 11th-centuryilluminated manuscript | |
| Author | Flavius Josephus |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία |
| Translator | Thomas Lodge William Whiston Henry St. John Thackeray Ralph Marcus |
| Language | Koine Greek |
| Subject | Jewish history |
| Genre | historiography |
| Published | 93/94 AD |
| Publication place | Roman Empire |
Published in English | 1602 |
| Media type | Manuscript |
| 296.093 | |
| LC Class | DS116.J7418 |
Original text | Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία at GreekWikisource |
| Translation | Antiquities of the Jews at Wikisource |
Antiquities of the Jews (Latin:Antiquitates Iudaicae;Greek:Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία,Ioudaikē archaiologia) is a 20-volumehistoriographical work, written inGreek, by historianJosephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperorDomitian, which was 94CE.[1] The book contains an account of thehistory of the Jewish people for Josephus's gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of theHebrew Bible beginning with the creation ofAdam and Eve.
The second ten volumes continues the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and up to theFirst Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). This work, along with Josephus's other major work,The Jewish War (De Bello Iudaico), provides valuable background material for historians wishing to understand 1st-century CE Judaism and theearly Christian period.[2]
Josephus'Antiquities of the Jews is a vital source for the history of theintertestamental period and the Jewish war against Rome.[3]Antiquities of the Jews is separated into twenty volumes:
| Volume | From | To | Years covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Biblical creation | Death ofAbraham's sonIsaac | 3,833 |
| II | History of Isaac's sons | The Exodus of Jews fromBiblical Egypt | 250 |
| III | Exodus from Egypt | First 2 years of the 40 years in the wilderness | 2 |
| IV | The remaining 38 years in the wilderness | Death ofMoses upon reachingCanaan | 38 |
| V | Joshua's replacement of Moses as leader | Death of the priestEli | 476 |
| VI | The capture of theArk by thePhilistines | Death ofKing Saul | 32 |
| VII | David's ascension to the throne of theKingdom of Israel | Death of King David | 40 |
| VIII | Solomon's ascension as King of Israel | The death ofKing Ahab in battle with the Syrian army, and the saving of the army byJehoshaphat | 163 |
| IX | Reign of King Jehoshaphat | Fall ofSamaria | 157 |
| X | Babylonian captivity of the Jews | Daniel and the destruction of theNeo-Assyrian Empire | 182 |
| XI | Start of thePersian Empire ofCyrus the Great | Death ofAlexander the Great | 253 |
| XII | Death of Alexander the Great | Maccabean Revolt and the death ofJudas Maccabeus | 170 |
| XIII | Origins of theHasmonean dynasty | Death ofQueen Alexandra | 82 |
| XIV | The death of Queen Alexandra | Death ofAntigonus II Mattathias | 32 |
| XV | Herod the Great's taking ofJerusalem | Completion of King Herod's temple in Jerusalem | 18 |
| XVI | Completion of King Herod's temple | Death of Herod's sons | 12 |
| XVII | Death of Herod's sons | Banishment of King Archelaus | 14 |
| XVIII | The banishment of KingHerod Archelaus | Banishment of the Jews living in Babylon | 32 |
| XIX | The banishment of the Jews living in Babylon | Cuspius Fadus, theRoman procurators of Judea | 3 |
| XX | The time ofEmperor Claudius | Gessius Florus, Procurator of Judea. His antagonism of the Jews led to theJewish Wars | 22 |
In the preface ofAntiquities of the Jews, Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work. He writes:
Now I have undertaken the present work, as thinking it will appear to all the Greeks worthy of their study; for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures.[4]
Josephan scholar Louis Feldman highlights several of the misconceptions about the Jewish people that were being circulated in Josephus's time. In particular, the Jews were thought to lack great historical figures and a credible history of their people. They were also accused of harboring hostility toward non-Jews, and were thought to be generally lacking in loyalty, respect for authority, and charity.[5] With these harsh accusations against the Jews fluttering about the Roman empire, Josephus, set out to provide aHellenized version of the Jewish history. Such a work is often called an "apologia," as it pleads the case of a group of people or set of beliefs to a larger audience.
In order to accomplish this goal, Josephus omitted certain accounts in the Jewish narrative and even added a Hellenistic "glaze" to his work. For example, the "Song of the Sea" sung byMoses and the people of Israel after their deliverance at theRed Sea is completely omitted in Josephus's text.[6] He does mention, however, that Moses composed a song to God inhexameter—a rather unusual (and Greek) metrical scheme for an ancient Hebrew.[7] Josephus also writes thatAbraham taughtscience to theEgyptians, who in turn taught theGreeks, and thatMoses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy. Thus, in an attempt to make the Jewish history more palatable to his Greco-Roman audience, the great figures of thebiblical stories are presented asideal philosopher-leaders.
In another example, apparently due to his concern with pagan antisemitism, Josephus omitted the entire episode of the golden calf from his account of the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It has been suggested that he was afraid that the biblical account might be employed by Alexandrian antisemites to lend credence to their allegation that the Jews worshiped an ass's head in the Temple (cf. Apion 2:80, 114, 120; Tacitus, Histories 5:4).[8] He also stated that the Ancient Egyptians forced the Jewish slaves to build the pyramids, writing "They [the Egyptian taskmasters] set them also to build pyramids."[9]
Josephus also adds a short account of his personal life,Vita, as an appendix to theJudean Antiquities.
Antiquities of the Jews contains a good deal of valuable, sometimes unique, historical material. This applies, for example, to the history of the Hellenistic states,Parthia,Armenia, theNabatean kingdom, and theRoman Empire. In the Middle Ages and up to modern times the book was considered one of the most important sources in ancient Roman history, along with the works ofTitus Livius,Tacitus,Suetonius, andJerome. Because of this, Josephus is sometimes called the "Titus Livius of the Greeks". TheJewish Encyclopedia speculates that much of Josephus's writings onHerod the Great and his sons draw from the work ofNicolaus of Damascus, a personal friend of Herod's, whose writings remain largely missing; once Nicolaus's narrative onHerod Archelaus ends, Josephus's narrative becomes less detailed.[10] Josephus admitted being familiar with Nicolaus's work but also rebuked Nicolaus for exaggerating Herod's royal claims and benevolence, where Josephus treated Herod as a tyrant.[10]
The extant copies of this work contain two passages aboutJesus andJames the Just. The long one has come to be known as theTestimonium Flavianum. Scholars usually agree on the authenticity of the second passage, while the first one is considered to be authentic, but to have been subjected toChristian interpolation.
The earliest Greek manuscript of Books 11–20 of theAntiquities dates from the eleventh century,[11] the Ambrosianus 370 (F 128); preserved in theBiblioteca Ambrosiana inMilan. However, the manuscript tradition is complex and many manuscripts are incomplete.[12]
The works of Josephus Flavius were popular in late antiquity. Then appeared the translation of "Antiquities of the Jews" intoLatin. It is attributed to either Jerome or his contemporaryTyrannius Rufinus. In medieval Europe, "Antiquities of the Jews" circulated widely, mainly in Latin translation (e.gAntiquities of the Jews from 1466 in theNational Library of Poland).
This work of Joseph Flavius was translated intoOld Bulgarian at thePreslav Literary School in the beginning of the 10th century during the time ofSimeon the Great.
In the 9th–10th centuries, the so-called "Josippon", written inHebrew, appeared in Italy. It described the events of world and Jewish history from the time of the construction of theTower of Babel to the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Essentially, this chronicle was an abbreviated translation ofJewish Antiquities andThe Jewish War, butJoseph ben Gorion was named the author. Josippon gained no less popularity than Antiquities of the Jews. With the advent of printing, it was published even before this major work of Josephus Flavius in 1476.
In 1602,Thomas Lodge published an English translation of both theAntiquities and theWars. This volume amounted to over 800 pages.[13]
The first printed edition ofAntiquities of the Jews in Greek appeared in 1544. Other publications followed—1553 (Antwerp), 1611 and 1634 (Cologne), 1687 (Oxford), 1691 (Leipzig), 1700 (Oxford), 1726 (Leiden), and so on. Already in the 15th–16th centuries,Jewish Antiquities was translated into Dutch, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The book was published both in modern languages and in Latin. The first Russian translation ofJewish Antiquities appeared in 1781.[14] First Italian translation dates to 1549 in Venice.[citation needed]
One of the best known translations of this work was provided byWilliam Whiston in 1737, which has been in print continuously since then.[15] TheLoeb Classical Library published a 1926 translation byHenry St. John Thackeray and Ralph Marcus, normally preferred academically. A cross-reference apparatus for the Works of Josephus and the Biblical canon also exists.[16][17]
The Antiquities of the Jews public domain audiobook atLibriVox