Studies in Josephus and the Varieties of Ancient Judaism: Louis H. Feldman Jubilee Volume (Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity)

323 Pages·2006·1.21 MB·English

by  Shaye J. D. Cohen

Studies in Josephus and the Varieties
of Ancient Judaism
Ancient Judaism and
Early Christianity
Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Antiken
Judentums und des Urchristentums
edited by
Martin Hengel (Tübingen)
Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht)
Martin Goodman (Oxford)
Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem)
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin)
Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg)
Seth Schwartz (New York)
VOLUME 67

60
chapter two
Louis H. Feldman
Studies in Josephus and the
Varieties of Ancient Judaism
Louis H. Feldman Jubilee Volume
edited by
Shaye J.D. Cohen and Joshua J. Schwartz
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2007
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Studies in Josephus and the varieties of ancient Judaism : Louis H. Feldman
jubilee volume / edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen and Joshua J. Schwartz.
p. cm. — (Ancient Judaism and early Christianity, ISSN 1871-6636 ; v. 67)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15389-9
ISBN-10: 90-04-15389-6 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Josephus, Flavius. 2. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.–210 A.D.
I. Feldman, Louis H. II. Cohen, Shaye J. D. III. Schwartz, Joshua. IV. Title.
V. Series.
DS115.9.J6S78 2006
933’.05—dc22
2006049127
ISSN 1871-6636
ISBN-13: 978 90 04 15389 9
ISBN-10: 90 04 15389 6
© Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
In Appreciation of Louis H. Feldman ...................................... vii
Josephus on Ancient Jewish Groups from a Social Scientific
Perspective .............................................................................. 1
Albert I. Baumgarten
Maccabees, Zealots and Josephus: The Impact of Zionism
on Joseph Klausner’s History of the Second Temple ................ 15
David Berger
‘Your covenant that you have sealed in our flesh’:
Women, Covenant, and Circumcision .................................. 29
Shaye J.D. Cohen
Who are the Kings of East and West in Ber 7a?: Roman
Religion, Syrian Gods and Zoroastriansim in the
Babylonian Talmud ................................................................ 43
Yaakov Elman
The Meaning of ‘Fisci Iudaici Calumnia Sublata’ on the
Coinage of Nerva .................................................................. 81
Martin Goodman
The Abuse and Misuse of Josephus in Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical History, Books 2 and 3 ...................................... 91
Gohei Hata
Justus of Tiberias and the Synchronistic Chronology of
Israel ........................................................................................ 103
Chaim Milikowsky
‘Women are (Not) Trustworthy’—Toward the Resolution
of a Talmudic Crux .............................................................. 127
Leib Moscovitz
vi contents
Josephus and the Books of Samuel .......................................... 141
Etienne Nodet
Lysias—An Outstanding Seleucid Politician ............................ 169
Uriel Rappaport
Document and Rhetoric in Josephus: Revisiting the
‘Charter’ for the Jews ............................................................ 177
Tessa Rajak
Adnotationes criticae ad Flavii Iosephi Contra Apionem ............ 191
Heinz Schreckenberg
Josephus on His Jewish Forerunners (Contra Apionem
1.218) ...................................................................................... 195
Daniel R. Schwartz
Are the ‘Halachic Temple Mount’ and the ‘Outer Court’
of Josephus One and the Same? .......................................... 207
Joshua Schwartz and Yehoshua Peleg
Conversion to Judaism in the Second Temple Period:
A Functional Approach .......................................................... 223
Seth Schwartz
Jews and Gentiles from Judas Maccabaeus to John
Hyrcanus according to Contemporary Jewish Sources ...... 237
Israel Shatzman
The Ancient Lists of Contents of Josephus’ Antiquities ............ 271
Joseph Sievers
Index of Sources ........................................................................ 293
Index of Scholars Cited ............................................................ 308
IN APPRECIATION OF LOUIS H. FELDMAN
To know Louis Feldman is to love him. Has Louis (pronounced
LOO-ey by all his admirers) ever had a student who did not sub-
sequently become an acolyte, a devotee, a hasid? His affection for
his students, his concern for their well-being and success, his delight
in their accomplishments—all these were experienced by legions of
students. Louis is devoted not only to his students but also to his
subject. He has single-handedly kept alive the study of Greek and
Latin at Yeshiva College for over fifty years. He routinely teaches
five or six courses a semester, sometimes more, so that his students in
Beginners’ Latin, Intermediate Latin, Advanced Latin, Beginners’
Greek, Intermediate Greek, and Advanced Greek would be able to
take a course at the level appropriate to them. No class was too
small for Louis; if even a single student showed up for a course,
Louis offered it. When I was a student at Yeshiva College, I took
a total of fourteen courses with Louis (eight in Latin, six in Greek).
If memory serves, the enrollment in these courses ranged from two
to five. And yet, everyone at Yeshiva College knew that these courses
were among the best offered in the school and were second to none
in seriousness and effectiveness. In 1981 Louis received an award
from the American Philological Association for excellence in teach-
ing the classics.
This heavy teaching load did not impair Louis’ scholarship. On
the contrary, from the 1950s to today a steady stream of articles
and books has flowed from his active pen. Josephus, of course, has
long remained his particular favorite; we may safely say that Louis
is dean of Josephan studies in the United States. Louis has given us
the immensely useful Loeb edition of books 18–20 of the Jewish
Antiquities, and innumerable studies of Josephus’s paraphrase of the
Bible. These studies have been collected in his Studies in Josephus’
Rewritten Bible (Leiden: Brill, 1998) and Josephus’s Interpretation of the
Bible (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). The capstone
of his work on Josephus no doubt is his translation of, and exten-
sive commentary on, books 1–4 of the Antiquities for the new Josephus
series published by Brill (2000).