INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JUDGE<\/p>\n
70A third instruction to the judge is that he should scrutinize the facts rather than the litigants and should try in every way to withdraw himself from the contemplation of those whom he is trying. He must force himself to ignore and forget those whom he has known and remembered, relations, friends and fellow citizens and on the other hand strangers, enemies, foreigners so that neither kind feeling nor hatred may becloud his decision of what is just. Otherwise he must stumble like a blind man proceeding without a staff or others to guide his feet on whom he can lean with security; 71and therefore the good judge must draw a veil over the disputants, whoever they are, and keep in view the nature of the facts in their naked simplicity. He must come with the intention of judging according to truth and not according to the opinions of men, and with the thought before him that \u201cjudgment is God\u2019s\u201d and the judge is the steward of judgment. As a steward he is not permitted to give away his master\u2019s goods, for the best of all things in human life is the trust he has received from the hands of One who is Himself the best of all.
\n72He adds to those already mentioned another wise precept, not to show pity to the poor man in giving judgment. And this comes from one who has filled practically his whole legislation with injunctions to show pity and kindness, who issues severe threats against the haughty and arrogant and offers great rewards to those who feel it a duty to redress the misfortunes of their neighbors and to look upon abundant wealth not as their personal possession but as something to be shared by those who are in need. 73For what one of the men of old aptly said is true, that in no other action does man so much resemble God as in showing kindness, and what greater good can there be than that they should imitate God, they the created, Him the eternal? 74So then let not the rich man collect great store of gold and silver and hoard it at his house, but bring it out for general use that he may soften the hard lot of the needy with the unction of his cheerfully given liberality. If he has high position, let him not show himself uplifted with boastful and insolent airs, but honor equality and allow a frank exchange of speech to those of low estate. If he possesses bodily vigor, let him be the support of the weaker and not as men do in athletic contest take every means of battering down the less powerful, but make it his ambition to share the advantage of his strength with those who have none of their own left to brace them. 75All who have drawn water from wisdom\u2019s wells banish a grudging spirit from the confines of the mind and needing no bidding, save their own spontaneous instinct, gird themselves up to benefit their neighbors and pour into their souls through the channel of their ears the word stream which may make them partakers of their own knowledge. And when they see young people gifted by nature like fine thriving plants, they rejoice to think that they have found some to inherit the spiritual wealth which is the only true wealth. They take them in hand and till their souls with the husbandry of principles and doctrines until on their full grown stems they bear the fruit of noble living.
\n76Such gems of varied beauty are interwoven in the laws, bidding us give wealth to the poor, and it is only on the judgment seat that we are forbidden to show them compassion. Compassion is for misfortunes, and he who acts wickedly of his own free will is not unfortunate but unjust. 77Let punishment be meted to the unjust as surely as honors to the just. And therefore let no cowering, cringing rogue of a poor man evade his punishment by exciting pity for his penniless condition. His actions do not deserve compassion, far from it, but anger. And therefore one who undertakes to act as judge must be a good money changer, sifting with discrimination the nature of each of the facts before him, so that genuine and spurious may not be jumbled together in confusion.
\n78There is much else which might be said about false witnesses and judges, but to avoid prolixity we must proceed to the last of the ten Great Words \u2026 \u201cThou shalt not covet.\u201d [See the Commentary for a summary of 78\u2013131, not translated here.]<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.132\u201350<\/p>\n
THE \u201cVIRTUES\u201d OF GENERAL VALUE<\/p>\n
132In these remarks we have discussed the matters relating to desire or lust as adequately as our abilities allow, and thus completed our survey of the ten oracles, and the laws which are dependent on them.For if we are right in describing the main heads delivered by the voice of God as generic laws, and all particular laws of which Moses was the spokesman as dependent species, for accurate apprehension free from confusion scientific study was needed, with the aid of which I have assigned and attached to each of the heads what was appropriate to them throughout the whole legislation.
\n133Enough then of this. But we must not fail to know that, just as each of the ten separately has some particular laws akin to it having nothing in common with any other, there are some things common to all which fit in not with some particular numbers such as one or two but with all the ten Great Words. 134These are the virtues of universal value. For each of the ten pronouncements separately and all in common drill and inculcate wisdom and justice and godliness and the rest of the company of virtues, with good thoughts and intentions combining wholesome words, and with words, actions of true worth, that so the soul with every part of its being attuned, may be an instrument making harmonious music so that life becomes a melody and a concent in which there is no faulty note. 135Of the queen of the virtues, piety, or holiness, we have spoken earlier, and also of wisdom and temperance. Our theme must now be she whose ways are close akin to them, that is, justice.<\/p>\n
ON JUSTICE<\/p>\n
136One and by no means an inconsiderable part of justice is that which is concerned with law courts and judges. This I have already mentioned, when I dealt at length with the question of testimony in order to omit nothing of the points involved. As it is not my custom to repeat myself unless forced to do so by the pressure of the particular occasion I will say no more about it and with only so much preface address myself to the other parts of the subject.<\/p>\n
THE PHYLACTERIES, THE SHEMA, AND THE MEZUZAH<\/p>\n
137The law tells us that we must set the rules of justice in the heart and fasten them for a sign upon the hand, and have them shaking before the eyes. The first of these is a parable, indicating that the rules of justice must not be committed to untrustworthy ears since no trust can be placed in the sense of hearing but that these best of all lessons must be impressed upon our lordliest part, stamped too with genuine seals. 138The second shows that we must not only receive conceptions of the good but express our approval of them in unhesitating action, for the hand is the symbol of action, and on this, the law bids us fasten and hang the rules of justice for a sign. Of what it is a sign he has not definitely stated because, I believe, they are a sign not of one thing but of many, practically of all the factors in human life. 139The third means that always and everywhere we must have the vision of them as it were close to our eyes. And they must have vibration and movement, it continues, not to make them unstable and unsettled, but that by their motion they may provoke the sight to gain a clear discernment of them. For motion induces the use of the faculty of sight by stimulating and arousing the eyes, or rather, by making them unsleepful and wakeful.
\n140He to whom it is given to set their image in the eye of the soul, not at rest but in motion and engaged in their natural activities, must be placed on record as a perfect man. No longer must he be ranked among the disciples and pupils but among the teachers and instructors, and he should provide as from a fountain to the young who are willing to draw therefrom a plenteous stream of discourses and doctrines. And if some less courageous spirit hesitates through modesty and is slow to come near to learn, that teacher should go himself and pour into his ears as into a conduit a continuous flood of instruction until the cisterns of the soul are filled. 141Indeed he must be forward to teach the principles of justice to kinsfolk and friends and all the young people at home and in the street, both when they go to their beds and when they arise, so that in every posture and every motion, in every place, both private and public, not only when they are awake but when they are asleep, they may be gladdened by visions of the just. For there is no sweeter delight than that the soul should be charged through and through with justice exercising itself in her eternal principles and doctrines and leaving no vacant place into which unjustice can make its way. 142He bids them also write and set them forth in front of the door posts of each house and the gates in their walls, so that those who leave or remain at home, citizens and strangers alike, may read the inscriptions engraved on the face of the gates and keep in perpetual memory what they should say and do, careful alike to do and to allow no injustice and when they enter their houses and again when they go forth men and women and children and servants alike may act as is due and fitting both for others and for themselves.<\/p>\n
LIVING ACCORDING TO THE ANCESTRAL TRADITIONS<\/p>\n
143Another most admirable injunction is that nothing should be added or taken away, but all the laws originally ordained should be kept unaltered just as they were. For what actually happens, as we clearly see, is that it is the unjust which is added and the just which is taken away, for the wise legislator has omitted nothing which can give possession of justice whole and complete. 144Further he suggests also that the summit of perfection has been reached in each of the other virtues. For each of them is defective in nothing, complete in its self-wrought consummateness, so that if there be any adding or taking away, its whole being is changed and transformed into the opposite condition.
\n145Here is an example of what I mean. That courage, the virtue whose field of action is what causes terror, is the knowledge of what ought to be endured, is known to all who are not completely devoid of learning and culture, even if their contact with education has been but small. 146But if anyone, indulging the ignorance which comes from arrogance and believing himself to be a superior person capable of correcting what stands in no such need, ventures to add to or take from courage, he changes its likeness altogether and stamps upon it a form in which ugliness replaces beauty, for by adding he will make rashness and by taking away he will make cowardice, not leaving even the name of the courage so highly profitable to life.
\n147In the same way too if one adds anything small or great to the queen of virtues piety or on the other hand takes something from it, in either case he will change and transform its nature. Addition will beget superstition and subtraction will beget impiety, and so piety too is lost to sight, that sun whose rising and shining is a blessing we may well pray for, because it is the source of the greatest of blessings, since it gives the knowledge of the service of God, which we must hold as lordlier than any lordship, more royal than any sovereignty. 148Much the same may be said of the other virtues, but as it is my habit to avoid lengthy discussions by abridgement, I will content myself with the aforesaid examples which will sufficiently indicate what is left unsaid.<\/p>\n
THY NEIGHBOR\u2019S LANDMARKS<\/p>\n
149Another commandment of general value is \u201cThou shalt not remove thy neighbor\u2019s landmarks which thy forerunners have set up.\u201d Now this law, we may consider, applies not merely to allotments and boundaries of land in order to eliminate covetousness but also to the safeguarding of ancient customs. For customs are unwritten laws, the decisions approved by men of old, not inscribed on monuments nor on leaves of paper which the moth destroys, but on the souls of those who are partners in the same citizenship. 150For children ought to inherit from their parents, besides their property, ancestral customs which they were reared in and have lived with even from the cradle, and not despise them because they have been handed down without written record. Praise cannot be duly given to one who obeys the written laws, since he acts under the admonition of restraint and the fear of punishment. But he who faithfully observes the unwritten deserves commendation, since the virtue which he displays is freely willed.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.151\u201356<\/p>\n
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE APPOINTMENT OF RULERS<\/p>\n
151Some legislators have introduced the system of filling magistracies by lot, to the detriment of their peoples, for the lot shows good luck, not merit. In fact the lot often falls to many of the unworthy whom a good man, if he obtained command, would reject as unfit to be classed even among his subjects. 152For those \u201cminor rulers,\u201d as some phrase it, whom we call \u201cmasters\u201d do not retain in their service all they might, whether homebred or purchased, but only those who prove amenable: the incorrigible they sometimes sell in a mass as unworthy to be slaves of men of merit. 153And can it then be right to make masters and rulers of whole cities and nations out of persons chosen by lot, by what we may call a blunder of fortune, the uncertain and unstable? In the matter of tending the sick lot has no place, for physicians do not gain their posts by lot, but are approved by the test of experience. 154And to secure a successful voyage and the safety of travelers on the sea we do not choose (by lot), and send straight away to the helm, a steersman who through his ignorance will produce in fine weather and calm water shipwrecks in which Nature has no part. Instead we send one whom we know to have been carefully trained from his earliest years in the art of steersmanship. Such a one will have made many a voyage, crossed all or most seas, carefully studied the trading ports, harbours and anchorages and roadsteads, both in the islands and the mainland, and know the sea routes as well as, if not better than, the roads on land, through accurately watching the heavenly bodies.155For by observing the courses of the stars and following their ordered movements he has been able to open up in the pathless waste highroads where none can err, with this incredible result, that the creature whose element is land can float his way through the element of water.156And shall one who is to have in his hands great and populous cities with all their inhabitants, and the constitutions of the cities and the management of matters private, public and sacred, a task which we might well call an art of arts, and a science of sciences, be the sport of the unstable oscillation of the lot and escape the strict test of truth, which can only be tested by proofs founded on reason?<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.157\u201359<\/p>\n
THE BRIEF FOR AGRIPPA<\/p>\n
157These things Moses, wise here as ever, considered in his soul and does not even mention appointment of rulers by lot, but determines to institute appointment by election. Thus he says \u201cthou shalt establish a ruler over thyself, not a foreigner but from thy brethren,\u201d hereby indicating that there should be a free choice and an unimpeachable scrutiny of the ruler made by the whole people with the same mind. And the choice will receive the further vote and seal of ratification from Him who confirms all things that promote the common weal, even God who holds that the man may be called \u201cthe chosen from the race,\u201d in which he is what the eye is in the body.
\n158The reasons subjoined to show why a foreigner should not be selected are two. First to prevent him from amassing a great quantity of gold and silver and cattle and storing up great wealth all unjustly wrung from the poverty of his subjects. Secondly, that he should not gratify his own greedy desires to evict the natives from the land and compel them to emigrate borne hither and thither in endless wandering, or by inspiring in them futile hopes of increased prosperity succeed in taking from them what ere now they enjoyed in security. 159For he assumed with good reason that one who was their fellow-tribesman and fellowkinsman related to them by the tie which brings the highest kinship, the kinship of having one citizenship and the same law and one God who has taken all members of the nation for His portion, would never sin in the way just mentioned. He knew that such a one on the contrary, instead of sending the inhabitants adrift, would provide a safe return for those who are scattered on foreign soil, and instead of taking the wealth of others would give liberally to the needy by making his private substance common to all.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.160\u201369<\/p>\n
WRITE OUT WITH HIS OWN HAND<\/p>\n
160From the day that he enters upon his office the lawgiver bids him write out with his own hand this sequel to the laws, which embraces them all in the form of a summary. He wishes hereby to have the ordinances cemented to the soul. For the thoughts swept away by the current, ebb away from the mere reader, but are implanted and set fast in one who writes them out at leisure. For the mind can dwell at its ease on each point and fix itself upon it, and does not pass on to something else until it has securely grasped what goes before. 161Still after writing he must endeavor every day to read and familiarize himself with what he has written, so that he may have a constant and unbroken memory of ordinances so good and profitable to all, and thus conceive an unswerving love and yearning for them by perpetually training and habituating his soul to companionship with holy laws. For prolonged associations produce a pure and sincere affection not only for men but for writings of such kinds as are worthy of our love.
\n162And this will be the case if the ruler studies not the writings and notes of another but the work of his own pen, for everyone is more familiar with his own writing and takes in its meaning more readily. 163Further when he reads he will reason thus with himself. \u201cI have written these words, I, a ruler of such eminence, without employing another, though I have a host of servants. Have I done it to fill the pages of a book like those who write for hire or to train their eyes and hands, the first to sharpen the sight, the second to make themselves swift writers? No, surely not. I write them in a book in order to rewrite them straightway in my soul, and receive in my mind the imprints of a script more divine and ineffaceable. 164Now other kings carry rods in their hands as sceptres but my sceptre is the Book of the Sequel to the Law, my pride and my glory, which nothing can rival, an ensign of sovereignty which none can impeach, formed in the image of its archetype the kingship of God.
\n165And if I ever keep the holy laws for my staff and support I shall win two things better than all else. One is the spirit of equality, and no greater good can be found than this, for arrogance and insolence belong to a soul of mean capacity, which does not foresee the future. 166Equality will earn its just reward, repaid in the goodwill and safety of my subjects, while inequality will create the gravest perils and pitfalls. These I shall escape if I hate inequality, the bestower of darkness and wars, while I shall have a life proof against the malice of enemies if I honor equality, which eschews sedition and is the mother of light and settled order.
\n167The other thing that I shall win is that I shall not sway to either side as on a balance, deflecting the ordinances and turning them awry, but I shall try to take them along the central highway marching with firm straightforward steps to ensure a life that never stumbles. 168Now the name of \u201croyal\u201d which Moses is wont to give to the central road which lies midway between excess and deficiency, is also given because in a set of three the midmost holds the leading place, joining in union with itself by an indissoluble bond those on either side of it, which also serve as bodyguards to it as to a king. 169A law abiding ruler who honors equality, who is impervious to bribes and gives just judgments justly and ever exercises himself in the laws has, he tells us, for his reward that the days of his government shall be long; not meaning that he grants him long years of life spent in presiding over the State, but to teach the ignorant that the law-abiding ruler, even when deceased, lives an age-long life through the actions which he leaves behind him never to die, monuments of high excellence which can never be destroyed.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.170\u201371<\/p>\n
JETHRO\u2019S ADVICE: BASED ON EXODUS 18<\/p>\n
170The person who has been judged worthy to fill the highest and most important office should choose lieutenants to share with him the duties of governing, giving judgment, and managing all the other matters which concern the public welfare. For a single person even though possessed of unique strength both in body and soul would not be capable of coping with the magnitude and multitude of affairs, be he ever so zealous, but would collapse under their force as they pour in upon him daily from different sides, unless he had helpers all of the best chosen for their good sense, ability, justice, and godliness, and because they not only keep clear of arrogance but hate it as a thing pernicious and utterly evil. 171In such persons the man of high excellence burdened with state affairs will find assistants and supporters well fitted to join in relieving him and to lighten his task. Further, since the questions which arise are sometimes greater and sometimes less, to prevent his wearing himself out in petty matters he will do rightly in entrusting the smaller to his subordinates, while the greater he will be bound to scrutinize himself with the utmost care.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.172\u201378<\/p>\n
172And great questions must not be understood, as some think, to mean cases where both the disputants are distinguished or rich or men in high office but rather where the commoner or the poor or the obscure are disputing with others more powerful, and where their one hope of escaping a fatal disaster lies in the judge.
\n173Both these statements may be justified by clear examples to be found in the sacred laws, examples which we do well to copy. For there was a time when Moses himself arbitrated questions of justice, laboring from morning till night, but afterward when his father-in-law arrived and observed the vast burden of affairs which oppressed him through the perpetual flood of persons who had questions to settle, he gave the excellent advice that Moses should choose delegates to judge the smaller matters and keep himself in reserve for the greater and thus allow himself time to rest. 174Moses listened to this truly valuable advice and chose out of the multitude the men of highest repute whom he appointed as subordinate governors and also as judges, bidding them refer the more important suits to himself. 175A record of the course thus taken is included in the sacred books as a lesson to each generation of rulers, first that they should not, under the impression that they are capable of surveying everything, reject the help of councilors which Moses the supremely wise and beloved of God did not reject; next that they should choose officers to act as second and third to themselves and so take care that they did not by wearing themselves out over petty matters neglect the more vital. For human nature cannot possibly reach everything.<\/p>\n
GOD\u2019S SPECIAL CARE FOR THE WEAK: THE WIDOW, THE ORPHAN AND THE INCOMER<\/p>\n
176I have stated one of the two examples and must add the evidence for the second. I said that the great cases were those of the lowlier. Lowliness and weakness are attributes of the widow, the orphan and the incomer. It is to these that the supreme king who is invested with the government of all should administer justice, because according to Moses, God also the ruler of the Universe has not spurned them from His jurisdiction. 177For when the Revealer has hymned the excellences of the Self-existent in this manner \u201cGod the great and powerful, who has no respect to persons, will receive no gifts and executes judgment,\u201d he proceeds to say for whom the judgment is executed\u2014not for satraps and despots and men invested with power by land and sea, but for the \u201cincomer, for orphan and widow.\u201d
\n178For the incomer, because he has turned his kinsfolk, who in the ordinary course of things would be his sole confederates, into mortal enemies, by coming as a pilgrim to truth and the honoring of One who alone is worthy of honor, and by leaving the mythical fables and multiplicity of sovereigns, so highly honored by the parents and grandparents and ancestors and blood relations of this immigrant to a better home.
\nFor the orphan, because he has been bereft of his father and mother his natural helpers and champions, deserted by the sole force which was bound to take up his cause. For the widow because she has been deprived of her husband who took over from the parents the charge of guarding and watching over her, since for the purpose of giving protection the husband is to the wife what the parents are to the maiden.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.179\u201382<\/p>\n
GOD\u2019S SPECIAL RELATION TO ISRAEL: CONDITION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE<\/p>\n
179One may say that the whole Jewish race is in the position of an orphan compared with all the nations on every side. They when misfortunes fall upon them which are not by the direct intervention of heaven are never, owing to international intercourse, unprovided with helpers who join sides with them. But the Jewish nation has none to take its part, as it lives under exceptional laws which are necessarily grave and severe because they inculcate the highest standard of virtue. But gravity is austere, and austerity is held in aversion by the great mass of men because they favor pleasure. 180Nevertheless as Moses tells us the orphan-like desolate state of his people is always an object of pity and compassion to the Ruler of the Universe whose portion it is, because it has been set apart out of the whole human race as a kind of firstfruits to the Maker and Father. 181And the cause of this was the precious signs of righteousness and virtue shown by the founders of the race, signs which survive like imperishable plants, bearing fruit that never decays for their descendants, fruit salutary and profitable in every way, even though these descendants themselves be sinners, so long as the sins be curable and not altogether unto death.
\n182Yet let no one think that good lineage is a perfect blessing and then neglect noble actions, but reflect that greater anger is due to one who while his parentage is of the best brings shame upon his parents by the wickedness of his ways. Guilty is he who, having for his own models of true excellence to copy reproduces nothing that serves to direct his life aright and keep it sound and healthy.<\/p>\n
On the Special Laws 4.183\u201388<\/p>\n
THE OBLIGATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY RULERS, IN TERMS OF IMITATIO DEI<\/p>\n
183The law lays upon anyone who has undertaken to superintend and preside over public affairs a very just prohibition when it forbids him \u201cto walk with fraud among the people,\u201d for such conduct shows an illiberal and thoroughly slavish soul which disguises its malignant ways with hypocrisy. 184The ruler should preside over his subjects as a father over his children so that he himself may be honored in return as by true-born sons, and therefore good rulers may be truly called the parents of states and nations in common, since they show a fatherly and sometimes more than fatherly affection. 185But those who assume great power to destroy and injure their subjects should be called not rulers but enemies acting like foemen in bitter war, though indeed those who do wrong craftily are more wicked than open adversaries. These last show their hostility stripped naked and it is easy to make defense against them; the villainy of the others is hard to catch or trace since they assume a strange garb as in a theatre to hide their true appearance. 186Now \u201crule\u201d or \u201ccommand\u201d is a category which extends and intrudes itself, I might almost say, into every branch of life, differing only in magnitude and amount. For the relation of a king to a state is the same as that of a headman to a village, of a householder to a house, of a physician to his patients, of a general to an army, of an admiral to the marines and crews, or again of a skipper to merchant and cargo vessels or of a pilot to the seamen. All these have power both for good and for worse, but they ought to will the better, and the better is to benefit instead of injuring as many as they possibly can. 187For this is to follow God since He too can do both but wills the good only. This was shown both in the creation and in the ordering of the world. He called the nonexistent into existence and produced order from disorder, qualities from things devoid of quality, similarities from the dissimilar, identities from the totally different, fellowship and harmony from the dissociated and discordant, equality from inequality and light from darkness. For He and His beneficent powers ever make it their business to transmute the faultiness of the worse wherever it exists and convert it to the better.
\n188These things good rulers must imitate if they have any aspiration to be assimilated to God.<\/p>\n
Outside the Bible 2<\/p>\n
The Biblical Interpretations of Josephus\u2019s Jewish Antiquities<\/p>\n
Preface to Jewish Antiquities<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
Josephus had originally written his earlier work, Jewish War, in his mother tongue, Aramaic, and only later, with the help of assistants (Ag. Ap. 1.50), since he was not completely at home in Greek, translated it into Greek. His aim in writing Jewish Antiquities, as he states in the essay Against Apion was to correct the ignorance that non-Jews had of Jewish history. In this aim he finds a precedent in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX). He apologetically insists that Jews have nothing to hide in their Scripture. But there is reason to think that the LXX was also intended for Jews, namely the Jews who, by that time in Egypt, had forgotten their Hebrew and who were at home with Greek. Since, by the time that Josephus had completed his Jewish Antiquities in the year 93, a large percentage of the Jews in the Mediterranean world, perhaps the majority, were more familiar with Greek than with Hebrew, he probably also had a Jewish audience in mind. That this is so may be indicated by his statement that those who obey the laws of the Torah will succeed beyond belief. This can refer only to Jews, since these laws are not incumbent upon non-Jews. Thus, Josephus is particularly sensitive to the charge that Jews are aggressive in converting non-Jews to Judaism. Hence, it is not surprising that he omits the circumcision of the Shemites by Simeon and Levi (Ant. 1.340).
\nIn his preface (1.1\u201317) Josephus promises that he will neither add to nor subtract anything from Scripture in his paraphrase. That he does not live up to this is clear on page after page. He also insists that there is nothing unreasonable in Scripture, and he promises to explain, in a future treatise that he apparently never wrote, the rationality of the Torah.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Jewish Antiquities 1\u20134, 3\u20138. Leiden: Brill, 2000.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
1I see that those who wish to compose histories do not have one and the same motive for their zeal; rather, their reasons are many and very different from one another. 2For some, exhibiting their cleverness in discourse and hunting after the reputation to be derived from it, rush headlong into this branch of scholarship; whereas others, bestowing gratitude upon those to whom the report has perchance happened to relate, have undertaken the toil for this purpose even beyond their ability. 3Then there are some who were compelled by the very straits of events in that they happened to participate to set these forth comprehensively in a clear account. Again, the magnitude of useful events, that currently lie in a state of ignorance, has induced many others to bring forth the history of these events for common advantage. 4Of these aforesaid motives the last two happen to have applied to me also. For I, who learned from experience about the war waged by us Jews against the Romans and the events in it and how it finally turned out, was forced to relate it in detail because of those who devastate the truth in their writing.
\n5I have taken in hand the present task thinking that it will appear to all the Greeks deserving of studious attention. For it is going to encompass our entire ancient history and constitution of the state, translated from the Hebrew writings. 6I had also already previously taken into consideration, when I was writing the account of the war, to reveal who the Jews were from the beginning and what fortunes they experienced, under what sort of lawgiver they were trained as to piety and the exercise of the other virtues, and the number of wars that they had fought in long ages past before they entered into this last war against their will. 7Since the compass of this account was so great, I separated it by itself and gave the work an appropriate size with its own beginnings and end. As, indeed, is wont to happen to those who have in mind to undertake great tasks, I felt hesitation and delay in translating so great a project into a language that is foreign and strange to us. 8There were certain people who, through their longing for the history, encouraged me to do it, and, most of all, Epaphroditus, a man who has had a love for every form of culture, but who particularly enjoys the experience of histories, since, indeed, he himself has been associated with great events and diverse vicissitudes. In all of this he has exhibited a marvelous strength of character and an unshakable preference for excellence. 9Yielding to him as to one who is always joining in love of the beautiful along with those who are able to produce something useful or beautiful, and feeling ashamed of myself if I should appear to rejoice in idleness more than in the toil connected with the most beautiful undertakings, I was strengthened to greater enthusiasm. Moreover, besides these considerations that I have stated, I took into account, not incidentally, both whether our ancestors were willing to transmit and some of the Greeks themselves were eager to know about our affairs.
\n10I found, consequently, that, on the one hand, the second of the Ptolemies, a king who was especially, indeed, zealous in learning and in collection of books, was particularly intent to translate our law and the constitution therein into the Greek language. 11On the other hand, Eleazar, second to none of the high priests among us, did not begrudge the aforementioned king the enjoyment of this advantage. He would by all means have declined unless it had been our tradition to hold nothing in secret of the things that are beautiful. 12I truly thought that it was fitting for myself to emulate the magnanimity of the high priest and to suppose that even now there are many who are eager for knowledge similar to the king. For not even he anticipated me in obtaining the entire Scripture, but those who were sent to Alexandria to translate it transmitted this portion alone, namely of the law, that is, the Pentateuch. 14On the whole, one who would wish to read through this history would especially learn from it that those who comply with the will of God and do not venture to transgress laws that have been well enacted succeed in all things beyond belief and that happiness lies before them as a reward from God. 15Therefore I now call upon those who will come upon these books to turn their thoughts to God and to judge whether our lawgiver comprehended his nature worthily and has always attributed to him deeds that are befitting his power, preserving the discourse about him pure from every unseemly mythology that is found among others.\u2026 17This narrative will in due course set forth the precise details of what is in the Scriptures according to their proper order. For I promise that I would do this throughout this treatise, neither adding nor omitting anything.from the text of the Pentateuch, he should make it known and correct it (Ant. 12.109). Josephus (Ag. Ap. 1.42) declares that not only he but no one else has for long ages past ventured to add or to remove or to alter a syllable of Scripture. Actually, Josephus has added numerous details and even whole episodes, notably the account of Moses\u2019s campaign in Ethiopia and his marriage to the Ethiopian princess (Ant. 2.238\u201353), while omitting passages that contain incriminating details, such as Jacob\u2019s deception of his father in order to obtain his blessing (Gen. 27), the Judah-Tamar episode (Gen. 38), Moses\u2019s slaying of the Egyptian (Exod. 2:12), and the building of the golden calf (Exod. 32). Various theories have been presented to explain Josephus\u2019s failure to abide by his promise: the phrase \u201cneither adding nor omitting anything\u201d is a stock phrase found in a number of authors, notably Dionysius of Halicarnassus; there is a precedent in the Bible itself for presenting an alternative version, namely the book of Chronicles as compared with the book of Kings; by the precise details he may mean not only the written tradition but also the oral tradition as embodied in midrashim; he was relying on the precedent of the Greek tragedians in dealing with the traditional Greek myths; he relied on the ignorance of his readers. Perhaps it was easier for Josephus simply to omit embarrassing incidents than to reinterpret them, a task the Rabbis had undertaken, since their intended audience did know Scripture.<\/p>\n
Creation<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
Nowhere is Josephus more aware of the non-Jews who constitute a large part of his audience than he is in his paraphrase of the biblical account of creation. It is surely remarkable that in his account of God\u2019s creation of the world (Gen. 1\u20132) in Jewish Antiquities (1.27\u201336), he never even once directly quotes God, whereas the one classical writer, Pseudo-Longinus in his treatise On the Sublime, who paraphrases a passage from the biblical account of creation does quote God\u2019s words. Josephus is clearly trying to present an account that will appeal to rational readers. He thus avoids the inference that God created the world from nothing. He avoids the anthropomorphism and the possible mythological reference that the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters, with its implied portrait of God, possibly reminiscent of the Orphic mythology hovering over the world-egg. He likewise avoids the possible mythological reference to the great sea monsters, since, as he says in his introduction to the whole work (Ant. 1.15), Moses sought to preserve the discourse about him \u201cpure from every unseemly mythology that is found among others.\u201d He is aware of the problem that the text speaks of the days of creation in terms of ordinal numerals and yet speaks of \u201cone day.\u201d He is aware of the theological problem in God\u2019s commandment to the creatures of the sea and the sky to be fruitful and multiply when commandments can be given to humans alone. He is aware of the twofold problem inherent in the text in that God uses the plural \u201clet us make man\u201d and the anthropomorphic implications inherent in God\u2019s plan to make man \u201cafter our image.\u201d He resolves such problems by simply omitting them, even though he has promised the reader (Ant. 1.17) that in his paraphrase of the Bible he will neither add nor omit anything. In some cases, notably in dealing with the text that implies that God worked on the seventh day, he adopts the change made by the Septuagint (LXX), according to tradition, under divine inspiration.
\nThe most remarkable innovation, presaging modern biblical criticism, is Josephus\u2019s solution, in nonphilosophical but practical terms, to the problem of the so-called two accounts of creation, namely that first God created the pattern to be followed in creation and then, in Gen. 2, he filled in the details.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134, 10\u201314. Leiden: Brill, 2000.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
27In the beginning God founded the heaven and the earth. When this latter had not come into sight but was hidden in deep darkness, and when a breath from above ran over it, God ordered light to come into being. 28And when this occurred, he, inspecting the whole of the matter, divided the light from the darkness; and to the one he gave the name night, and the other he called day, designating evening and morning the beginning of light and its cessation. 29And this would be the first day, but Moses called it one day. I am capable of giving the reason even now, but since I have promised to give an account of the reasons for everything in a separate work, I am postponing to that time the explanation concerning this. 30After this on the second of the days he placed the heaven above the universe, when, separating it from the rest, he deemed it proper for it to receive a certain place by itself, both fastening ice around it and rendering it wet and rainy with a view toward giving the benefit from the dews harmoniously to the earth. 31On the third day he established the earth, pouring out the sea around it. And on this very day plants and seeds sprouted straightway from the earth. On the fourth day he adorned the heaven with the sun and moon and the other stars, assigning movements and courses for them by which the revolutions of the seasons might be signified. 32On the fifth day he sent forth in the deep and through the air the creatures that swim and fly, linking them in union and sexual relations for the purpose of giving birth and increasing and multiplying their kind. On the sixth day he created the race of the four-footed creatures, making both male and female. On this day he also fashioned humanity. 33Moses says that the universe and all the things in it came into being in six days in all and that on the seventh day he ceased and took a rest from his activities, whence we also on this day take leisure from our activities, calling it the Sabbath. This word means \u201crest\u201d in the language of the Hebrews.
\n34In particular, Moses began, after the seventh day, to discuss nature, speaking thus about the formation of humanity. God fashioned humanity, taking dust from the earth, and he injected breath and soul into him. This man was called Adam. This signifies, according to the language of the Hebrews, \u201cred,\u201d since, indeed, he had come into being from the red earth that had been kneaded. For such is the true virgin earth. 35And God placed before Adam, showing him the creatures, male and female, according to their kind, and he established names by which they are still called even now. And seeing that Adam did not have a partnership and joint living with a female, for there was none, and wondered at the other creatures that did have them, he took out one of his ribs while he was asleep and fashioned a woman from it. 36And Adam recognized her when she had been brought to him, that she had been created from himself. In the language of the Hebrews a woman is called essa. But the name of the woman was Eua. And this signifies \u201cmother of all who live.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flood<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
Josephus, as a critical historian, was clearly concerned with what his audience, non-Jews and Jews alike, would think of the historicity of the great Flood and of Noah (Gen. 6\u20139). He was likewise concerned with the theological questions that they would ask: God\u2019s justification in destroying all life, with few exceptions; the apparent lack of attempts by God and Noah to get humans to repent and to improve the world; the justification in allowing Noah and his family to be saved; the reason why Noah offered a sacrifice upon emerging from the ark; and the explanation of the unusually long life of Noah and of people of that era.
\nThe Rabbinic tradition, having perfect faith in the revelation of everything in the Pentateuch, is not concerned with supplying external evidence of the historicity of Noah. Josephus, however, cites the evidence of four non-Jewish historians, who corroborate the biblical account. He even, uniquely, like a modern historian, refers the reader to archeological remains of the boat in Armenia.
\nHow wicked were humans so as to justify the flood? In his Jewish Antiquities (1.73\u2013108), Josephus explains that their outrages were comparable to those of the giants, as reported by the Greeks. By omitting God\u2019s repentance, Josephus solves the theological problem of how God\u2014who is perfect\u2014could, anthropomorphically, have repented that he had created humankind in the first place. As to how Noah could have remained silent without attempting to convince his fellow mortals, Josephus speaks of him as a preacher and of his being persecuted by his contemporaries. Finally, Josephus is original in offering three reasons why the patriarchs lived so long: their healthy diet, their virtue, and their consequent ability to make accurate predictions in astronomy.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus\u2019s Portrait of Noah and Its Parallels in Philo, Pseudo-Philo\u2018s Biblical Antiquities, and Rabbinic Midrashim.\u201d Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 55 (1988): 31\u201357.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
73Many angels of God, consorting with women, fathered children who were insolent and despisers of every good thing because of the confidence that they had in their power. For, according to tradition, they are said to have committed outrages comparable to those said by the Greeks to have been done by the giants. 74Noah, disgusted with their actions and being displeased with their endeavors, tried to persuade them to improve their attitude and to change their actions. But seeing that they did not give way but were vehemently overpowered by the pleasure of evils, and fearing lest they even slay him with his wife and children and those who were dwelling with them, he withdrew from the land.
\n75God loved this man because of his righteousness, but did not condemn the others alone for their wickedness; but since it seemed best to him to destroy also all humanity, as many as there were at that time, and to create another race free of knavery, cutting short their lives and establishing their life expectancy not as formerly but at 120 years, he changed the dry land into sea?\u2026
\n92[After God had sent a flood, Noah] sent forth a dove to ascertain the condition of the earth. When it returned, smeared with mud and carrying an olive branch, he [Noah] learned that the earth had been liberated from the flood. Remaining seven more days, he let loose the animals from the ark and himself went forth with his family and sacrificed to God and took a common meal with his household. Now the Armenians call this place \u201cLanding Place,\u201d for there the ark landed safely, and still today they display its remains.
\n93All those who have recorded the histories of the barbarians mention this flood and the ark, among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For he, relating the events connected with the flood, reports them somewhere in this fashion: \u201cIt is said that a certain portion of the boat still exists in Armenia on the mountain of the Cordyaeans and that some people remove and carry off pieces from the bitumen. And people use what they have carried off for talismans.\u201d 94Hieronymus the Egyptian, who composed an ancient history of Phoenicia, and Mnaseas and numerous others mention this. And Nicolaus of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book, reports these things in these words: 95\u201cThere is above Minyas a great mountain in Armenia called Baris, to which, report has it, many took refuge and were saved at the time of the flood, and that someone, drifting in an ark, ran ashore upon the mountain peak, and that the remains of the wood were preserved for a long time. And this would be the one of whom Moses, the lawgiver of the Judeans, wrote.\u201d
\n96Noah, fearing that God, sentencing men to destruction, might inundate the earth each year, burnt sacrifices and begged God that in the future the original good order might remain and that he inflict no such misery again, through which all the race of living creatures would be likely to be destroyed. He asked that God, having punished the wicked, should spare those who because of their goodness had survived and had been judged worthy to escape the distress?\u2026
\n106[The ancients] were dear to God, having been created by him. Because of their nourishment, which was more suitable to a longer life, they naturally lived so great a number of years. Furthermore, also, because of their virtue and because it was beneficial for the discoveries that they made in astronomy and geometry, which, indeed, they could not have predicted accurately if they had not lived 600 years, since the great year is completed through so great a period, God granted them a longer life. 107All those who have written ancient histories among Greeks and barbarians bear witness to my account. For Manetho, who has composed the record of the Egyptians, and Berosus, who composed that of the Chaldeans, and Mochus and Hestiaeus, and, in addition to these, the Egyptian Hieronymus, who composed that of the Phoenicians, agree with what I have said. 108And Hesiod and Hecataeus and Hellanicus and Acusilaus and, in addition to these, Ephorus and Nicolaus record that the ancients lived for a thousand years. However, concerning such matters let each one judge as is pleasing to him.<\/p>\n
Abraham Journeys to Canaan and Egypt<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
This passage from Josephus\u2019s Jewish Antiquities (1.154\u201368) retells the biblical episodes of Abraham\u2019s journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan, at God\u2019s command, and his trip from there to Egypt to avoid famine in his new home (Gen. 12:10\u201319). The selection illustrates Josephus\u2019s importance as a sophisticated commentator on the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis, when God commands Abraham to leave his home and set out for Canaan (12:1\u20139), the Bible does not offer a proof that God truly exists. However, Josephus, aware that his worldly hellenized audience, both Jewish and non-Jewish, would expect Abraham to demand such proof, here not only demonstrates God\u2019s existence, but offers an utterly original proof of it, found nowhere else in Jewish or non-Jewish literature of this time: namely, that the world itself testifies to its Creator\u2019s existence, because even the seemingly eccentric behavior of the stars and planets turns out to be orderly and predictable.
\nMoreover, Josephus\u2019s Abraham is very different from the biblical Abraham in his descent to Egypt. In the Bible, fearful of his reception by the Egyptians, Abraham tells Sarah his wife to pretend that she is only his sister\u2014and in consequence is given much wealth by the Egyptians in hopes of an alliance. Here Abraham is seen as confidently ready to engage the most learned of the Egyptians in argument, with the understanding that whoever emerged victorious would convert the other to his point of view. Finally, he introduces the Egyptians to arithmetic and astronomy, of which the Egyptians had previously been ignorant and of which they now become the outstanding scholars in the ancient world. Critical historian that he is, Josephus innovates by citing nonhistorians to support his statements.
\nIn his portrayal of Abraham Josephus is attempting to disprove the contention of such influential non-Jewish intellectuals as Apion (Ag. Ap. 2.135) that the Jews had not produced any geniuses, inventors in arts and crafts, or eminent sages. Josephus himself (2.148) quotes the Greek writer Apollonius Molon as saying that the Jews are the only people who have contributed no useful invention to civilization. Josephus\u2019s Abraham is the founder of both Egyptian lore and Greek wisdom.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. \u201cAbraham the Greek Philosopher in Josephus.\u201d Transactions of the American Philological Association 99 (1968): 143\u201356.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\nReed, A. Y. \u201cAbraham as Chaldean Scientist and Father of the Jews: Josephus, Ant. 1.154\u201368, and the Discourse about Astronomy\/Astrology.\u201d Journal for the Study of Judaism 35 (2004): 119\u201358.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
154Abram \u2026 was clever in understanding all matters and persuasive to his listeners and not mistaken concerning matters about which he might conjecture. 155For this reason he also began to have loftier thoughts than others with regard to virtue, and he determined to bring something new into being and change the conception concerning God held by everyone. He therefore was the first who dared to declare that God was the one craftsman of the universe and that if some other being contributes something to [man\u2019s] happiness, each one supplies something in accordance with his command and not by virtue of his own strength. 156And he inferred these things from the changes in land and sea that are dependent upon the sun and the moon and from all the happenings in heaven. For he said that if they had the power they would have provided for their own orderliness, but since they lack this, it is evident that as many things as they contribute to our increased usefulness they perform not by their own authority but in accordance with the power of their commander, on whom alone it is proper to confer honor and gratitude. 157Since, for these reasons, the Chaldeans and the other Mesopotamians fell into discord against him, he, having decided to emigrate in accordance with the will and assistance of God, settled in the land of Canaan. And having settled there he built an altar and offered a sacrifice to God.
\n158Berosus mentions our father Abram, though he does not name him, in the following words: \u201cIn the tenth generation after the Flood among the Chaldeans there was a certain man, just and great and expert in heavenly matters.\u201d 159Hecataeus has done something more than just mention him. For he composed and left behind a book about him. Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his histories, says the following: \u201cAbram was king, having arrived as an alien with an army from the land beyond Babylon called that of the Chaldeans. 160Not long thereafter he and those who had increased in numbers from him, migrated from this land with his people to the land then called Canaan but now called Judea, about whom I shall report in another book. The name of Abram is still even now famous in Damascus, and a village is pointed out called after him \u2018Abram\u2019s dwelling place.\u2019 \u201d
\n161Some time later a famine having taken told of Canaan, Abram, learning that the Egyptians were prosperous, was eager to betake himself to them in order both to participate in their abundance and to be a listener to what their priests say about gods. For he said that either he would become their disciple if they were found to be better or he would convert them to a better frame of mind if his thoughts should be better.\u2026 165He associated with the most erudite of the Egyptians, whereby it happened that his virtue and his reputation for it became more illustrious.
\n166Since the Egyptians took pleasure in various practices and belittled one another\u2019s customs and therefore had a hostile attitude toward each other, he, conferring with each of them and exposing the arguments that they used with regard to their individual views, showed that they lacked substance and contained nothing true. 167Therefore, having been admired by them in these relations as an extremely intelligent man and gifted not only in understanding but also in persuading by his words with regard to whatever he would undertake to teach, he pleased them with arithmetic and transmitted to them the lore concerning astronomy. 168For before the arrival of Abram the Egyptians were ignorant of these. For these matters reached Egypt from the Chaldeans, whence they came also to the Greeks.<\/p>\n
The Akedah<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes us about Josephus\u2019s version of the Akedah (Genesis 22) episode in his Jewish Antiquities (1.222\u201336) is its very length: 2.86 times as long as the biblical narrative in Hebrew and 2.27 times as long as the Septuagint\u2019s (LXX) account. This is probably due to the importance of the episode in the midrashic tradition and also because Josephus apparently felt that he had to answer those quarrelsome critics who belittled the story. He felt that he had to reply to those who were presumably horrified by Abraham\u2019s readiness to sacrifice his own son, Isaac.
\nJosephus clearly had in mind a comparison with Euripides\u2019s drama Iphigenia at Aulis, where a father similarly pondered whether to sacrifice his child. But whereas in Euripides the goddess Artemis, to whom the sacrifice is made, is spoken of as rejoicing in human sacrifices, Josephus, eager to answer the blood libel against Jews that was circulating in the 1st century CE, stresses that God did not long for human blood. Josephus significantly sought to leave Isaac \u201cunscathed,\u201d that is, \u201cnot suffering\u201d and \u201cemotionless,\u201d values that coincide with those of the Stoics. In a very significant addition, Isaac is said to be 25 years old, not a lad as in the Bible but rather a mature man who is able to make a deliberate choice, which diminishes the horror, and who rushes to the altar. Surely the most striking element in Josephus\u2019s version is his omission of the most important word in the biblical account, akedah (binding), perhaps because he was concerned lest the binding be construed as evidence of Isaac\u2019s reluctance or be incriminating for Abraham.
\nJosephus also omits consideration of the problem of theodicy, so important in the Rabbinic treatment of the episode. The convenient appearance of a ram to be sacrificed in place of Isaac seemed too much for a rationalizing Greek mind, and so Josephus clearly implies that it had always been there.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus as a Biblical Interpreter: The Aqedah.\u201d Jewish Quarterly Review 75 (1984\u201385): 212\u201352.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus\u2019s Portrait of Isaac.\u201d Revista di storia et letteratura religiosa 29 (1993): 3\u201333.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
222His father Abraham exceedingly loved Isaac, who was his only child and who had been born to him on the threshold of old age as a gift from God. And the child, practicing every virtue and showing attention to his ancestors and exhibiting zeal for the worship of God, won even more the affection and the love of his parents. 223Abraham put his own happiness solely on the hope that on departing from life he should leave behind his son unscathed. He attained this, to be sure, by the will of God, who, wishing to make trial of his piety toward himself, appeared to him and enumerated all the things that he had granted, 224how he had made him stronger than his enemies and how he had his present happiness and his son Isaac owing to his benevolence. He asked him himself to offer this one as a sacrifice and victim to himself, and he bade him to lead him up Mount Morion, build an altar, and offer him as a burnt offering. For thus he would demonstrate his piety toward himself if he valued what was pleasing to God above the preservation of his child.
\n225Abraham judged it just to disobey God under no circumstances and to obey everything, since all those to whom he is benevolent survive through his providence. He concealed from his wife the command of God and the resolution that he had concerning the slaughter of the child. On the contrary, he revealed it not even to anyone of his household, for he would have been hindered from rendering service to God. He took Isaac with two servants and loaded a donkey with the things needed for the sacrificial rite and departed to the mountain. 226For two days the servants accompanied him. On the third, when the mountain was visible to him, he left in the plain those who were with him and proceeded with the child alone to the mountain upon which King David later built the Temple. 227They brought with them as many things as were needed for the sacrifice except for the victim. When Isaac, who was in his twenty-fifth year, was setting up the altar and asked what they were about to sacrifice, since no victim was present, he said that God would provide for them, since he was capable of leading men to abundance of the things that they did not have and of depriving of what they had those who were confident of them. Therefore, he would grant them a victim, if, indeed, he intended to receive his sacrifice benevolently.
\n228When the altar had been prepared and he had laid the chopped wood upon it and things were ready, he said to his son: \u201cMy child, I asked God with myriad prayers that you be born to me. When you were born there was nothing that I did not take the trouble with in your upbringing. Nor was there anything that I thought would bring me greater happiness than that I should see you grown to manhood so that when I died I should have you as the successor of my realm. 229Since, however, it was by God\u2019s wish that I became your father and again since, as it seems best to him, I am giving you up, bear this consecration nobly. For I concede you to God, who requires now to obtain this honor from us, in return for the fact that he has been a benevolent helper and ally to me. 230Since you were born [out of the course of nature], depart now from life not in a common fashion but sent forth by your own father to God, the father of all, by the rite of sacrifice. I think that he has judged that you are deserving to be removed from life neither by disease nor by war nor by some other of the afflictions that are conditioned by nature to befall humanity, 231but that he would receive your soul with prayers and sacrificial rites and would keep it near himself. You will be a guardian for me and supporter in my old age, wherefore also I especially reared you, by offering me God in place of yourself.\u201d
\n232Isaac, for it was necessary for one who had chanced upon such a father to be noble in his attitude, received these words with joy. He said that it was not even right for him to have been born in the first place, if he were about to spurn the decision of God and his father and not readily offer himself to the wishes of both. When if even his father alone were choosing this it would have been unjust to disobey, he rushed to the altar and the slaughter. 233The deed would have been done if God had not stood in the way. For he called upon Abraham by name, preventing him from the slaughter of the child. For he said that he had decreed the slaughter of his child not because he longed for human blood. Nor had he made him his father wishing to deprive him of this son with such impiety, but being willing to test his attitude, to see whether, if commanded, he would obey even such injunctions. 234Having learned the enthusiasm and the high degree of his piety, he said that he took pleasure in what he had offered him. He deemed it proper that he and his race would not fall short of receiving every consideration, and that his son would be very long-lived, and having lived happily would bequeath to his virtuous and legitimate children a great realm. 235He predicted that their race would increase into many nations and much wealth and that there would be an everlasting memory for their progenitors, and that after taking possession of Canaan by arms they would be envied by all men. 236Having said these things, God brought forth a ram from obscurity for them to sacrifice. They, having borne themselves beyond their hopes and having heard promises of such blessings, embraced one another. Having sacrificed, they returned home to Sarah and lived happily, with God supporting them in all that they wished.<\/p>\n
Joseph and Potiphar\u2019s Wife<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
Josephus\u2019s portrayal of Joseph, especially in connection with the incident with Potiphar\u2019s wife in Jewish Antiquities (2.39\u201360), has been vastly expanded and is strikingly different from that in the Bible (Gen. 39). There are a number of indications that the expansion is influenced by a similar incident in Euripides\u2019s Hippolytus. In the first place, Potiphar gives Joseph an education befitting an educated Greek in the liberal arts. Josephus deemphasizes the role of God in Joseph\u2019s actual achievements. It is not only Joseph\u2019s good looks but also his dexterity that leads Potiphar\u2019s wife to become enamored of him. There is a heightened erotic interest in the contrast between Potiphar\u2019s wife\u2019s daily solicitations, together with her hunt for isolation to seek out Joseph, and Joseph\u2019s persistent refusal to listen to her. Unlike a Rabbinic tradition that at one point Joseph was actually ready to submit to her advances, Josephus\u2019s Joseph consistently refuses. In a crucial extrabiblical addition Josephus\u2019s Joseph, like a Sophist intellectual, takes the initiative to try to convince her, through rational argument, to govern her passion. In the end, in a remarkable addition, when accused unjustly by Potiphar\u2019s wife of trying to rape her, Josephus\u2019s Joseph, like a Stoic, submits silently.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Josephus\u2019s Interpretation of the Bible, 335\u201373. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
39Potiphar, an Egyptian who was in charge of the cooks of the king Pharaoh, bought Joseph when he was sold by the merchants. He held him in all honor and gave him the education that befits a free man and permitted him to enjoy a better way of life than the lot of a slave, and handed over to him the care of the affairs of his household. 40He had the benefit of these things, yet did not forsake the virtue that encompassed him, not even under the change of fortune; but he showed clearly that reason is able to overcome the difficulties in life, when it faces them with genuineness and does not merely accommodate itself to the successes of the time.
\n41His master\u2019s wife was disposed amorously to him because of his handsomeness and his adroitness in his doings. She thought that if she would make this clear to him she would easily persuade him to have intercourse, since he would consider it a stroke of luck that his mistress had solicited him. 42She was looking at the outward bearing of his slavery at that time but not on the character that remained firm despite his change of fortune. When she made clear her passion and addressed words to him with regard to sexual intercourse, he kept rejecting her request. He judged that it would not be pious to grant her such pleasure, in which there happened to be injustice and insolence toward the one who had bought him and had deemed him worthy of such honor. 43He kept on imploring her to prevail over her passion, setting before her the hopelessness of satisfying her desire, since this would cease when hope was not present. He said that he himself would rather endure anything than be obedient to this request. For, indeed, though it is necessary for one who is a slave to do nothing opposed to his mistress, the contradiction to such orders would have abundant excuse. 44That she did not expect Joseph to oppose her increased her passion still more; and being terribly besieged by her wickedness she again by a second attempt strove to achieve her goal.
\n45Therefore, when a public festival was at hand, in which it was customary for women to come together frequently in the festal assembly, she feigned illness to her husband. Meanwhile, she hunted for isolation and leisure to seek out Joseph; and having obtained this opportunity, she addressed even more persistent words than the first. 46She said that it would have been well for him to have yielded to her request from the beginning and to have refused nothing, owing to which she, though being mistress, was forced to lower herself beneath her dignity; but even now, by giving in better to sagacity, he would remedy his senselessness in the past. 47For if he were awaiting a second entreaty, this had come and with greater fervor, since she had feigned illness and had preferred the meeting with him to the festival and the festal assembly. If, owing to distrust, he had rejected the first arguments, he should judge that her persistence in them was an indication that there was no evil intent. 48He might expect both the advantage of his present blessings, in which he had participated, by acceding to her passion, and the enjoyment of greater ones if he would be obedient, but that there would be retaliation and hatred on her part if he should reject her request and should put his reputation for self-control above pleasing is mistress. 49For this would not help him if she should turn to accuse him and should fabricate to her husband that he had made an attempt upon her; but Potiphar would rather give credence to her words than to his, even if they should be carried very far from the truth.
\n50Though the woman said these things and wept, neither did compassion persuade him not to be self-controlled, nor did fear compel him, but he resisted her supplications and did not give in to her threats. He chose to suffer unjustly and to endure something more bitter rather than to enjoy the present by giving himself up to his emotions, for which he was conscious that he would justly perish. 51He reminded her of her marriage and her conjugal union with her husband and exhorted her to have more regard for these than for the transitory pleasure of lust, which would later bring her regret that would be painful and would not remedy her sins, and fear of being discovered and the need to remain hidden if the wickedness should not be known. 52On the other hand, association with her husband afforded pleasure without danger and furthermore much self-confidence both before God and before men arising from her conscience. By remaining morally pure she would command greater power over him and would exercise the authority of a mistress toward him, but not with the shame of being a partner in sin. Indeed, it was far better to have confidence in the known deeds of a life well lived than in wickedness kept secret.
\n53Saying these words and still more that were similar to them, he tried to restrain the impulse of the woman and to turn her passion into reasonableness. But she showed her fervor more impetuously, and throwing her hands upon him, she, abandoning hope of persuading him, wished to compel him. 54Joseph, however, fled in rage, leaving behind his cloak (for, indeed, while she held him, he threw this away and leaped from this room). She became very fearful lest he reveal this to her husband. She, being deeply hurt by his insolence, decided to anticipate him by falsely accusing Joseph to Potiphar and in this manner to avenge her having been horribly despised. She believed that to anticipate the accusation was both wise and womanish. 55She sat dejected and disconcerted, feigning, in her anger, that the grief at failing in her lust was due to an attempt at rape. When her husband came and was dismayed at her appearance and asked the reason, she began the accusation of Joseph; \u201cMay you die, my husband, or punish a wicked slave who wished to pollute your marriage bed.\u201d \u2026 59Giving to his wife credit for being sensible and having condemned Joseph as wicked, he threw him into the dungeon of the criminals. He was even prouder of his wife, bearing witness to her propriety and self-control. 60Joseph, however, putting everything concerning himself in the hands of God, did not apply himself to defending himself or to a precise disclosure of what had happened. In silence he underwent the chains and the distress. He was confident that God, knowing the reason for his misfortune and the truth, would be stronger than those who had bound him; and he straightway received proof of his providence.<\/p>\n
The Rape of Dinah<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
In dealing with the rape of Dinah, Josephus was confronted with a dilemma between sympathy for Dinah and condemnation of her brothers, Simeon and Levi, who, according to the Bible (Gen. 34), not only failed to live up to their promise to allow Shechem, the rapist, to marry Dinah, if the males of his nation, the Shechemites, would submit to circumcision, but proceeded to massacre the Shechemites. In Jewish Antiquities (1.337\u201340), Josephus shows less sympathy for the Shechemites since he adds that the rape occurred at a religious festival, hence a sacrilege. But he also creates more sympathy for Shechem, since he adds that Shechem showed genuine love for Dinah and was ready to give any dowry that Jacob and his sons might ask; and he further adds that the Shechemites graciously offered to open their land to the Israelites and to arrange marriages with them. Whereas the Bible states that Simeon and Levi killed the Shechemites on the third day after the circumcision, when they were in pain, seemingly a cowardly act, Josephus says that they attacked the Shechemites in a surprise military act when they had overly indulged in feasting. Most significantly, Josephus altogether omits the condition that the males be circumcised, and hence there was no promise broken. Rather, their act is simply revenge for the rape of their sister. Moreover, he adds that Simeon and Levi, in massacring the Shechemites, were acting without their father\u2019s permission and that Jacob was stricken with consternation at their deed. Josephus was sensitive to the charge that Jews are illiberal toward non-Jews but he was also sensitive to the charge that Jews actively seek to convert others to Judaism. Hence his silence here about the role of circumcision.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cPhilo, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, and Theodotus on the Rape of Dinah.\u201d Jewish Quarterly Review 94 (2004): 253\u201377.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
337Jacob reached the place still now called \u201cBooths\u201d [Hebrew Sukkot], when he came to Sikimon [Hebrew Shechem]. It is a city of the Canaanites. While the Sikimites were celebrating a festival, Dinah\u2014she was Jacob\u2019s only daughter\u2014came into the city in order to see the adornment of the indigenous women. Shechem, the son of the king Hamor, catching sight of her, seduced her through abduction. Being amorously disposed toward her, he implored his father to take the maiden in marriage for him. 338He, having been persuaded, went to Jacob, asking him to give Dinah in lawful marriage to his child, Shechem. Jacob, neither being able to refuse because of the rank of the one appealing to him nor considering it lawful to give his daughter in marriage to a foreigner, decided to ask his permission to hold a council about the matters that he requested. 339Therefore, the king departed, hoping that Jacob would permit the marriage, but Jacob, revealing to his children the rape of their sister and the request of Hamor, asked them to hold a consultation as to what it was necessary to do. Most of them kept quiet, being at a loss to decide; but Simeon and Levi, the girl\u2019s brothers, born of the same mother, agreed with each other on some action.340While there was a festival and the Shechemites had turned to relaxation and feasting, they, attacking first the guards at night, killed them while they were asleep. Entering the city, they killed every male, and the king and his son together with them, but they spared the women. Having done these things without the consent of their father, they brought back their sister.<\/p>\n
Moses\u2019s Campaign against the Ethiopians<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
In view of Josephus\u2019s promise (Ant. 1.17) that he will neither add anything to nor subtract anything from Scripture in his paraphrase, he nowhere departs from this promise more greatly than in his account of Moses\u2019s military campaign against the Ethiopians in this section of his Jewish Antiquities (2.238\u201353). He does so primarily in order to explain the reasons why Jews are hated and in order to emphasize the benefits that Jews have given to the people among whom they live. Secondarily, a great leader such as Moses must be presented as a military genius. The Ethiopian campaign is a proving ground for Moses\u2019s later trek through the desert.
\nThe sole biblical basis for the lengthy episode of Moses\u2019s Ethiopian campaign is a single verse (Num. 12:1): \u201cAnd Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.\u201d One view, found in Exod. Rab. 1:27, is that the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman is Zipporah the Midianite, Moses\u2019s first wife. This would be supported by Demetrius (in Eusebius, Praep. ev. 9:29:3) and Ezekiel the Tragedian (59\u201364), who identify Midian with Ethiopia. Josephus has resorted to this extraordinary expansion for several reasons:<\/p>\n
1. This supplies a case history both of the causes of hatred of Jews and of the benefits that the Jews have given to society.
\n2. Josephus thus shifts the reason for the Pharaoh\u2019s wrath from his umbrage at Moses\u2019s murder of the Egyptian (Exod. 2:11\u201315), a passage that Josephus omits from his paraphrase, to envy of his military ability. Josephus may be implicitly answering such anti-Jewish writers as Manetho by suggesting that the Egyptians, rather than calumniating the Jews, should be grateful to them for the aid rendered to them by the Jews through Moses, who risked his life to save the Egyptians from the Ethiopian threat.
\n3. The episode disproves the contention that the Jews are cowards who are militarily inept. Moses turns out to be a brilliant strategist who is fearless in battle against the Ethiopians. Even so great a military leader as the Persian King Cambyses (Herodotus 3.17\u201326) had failed to conquer Ethiopia. Indeed, the Ethiopians had a reputation for being invincible (Strabo 16.4.4). Even Alexander the Great had failed to overcome them.
\n4. The biblical text may well make the reader wonder what qualifications a shepherd such as Moses had to lead hundreds of thousands of Israelites in a trek through an unknown desert and in military combat against numerous nations. The Ethiopian campaign turns out to be a proving ground for Moses.
\n5. Whereas the ibis was considered by the Egyptians to be divine, Josephus portrays the ibis as being merely a very useful part of Moses\u2019s strategy to overcome the snakes infesting the desert.
\n6. The historian must not only inform; he must also entertain. This episode provides romantic interest for Josephus\u2019s readers.
\n7. There is an apologetic strain, in that Moses abides by his agreement and marries the Ethiopian princess, whereas in the parallel stories of the Greco-Roman legendary and historical traditions, the hero typically betrays the traitoress.<\/p>\n
As to Josephus\u2019s source, the extant fragments of Artapanus in Eusebius are the closest parallel, but they do not mention Moses\u2019s marriage with the Ethiopian princess. The marriage with an Ethiopian is not found in Rabbinic literature until the 11th century (Tg. Yer. on Num. 12:1). These Rabbinic sources, however, depict Moses as fighting not against but on the side of the Ethiopians and as marrying not the princess but the widow of the Ethiopian king and as reigning as king of Ethiopia for 40 years. Another theory is that he borrowed from Josephon; but though we have several recensions of Josephon, none of them contain any reference to an Ethiopian campaign. The Ethiopians were a permanent, never conquered foe of the Egyptians.
\nWe may wonder why Philo, who writes at such length apologetically about Moses in his On the Life of Moses and is particularly concerned to answer the charges of Jew-haters, does not repeat this story, which would have served to answer so many of their contentions.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Josephus\u2019s Interpretation of the Bible, 402\u20135. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
\nRunnalls, D. \u201cMoses\u2019 Ethiopian Campaign.\u201d Journal for the Study of Judaism 14 (1983): 135\u201356.
\nShinan, A. \u201cMoses and the Ethiopian Woman: Sources of a Story in the Chronicles of Moses.\u201d Scripta Hierosolymitana 27 (1978): 66\u201378.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
238Now Moses, having been born and raised in the manner previously stated, on reaching maturity, made manifest his virtue to the Egyptians. He showed that he had been born for their humiliation and for the exaltation of the Hebrews, making use of the following occasion. 239Ethiopians\u2014they are neighbors of the Egyptians\u2014having invaded their land, carried off and plundered the possessions of the Egyptians. The latter, in their anger, undertook a campaign against them to avenge the contempt. Having been overpowered in battle, some of them fell and others fled shamefully to their own land for safety. 240The Ethiopians, however, followed closely upon them in pursuit. Regarding it as weakness not to overpower all of Egypt, they attacked the land further, and having tasted of its goods they no longer refrained from them. Since the neighboring regions did not dare to take the field against them when they first attacked, they advanced up to Memphis and to the sea, since none of the cities was able to deter them. 241Pressed hard by this misfortune, the Egyptians turned to oracles and divinations. When God counseled them to take the Hebrew as an ally, the king bade his daughter to offer Moses to become his general. 242When he had taken an oath to inflict no injury upon him, she handed him over, judging that the alliance would result in great benefit. She reproached the priests if, after predicting that they would kill him as an enemy, they were not ashamed now to long for his assistance.
\n243Moses, having been summoned both by Thermouthis and by the king, gladly accepted the task. And the sacred scribes of both peoples rejoiced: the Egyptians that they would overpower the enemy through his ability and then do away with Moses by the same cunning; the Hebrews that it would be possible for them to escape the Egyptians because Moses would be their general. 244Before the enemy had learned of his approach, he [Moses] took up arms and led his army, making his march not by way of the river but by way of land. There he gave a marvelous demonstration of his ingenuity. 245The land is difficult to traverse because of a multitude of snakes, for it is all-productive of these, since they are not found elsewhere and are nurtured here alone, unusual in their power and harmfulness and strange appearance. Some of them are even winged, so that they cause harm from the ground without being seen and, flying above, inflict injury upon those who do not foresee them. Consequently, he devised a wondrous stratagem for the safety and the harmless march of his army. 246Having prepared baskets made of papyrus, similar to chests, and filling them with ibises, he took them along. This creature is most hostile to serpents, for they flee those that are attacking them; and while withdrawing they are seized by deer exactly as they are and are gulped down. The ibises are tame and are savage to the genus of serpents alone. 247I omit to write more about them since the Greeks are not ignorant of the nature of the ibis. When, therefore, he invaded the land abounding in wild beasts, by means of these he fought off the genus of the snakes, letting them loose upon them and using them to fight in their behalf. Having, therefore, marched in this way he came upon the Ethiopians, who had not perceived them previously. 248Engaging them in battle, he overcame them and deprived them of the hopes that they had against the Egyptians. He proceeded to conquer their cities, and much bloodshed of the Ethiopians ensued. Having tasted the success because of Moses, the army of the Egyptians did not slacken to exert themselves, so that the Ethiopians faced the danger of enslavement and total extermination. 249Finally, having been pushed back into Saba, the royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses later called Meroe, naming it after his sister, they were besieged. But the place was very difficult to take by siege, since the Nile surrounded and encircled it; and other rivers, the Astapus and Astaboras, made it difficult for those who tried to cross the current to fight against it. 250The city that is within is inhabited like an island with a strong wall surrounding it. As a bulwark against enemies it has the rivers and great embankments in the midst of the wall, so as to be free from inundation when the rivers are borne too violently. These, indeed, made the capture of the city difficult even for those who had crossed the rivers. 251Something like the following, therefore, occurred to Moses, as he was bearing the idleness of the army with displeasure, for the enemy did not dare to engage in battle. 252Tharbis was the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians. Observing Moses leading his army near the walls and fighting courageously, she marveled at the inventiveness of his undertakings. She believed that for the Egyptians, who had earlier despaired of their freedom, he was responsible for their success, while for the Ethiopians, who had prided themselves on their successes against them, he was responsible for their danger in the extreme, she fell madly in love with him. When passion got the better of her, she sent to him the most trustworthy of her servants to enter into discussion about marriage. 253When he accepted the proposal on condition of her surrendering the city and gave pledges on oath, indeed, that he would take her as a wife and that, having conquered the city, he would not transgress the agreement, the deed anticipated the words. After the annihilation of the Ethiopians, Moses, giving thanks to God, contracted the marriage and led the Egyptians back to their land.<\/p>\n
The Sending of the Spies<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
The most striking change, as compared with the Bible (Num. 13\u201314), in Josephus\u2019s account of the episode of the scouts in Jewish Antiquities (3.300\u2013316), is the buildup of Moses as a planner, general, and fearless leader of a nation of complainers. Most significantly, it is Moses\u2019s idea rather than God\u2019s to send the scouts. However, aware of the charge that Moses was acting tyrannically, Josephus strikingly has regard for the democratic process in that the Israelites rather than Moses select the scouts. Josephus is sensitive to the charge of superstition and thus avoids adding a letter to a name in order to change a name. He avoids undue exaggeration as hostile to credibility. He is sensitive to the charge of outright theft and hence omits Moses\u2019s instruction to the scouts to take from the fruit of the land of Canaan. He is very sensitive to the charge that the Israelites were punished for accepting the report of the majority of the scouts and insists that this shows the ingratitude of the Israelites for all that God had done for them. He emphasizes the fickleness of the Israelites in their readiness to stone Moses and Moses\u2019s courage in confronting them and in calming them as a true leader who did not dissociate himself from the sufferings of his people.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus on the Spies (Num. 13\u201314).\u201d Internationales Josephus-Kolloquium Paris 2001, M\u00fcnsteraner Judaistische Studien 12 (2001): 22\u201341.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
300From there Moses, leading them up to a place called Pharanx, which is near the boundaries of the Canaanites and difficult to live in, gathered the multitude in assembly. Standing up he said, \u201cSince God has decided to bestow two blessings upon you, freedom and possession of a blessed land, you already have the one, since he has given it, and the other you will forthwith receive. 301We are sitting on the boundaries of the Canaanites. Not only neither king nor city, but not even their entire nation gathered together, will prevent us henceforth from advancing. Let us, therefore, prepare for the task. For not without a fight will they give up the land to us, but having been deprived of it in great contests. 302Let us send scouts who will ascertain the excellence of the land and the amount of power that they have. But let us all be of one mind, and let us hold in honor God, who is our helper and ally in all matters.\u201d
\n303When Moses had said these words, the multitude rewarded him with appreciation. They chose twelve scouts from the most notable men, one from each tribe, who, passing through from the frontier in Egypt all of Canaan, reached the city of Amathe and Mount Libanos. After searching out thoroughly the nature of the land and of its inhabitants they returned after spending 40 days on the entire task. 304Moreover, they brought the products that the land bore; and through the beauty of these and through the abundance of blessings that they reported the land had, they roused the multitude to war. But they terrified them, in turn, with the impossibility of the conquest, stating that the rivers were impossible to cross because of their size and depth, that the mountains were impossible for travelers, and that the cities were mighty with ramparts and with the strength of surrounding walls. 305In Hebron, they kept on declaring, they had encountered the descendants of giants. And the scouts, having observed that the possessions in Canaan were greater than all that they had come upon since the departure from Egypt, were both themselves dismayed and tried to make the multitude thus.
\n306After what they had heard, they supposed that the conquest of the land was impossible; and having been dismissed from the assembly, they continued to lament with their wives and children, as if God had helped them not at all with action but had promised only with speech. 307Again they reproached Moses and complained loudly against him and his brother Aaron the high priest. They spent a miserable night with slanders against them, and in the morning they hastened together to the assembly, having in mind to stone Moses and Aaron and to return to Egypt?\u2026
\n311Moses, summoning courage, approached the multitude and revealed that God, roused by their insolence, would exact punishment, not indeed in keeping with their misdeeds, but such as fathers inflict upon their children as an admonition. 312He said that God had reminded him, when he entered the Tabernacle and was loudly bewailing his forthcoming destruction by them, that, having received so many benefits and having partaken of such great kindnesses, they had proven ungrateful toward him, and that having been induced by the timidity of the scouts they had regarded their words as truer than his promises. 313For this reason he would not destroy all of them, nor would he annihilate their race, which he held in greater honor than all the rest of humankind. However, he said that he would not permit them to conquer the land of Canaan or to partake of its prosperity, 314but that he would cause them, homeless and without a country, to pass their lives in the wilderness for 40 years, paying this penalty for their transgression. \u201cHowever, he promised to transmit the land to your children and to make them masters of the good things partaking of which you deprived yourselves due to your lack of self-control.\u201d
\n315After Moses had spoken these words in accordance with God\u2019s will, the multitude fell into grief and distress. They implored Moses to become their reconciler with God, to free them from wandering in the wilderness, and to provide cities for them. But he kept asserting that God would not approve of such an attempt, for God had not been brought, with the fickleness of humans, to such anger against them but had condemned them after deliberation. 316One should not disbelieve that Moses, being a solitary man, calmed so many myriads of angry men and led them back to a milder mood. For God, being present with him, prepared the multitude to submit to his words; and having often failed to listen to him, they came to know, from their having fallen into misfortune, that disobedience is disadvantageous.<\/p>\n
The Revolt of Korah<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
One of the greatest threats to Moses\u2019s leadership was the revolt led by Korah (Num. 16). In Jewish Antiquities 4.14\u201358, Josephus, like the Rabbis, emphasizes Korah\u2019s wealth and his ability as a speaker. Like Philo, he stresses that Korah\u2019s charge against Moses is nepotism, as seen in the choice of Moses\u2019s brother, Aaron, to be high priest and that Aaron was chosen in an undemocratic fashion. The most damning charge, as found in Josephus\u2019s addition and as cited also by the Rabbis, is that the laws were not divine in origin but were invented by Moses himself. Josephus, in turn, portrays Korah as a typical demagogue who pretends to be concerned with the public welfare, whereas actually he is totally selfish. Josephus\u2019s Moses, on the other hand, appealing to Stoics in his audience, uses familiar Stoic terminology, emphasizing that all is directed by divine providence and that nothing happens by chance. Moreover, he was aware that many in his audience would regard Korah\u2019s miraculous end as violating scientific expectation and would be unable to accept the biblical text\u2019s statement that the earth swallowed up those who supported Korah. Hence, he paints the scene more scientifically as an earthquake. Whereas the Bible presents the seemingly contradictory view that Korah\u2019s followers were consumed by the earth and by fire, Josephus is in accord with a Rabbinic view that Korah\u2019s followers were swallowed up by fire.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134, 333\u201349. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014.\u201cJosephus\u2019 Portrait of Korah.\u201d Old Testament Essays 6 (1993): 399\u2013426.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
14Korah, one of the Hebrews who was among the most distinguished both in ancestry and in wealth, was an able speaker and most persuasive in dealing with crowds. Seeing that Moses was established in extraordinary honor, he was hostile through envy, for he happened to be a fellow tribesman and was embittered because he claimed that he was more deserving to enjoy this glory by virtue of his being wealthier and not inferior in ancestry. 15Among the Levites, who were his kinsmen, and especially among his kinsmen, he inveighed against Moses. He said that it was dreadful to overlook that Moses was hunting to procure glory for himself and was maliciously pretending to obtain this in the name of God. He said that Moses had given the priesthood to his brother Aaron, contrary to the laws, not by the common decree of the multitude but by his own vote, 16and that, in the manner of tyrants, he was conferring honors upon whomever he wished. He said that hidden outrage was more shocking than the use of force because it robbed of power not only those who were unwilling but those who were not even aware of the conspiracy.\u2026 19[Korah said:] \u201cIf God had judged that it was proper to hand over the honor [of the chief priesthood] to someone from the tribe of Levi, I am more deserving to obtain this, being on the same level as Moses in ancestry, and superior in wealth and age. But if it should go to the oldest of the tribes, the tribe of Reuben would, of course, have the honor, with Datham, Abiram, and Pelet obtaining it, for they are the oldest of those belonging to this tribe, and powerful through abundance of wealth.\u201d
\n20Now in saying this, Korah wished to seem to care for the common good, but in fact he was manipulating to have the honor transferred by the multitude to himself. And he spoke these words insidiously with fine-sounding pretext.\u2026 22The masses were provoked and bent on stoning Moses, and they assembled in disorderly fashion with clamor and uproar. Standing before the Tabernacle of God they called aloud to drive out the tyrant and for the masses to be rid of their slavery to a person who enjoyed imperious decrees under the pretext of their coming from God?\u2026
\n34[Moses proposed the following:] \u201cOn coming together, you will burn the incense in the presence of all the people; and when you have burnt your incense, whosoever sacrifice God judges more pleasing, he shall be elected priest for you, releasing me from the slander of having shown favoritism in conferring this honor upon my brother.?\u2026
\n47[Moses spoke to God:] \u201cDemonstrate now that all things are governed by your providence and that nothing happens by itself and that they come to their goal through your directed will. Show that you care for those who will assist the Hebrews by executing vengeance on Abiram and Datham, who reproach your insensibility as if you are overcome by my craft.?\u2026
\n51When he had spoken these words and while he was weeping, suddenly the earth shook, and a tossing motion was agitated upon it, just as when a wave is tossed through the force of a wind and all the people are afraid. After a crash and a frightful roar had burst forth against their tents, the earth sank and carried down into it all that was dear to them?\u2026
\n56All of them, both the 250 [followers of Korah] and Korah, were annihilated when a fire darted upon them, so that even their bodies vanished. Aaron alone remained alive, not at all harmed by the fire, because it was God who sent it to burn those whom it was necessary to burn.<\/p>\n
The Story of Balaam<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
Josephus, addressing critical readers of the Bible, attempts to solve contradictions, such as the Bible\u2019s apparent conflation of Moabites and Midianites. As one who had a close relationship with the Romans, he seeks to refute the view that the Israelites were hated by whole nations rather than by individuals. He very deliberately attributes the confrontation of the Israelites with the Midianites to a military basis rather than due to anti-Jewish hatred. He is concerned to answer stock charges of anti-Semites, such as that the Israelites are meddlesome in the affairs of other nations. Whereas the Bible views Balaam in the most negative terms, Josephus, amazingly enough, emphasizes his hospitality\u2014the quality that was most deeply appreciated in antiquity. In sharp contrast to the Bible (Num. 22\u201324), Josephus, in Jewish Antiquities (4.102\u2013125), presents Balaam, motivated by his loyalty to Balak, as advising the envoys sent by Balak to renounce the hatred that they bore to the Israelites. At one point, incredibly, in an extrabiblical addition, he not only blames Balaam but even seems to castigate God! When God appears to contradict himself Josephus amazingly explains that it was all a ruse on God\u2019s part! As to Balaam\u2019s cursing the Israelites, Josephus very generously excuses him by painting him as a proto-Stoic philosopher and as a victim of inflexible fate. By stating that God has granted his providence to the Israelites, Josephus praises Balaam in the highest terms. Whereas the biblical Balaam predicts that the Israelites shall dwell alone, thus exposing them to the charge of misanthropy, Josephus speaks of the excellence of the Israelites as compared with other peoples. He is careful to speak in cryptic terms a prophecy that might be interpreted as a prediction that a calamity would befall a city, which was identified by some as Rome. Since nothing is more important to a historian than his credibility, Josephus was faced with a tremendous problem as to how to present the scene of the donkey speaking to Balaam. Clearly aware of this, Josephus concludes by giving the reader the choice as to believe or not to believe the account.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Portrait of Balaam.\u201d Studia Philonica Annual 5 (1993): 48\u201383.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
102Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had an ancestral friendship and alliance with the Midianites, observed that the Israelites had grown so greatly and was very worried about his own interests. He had not realized that the Hebrews were not meddlesome in other lands, God, having forbidden them to do so, once they had acquired the land of the Canaanites. He more swiftly than prudently determined to attack with words. 103He decided not to go to war with such men after their successes, who became bolder when overtaken by misfortune; but pondering whether he might be able to prevent their becoming great, he decided to send an embassy to the Midianites with regard to them. 104Since a certain Balaam from the Euphrates, the best seer at that time, had friendly relations with them [the Midianites], they sent some of the distinguished men among them, together with the envoys of Balak, to implore the seer to come in order to utter curses for the complete destruction of the Israelites. 105When the envoys arrived he [Balaam] received them cordially and hospitably; and after dining them he tried to investigate the intention of God what this was that the Midianites were urging. But since he [God] stood in the way, he [Balaam] came to the envoys. While making clear to them his own eagerness and zeal to do what they requested, he revealed that God, who had led him to such great glory for the sake of truth and the prediction thereof, opposed his intention, 106for the army, which they urged him to come and curse, was in favor with God. For this reason he recommended that they go to their people and that they terminate their hostility toward the Israelites. Having said this, he dismissed the envoys.
\n107But the Midianites, since Balak was extremely persistent and brought forth an urgent plea, sent again to Balaam. Wishing to give the men some benefit, he asked God. He [God], though indignant at the attempt, directed him not to refuse the envoys at all. He [Balaam], not supposing that God had directed him to do so through a ruse, departed together with the envoys. 108Along the road an angel of God blocked his way in a certain place enclosed completely by stone walls on both sides. The female donkey on which Balaam rode, recognizing the divine spirit, pushed Balaam sideways toward one of the walls, being insensitive to the blows that Balaam, suffering through being crushed against the wall, inflicted upon her. 109When, upon the angel\u2019s persistence, the donkey collapsed through being struck, she, uttering human speech in accordance with the will of God, censured Balaam for being unjust in inflicting blows upon her, though he had no reason for complaining against her for her previous services. But he did not understand that now in accordance with the will of God she was prevented from serving him in the undertaking that he strove to accomplish.\u2026
\n113Looking at them [the royal escort], he [Balaam] directed the king to erect seven altars and to supply as many bullocks and rams. The king swiftly obeyed, and he [Balaam] sacrificed and burnt them as a whole offering. When he saw the signs of an inflexible destiny, 114he said, \u201cThat people is happy to whom God gives the possession of myriad blessings and has granted his providence as an ally and leader for eternity. For there is no human stock to which you [Israelites] will not be judged superior in virtue and in zeal for the pursuits that are best and pure of wickedness. You shall bequeath these to children who are better than yourselves, since God benevolently observes you alone among humanity and provides you with the means by which you may become happier than all others under the sun.\u2026 116Are you, therefore, amazed, O blessed army, that from a single father you have become so great? But the land of the Canaanites will hold your present army, consisting of a few. Yet, know that the inhabited world lies before you as a dwelling place forever, and your multitude\u2014as many as is the number of the stars in heaven\u2014will reside on islands and in the continent. Though they are so numerous, the deity will not cease to grant to them plenty of good things of all kinds in peace, and victory and might in war.\u201d
\n125Falling upon his face, he [Balaam] predicted what sufferings would befall kings and what would befall the most distinguished cities, of which it happened that some had not yet begun to be inhabited, along with other events that have happened to people in previous times, through land and sea, within my memory. From all the things that have attained the kind of end that he predicted, one might draw conclusions as to what should also occur in the future.<\/p>\n
The Death of Moses<\/p>\n
Louis H. Feldman<\/p>\n
The biblical account of the death of Moses (Deut. 34:1\u20138) comprises only eight verses. Josephus has expanded this to 12 paragraphs in Jewish Antiquities (4.320\u201331). Not only has he added a graphic description of the lament of the Israelites for him in anticipation of his death, but he has even described his disappearance in tones that are reminiscent of the disappearance in death of Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11\u201312), as well as the disappearances in death of Aeneas and Romulus. Furthermore, a certain senator named Numerius Atticus (in Suetonius, Augustus 94.4) swore that he had seen the emperor Augustus after his death ascend to heaven. Because there were some traditions in Rabbinic circles and in Samaritan writings that Moses did not die, Josephus was particularly concerned to refute this view. Moreover, he took great pains to make sure that Moses would not be worshiped as a god. This was particularly necessary in view of the frequency among the Greeks of the apotheosis of heroes, such as Dionysus, Heracles, and Asclepius.
\nIn the case of Moses, there is a significant difference between the biblical account and Josephus\u2019s version in that in the Bible (Deut. 31:16) God tells Moses that he is to die, whereas in Josephus (Ant. 4.315) Moses, the central figure in this panorama, announces to the Israelites his impending death. In the Bible it is only after Moses\u2019s death that the Israelites bewail him for 30 days, but there is no description of the wailing itself (Deut. 34:8). In Josephus we have a much more dramatic scene: the wailing is more moving because it takes place after Moses has told the Israelites about his approaching death but while he is still very much alive. Josephus very emotionally adds that all the Israelites followed Moses to the place where he was going to disappear and that Moses, in full command of the situation like the director of an oratorio and in a scene reminiscent of Moses\u2019s direction of the crucial battle against Amalek, signaled with his hand to those who were far off to remain quiet, while urging those who were closer not to make his departure tearful by following him.
\nMoses is the leader par excellence of the people to the very end. Josephus (Ant. 4.323\u201326), almost like a lawyer, stresses the point that the Israelites as a group followed Moses to the place where he was going to disappear. They are, therefore, witnesses to the fact that he did die and thus combat the view that he did not die at all. Josephus, the scientific historian, following in the footsteps of his model Thucydides and concerned that his credibility should not be questioned, adds that Moses has written of himself that he died because he feared that the Israelites might dare to say that because of his tremendous virtue he had gone up to the Divinity. Indeed, it is significant that Josephus (Ant. 2.293) totally omits the biblical statements in which God tells Moses that Aaron will be his mouth and that Moses will be his \u201cGod\u201d (Exod. 4:16) and in which God tells Moses that he has made him a \u201cGod\u201d to Pharaoh (7:1), since such a view would seem to contradict strict monotheism.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. T. \u201cJosephus\u2019s Portrayal of the Disappearances of Enoch, Elijah, and Moses: Some Observations.\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature 109 (1990): 691\u201393.
\nFeldman, L. H., ed. Flavius Josephus: Judean Antiquities 1\u20134, 471\u201375. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\nGaster, M. The Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the \u201cSecrets of Moses\u201d together with the Pitron or Samaritan Commentary and the Samaritan Story of the Death of Moses. Oriental Translation Fund n.s. 26. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1927.
\nJacobson, H. \u201cJosephus on the Death of Moses.\u201d In Tria lustra: Essays and Notes Presented to John Pinsent, edited by H. D. Jocelyn and H. Hurt. Liverpool Classical Papers 3. Liverpool: Liverpool Classical Monthly.
\nKushelevsky, B. Moses and the Angel of Death. New York: Lang, 1995.
\nPurvis, J. D. \u201cSamaritan Traditions on the Death of Moses.\u201d In Studies on the Testament of Moses: Seminar Papers, edited by George W. E. Nickelsburg, 93\u2013117. Septuagint and Cognate Studies 4. Cambridge MA: Society of Biblical Literature, 1973.
\nTabor, J. D. \u201c \u2018Returning to the Divinity\u2019: Josephus\u2019 Portrayal of the Disappearances of Enoch, Elijah, and Moses.\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989): 225\u201338.
\nTalbert, C. H. \u201cThe Concept of Immortals in Mediterranean Antiquity.\u201d Journal of Biblical Literature 94 (1975): 419\u201336.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
320After Moses had said these things at the end of his life, and with a blessing had prophesied to each of the tribes the things that in fact were to be, the populace burst into tears while the women also, beating their breasts, demonstrated their feeling at his forthcoming death. The children also, lamenting still more, since they were too weak to overcome their grief, revealed that they comprehended, beyond their actual age, his virtue and great achievement. 321But there was a conflict in outlook between the grief of the young and that of those who had become adults, for the latter, realizing the sort of guardian of which they were being deprived, wept over what was to be, while for the former the grief was both for this reason and because they were losing him, though they had not yet had the opportunity to taste well of his virtue. 322One might deduce the extraordinary degree of wailing and laments of the populace from what happened to the lawgiver: he who had always been persuaded that one ought not to be dejected when the end was forthcoming, since one suffered this in accordance with the will of God and by a law of nature, was overcome with weeping at what was being done by the people.
\n323All, full of weeping, followed him as he proceeded to the place where he was going to disappear. Moses, signaling with his hand, directed those who were far off to remain quiet, and those who were nearer he urged by means of speech not to make his departure tearful by following him. 324They, deciding to show favor to him in this also, namely to allow him to depart according to his own wish, restrained themselves, weeping with one another. The council of elders alone accompanied him, together with Eleazar the high priest and the general Joshua. 325But when he came to the mountain called Abaris\u2014this is a towering site opposite Jericho, presenting to those looking from it, a most extensive view of the best land of the Canaanites\u2014he sent away the council of elders. 326While he was bidding farewell to Eleazar and Joshua, and was still conversing with them, a cloud suddenly stood over him and he disappeared in a certain ravine.But he has written of himself in the sacred books that he died because he was afraid that they might dare to say that because of the abundance of the virtue surrounding him he had gone up to the Divinity.<\/p>\n
Mosaic Constitution<\/p>\n
David M. Goldenberg<\/p>\n
In his history Jewish Antiquities, Josephus begins with and paraphrases the Hebrew Bible. His treatment of the biblical legal material is found in books 3 (\u00a7\u00a7224\u201386) and 4 (\u00a7\u00a767\u201375, 199\u2013301). The commentary below, on a selected portion of this material (Ant. 4.260\u201377, 288) illustrates how Josephus paraphrased the Bible. It shows that many of his additions and changes to the biblical text are paralleled in other writings, such as Proverbs and Wisdom of Ben Sira (Ant. 4.260\u201364, 267), and in contemporaneous biblical interpretation, as reflected in exegesis or in practice. Most prominent among these parallels are those found in the literature of the early Rabbis, the tannaim. We thus find extrabiblical tannaitic parallels to Josephus\u2019s understanding of a number of the laws treated in these sections:<\/p>\n
the obligation and specifics of honoring parents (Ant. 4.260\u201364)
\nthe hanging, exposure, and burial of an executed criminal (\u00a7\u00a7263\u201364)
\nthe importance of burial for the dead (\u00a7265)
\nthe time when and means by which collateral may be taken on a loan (\u00a7\u00a7268\u201369)
\nthe penalty of double repayment for theft (\u00a7271)
\nthe time when the biblical law concerning forced entry and theft applies (\u00a7271)
\nthe conditions under which a fourfold or fivefold penalty applies (\u00a7272)
\nthe obligations incumbent on a finder of lost objects, including a search for the owner, a public announcement, the content of the announcement, and an oath of innocence before keeping the object (\u00a7274)
\nthe reasons and the conditions under which one is obligated to help animals in distress (\u00a7275)
\nthe requirement to give directions to one lost and the prohibition against misleading someone on the road (\u00a7276)
\nthe prohibition against cursing someone not present (\u00a7276; the Rabbinic parallel may be tannaitic)
\nthe requirement of monetary compensation for one who killed another when the death was not immediate (\u00a7277)
\nthe cases when the prohibition against withholding wages applies (\u00a7288).<\/p>\n
The similarities with tannaitic literature extend not only to individual interpretations but also to the reasons for the laws (\u00a7\u00a7262, 270, 275); the juxtaposition and arrangement of various laws (\u00a7\u00a7273, 276); the internal structure of laws that are more specific than their biblical counterparts (\u00a7\u00a7269, 271, 274, 276, 277, 288); and hermeneutical techniques (\u00a7267).
\nThe element of structure is particularly instructive, for Josephus\u2019s breakdown of each biblical law into more precisely defined cases is typical in the development of any legal system. Indeed, we see that in almost every case, the constituent elements of these laws as they are divided by Josephus are also found in the tannaitic legal system, the halakhah. The common elements in Josephus and in tannaitic writings provide evidence for an extrabiblical (but biblically based) corpus of legal traditions (whether written or oral; whether exegetically citing and annotating the biblical text or apodictically listing the laws without reference to the biblical text), which served as a source both for Josephus and for later tannaitic literature. This extrabiblical body of tradition would have been one of the lenses through which Josephus viewed and understood the Bible.<\/p>\n
Significance<\/p>\n
It is important, at this stage in our knowledge of the ancient Jewish world, not to go beyond the evidence and say, for example, that such a corpus of material equates with the later Rabbinic literature, or that it necessarily served as the single source of that literature, and certainly not that it constituted the only body of legal traditions existing at the time of Josephus. We know of other legal traditions, such as those found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of which are also recorded by Josephus as the Jewish law (e.g., J.W. 5.227 and Ant. 3.261 = 11QTemple 45.15\u201317). What the evidence allows us to say is that Josephus\u2019s biblical laws neither represent a straightforward transmission of the biblical text nor are they exclusively Josephus\u2019s own interpretation. Rather, they indicate that there was an existing body of interpretation that is heavily paralleled in later Rabbinic halakhah and that served as Josephus\u2019s primary source for reading and understanding the corresponding portions of Scripture. Although this information may or may not support Josephus\u2019s self-identification with the Pharisees\u2014generally assumed to be precursors of the tannaim, the early Rabbis\u2014it certainly argues for the antiquity of significant parts of Rabbinic halakhah, a conclusion corroborated in recent years from the Dead Sea documents.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Most of the earlier work on Josephus\u2019s parallels in Rabbinic literature was written in German and French; more recently, in Hebrew. Works that deal with this topic in English include:<\/p>\n
Blidstein, Gerald. Honor Thy Father and Mother: Filial Responsibility in Jewish Law and Ethics. New York: Ktav, 1975.
\nFeldman, Louis. \u201cTorah and Greek Culture in Josephus.\u201d The Torah U-Madda Journal 7 (1997): 48\u201359.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cUse, Authority, and Exegesis of Mikra in the Writings of Josephus.\u201d In Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, edited by Martin Jan Mulder, 507\u201318. CRINT, Section 2. Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud 1. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Judaean Antiquities 1\u20134. Vol. 3 of Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, edited by Steve Mason. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
\nGoldenberg, David. \u201cThe Halakha in Josephus and in Tannaitic Literature.\u201d JQR 67 (1976): 30\u201343.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cHalakhah in Josephus and in Tannaitic Literature: A Comparative Study.\u201d PhD diss., Dropsie College, 1978.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cAnt. 4.277 and 288 Compared with Early Rabbinic Law.\u201d In Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity, edited by Louis H. Feldman and Gohei Hata, 198\u2013211. Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press, 1987.
\nThackeray, H. St. J., trans. Josephus: Jewish Antiquities I\u2013IV. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
\nVermes, Geza. \u201cA Summary of the Law by Flavius Josephus.\u201d Novum Testamentum 24 (1982): 289\u2013303.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
260With regard to those youths who scorn their parents and do not grant them their honor whether because of shame or lack of understanding, demeaning them, let the parents first of all warn them with words, for they are autonomous judges over their sons, 261saying that they came together with each other not for the sake of pleasure nor of increasing their wealth by placing in common what the two of them had, but in order that they might have children who would tend them in their old age and who would have from them whatever they needed: \u201cWhen you were born, we raised you with joy; and giving the greatest thanks to God we reared you with devotion, sparing nothing of what seemed to be useful for your well-being and education in the best things. 262Now, however, for it is necessary to grant pardon for the failings of youth, you have sufficiently disregarded the honor toward us. Change to the more reasonable way, considering that God also is annoyed with those who commit an outrage against parents, because He himself is also the father of the whole human race and considers himself dishonored when those who have the same title as himself do not obtain from their children what is fitting for them; and there is the implacable law, the punisher of such acts, which you should not put to the test.\u201d 263If the rebelliousness of the youths is cured by such means, let them be excused from the censures for things that they did not know, for thus the lawgiver will be good and the parents will be fortunate in beholding neither son nor daughter being punished. 264However, should these words and the teaching from them about moderate behavior seem worthless, and should one make the laws implacable enemies for himself through constant boldness toward his parents, let him be brought forward by them themselves outside the city with the masses following and let him be stoned. After remaining during the whole day in the sight of all, let him be buried at night. 265Thus shall it be too with all who howsoever are condemned by the laws to be put to death. Let burial be given even to your enemies; and let not a corpse be left without its portion of earth, paying more than its just penalty. 266Let it not be permitted to lend either meat or drink to any one of the Hebrews at interest, for it is not just to profit from the misfortunes of one\u2019s compatriot; but in helping his needs you should consider as a gain the gratitude of those men and reward that will come from God for this generosity. 267Those who have borrowed whether silver or produce of any kind, liquid or solid, if their affairs through God\u2019s grace proceed to their liking, shall bring back and with pleasure restore these loans to the lenders, as though they were laying them up with their own possessions and would have them again at need. 268But if they are shameless concerning restitution, one must not prowl about the house to seize a pledge before judgment has been given on the matter; the pledge should be asked for at the door, and the debtor should bring it of himself, in no wise gainsaying his visitor who comes with the law to support him. 269If he from whom the pledge has been taken be well-to-do, the lender should retain possession of it until restitution be made; but if he be poor, the lender should return it before sundown, above all if the pledge consist of a cloak, that he may have it for his sleep, God by His nature according pity to the poor. 270But a mill and its accompanying utensils may not be taken in pledge, that folk be not deprived of the very means of preparing their food nor be reduced by want to the worst sufferings. 271For the stealing of a person the penalty shall be death; the purloiner of gold or silver shall pay double the sum. He who kills another while engaged in burglary shall be innocent, even though the thief were yet but breaking through his wall. 272He who steals a head of cattle shall pay fourfold as penalty, save in the case of an ox, for which he shall be fined fivefold. He who does not have the means to defray the imposed amount shall become the slave of those who had him condemned.
\n273Let someone who has been sold to a fellow countryman be a slave for six years, but in the seventh year let him be set free. If he has had children from a slave woman at the house of the one who bought him, however, and wishes to be a slave because of good will and affectionate love for his own things, let him be freed when the year of the jubilee arrives\u2014this is the fiftieth year\u2014and let him take along both his children and his wife who is free. 274If anyone finds gold or silver on the road, after diligent search for the loser and public proclamation of the place where he found it, let him duly restore it, reckoning it dishonest to profit by another\u2019s loss. Similarly, in the case of beasts which one meets straying in a desert place; but if the owner be not found forthwith, let him keep them at his home, calling God to witness that he has not appropriated the goods of another. 275It is not permitted to pass by when someone\u2019s beasts, suffering damage owing to a storm, have fallen in mud; reckoning the distress as one\u2019s own, one should join the rescue and lend assistance. 276One must point out the road to those who are ignorant of it, and not, for the pleasure of laughing oneself, impede another\u2019s business by misleading him. Similarly, let no one curse a person not present or a mute person. 277In a fight where there is no iron weapon, if someone is struck and dies on the spot, let him be avenged and let the one who has struck him suffer the same. If he is carried to his home and after being ill for several days then dies, let the one who struck him be free from punishment. If, however, he has been saved but has incurred much expense, let him [the one who struck him] pay for all that he has spent during the time of his confinement to bed and all that he has given to the physicians. 288As in the case of entrusted objects, similarly if one should deprive of wages those who labor with their bodies, let him be hated. Therefore, a poor man ought not to be deprived of his wages, since we know that God has given this to him in place of land and the other possessions. In fact, one ought not even to delay the payment, but should pay him the same day, since God does not wish that the one who has worked should lack the enjoyment of the things for which he labored.<\/p>\n
The Altar across the Jordan<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
Josephus\u2019s version of Josh. 22:10\u201334 in his Jewish Antiquities (5.100\u2013114, known as The Altar across the Jordan), which tells of the controversy that breaks out when the tribes living across the Jordan set up their own altar, highlights some central motives of Josephus\u2019s work. In both the speeches of Phinehas and of the Transjordanian people, he stresses the importance of living prudently and abiding by the ancestral laws, and, conversely, the gravity of any deviation from the Law of the fathers. He enhances the ideal of kinship and unity of the Jews, and the need to avoid revolutionary movements and civil strife, such as were experienced by Josephus himself during the war against the Romans. In Josephus, Joshua is a key character in preventing civil war: he is one of the promoters of the embassy to the kinsmen, and he rejoices when there is no need of military action against them. Josephus highlights the obedience of the Jews to God\u2019s will and to his laws, as well as God\u2019s favor and providence toward his people.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. \u201cThe Transjordanian Altar (Josh 22:10\u201334) according to Josephus (Ant. 5.100\u2013114) and Pseudo-Philo (LAB 22.1\u20138).\u201d Andrew University Seminary Studies 35, no. 1 (1997): 5\u201319.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible, 150\u201353. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
100. Once they had crossed the river, the tribes of Reuben and of Gad, and as many of Manasseh as were joined to them, erected an altar on the banks of the Jordan, as a memorial to posterity and a symbol of their relationship with the dwellers on the other side.
\n101. But when those of the other side heard that the people they had just dismissed had erected an altar, not for the purpose for which they had set it up, but rather with revolutionary intent and as an introduction of strange gods, they did not want to disbelieve this. Rather, considering credible this slander about their divine worship, they took up arms, with the intention to cross the river to inflict vengeance on those who had erected the altar, and to punish them for their deviation from their ancestral customs.
\n102. For it seemed good to them to give no thought to their kinship or to the status of those accused, but rather to the will of God and the manner in which he rejoices to be honored.
\n103. But as they were about to undertake the campaign under the sway of their wrath, Joshua and Eleazar the high priest and the senate restrained them, advising them first to test their intentions. Then, should they learn that their mind was evil, they might proceed to arms against them.
\n104. Therefore, they sent as ambassadors to them, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, and with him ten of those held in honor by the Hebrews, to learn what they were thinking when they set up the altar on the banks of the river, after crossing over.
\n105. Once they forded the river and reached them, an assembly was called. Phinehas, standing among them, said that their offense was too great for a reprimand in words and for an admonition for the future. Nonetheless, rather than being oriented toward the magnitude of the transgression and rush to arms and punishment through combat, looking to their kinship and the possibility that they might become prudent by their words, they had initiated this embassy.
\n106. \u201cIt is our purpose to learn what led you to construct the altar, so that we not appear rash in chastising you by force of arms, should you have made the altar for some holy reason. 107. For we could not believe that you, given your experience of God\u2019s intention and your hearing the laws given to us, could forget him, deserting the tent, the ark, and our ancestral altar, once you were separated from us and came to your own portion that, by the favor of God and his providential care for us, you received by lot; neither could we believe that you would have introduced strange gods, going over to the evils of the Canaanites.
\n108. But you will be thought to have done nothing wrong if, changing your mind, and being insane no longer, you respect and stay mindful of the ancestral laws. If, however, you persist in your offenses, we shall not shrink from any exertion on behalf of the laws. Rather, fording the Jordan, we\u2014and God still more\u2014shall give them our help, considering you no different from the Canaanites, but destroying you just like them. 109. For do not think that, having crossed the river, you are also beyond God\u2019s power. Rather, you are everywhere in his possessions, and it is impossible to escape his authority and his judgment. 110. If, however, you see your presence here as an obstacle to prudent thinking, nothing prevents our redistributing the land once again and abandoning this region to sheep grazing. But, in any case, you would do well to be prudent and change your mind regarding your recent offenses. We appeal to you as well for the sake of your children and wives not to make us use compulsion. Conduct your deliberations, therefore, as if your own safety and that of those you love depend on this assembly, considering it preferable to be overcome by words than to await the trial of deeds and war.\u201d
\n111. Once Phinehas had spoken, the heads of the assembly and the entire crowd itself began to make a defense regarding the allegations against them. They said that they would neither deviate from their kinship with them, nor had they set up their altar with revolutionary intent.
\n112. They recognized the one God, common to all the Hebrews, and the bronze altar in front of the tent, where the sacrifices were to be made. They had erected the one they had set up and on account of which they had become suspect, not for worship, \u201cbut that it might be a symbol and a token of the everlasting relationship with you and of the necessity of thinking prudently and abiding by the ancestral laws, rather than as a beginning of transgression, as you surmise. 113. May God be a credible witness for us that we constructed the altar for this very purpose; by consequence, have a better opinion of us and do not condemn us for these offenses, for which would justly be wiped out all those belonging to the race of Abraham who adopt revolutionary ways, contrary to our customary practice.\u201d
\n114. After commending them for these words, Phinehas came to Joshua and reported them to the people. Joshua rejoiced that there was no need at present to muster them or lead them out for armed warfare against men who were their kin, and offered, therefore, thanksgiving sacrifices to God. Thereafter, dismissing the crowd to their own allotments, Joshua himself remained in Shechem.<\/p>\n
The Levite and His Wife<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
The Bible\u2019s tragic story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19), along with its repercussions (Judges 20\u201321), is the last episode of the book of Judges. Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities (5.136\u201349), moves the story to the beginning of his account of the Judges period, as do some in the Rabbinic tradition (see S. Olam Rab. 12; S. Eli. Rab. 11:57), to show what happens as soon as Israel begins neglecting its institutions and laws after Joshua\u2019s death. In particular, Josephus\u2014who himself experienced the war against the Romans and its consequences\u2014wants to stress his political theory regarding moral decay and civil strife and to underscore the orderliness and discipline demanded in government, as in the army. In addition, by this displacement Josephus might have been willing to connect to the rather national context of the book of Joshua the national character of the response to the Levite\u2019s story, as opposed to the separate tribal presentation in most of the book of Judges.
\nIn Josephus\u2019s account the Levite is depicted as a loving and loyal husband: he is married to the woman; he does not thrust her to the rapists, who instead seize her; he tries to console her after the rape. In this way Josephus the priest, who elsewhere looks down on the Levites as rivals, emphasizes here the romantic motif. Significantly, in Josephus the Levite is not propositioned by the Gibeahites, who instead focus their desire on the woman. Thereby, the historian avoids any allusion to homosexuality, enhances the morality of his biblical character, and stresses the romantic motif and the drama of the story.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. \u201cThe Retelling of the Story of Judges 19 by Pseudo-Philo and Josephus: A Comparison.\u201d Estudios b\u00edblicos 58 (2000): 33\u201349.
\nFeldman, L. H. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Portrayal (Antiquities 5.136\u2013174) of the Benjaminite Affair of the Concubine and Its Repercussions (Judges 19\u201321).\u201d Jewish Quarterly Review 90 (2000): 255\u201392.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible, 154\u201356. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
136. A Levite of the lower ranks, of the tribal territory of Ephraim where he lived, married a woman from Bethlehem\u2014this place is in the tribe of Judah. Being deeply in love with the woman and captivated by her beauty, he failed in his attempt to win a like response from her.
\n137. Since she held herself aloof and he was therefore all the more inflamed in his passion, there were continual quarrels between them; and finally the woman, feeling oppressed by these, left her husband and went to her parents in the fourth month. Given his love for her, the man took this badly and went to his parents-in-law; resolving their quarrels, he was reconciled with her.
\n138. He spent four days there, with her parents treating him kindly, but on the fifth day, he decided to leave for his own home. He set out toward evening, since the parents dismissed their daughter reluctantly, and so they let the day slip away. A single attendant followed them; they also had a donkey on which the woman was riding.
\n139. When they were near Jerusalem, having come thirty stadia already, the attendant advised them to lodge somewhere, so that nothing unpleasant might happen to them, who were traveling by night and were not far from the enemy, seeing that an opportune time often makes even friends dangerous and suspect.
\n140. But the Levite did not like the plan of taking shelter among alien men, for the city was Canaanite. Instead, he preferred that they advance twenty stadia farther on to a city of their own people to lodge there. His plan prevailing, he arrived at Gibeah, in the tribe of the Benjaminites, when it was already evening.
\n141. When none of those in the marketplace offered him hospitality, an old man returning from the fields, who was of the tribe of Ephraim but living in Gibeah, met him and asked him who he was and why he was traveling when it was already dark, taking provisions for his evening meal.
\n142. He stated that he was a Levite who was conducting his wife from her parents to his own home; he further disclosed that his residence was in the tribal territory of Ephraim.
\n143. Then the old man, on account of their kinship and their belonging to the same tribe, as well as their chance meeting, brought him to his house to give him hospitality. Some young men of Gibeah, however, had seen the woman in the market place and admired her beauty. When they learned that she was lodging with the old man they came to the doors, despising their weakness and small number. As the old man appealed to them to depart and not inflict violence or outrage, they demanded that he hand over his woman guest to avoid trouble.
\n144. The old man said that he was a relative and a Levite and that they would be guilty of a terrible crime by offending against the laws for the sake of pleasure. But they scoffed at righteousness and threatened to kill him, if he impeded their desires.
\n145. Being forced into a difficult situation and not wanting to allow his guests to suffer outrage, he offered them his own daughter, saying that it was more legitimate for them to thus satisfy their lusts than by an outrage upon his guests. In this way he thought that he would not wrong those whom he had received.
\n146. However, they did not slacken their craving for his woman guest, but kept demanding that she be handed over. Although he begged them not to venture on such a transgression, they snatched her away and, poised to abandon themselves to the compulsion of pleasure, they brought the woman to their homes. Having satiated their outrageous desire throughout the whole night, they dismissed her at daybreak.
\n147. She, exhausted by what had happened, came to the house of her host and from grief over what she had been through and in her shame not daring to come into her husband\u2019s presence\u2014for she reasoned that he especially would be irremediably hurt by these events\u2014breathing out her soul, she died.
\n148. Her husband, thinking his wife to be lying in a deep sleep and suspecting nothing horrible, tried to rouse her, intending to comfort her by saying that she had not voluntarily handed herself over to those who had committed the outrage. It was rather they, who by coming to the house of their host, had snatched her away.
\n149. But when he found that she was dead and the enormity of the calamities had brought him to his senses, he placed his dead wife on his beast and brought her to his own home. Cutting her up piece by piece into twelve parts, he sent these round to each tribe, ordering the bearers to tell the causes of the woman\u2019s death and the disgraceful deed of the tribe.<\/p>\n
Deborah<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
Judges 4 relates the story of Deborah and Barak, the Israelites\u2019 battle against the Assyrian general Sisera, and the murder of Sisera by the hand of Jael; all of chapter 5 is devoted to Deborah\u2019s song. Deborah, the most prominent woman in the Bible in the period of the Judges, is considered at length both by Pseudo-Philo and by the Rabbis, whereas Josephus, who generally downplays the role of women, here in his Jewish Antiquities (5. 201\u20139) de-emphasizes Deborah\u2019s character in numerous ways. He stresses the role of God in the Israelites\u2019 battle against Sisera; he depicts Barak as equal to Deborah as a military leader, despite his failures and his manifest lack of courage in front of the enemies; and he credits the final victory of the Israelites to Jael, in order to lessen Deborah\u2019s predominance. Moreover, unlike Pseudo-Philo, who amplifies Deborah\u2019s song with a review of the Israelite history, Josephus reduces Deborah to a prosaic figure, disregarding her role as a judge and a poetess; and finally, unlike his contemporary Pseudo-Philo and Rabbinic tradition, Josephus downgrades Deborah\u2019s piety, probably in order to avoid granting her one of the cardinal virtues. There is an undercurrent within Rabbinic tradition that seeks to undercut Deborah\u2019s character; see Legends 868, no. 77.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Studies in Josephus\u2019 Rewritten Bible, 153\u201362. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cOn Professor Marc Roncace\u2019s Portraits of Deborah and Gideon in Josephus.\u201d Journal for the Study of Judaism 32 (2001): 193\u2013220.
\nRoncace, M. \u201cJosephus\u2019 (Real) Portraits of Deborah and Gideon: A Reading of Antiquities 5.198\u2013232.\u201d Journal for the Study of Judaism 31 (2000): 247\u201374.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
200\u2013201. When they [the Israelites] had learned that their misfortunes had occurred to them because of their scorning the laws, they kept begging a certain prophetess named Deborah\u2014in the language of the Hebrews her name means \u201cbee\u201d\u2014to pray God to take pity on them and not to permit them to be destroyed by the Canaanites. God, for his part, assured them of safety and chose for a general Barak of the tribe of Naphtali; barak means \u201clightning\u201d in the language of the Hebrews.
\n202. Deborah summoned Barak and directed him to recruit 10,000 young men and advance against the enemy: that number would suffice, since God had spoken beforehand and announced victory.
\n203. When Barak said that he would not be the general unless she was his co-general, she became indignant: \u201cYou,\u201d she said, \u201care yielding to a woman a dignity that God has given you; nevertheless, I do not decline it.\u201d Once the 10,000 were mustered, they encamped on Mt. Tabor.
\n204. At the king\u2019s order, Sisera went to meet them, and they encamped not far from the enemy. The numbers of the enemy dismayed the Israelites and Barak, and they decided to retreat. Deborah, however, restrained them, directing them to join battle on that day, for they would be victorious and God would assist them.
\n205. Therefore, when they had engaged and attacked, there was a great storm with much precipitation and hail. The wind drove the rain into the faces of the Canaanites, impairing their vision so that their bows and slings were useless to them. On account of the cold, their troops could not use their swords.
\n206. The bad weather impeded the Israelites less since it was to their backs; and, taking courage at the thought of God\u2019s help, they pressed forward into the midst of the enemy and killed many of them. These fell, some beneath the Israelites, others being thrown into disorder by their own cavalry, so that many of them died beneath their chariots.
\n207. Now Sisera had jumped down from his chariot when he saw how things were going; in his flight he reached a certain woman of the Kenites, whose name was Jael. When he requested to be hidden, she welcomed him, and when he asked for a drink, she gave him milk that was already curdled.
\n208. Having drunk deeply from the cup, he fell asleep. Then, while he was asleep, Jael drove an iron nail with a hammer through his mouth and jaw into the ground; and when Barak\u2019s entourage arrived a little later, she showed him to them nailed to the ground.
\n209. Thus, this victory redounded to the credit of a woman, as Deborah had said. As Barak was campaigning against Hazor, he killed Jabin who had come to meet him. Once its general [Jabin] fell, he [Barak] razed the city to the ground. He functioned as general of the Israelites for 40 years.<\/p>\n
Jephthah\u2019s Vow<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
According to the biblical account, before fighting the Ammonites, Jephthah vows that if the LORD delivers the enemies into his hands, he will offer to him as a burnt offering whatsoever first comes out of his house upon his return (Judg. 11:30\u201331). But when the man comes home, he finds his daughter coming to greet him (v. 34). In his Jewish Antiquities (5.263\u201365), Josephus omits the biblical dialogue between Jephthah and his daughter, focusing on Jephthah\u2019s vow and its moral aspect rather than on his daughter\u2019s drama. It is Jephthah\u2019s tragedy and not his daughter\u2019s, in contrast to the way the story appears in Josephus\u2019s contemporary Pseudo-Philo (L.A.B. 40.1\u20138). Yet, in both Pseudo-Philo\u2018s and Josephus\u2019s accounts, the daughter is depicted as an obedient child, ready to accept her des-tiny\u2014especially in view of the freedom gained by the people\u2014and is in this respect very similar to Isaac. The historian\u2019s treatment of Jephthah is, however, more complex. Despite stressing where possible Jephthah\u2019s virtues\u2014such as his concern for the people, his speed in acting (Ant. 5:261), his leadership (258\u201360), and his moderation (268), as well as omitting the fact that he was the son of a harlot (259)\u2014Josephus diminishes in this passage Jephthah\u2019s association with God. Most notably, he openly blames Jephthah for making an irrational vow, as do the Rabbis, emphasizing that it was neither sanctioned by the Law nor pleasing to God.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Alexiou, M., and P. Dronke. \u201cThe Lament of Jephthah\u2019s Daughter: Themes, Traditions, Originality.\u201d Studi Medievali 12 (1971): 819\u201363.
\nBerman, J. A. \u201cMedieval Monasticism and the Evolution of Jewish Interpretation of the Story of Jephthah\u2019s Daughter.\u201d Jewish Quarterly Review 95, no. 2 (2005): 228\u201356.
\nFeldman, L. H. Studies in Josephus\u2019 Rewritten Bible, 175\u201392. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
\nKramer, P. Silverman. \u201cJephthah\u2019s Daughter: A Thematic Approach to the Narrative as Seen in Selected Rabbinic Exegesis and in Artwork.\u201d In Judges: A Feminist Companion to the Bible, edited by Athalya Brenner, 67\u201392. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
\nValler, S. \u201cThe Story of Jephthah\u2019s Daughter in the Midrash.\u201d In Judges: A Feminist Companion to the Bible, edited by Athalya Brenner, 48\u201366. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
263. Having said these things to the emissaries, he dismissed them. He himself prayed for victory and promised that, if he returned safe and sound to his house, he would sacrifice and offer up whatever would first come to meet him. Then joining battle, he won a great victory; massacring the enemy, he pursued them as far as the city of Minnith. Crossing over into Ammonitis, he obliterated many cities, carried off plunder, and delivered his fellows from the slavery that they had endured for eighteen years.
\n264. Upon his return, however, he underwent a misfortune that was not at all like his achievements. For his daughter met him: she was his only child and still a virgin. Lamenting the magnitude of his suffering, he blamed his daughter for her solicitude in meeting him, seeing that he had consecrated her to God.
\n265. However, that which was to happen, namely that she was to die for the victory of her father and the freedom of her fellow citizens, did not come upon her against her will. She did, however, appeal to him to grant her two months to bewail her youth with her fellow citizens and then to fulfill his vow.
\n266. He granted her request. Once the two months were past, he sacrificed the child as a holocaust. The sacrifice he offered was neither lawful nor pleasing to God; for he did not carefully weigh through reason what would happen nor how his deeds would appear to those who heard of it.<\/p>\n
The Birth of Samson<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
Josephus presents the announcement of Samson\u2019s birth (Judges 13) as a romantic story, in his Jewish Antiquities (5.276\u201385), enriching his account with novelistic motifs such as Manoah\u2019s mad passion for his wife, his immoderate jealousy and irrational suspicion toward her, the astonishing beauty of the woman, and the physical attractiveness of the angel of God. Unlike the Rabbis, who criticize Manoah for his ignorance and fear, Josephus, like Pseudo-Philo, highlights Manoah\u2019s status and role. Manoah\u2019s wife also plays a key role, especially for the angel\u2019s second appearance. Samson is presented as a typical classical hero, who is wellborn, moderate in his diet, and extraordinarily strong; he is not unjust; and\u2014contrary to the biblical account (Judg. 13:5)\u2014he is never labeled a nazir. The human side of Samson is stressed in Josephus: although the historian frequently mentions God in this passage, and says that Samson will prophesy, he leaves the role of God\u2019s spirit on Samson\u2019s life and exploits, as well as Samson\u2019s prayer before bringing down the temple upon the Philistines, aside.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, Louis H. Josephus\u2019s Intepretation of the Bible, 461\u201389. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
276. A certain Manoah, outstanding among the elite of the Danites and acknowledged to be the first in his native place, had a wife who was notable for her beauty and who stood out among the women of her time.Not having children and being distressed at his childlessness, he kept begging God to give them legitimate offspring during his continuous visits with his wife to the outskirts of the city, where there was a great plain.
\n277. He was madly in love with his wife and therefore immoderately jealous of her. Now to the woman, who had been left alone, appeared a specter, an angel of God, similar to a handsome and tall youth, who brought her the good news of the forthcoming birth of a son, according to God\u2019s providence. He would be handsome and famous for his strength, and, once he had reached manhood, God would defeat the Philistines through him.
\n278. He [the angel] urged her not to cut his [Samson\u2019s] hair. Moreover, he was to abstain from all other drink, according to God\u2019s command, and to be familiar only with water. Once he said these things, he departed, having come in accordance with God\u2019s will.
\n279. When her husband arrived, the woman reported what had been told by the angel, highly admiring the young man\u2019s beauty and height so that her husband, in his jealousy, was driven to distraction by these praises and conceived the suspicion aroused by this sort of passion.
\n280. The woman, desiring that her husband\u2019s irrational grief subside, kept begging God to send the angel again, so that he might be seen also by her husband. According to God\u2019s grace, the angel came again while they were in the suburbs, and appeared to the woman when she was without her husband. She asked him to remain until she fetched her husband, and, upon his assent, she sought Manoah.
\n281. When he saw the angel, the husband did not cease from his suspicion, but requested him to disclose to him whatever he had revealed to his wife. Since the angel declared that it sufficed that she alone would know, Manoah instructed him to say who he was in order that, once the child was born, they might offer him thanks and a gift.
\n282. He replied, however, that he had no need of anything. In fact, it was not because of need that he had announced the good news on the child\u2019s forthcoming birth. Moreover, even though Manoah invited him to stay and share their hospitality, he did not consent. Nevertheless, he was persuaded by his persistent entreaty to stay so that some mark of hospitality might be brought to him.
\n283. Manoah killed a kid and directed his wife to roast it. Once everything was ready, [the angel] ordered them to set out the loaves and the meat upon the rock, without the vessels.
\n284. When they had done this, with his staff he touched the meat, which was consumed, along with the loaves, by a fire blazing up, and the angel ascended to heaven under their eyes through the smoke, as if on a chariot. Manoah, fearing that something threatening would happen to them as a result of their vision of God, was encouraged by his wife: it was in fact for their benefit that God had been seen by them.
\n285. She conceived and observed the angel\u2019s commands. When the child was born, they called him Samson, a name that means \u201cstrong.\u201d The child grew quickly and it was clear from the prudence of his manner of life and his letting his hair grow freely that he would prophesy.<\/p>\n
The Marriage of Ruth and Boaz<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
In Jewish Antiquities (5.328\u201337), Josephus sets the story of Ruth\u2014as does the Septuagint\u2014after the stories of the Judges. He presents a much-condensed version of it, reflecting his misogynistic attitude. Unlike the Rabbis, who say that Ruth was so beautiful that no man could look at her without falling passionately in love, and that she sprang from such outstanding ancestors as the king of Moab himself, Josephus, wherever possible, downgrades her. He de-emphasizes her virtues, in contrast to his usual attitude toward the biblical heroes, playing down her piety in leaving her country and her gods to follow her mother-in-law and the God of Israel. In this passage, which corresponds to Ruth 3:1\u20134:22, Josephus is careful to avoid sexual implications, to stress the morality of his characters, to update the legal institutions of the Bible according to his own interpretation, and to diminish God\u2019s role in the story.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Studies in Josephus\u2019 Rewritten Bible, 193\u2013202. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cReflections on John Levison\u2019s Josephus\u2019s Version of Ruth.\u201d JSP 8 (1991): 45\u201352.
\nLevison, J. R. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Version of Ruth.\u201d JSP 8 (1991): 31\u201341.
\nSterling, G. \u201cThe Invisible Presence: Josephus\u2019 Retelling of Ruth.\u201d In Understanding Josephus: Seven Perspectives, edited by S. Mason, 104\u201371. Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 1998.
\nBrenner, A., ed. A Feminist Companion to Ruth. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
328. Not many days later Boaz came and, once the barley had been winnowed, slept on the threshing floor. When she found out about this, Naomi devised a plan to have Ruth lie down beside him\u2014for he would be kind toward them once he had intercourse with the girl\u2014and sent the young woman to sleep at his feet.
\n329. She went, regarding it as a holy obligation not to oppose anything her mother-in-law had directed, and, for the time being, was concealed from Boaz, who had fallen into a deep sleep. But waking up in the middle of the night and noticing a female figure lying beside him, he inquired who she was.
\n330. When she told her name and asked that he, as her master, pardon her, he kept silent for the moment. At the daybreak, however, before the servants began to stir for their work, he woke her up and directed her to take what she could of the barley and go to her mother-in-law before anyone should see that she had slept there. For in these matters it was wise to guard against slanders\u2014all the more so since nothing had happened.
\n331. \u201cBut now,\u201d he stated, \u201cas to the whole matter, this is how things are to be. The one who is a closer relative than I has to be asked whether he is willing for you to be his lawful wife; should he assent, you are to follow him. But if he refuses, I shall make you my wife according to the law.\u201d
\n332. Ruth disclosed these things to her mother-in-law, and they found confidence in the expectation that Boaz would take care of them. He went down to the city toward midday and assembled the elders. Having summoned Ruth and also the relative, when the latter arrived, Boaz said:
\n333. \u201cAre you in possession of the inheritance of Elimelech and his sons?\u201d When the relative declared that this is what the laws granted him, by virtue of his near kinship, Boaz stated: \u201cYou ought then not to recall only half of those laws, but do everything in accordance with them. For Mahlon\u2019s wife has come here, so that if you wish to possess their fields, you must marry her according to the laws.\u201d
\n334. He, however, ceded both the inheritance and the woman to Boaz, who was himself a relative of the dead, saying that he had a wife and children already.
\n335. Boaz therefore, taking the elders as a witness, directed the woman to approach the other man, and to spit in his face, after removing his shoe in accordance with the law. When this was done, Boaz married Ruth and a year later a male child was born to them.
\n336. Naomi nursed him and, in accordance with the counsel of the women, called him Obed, as one who would provide support for her in her old age (in Heb. \u201cObed\u201d means \u201cone who serves\u201d). Of Obed Jesse was born, and of him David who reigned as king and bequeathed his dominion to his posterity for twenty-one generations.
\n337. It was therefore necessary for me to relate these matters concerning Ruth, being desirous to show the power of God, how easy it is for him to promote anyone to the splendid dignity and successes to which he elevated David, sprung from such people.<\/p>\n
Massacre at Nob<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
Josephus, as a priest himself from the first day-course of the 24 clans of priests, is particularly interested in the episode of the extermination of the priests of Nob (1 Sam. 22:11\u201320). In his account of the event in Jewish Antiquities (6.255\u201361), he attaches a long reflection in which he states that Saul perpetrates a cruel crime by slaughtering a whole family of high priestly rank. Saul, who is generally praised by the historian, here exemplifies the effects of power on the character of people, who change all their good qualities into audacity, recklessness, and contempt for the human and divine realms. On the other hand, Josephus\u2019s version is careful in presenting the high priest Ahimelech as honest, frank, and endowed with humanity. Finally, to explain how God could have permitted the massacre of an innocent priest and his family, Josephus paints the massacre at Nob as a consequence of the sin of Eli\u2019s sons.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. \u201cThe Massacre of the Priests of Nob in Josephus and Pseudo-Philo.\u201d EstBib 55 (1997): 171\u201398.
\nFeldman, L. H. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Version of the Extermination of the Priests of Nob (1 Sam. 21:1\u201311; 22:9\u201323). In For Uriel: Studies in the History of Israel in Antiquity Presented to Professor Uriel Rappaport, edited by M. Mor et al., 9\u201321. Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2005.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
255. Saul, therefore, summoned the high priest and all his family. \u201cWhat terrible and unfriendly thing did you suffer,\u201d he said, \u201cat my hands that you received the son of Jesse and supplied with food and weapons a plotter against my kingdom? Why did you give him an oracle concerning the future? For indeed it was not concealed from you that he was fleeing from me and that he hated my house.\u201d
\n256. The high priest did not deny what had happened, but with frank speech confessed that he had dispensed these favors; however, not to please David, but Saul himself: \u201cFor,\u201d he stated, \u201cI did not know him as your enemy, but as one of your most faithful servants, and commander of thousands, and now, in addition, your son-in-law and relative.
\n257. People do not award such things to enemies, but to those who are outstanding in loyalty and honor toward themselves. Moreover, this was not the first time I prophesied for him; I have often done so even on other occasions. He [David] told me that he had been sent by you with much urgency on a task, such that if I did not award him what he was asking for, I would think that I was refusing, not him, but you in these matters.
\n258. Do not suppose, therefore, anything vile of me, nor suspect me of what seemed to me then an act of humanity, because of what you hear David is undertaking. It was to your friend, son-in-law, and commander of thousands that I made my award, not to your enemy.\u201d
\n259. By saying that, the high priest did not convince Saul, for fear is so terrible that it does not believe even a truthful self-defense. He directed the troops to surround him and his family, and to kill them. But as they did not dare to lay hands on the high priest, being more afraid of the deity than of disobedience to the king, he ordered the Syrian Doeg to undertake the murder.
\n260. The latter, taking men as vile as himself, killed Abimelech and his family, who were in all some 385.Saul, likewise, sent men to Nob, the city of the priests, and killed them all, sparing neither women, nor infants, nor those of any other age, and burnt the city.
\n261. However, one son of Abimelech, named Abiathar, did escape. Now these things happened as God had prophesied to the high priest Eli, saying that his descendants would be destroyed because of the transgressions of his two sons.<\/p>\n
God Rejects Saul<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
In his portrait of Saul, Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities (6.143\u201355), enhances his character and not only devotes to him more space than the Bible does, but also\u2014despite Josephus\u2019s own opinion on monarchy\u2014provides for him the longest tribute of his biblical history. In this passage on God\u2019s rejection of Saul (1 Sam. 15:10\u201335), Josephus faces the need to explain the fall of his biblical hero after he disobeyed God by sparing the Amalekites\u2019 king Agag and the best of their cattle (1 Sam. 15:9), whereas the LORD had commanded him to destroy the people and their possessions utterly (1 Sam. 15:3). Moreover, Josephus has to deal with the theological issue of God\u2019s repentance for having elected Saul as king (1 Sam. 15:11). Josephus strives therefore to justify Saul\u2019s disobedience, as well as to elucidate God\u2019s reasons for his change of mind. Saul\u2019s story is presented by Josephus as a drama, and in particular as a peripeteia (a reversal of fortune): Saul\u2019s exultation because of the victory (in contrast to God\u2019s displeasure) and his final, irreversible decision to give the kingdom to another.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, Louis H. Josephus\u2019s Interpretation of the Bible, 509\u201336. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible, 170\u201373. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
143. He [God] therefore said to the prophet Samuel that he repented of having designated Saul as king, since he had not at all done his commands, but had acted in accordance with his own will. On hearing this, Samuel was disconcerted, and all night kept appealing to God to be reconciled with Saul and not be angry.
\n144. He, however, did not agree to a pardon for Saul despite the prophet\u2019s request, thinking it not just to indulge offenses [in response] to intercession. For there is nothing by which these are more increased than by the showing of leniency on the part of those wronged. For they, in their striving after a reputation for gentleness and kindness, engender them, concealed though this is from themselves.
\n145. When therefore God refused the prophet\u2019s prayer and made it clear that he repented, as soon as it was day Samuel went to Gilgal to Saul. When he saw him, the king rushed up and embraced him. \u201cI thank God\u201d he said \u201cwho has given me the victory. For my part, I have done everything directed by him.\u201d
\n146. To this Samuel replied: \u201cTell me then, from where I am hearing cattle and the noise of beasts of burden in the camp?\u201d He answered that the people had kept these for sacrifice. The entire race of the Amalekites had, however, been exterminated in accordance with the command and none remained; yet, he had brought to him their king, concerning whose fate they would, he said, take counsel together.
\n147. But the prophet said that the Deity was not pleased by sacrifices, but by good and just men. Such were those who followed his will and commands, and who thought nothing to have been done well by themselves other than what they did at God\u2019s direction. For it is not by failing to sacrifice to him that one despises God, but by seeming to disobey him.
\n148. \u201cFrom those who do not obey or offer the true worship that alone is pleasing to God, even if they sacrifice many fat victims, or present magnificent dedicatory offerings made from silver and gold, he does not receive these things graciously, but rejects them and regards them as proofs of iniquity rather than as piety.
\n149. \u201cRather, he takes pleasure in those who keep in mind this one thing alone, to wit, what God has spoken and commanded, and who choose to die rather than transgress any of these things. From them he seeks no sacrifice, and, if they do sacrifice anything, however humble, he will more gladly accept the honor given him by the poorest than by the wealthiest.
\n150. \u201cKnow, therefore, that you yourself are subject to God\u2019s wrath, for you have despised and ignored what he commanded. How do you imagine that he will look upon a sacrifice made from what he condemned to destruction?! Unless you think that sacrificing them to God is the same as sacrificing them to perdition! Expect, then, that you will be deprived of your kingship and authority that you have taken for granted in neglecting God who awarded it to you.\u201d
\n151. Saul admitted that he had done wrong and did not deny his sin; for he had transgressed the prophet\u2019s command. It was, however, out of anxiety and fear of the soldiers that he had not prevented or hindered them from despoiling the plunder. \u201cBut pardon and be indulgent,\u201d (he said) for he would keep himself from offending in the future. He then appealed to the prophet to return and offer thanksgiving sacrifices to God. But Samuel, seeing that God remained unappeased, departed for his home.
\n152. Saul, however, wishing to restrain Samuel, took hold of his cloak, and, since Samuel was in a great hurry to depart, he pulled it so forcibly that he tore the garment in two.
\n153. But the prophet stated that in the same way his kingdom had been torn from him and that a good and just man would receive it, for God was abiding by what he had decided concerning him, since to change one\u2019s mind and reverse\u2019s one\u2019s intention are characteristics of human emotions, rather than of divine strength.
\n154. Saul, for his part, said that, while he had acted impiously, it was impossible to undo what had been done. He, nevertheless, appealed to Samuel to show him honor in the sight of the crowd and to come with him to pay homage to God. Samuel granted him this; having accompanied him, he paid homage to God.
\n155. Agag, king of the Amalekites, was also brought to him. Upon his inquiring how bitter death would be, Samuel said: \u201cJust as you made many Hebrew mothers lament and mourn for their children, so you will cause your own mother to weep over you, once you are destroyed.\u201d Then he immediately directed that he be killed in Gilgal, while he himself went to the city of Armatha [Ramah].<\/p>\n
The Witch of Endor<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
In contrast to his generally negative attitude toward women (as one can see, for instance, in his portraits of Deborah, Jephthah\u2019s daughter, and Ruth), Josephus portrays the witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28:3\u201325) as an extraordinarily positive character in his Jewish Antiquities (6.327\u201339). This is all the more striking in light of the Bible\u2019s condemnation of her profession (Lev. 19:31; 20:6\u20137; Deut. 18:1). The historian devotes to the witch a tribute (Ant. 6.340\u201342) in which he highlights her friendly readiness to help Saul, despite the fact that Saul himself has outlawed necromancy and is a stranger to her. Moreover, he emphasizes her outstanding generosity in offering to the king her only possession (her calf); her absolute selflessness, expecting no reward for her action; and her loyalty to the king, though at first she is determined not to violate the king\u2019s prohibition.
\nPseudo-Philo, by contrast, depicts the witch as the daughter of the Midianite diviner who led Israel astray, and as a diviner herself working for the Philistines (L.A.B. 64:3, 5). Josephus may have drawn a more positive portrait of the witch in order to appeal to his non-Jewish readers, presenting a woman who, despite being a necromancer, displays some of the Jewish virtues most deeply appreciated in Greco-Roman society, such as loyalty, generosity, and hospitality. Moreover, the depiction of the scene of the witch of Endor with rather positive nuances corresponds to Josephus\u2019s general enhancement of the character of King Saul.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Brown, C. A. No Longer Be Silent: First Century Jewish Portraits of Biblical Women. Louisville KY: Westminster\/John Knox, 1992.
\nSmelik, K. A. D. \u201cThe Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 in Rabbinic and Christian Exegesis till 800 AD.\u201d Vigiliae Christianae 33, no. 2 (1979): 160\u201379.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
327. Now it happened that Saul, king of the Hebrews, banished from the country the diviners, the ventriloquists and every operative of that sort, except for the prophets. When he heard that the Philistines were already nearby and had encamped very close to the city of Shunem in the plain, he marched out against them with his army.
\n328. Coming to a certain mountain called Gilboa, he pitched camp over against the enemy. However, he was thrown into great confusion, seeing that the enemy\u2019s force was large and, as he presumed, superior to his own. He therefore asked God through the prophets to give him a prediction about the battle and its outcome.
\n329. But, as God did not answer, Saul became still more anxious and lost heart, foreseeing an inevitable calamity, since the deity was not present to support him. He then directed that a woman among the ventriloquists and those who call up the spirits of the dead be sought out for him so that he might know how matters would turn out for him.
\n330. For this class of ventriloquists brings up the souls of the dead, and through them they foretell the future to those who ask. When he was informed by one of his servants that such a woman was in the city of En-dor, Saul, unbeknown to all in the camp, having stripped off his royal garments, took with him two of his servants, whom he knew to be most trustworthy, and went to En-dor to the woman. He appealed to her to bring up for him the soul of whomever he should say.
\n331. The woman, however, declined, saying that she would not despise the king, who had expelled that class of diviners. Nor was it right for him, who had not been wronged by her, to be setting a trap for her to catch her in forbidden acts in order that she might be punished. Saul, on the other hand, swore that none would know it, that he would not tell anyone else of her divination, and that she would not be endangered.
\n332. Having convinced her by his oaths not to be afraid, he directed her to bring up the soul of Samuel for him. Not knowing who Samuel was, she called him from Hades. When he appeared, the woman, beholding a venerable and godlike man, was thrown into confusion and alarmed by the vision. \u201cAre you not,\u201d she said, \u201cKing Saul?\u201d for Samuel had disclosed this to her.
\n333. When Saul admitted this and asked her what was the source of her state of confusion, she said that she saw someone coming up with a form similar to God. Saul directed her to describe the appearance, the dress, and the age of the one she beheld and she indicated that he was an old and distinguished person, wearing a priestly cloak.
\n334. From these indications the king recognized that it was Samuel; and, falling to the ground, he greeted him and paid him homage. When the soul of Samuel inquired why he had disturbed him and forced him to come up, Saul lamented his necessity: the enemy was pressing him hard and he himself was at a loss in the present circumstances, having been abandoned by God and having obtained no prediction, whether through prophets or dreams. \u201cAnd therefore I have turned to you as someone who will take care of me.\u201d
\n335. Samuel, seeing that Saul was now at the end of his change of fortune, said: \u201cIt is pointless for you to wish to still learn from me, seeing that God has deserted you. But hear now that David must rule as king and be successful in war, whereas you must lose both your power and your life,
\n336. since you disobeyed God in the war against the Amalekites and did not keep his commands, just as I predicted to you while I was alive. Know then that the people too will be subjected to the enemy, and that tomorrow you will be with me, having fallen in battle along with your sons.\u201d
\n337. When he heard these things, Saul was made speechless by grief and sank down on the ground, either because of the pain that came upon him from the revelations, or because of hunger\u2014for he had taken no food the preceding day and night\u2014and lay immobile, like a corpse.
\n338. Once he, with difficulty, regained consciousness, the woman joined him pressing him to taste [something], requesting this as a favor from him in exchange for the risky divination. Being not permitted to do this out of fear of him, while she had not recognized his identity, she had nevertheless undertaken and accomplished it. In return for this, she appealed to him to let her set a table with food for him, so that, having recovered his strength, he might return safely to his own camp. She forced and finally persuaded Saul, although he resisted and turned away completely in his dejection.
\n339. She had a single tame calf that she had undertaken to look after and feed in her house\u2014for the woman was a day-laborer and had to be content with this as her only possession. Once she had slaughtered the calf and prepared the meat, she set it before his servants and him. And Saul during the night came to the camp.<\/p>\n
The Death of Saul<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
Throughout his portrait of Saul in Jewish Antiquities (6.368\u201372, 375\u201378), Josephus emphasizes the king\u2019s courage in military leadership and deeds: he stresses the difficulties that he faces, inflates the number of enemies he kills, and insists on his strategic skills. This is all the more true in the account of Saul\u2019s death (1 Sam. 31:1\u20132 Sam. 1:10), where the historian, unlike Pseudo-Philo, who depicts the king as a coward (L.A.B. 65:1), stresses the heroism both of the elite troop around the king and of the king himself. As for the manner of Saul\u2019s death, Josephus (who has access to 1 Sam. 31 and 1 Chron. 10, according to which Saul falls on his own sword, and 2 Sam. 1:7\u201310, where Saul invites an Amalekite to help his suicide) draws on and harmonizes the accounts of the books of Samuel, and has the king assisted in his suicide by a young Amalekite. The historian considers voluntary death a heroic act, as typical of the Greco-Roman world of his day, especially within stoic circles. Among the most famous episodes of noble death in the ancient world, one could recall Seneca\u2019s suicide under Nero, described in detail by Tacitus (Ann. 15.62\u201364), as well as the death of Socrates (Plato, Apol. 28a\u201330b), which was considered the paradigm of the stoic heroic death by the philosopher Epictetus (cf., e.g., 4.1.165). Josephus stresses Saul\u2019s desire to die a noble death on his own sword, a solution that is in line with the historian\u2019s own treatment of biblical suicide, as well as with the Rabbis\u2019 positive comments on Saul\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, Louis H. Josephus\u2019s Intepretation of the Bible. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
\nLiss, H. \u201cThe Innocent King: Saul in Rabbinic Exegesis.\u201d In Saul in Story and Tradition, edited by C. S. Ehrlich in cooperation with M. C. White, 245\u201360. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 47. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2006.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998.
\nVan Henten, Jan Willem, and Friedrich Avemarie. Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity. New York: Routledge, 2002.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
368. Once the Philistines joined the battle, a fierce fight ensued; the Philistines were victorious and did away with many of their opponents. Saul, the king of the Israelites, and his sons, fought nobly and displayed all their eagerness, as if their entire glory depended solely on their boldly facing the enemy and dying nobly, since they could do no more than this.
\n369. Thus they drew upon themselves the whole line of the enemy and perished, being surrounded, after bringing down many of the Philistines. Saul\u2019s sons were Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchishua. When they fell, the crowd of the Hebrews took flight; there was disorder, confusion, and slaughter as the enemy fell upon them.
\n370. Saul too fled, having the elite troops around himself. When the Philistines sent against him javelin-throwers and archers, he lost all but a few. He himself fought splendidly and received many wounds, so that he was no longer able to hold out or withstand the blows. Since he was too weak to kill himself, he directed his weapon-bearer to draw his sword and run him through with this, before the enemy could catch him alive.
\n371. However, as the weapon-bearer did not dare to kill his master, Saul drew his own sword, and standing over the tip, threw himself down upon it, but was incapable either to push it in or to press himself against the iron so as to run himself through. A certain youth was standing there and Saul inquired who he was. When he learned that he was an Amalekite, he appealed to him to press the sword in, because he could not do this with his own hands, and to provide him with such a death as he desired.
\n372. He did so, and after removing Saul\u2019s golden bracelet and royal crown, he left. When the weapon-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he killed himself. None of the king\u2019s bodyguards survived, but all fell on the mountain called Gilboa. [\u2026]
\n375. When the inhabitants of the city of Jabesh in the region of Gilead heard that the corpses of Saul and his sons had been mutilated, they thought that it was terrible to leave them unburied. Therefore, their most courageous men, those outstanding for their daring\u2014the city itself produces men valiant in both body and soul\u2014set out and, 376. traveling all night, came to Betshan. Advancing to the enemy\u2019s wall, they took down the body of Saul and those of his sons and brought them to Jabesh; and none of the enemy was either capable or dared to prevent them, because of their courage.
\n377. Then the Jabeshenians buried the bodies, accompanied by public weeping, in the most beautiful place in their country, called Aroura. They mourned over them with their wives and children for seven days, beating their breasts, lamenting the king and his sons, tasting neither food nor drink.
\n378. Saul ended up in this way, as Samuel had predicted, because he had disobeyed God\u2019s commandments regarding the Amalekites and because he had destroyed both the family of Abimelech and Abimelech himself, as well as the city of the high priests. He reigned as king 18 years during the lifetime of Samuel and 22 after his death. Thus Saul ended his life.<\/p>\n
David Kills Goliath<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
There are basically two different accounts of David\u2019s encounter with Goliath of Gath (1 Sam. 17): a one longer in the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text) and in most manuscripts of the Greek Bible (Septuagint, LXX), and a much shorter one found in the 4th-century manuscript of the Septuagint known as the Vaticanus. In his Jewish Antiquities (6.177\u201390), Josephus stands in an intermediate position, sometimes agreeing with the Vaticanus and sometimes agreeing with the MT. More specifically, he seems to have made use of an \u201cintermediate\u201d textual form, most similar to that represented by Lucianic manuscripts of the LXX. In his retelling of the story of David and Goliath, Josephus both enhances the role and authority of Saul and builds up David\u2019s character, despite his general tendency to downplay David. Thus, he highlights David\u2019s deference to the king, stresses his boldness and strength while confronting the lion, and enhances his piety toward and trust in God. Contrary to Josephus\u2019s usual style, God\u2019s action is highlighted in the entire passage about David\u2019s victory over Goliath, possibly in order to limit David\u2019s personal role in this achievement.
\nIn this, Josephus is paralleled by Pseudo-Philo, who has Goliath and David killed by the angel Zervihel (L.A.B. 61:5, 8). However, unlike Pseudo-Philo, the Targum, and the Rabbinic tradition, which depict the single combat as a supernatural one and stress the miraculous in the episode, Josephus avoids the spectacular and keeps himself on a human level. In his account, it is most likely David who killed Goliath, having God as weapon and ally. In fact, Josephus remarks on God\u2019s pronoia (providence) time and again in his work. However, unlike other contemporary Jewish authors, such as Pseudo-Philo, Josephus often explains the miraculous in human terms (as he does in the episode of the water at Marah in Ant. 3.8 or about the quails in Ant. 3.25), or he stresses the fact that he writes the account as he has found it in the Scripture, leaving to the reader the judgment of fact, and possibly providing a parallel for similar miraculous events (such as the episode of the Israelites in the Red Sea, Ant. 2.347\u201348). So, he does not avoid the miraculous and the supernatural, but he has a critical attitude toward them.
\nMoreover, Josephus was confronted with a contradiction in the Bible itself. There we read of three encounters with Goliath, or someone closely resembling Goliath: one with David (1 Sam. 17); one with Elhanan, who is a Bethlehemite like David (2 Sam. 21:19); and one with a nephew of David (2 Sam. 21:20\u201321). Josephus, who, like the Bible, assigns the incident of Elhanan to a later period when David is king, does not mention Goliath\u2019s name, and he describes Elhanan\u2019s opponent as the bravest of the Palestinians (Ant. 7.302). Further, he does not write about the encounter of David\u2019s nephew with the giant. Even though Josephus exalts Saul and limits David\u2019s character elsewhere, he likely could not avoid the crucial place and popularity of David in the famous passage of his combat with Goliath.
\nFor more on Josephus, see \u201cJosephus and His Writings\u201d elsewhere in this volume.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. \u201cThe David and Goliath Story according to Josephus.\u201d Le Mus\u00e9on (1999): 3\u201320.
\nFeldman, Louis H. Josephus\u2019s Interpretation of the Bible. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
177. Goliath came again, challenging and insulting them [the Hebrews] because there was no one among them courageous enough to dare to come down for battle with him. When David, who was conversing with his brothers about the things his father had commanded him, heard the Philistine defaming and abusing the army, he became indignant and said to his brothers that he was ready to go and fight the enemy in single combat.
\n178. At this, Eliab, his eldest brother, reprimanded him, saying that he was too bold for his age and ignorant of what was appropriate, and directed him to go to his flocks and father. Deferring to his brother, David withdrew, but let it be known to some of the soldiers that he intended to fight the challenger.
\n179. As they immediately disclosed the youth\u2019s intention to Saul, the king summoned him and, when he inquired what he wished to say, David answered: \u201cDo not let your mind be dejected or fearful, O king, for I will eliminate the enemy\u2019s boastfulness. Advancing against him for battle, I will strike him down, tall and great as he is, beneath me.
\n180. He would thus become an object of derision, and your army would be more famous, should he be killed, not by a man already competent in war and entrusted with battle command, but by one who seems, and in fact is, still a boy in age.\u201d
\n181. Saul admired his boldness and animation, but did not put full confidence in him because of his age, saying that on that account he was too weak to fight with an expert warrior. But David replied, \u201cI make these promises, confident that God is with me, 182. for I have had experience of his help. For once, when a lion came against my flocks and carried off a lamb, I pursued and overtook him and liberated the lamb from the mouth of the beast. When he rushed upon me, I lifted him up by the tail and destroyed him by dashing him against the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JUDGE 70A third instruction to the judge is that he should scrutinize the facts rather than the litigants and should try in every way to withdraw himself from the contemplation of those whom he is trying. He must force himself to ignore and forget those whom he has known and remembered, relations, … <\/p>\n