Genesis and the "Jewish Antiquities" of Flavius Josephus

312 Pages·1979·11.31 MB·English

by  Thomas W. Franxman

B I B L I CA ET O R I E N T A L IA
(SACRA SCRIPTURA ANTIQUITATIBUS ORIENTALIBUS ILLUSTRATA)
35
R O M AE
E PONTIFICIO INSTITUTO BIBLICO
1979
THOMAS W. FRANXMAN
GENESIS A ND THE
"JEWISH ANTIQUITIES"
OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
R O ME
BIBLICAL INSTITUTE PRESS
1979
© Iura editionis et versionis reservantur
PRINTED IN ITALY
TYPIS PONTIFICIAE UNIVERSITATIS GREGORIANAE — ROMAE
Preface
At Oxford University, in early March of 1975, the present investiga­
tion was submitted to the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies and,
having been duly examined and approved, became the basis upon which
its author was subsequently awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
To my "Doktorvater", Dr. Geza Vermes, Fellow of Wolfson College,
Oxford, I owe the suggestion of the theme of this work as well as the
abundant counsel necessary to ground, define and initiate an investigation
of this kind. The fruits of his knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the
entire field to which this investigation belongs have proven a continuing
inspiration, while his confidence in the viability of the project once
undertaken did much to encourage my seeing it through to the comple­
tion which, but for his generous assistance on one occasion in particular,
might not otherwise have been achieved.
Thanks are also unquestionably due to my examiners (Doctors Sebastian
P. Brock, of Oxford, and Nicholas R. M. De Lange, of Cambridge) for
their patient reading of the submitted thesis, and to my colleagues at
the Pontifical Biblical Institute for unremitting encouragement to publish it.
THOMAS W. FRANXMAN, S.J.
Rome,
February 2, 1979

Contents
PREFACE • v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vn
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Flavius Josephus and His Works 1
2. The " Jewish Antiquities " 5
3. The Genesis Narrative of the " Jewish Antiquities" Compared
with Genesis 9
a. Onomastics 9
b. Localization 12
c. Chronology 14
d. Genealogy 17
e. The Deity 19
4. The Genesis Narrative of the ' ' Jewish Antiquities " Contrasted
with Genesis 20
a. Citation of Sources 21
b. Retelling and Reshaping 24
5. The Purposes of This Investigation 27
PART I — PROTO-HISTORY: GENESIS 1/1 - 12/9 33
INTRODUCTION 35
CHAPTER 1 : Origins 37
a. J A 1/27-33 37
b. 34-40 46
c. 41-51 56
CHAPTER 2 : Degenerations 65
a. J A 1/52-66 65
b. 67-88 77
c. 89-108 86
CHAPTER 3 : Migrations . 93
a. J A 1/109-121 94
b. 122-147 100
c. 148-160 116
PART II — ABRAHAM: GENESIS 12/10-25/10 123
INTRODUCTION 125
CHAPTER 4 : Father of Nations 127
a. JA 1/161-168 127
vin CONTENTS
b. 169-185 132
c. 186-193 138
d. 194-206 141
e. 207-212 147
CHAMBER 5 : Son of Promise 152
a. J A 1/213-221 152
b. 222-236 156
c. 237-256 162
PART HI — JACOB: GENESIS 25/11-35/29 171
INTRODUCTION 173
CHAPTER 6 : Strangers in Residence 175
a. J A 1/257-266 175
b. 267-284 181
c. 285-308 187
CHAPTER 7 : Wanderers Abroad 196
a. J A 1/309-324 196
b. 325-336 202
c. 337-346 206
PART IV — JOSEPH: GENESIS 36/1-50/26 213
INTRODUCTION 215
CHAPTER 8 : Early Tribulations 217
a. J A II/1-8 218
b. 9-38 221
c. 39-59 231
d. 60-74 238
e. 75-94 240
CHAPTER 9 : Climactic Trials 248
a. J A 11/95-113 : 249
b. 114-123 255
c. 124-159 259
CHAPTER 10 : Final Events 268
a. J A 11/160-167 268
b. 168-188 271
c. 189-200 279
CONCLUSION 285
BIBLIOGRAPHY 291
INDEX OF TEXTS IN GENESIS UNDERLYING J A 1/27-11/200 301
Introduction
1. Flavius Josephus and His Works
The author, a portion of whose literary productivity this present
investigation undertakes to scrutinize, is scarcely either anonymous or
uncelebrated. Flavius Josephus not only left behind him an autobiography
but also speaks of himself in the course of his three other extant works.
Extending from the reference made to him by his younger contemporary,
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. A.D. 75-150), notices of Jos. and his writings
parade down the centuries and into the era of printing.1 Then, in the
last half of the fifteenth century, there begins to appear, and gradually
to swell, that tide of translations, editions and monographs among which
it is altogether possible to find expert accounts of our author's life and
works in general as well as of many significant aspects thereof.2 Modern
scholarship has succeeded in producing a clear and definitive bibliographic
picture of the results of these more recent centuries of attention.3 Thus,
it might justifiably be said that neither Flavius Josephus nor his works
are in want of a detailed identification.
1 The chatty SUETONIUS mentions Jos. in his life of Vespasian (V/6), the context
in question being Jos.' celebrated prognosis of Vespasian's future greatness. A collection
of passages referring to Jos. and drawn from sources extending into the fifteenth
century is to be found in a series of nineteen unnumbered pages at the beginning of
the first volume of the HUDSON-HAVERCAMP edition of Jos.' works published in Holland
in 1726.
2 Four editions of the Greek text of the works of Jos. deserve immediate attention.
The first edition was published by FROBENIUS and EPISCOPIUS at Basel in 1544, under
the direction of ARNOLDUS PERAXYLUS ARLENIUS, and has ever remained important. In
1726 there appeared, in two volumes, the edition of J. HUDSON (Oxford: 1720), improved
and expanded by S. HAVERCAMP, and published at Amsterdam-Ley den-Utrecht. The
HUDSON-HAVERCAMP edition introduced a system of text division which is still frequently
used for reference. Finally, there are the two great editions: B. NBSSE'S in seven
volumes (Berlin: 1885-1895) and S.A. NABER'S in six (Leipzig: 1888-1896). NIESE'S edition
has been adopted as authoritative for this investigation and his system of numbering
the various sections of Jos.' text (an improvement over the older HUDSON-HAVERCAMP
notation) has been followed throughout. Among the valuable aids to understanding
Jos.' text, the Latin translation thereof is of ancient provenance (end of the 6th
century A.D.) and not to be discounted. This present investigation has made use
of the Latin version as it appears in the edition of Franz BLATT, The Latin Josephus
I. Introduction and Text. The Antiquities: Books I-V (Aarhus: 1958).
3 Most, if not all, articles, books or portions of books which treat of Jos. also
append some sort of bibliography. The two most useful bibliographical tools for
working with Jos., however, are now L. H. FELDMAN'S Studies in Judaica, Scholarship
on Philo and Josephus (1937-1962) (New York: 1963), and Heinz SCHRBCKENBERG'S
1
2 INTRODUCTION
The literature produced by any author, however, is so closely linked
with his own personality and to the times in which he lives and writes
that to begin our investigation with some chosen generalities respecting
Flavius Josephus and the phases of his life is not only a fitting and logical
point of departure but also one which is truly necessary for our purposes.4
Jos/ floruit places him squarely within the second half of the first
century of our era. His life may, for convenience, be divided, according
to the facts at our disposal, into three sections: (1) his early and (pre­
sumably) formative period, extending from the year of his birth (A.D.
37-38) to his mid-twenties (64); (2) the spate of years during which public
affairs and national responsibilities would seem to have commanded most
of his time and attention (64 to 71); (3) his later life when, in residence
at the capital of the Roman world, he produced the four works, a part
of one of which is the subject of this present study. If or for how long
he may have survived Domitian (who was removed from the scene in
A.D. 96) are questions to which there are no definite answers.5 The first
and third of these periods must now be examined in order to project the
background against which it is intended that a useful picture of our author
take shape.
Jos. was born at Jerusalem and into a world by then dominated for
already a century by the Roman imperial government. His growth to
maturity took place under the distant aegis of the curious, colorful and
last three members of the Julio-Claudian house, and beneath the more
proximate influence of the Judaean Procurators and, between A.D. 41 and 44,
Herod Agrippa I. In Jos/ case especially, it is necessary to take note of
this socio-political influence at once and not merely because it was his
eventual and willingly accepted fortune to enter (and at the very highest
level) into a relationship with the world's rulers which was much closer
than that which, as a relatively anonymous subject, he had experienced
as a formative element throughout the entirety of his early life. What
Jos. thought, or at least accepted, Roman power to be, influenced directly
his attitude regarding the identity and destiny of his own nation and
people. This attitude, in turn, might logically be expected to color his
Bibliographie zu Flavius Josephus (Leiden: 1968). The annotations given in both these
excellent works are extremely helpful.
4 Summaries of Jos/ life are of course abundant. Under the article entitled "Jose­
phus" the following authorities have written for the following works of reference:
A. EDERSHEIM, A Dictionary of Christian Bibliography, III, 441-460; Samuel KRAUSS,
The Jewish Encyclopedia, VII, 274-281; B. NIESE, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,
VII, 569-579; G. HOELSCHER, Pauly-Wissowa RE, IX, 1934-2000. More recently Jos. has
received excellent general treatment in the first volume (pp. 43-63) of the new English
edition of Emil SCHUERER'S The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus
Christ, ed. G. VERMES, F. MILLAR, P. VERMES and M. BLACK (Edinburgh: 1973).
5 One of Jos/ writings was published after the death of Agrippa II (cf. the Life,
359-360). According to PHOTIUS (Bibliotheca, 33), Agrippa II died in A. a 100. PHOTIUS'
testimony has, however, been called into question. Nothing is known of any association
of our author with an emperor later than Domitian.