From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond

Carson Bay, PhD (2018), Florida State University, is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Bern. He has published on Josephus, his Latin reception and Pseudo-Hegesippus, and the Hebrew Sefer Yosippon. His book Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (Cambridge University Press, 2023), won a 2023 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award. Michael Avioz, PhD (2002), Bar-Ilan University, is Full Professor in the Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. His research focuses on biblical historiography and early biblical interpretation. He is author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including Josephus’ Interpretation of the Books of Samuel and, most recently, Legal Exegesis of Scripture in the Works of Josephus (T&T Clark, 2020). Jan Willem van Henten, PhD (1986), Leiden University, is Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Amsterdam, and Extra-Ordinary Professor of Biblical Studies at Stellenbosch University. He is editor of The Books of the Maccabees: Literary, Historical, and Religious Perspectives (Peeters, 2022) and co-author of Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity: From the Books of Maccabees to the Babylonian Talmud (Brill, 2023, with Friedrich Avemarie and Yair Furstenberg).

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors



1 An Introduction to Josephus, Yosippon, and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of a Josephan Legacy in Modern Scholarship

 Carson Bay, Michael Avioz and Jan Willem van Henten



Part 1: Flavius Josephus: Context, Greek Text, and Literary Features

2 Interpreting Josephus Contextually: Composition, Audiences, Messages, and Meaning

 Steve Mason



3 Josephus and the Bible

 Erich S. Gruen



4 Ancient Jewish Court-Tales, Scriptural Adaptation, and Greco-Roman Discourses of Exemplarity: Joseph, Esther, and Agrippa I in Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae

 David R. Edwards



5 The Language of the Law: Narratology and Register Variation in Josephus’ Cultic Laws and Constitution

 Silvia Castelli



6 Free Speech and Moses’ Laws: The Limits of παρρησία in Josephus’ Works

 Ursula Westwood



Part 2: Sefer Yosippon and Latin Josephus: Manuscripts and Text Criticism

7 The Hebrew Manuscripts of Sefer Yosippon

 Saskia Dönitz



8 Beyond Flusser: The Text of Latin Antiquities 13 and Sefer Yosippon

 David B. Levenson



Part 3: Sefer Yosippon: Traditions, Intertexts, and (Re-)Interpretations

9 The Beginning of the End: Yosippon’s ‘Aeneid’ and Adso’s Apocalypse

 Ruth Nisse



10 The Maccabean Mother and Her Seven Sons in Sefer Yosippon 15: Interconnections with Previous Versions of the Martyrdom and Important Motifs

 Jan Willem van Henten



11 Killing Matthias: De excidio 5.22 and Sefer Yosippon 81 (פא)

 Carson Bay



12 Yosippon as an Innovative and Creative Genius

 Steven Bowman



13 Sefer Yosippon as a Source for Hasmonean History: The Mysterious Story of John Hyrcanus and the Parthians

 Kenneth Atkinson



14 Sefer Yosippon and Sefer Masaʿot: A Reconsideration

 Daniel Stein Kokin



Part 4: Beyond Josephus and Yosippon: Reception, Afterlives, and Legacy

15 English Versions of Josephus in the Nineteenth Century: Omissions and Additions

 Martin Goodman



16 Josephus on the School Bench

 Meir Ben Shahar



17 ‘Josephus Proudly Presents’: Figurations of Josephus Presenting His Work in High Medieval Latin Manuscripts (12th and 13th Centuries)

 Katharina Heyden



18 Between Josephus and Yosippon: Lamdan’s Masada

 Yael S. Feldman



19 Schalit’s Modern Hebrew Translation of Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae: A Reassessment

 Michael Avioz



20 Zena Ayhud (The History of the Jews): The Text and Context of the Ethiopic Version of Sefer Yosippon

 Yonatan Binyam



21 The Christian Reception of Sefer Yosippon in Western Europe

 Nadia Zeldes



22 Un-writing the End: Histories and Counter-histories in the Early Modern Yosippon

 Andrea Schatz



Index of Modern Authors

Index of Ancient and Medieval Sources

Index of Subjects