A Companion to Josephus

Honora Howell Chapman is Professor of Classics and Humanities at California State University, Fresno. She is a former co-chair of the Josephus Seminar/Group of the Society of Biblical Literature and has published articles and book chapters on literary aspects of Josephus’s writings. Zuleika Rodgers is Lecturer in Jewish Studies and Director of the Herzog Centre at Trinity College, University of Dublin. She was President of the British Association for Jewish Studies (2013–2014).

Notes on Contributors viii

List of Illustrations xii

Abbreviations xiv

Introduction 1
Honora Howell Chapman and Zuleika Rodgers

Part I Writings 11

1 Josephus’s Judean War 13
Steve Mason

2 Many Sources but a Single Author: Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities 36
Daniel R. Schwartz

3 Josephus’s Autobiography (Life of Josephus) 59
Steve Mason

4 Against Apion 75
John Barclay

Part II Josephus’s Literary Context 87

5 Josephus as a Roman Historian 89
Steve Mason

6 Josephus and Greek Imperial Literature 108
Eran Almagor

7 Josephus and the Bible 123
Paul Spilsbury

8 Josephus and Philo in Rome 135
Maren R. Niehoff

9 Josephus and the New Testament 147
Helen K. Bond

Part III Themes 159

10 Josephus and the Archaeology of Galilee 161
Zeev Weiss

11 Josephus as a Military Historian 199
Jonathan P. Roth

12 Josephus on Women 210
Tal Ilan

13 The Hasmoneans in Josephus 222
Erich S. Gruen

14 Herod the Great in Josephus 235
Jan Willem van Henten

15 The Herodian Temple in Josephus 247
David A. Kaden

16 Josephus and the Jewish Sects 261
Albert I. Baumgarten

17 Josephus and the Priesthood 273
James S. McLaren

18 Josephus and Halacha 282
David Nakman

19 Josephus and Rabbinic Literature 293
Richard Kalmin

Part 1V Transmission and Reception History 305

20 The Text of the Josephan Corpus: Principal Greek Manuscripts, Ancient Latin Translations, and the Indirect Tradition 307
Tommaso Leoni

21 The Ancient Latin Translations of Josephus 322
David B. Levenson and Thomas R. Martin

22 The Testimonium Flavianum 345
Alice Whealey

23 Josephus and Patristic Literature 356
Sabrina Inowlocki

24 The Christian Reception of Josephus in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 368
Karen M. Kletter

25 Sefer Yosippon (Josippon) 382
Saskia Dönitz

26 The Slavonic Version of Josephus’s Jewish War 390
Kate Leeming

27 Josephus in Renaissance Italy 402
Silvia Castelli

28 A Note on English Translations of Josephus from Thomas Lodge to D. S. Margoliouth 414
Gohei Hata

29 From Masada to Jotapata: On Josephus in Twentieth]Century Hebrew Scholarship 419
Daniel R. Schwartz

30 Josephus Comicus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian and History of the World, Part 1 440
Honora Howell Chapman

Index 455