Genesis and the “Jewish Antiquities” of Flavius Josephus
Overview
The first and more fundamental purpose of this investigation is to determine both what Josephus has retold of the Genesis narrative in his Antiquities of the Jews, and how he has reshaped what he has retold. The “definition” of the work of a particular author is, however, not quite enough to make such definition sufficiently concrete and graspable. Literary milieu is, therefore, an important and even necessary factor in any attempt to clarify what an author has done. For this reason, both what Josephus has retold and how he has reshaped what he has retold must be to a certain extent measured against a given set of literary parameters. Such “measurement” of both these aspects constitutes the second purpose of this investigation.
References which give a measure to the discoveries respecting what Josephus has retold are drawn from numerous types of sources. Among these may be mentioned at once is the whole body of Alexandrian Jewish literature (including Philo), the Apocrypha (in the narrower sense attributable to the body of literature usually denominated thus), the Qumran literature, the Talmud (in both its forms), Targumim, Pseudepigrapha and Midrashim. Needless to say, some sensible limitation to these references have been decided upon and applied. The problem of limitation of references is resolved in this investigation by the choice of three parameters which will function as the principal sets of references in dealing with what Josephus has retold and as the only sets when there is question of how our author achieved what he did.
- Title: Genesis and the “Jewish Antiquities” of Flavius Josephus
- Author: Thomas W. Franxman
- Publisher: Pontifical
- Publication Date: 1979
- Pages: 304
