Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary : Life of Josephus

354 Pages·2000·4.05 MB·English

by  Steve Mason

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
VOLUME 9
LIFE OF JOSEPHUS
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FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
translation and commentary
EDITED BY
STEVE MASON
VOLUME 9
LIFE OF JOSEPHUS
TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY
BY
STEVE MASON
BRILL
LEIDEN BOSTON KÖLN
• •
2001
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
The maps inserted are reproduced from Yoram Tsafrir, Leah Di Segni and Judith Green, Tabula Imperii Romani–Judaea * Palaestina:
Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods: Maps and Gazetteer (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and
Humanities 1994) and are reprinted by permission of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Survey of Israel.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Josephus, Flavius.
[Works. English. 2000]
Flavius Josephus, translation and commentary / edited by Steve Mason.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 3. Judean antiquities 1-4 / translation and commentary by Louis
H. Feldman.
ISBN 9004106790
1. Jews—History—To 70 A.D. I. Title: Translation and commentary. II. Mason,
Steve, 1957– III. Feldman, Louis H. IV. Title.
DS116 . J7 2000
909’.04924—dc21 00-022103
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Josephus, Flavius:
Translation and commentary / Flavius Josephus. Ed. by Steve
Mason. – Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill
Vol. 3. Judean antiquities 1 - 4 / transl. and commentary by Louis
H. Feldman. - 2000
ISBN90–04–10679–0
ISBN 90 04 11793 8
© Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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PRINTEDINTHENETHERLANDS
book one 5
I dedicate this volume to my esteemed colleague, Professor Paul Swarney.
His encouragement was early, enthusiastic, and unrelenting.
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book one 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Series Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction to the Life of Josephus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Translation and Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Appendix A: Galilean Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Appendix B: Josephus’ Itinerary in the Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Appendix C: Life / War Parallels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Appendix D: Hapax Legomena in the Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Appendix E: Photius, Bibliotheca 33, on Iustus of Tiberias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Greek Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Ancient Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Modern Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Persons and Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
8 book one
ABBREVIATIONS
In general, this volume adopts the abbreviations of the SBL Handbook of Style: For
Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies, ed. Patrick H. Alexander et
al. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1999). Additional abbreviations are as follows.
BJP Brill Josephus Project. Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commen-
tary, gen. ed. Steve Mason (Leiden: Brill, 2000–).
IGR Inscriptiones Graecae ad Romanas Pertinentes, ed. René Cagnat,
1964 [1911] (Rome: L’Erma).
ILS Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ed. Hermann Dessau (Dublin:
Weidmann, 1974 [1892]).
Plutarch Essays from the Moralia are cited as Mor. nnnL, rather than by spe-
cific essay title as in the SBL Handbook.
RMD Roman Military Diplomas, by Margaret M. Roxan (London: Institute
of Archaeology, 1978–)
Schürer-Vermes Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus
Christ. Revised edition, 3 vols. in 4, ed. Geza Vermes, Matthew
Black, et al. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1979-87).
series preface: the brill josephus project ix
SERIES PREFACE
THE BRILL JOSEPHUS PROJECT
Titus (?) Flavius Josephus (37–ca. 100 CE) was methods. Philo’s goals were not those of the author
born Joseph son of Mattathyahu, a priestly aristo- of Qumran’s Commentary on Nahum or of the
crat in Judea. During the early stages of the war Church Father Origen. In order to assist the reader
against Rome (66-74 CE), he found himself of this series, the Brill Project team would like to
leading a part of the defense in Galilee, but by the explain our general aims and principles. Our most
spring of 67, his territory overrun, he had basic premise is that we do not intend to provide
surrendered under circumstances that would the last word: an exhaustive exegesis of this rich
furnish grounds for endless accusation. Taken to corpus. Rather, since no commentary yet exists in
Rome by the Flavian conquerors, he spent the English, we hope simply to provide a resource that
balance of his life writing about the war, Judean will serve as an invitation to further exploration.
history and culture, and his own career. He Although we began with the mandate to prepare
composed four works in thirty volumes. a commentary alone, we soon realized that a new
If Josephus boasts about the unique importance translation would also be helpful. Keeping another
of his work (War 1.1-3; Ant. 1.1-4) in the fashion existing translation at hand would have been
of ancient historians, few of his modern readers cumbersome for the reader. And since we must
could disagree with him. By the accidents of comment on particular Greek words and phrases,
history, his narratives have become the indis- we would have been implicitly challenging such
pensable source for all scholarly study of Judea existing translations at every turn. Given that we
from about 200 BCE to 75 CE. Our analysis of needed to prepare a working translation for the
other texts and of the physical remains unearthed commentary in any case, it seemed wisest to
by archaeology must occur in dialogue with include it with the commentary as an efficient
Josephus’ story, for it is the only comprehensive point of reference. A few words about the trans-
and connected account of the period. lation, then, are in order.
Although Josephus’ name has been known Granted that every translation is an inter-
continuously through nearly two millennia, and he pretation, one can still imagine a spectrum of
has been cited extensively in support of any options. For example, the translator may set out to
number of agendas, his writings have not always follow the contours of the original language more
been valued as compositions. Readers have tended expressly or to place greater emphasis on idiomatic
to look beyond them to the underlying historical phrasing in the target language. There is much to
facts or to Josephus’ sources. Concentrated study in be said for both of these options and for each inte-
the standard academic forms—journals, scholarly rim stop in the spectrum. Accuracy is not neces-
seminars, or indeed commentaries devoted to sarily a criterion in such choices, for one might
Josephus—were lacking. The past two decades, gain precision in one respect (e.g., for a single
however, have witnessed the birth and rapid growth word or form) only at the cost of accuracy else-
of “Josephus studies” in the proper sense. Signs of where (e.g., in the sentence). Homer’s epic poems
the new environment include all of the vehicles and provide a famous example of the problem: Does
tools that were absent before, as well as K. H. one render them in English dactylic hexameter, in
Rengstorf’s Complete Concordance (1983), Louis looser verse, or even in prose to better convey the
Feldman’s annotated bibliographies, and now a sense? One simply needs to make choices.
proliferation of Josephus-related dissertations. The In our case, the course was suggested by the
time is right, therefore, for the first comprehensive constraints of the commentary. If we were pre-
English commentary to Josephus. paring a stand-alone translation for independent
The commentary format is ancient, and even in reading, we might have made other choices. And
antiquity commentators differed in their aims and certainly if Josephus had been an Athenian poet,