In the Court of the Gentiles: Narrative, Exemplarity, and Scriptural Adaptation in the Court-Tales of Flavius Josephus
In the Court of the Gentiles: Narrative, Exemplarity, and Scriptural Adaptation in the Court-Tales of Flavius Josephus

Author: David Edwards

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-06-05

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9004549064

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Edwards explores how Josephus in Antiquities adapts the scriptural stories of Joseph and Esther in unexpected ways as models for accounts of more recent Jewish figures. Terming this practice “subversive adaptation,” Edwards contextualizes it within Greco-Roman literary culture and employs the concept of “discourses of exemplarity” to show how Josephus used narratives about past figures to engage Roman elites in moral reflection and pragmatic decision-making. This book supplies analysis of frequently overlooked accounts as well as Josephus’ broader literary strategies, and shows how ancient Jews appropriated imperial historiographical conventions and forms of discourse while countering Greco-Roman claims of cultural superiority.

Peace and War in Josephus
Peace and War in Josephus

Author: Viktor Kókai-Nagy

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-09-04

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 3111146596

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Josephus Flavius’s life was defined by the Jewish war against Rome, about which he wrote his first book as a friend of the imperial family, enjoying the benefits of an end to the conflict. But this dichotomy between war and peace defined not only the life of our author but also the history of all peoples in Late Antiquity, so it is not surprising that war and peace also play a central role in his second book. A broader theme could hardly have been chosen for this volume, which naturally brought with it the diversity of the studies it contains. At a conference in May 2022 at Selye János University in Komárom – "Peace and War in Josephus" – a distinguished, international group of scholars took up this theme, including Tal Ilan (Israel), Steve Mason (Canada), Jiří Hoblík (Czech Republic), and five Hungarian colleagues: Tibor Grüll, Ádám Vér, József Zsengellér, István Karasszon, and Viktor Kókai-Nagy. Their papers in English or German are complemented by three additional papers from Carson Bay (Switzerland), Marin Meiser (Germany), and David R. Edwards (USA). Together, their work ranges from the historical and literary context to the political and philosophical thought of the author.

From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond
From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-06-13

Total Pages: 684

ISBN-13: 9004693297

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Two millennia ago, the Jewish priest-turned-general Flavius Josephus, captured by the emperor Vespasian in the middle of the Roman-Jewish War (66–70 CE), spent the last decades of his life in Rome writing several historiographical works in Greek. Josephus was eagerly read and used by Christian thinkers, but eventually his writings became the basis for the early-10th century Hebrew text called Sefer Yosippon, reintegrating Josephus into the Jewish tradition. This volume marks the first edited collection to be dedicated to the study of Josephus, Yosippon, and their reception histories. Consisting of critical inquiries into one or both of these texts and their afterlives, the essays in this volume pave the way for future research on the Josephan tradition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and beyond.

Flavius Josephus' Self-Characterisation in First-Century Rome
Flavius Josephus' Self-Characterisation in First-Century Rome

Author: Eelco Glas

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-05-30

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 9004697640

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The Jewish War describes the history of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-70 CE). This study deals with one of this work's most intriguing features: why and how Flavius Josephus, its author, describes his own actions in the context of this conflict in such detail. Glas traces the thematic and rhetorical aspects of autobiographical discourse in War and uses contextual evidence to situate Josephus’ self-characterisation in a Flavian Roman setting. In doing so, he sheds new light on this Jewish writer’s historiographical methods and his deep knowledge and creative use of Graeco-Roman culture.

Dust of the Ground and Breath of Life (Gen 2:7) - The Problem of a Dualistic Anthropology in Early Judaism and Christianity
Dust of the Ground and Breath of Life (Gen 2:7) - The Problem of a Dualistic Anthropology in Early Judaism and Christianity

Author: J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-09-27

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9004334769

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Issues such as the immortality of the soul, the debate about matter versus life, and whether one was capable of knowing the outside world were all being extensively discussed in many religions and cultures in both East and West. The present volume addresses the concept of an immortal soul in a mortal body, and focuses on early Judaism and Christianity, where this issue is often related to the initial chapters of the book of Genesis. The papers are devoted to the interpretation of Gen 2:7 in relation to the broader issue of dualistic anthropology. They show that the dualism was questioned in different ways within the context of early Judaism and Christianity.

The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text
The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text

Author: Paul D. Mandel

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-05-22

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 9004336885

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In The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text, Paul Mandel presents a comprehensive study of the words darash and midrash from the Bible until the early rabbinic periods (3rd century CE). In contrast to current understandings in which the words are identified with modes of analysis of the biblical text, Mandel claims that they refer to instruction in law and not to an interpretation of text. Mandel traces the use of these words as they are associated with the scribe (sofer), the doresh ha-torah in the Dead Sea scrolls, the “exegetes of the laws” in the writings of Josephus and the rabbinic “sage” (ḥakham), showing the development of the uses of midrash as a form of instruction throughout these periods.

The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation
The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation

Author: Matthew S. Goldstone

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 9004376550

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In The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke Matthew Goldstone explores the ways in which religious leaders within early Jewish and Christian communities conceived of the obligation to rebuke their fellows based upon the biblical verse: “Rebuke your fellow but do not incur sin” (Leviticus 19:17). Analyzing texts from the Bible through the Talmud and late Midrashim as well as early Christian monastic writings, he exposes a shift from asking how to rebuke in the Second Temple and early Christian period, to whether one can rebuke in early rabbinic texts, to whether one should rebuke in later rabbinic and monastic sources. Mapping these observations onto shifting sociological concerns, this work offers a new perspective on the nature of interpersonal responsibility in antiquity.

A Comparative Handbook to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
A Comparative Handbook to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke

Author: Bruce D. Chilton

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-08-09

Total Pages: 956

ISBN-13: 9004459871

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This Comparative Handbook surveys the Judaic environment of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Analogies are traced with the Pseudepigrapha (together with Philo and Josephus), discoveries related to Qumran, and Rabbinic Literature (inclusive of the Targumim).

The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library
The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library

Author: Sidnie White Crawford

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-10-14

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9004305068

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The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library presents twelve articles by renowned experts in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran studies. These articles explore from various angles the question of whether or not the collection of manuscripts found in the eleven caves in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran can be characterized as a “library,” and, if so, what the relation of that library is to the ruins of Qumran and the group of Jews that inhabited them. The essays fall into the following categories: the collection as a whole, subcollections within the overall corpus, and the implications of identifying the Qumran collection as a library.

The Old Testament in Syriac
The Old Testament in Syriac

Author: Bertil Albrektson

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789004321458

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This is the first scholarly edition of Jeremiah, Lamentations, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and Baruch according to the Peshitta, the Syriac translation of the Old Testament. The volume also contains a new edition of the Epistle of Baruch, which replaces earlier ones.