible has focused on the paraphrase in Antiquities, but Josephus continued to engage Scripture in his post-biblical history. This article contends that Josephus, like the authors of the synoptic gospels and later Jewish exegetes, saw the events of 66-70 C.E. through the lens of Jeremiah’s temple sermon (7:1-34). The accounts of Jesus ben Ananias and Josephus’ speech before the city walls, among other examples, show recourse to Jeremiah 7.

Reading Josephus at Vivarium? Annotations and Exegesis in Early Copies of the Antiquities

Some of the many medieval readers of Flavius Josephus’s Antiquities annotated their manuscripts of his works. This article investigates the origin of marginal notes found in early Latin copies of Josephus’s Antiquities. The notes seem to predate the extant manuscripts and may stem from notes appended to an early copy of the Latin Antiquities, c.600. Certain interests — exegetical, typological, oratorical, and iconographic — apparent in the notes may even suggest that they originated at Cassiodorus’s Vivarium. This centre produced the Latin translation of the Antiquities to which the notes are appended. These early notes, paired with some later Carolingian notes, offer a glimpse of Josephus’s medieval reception.

Cezarea/Wieża Stratona w wybranych źródłach pisanych

In my paper I have tried to present briefly a history of Caesarea in Palestine, relying on the Greek and Latin sources. Originally, the city was called Straton’s Tower, but it became famous in the Roman Empire as Caesarea. I have described briefly how did Caesarea change from a small village to the capital of province Palestina Prima Metropolis. Among the authors who were used as the sources are Flavius Josephus, Georgios Synkellos, Eusebius of Caesarea, Procopius of Caesarea, Procopius of Gaza and Johannes Malalas.