Shaye J.D. Cohen, “History and Historiography in the Against Apion of Josephus,” History and Theory, vol. 27, no. 4 [=Essays in Jewish Historiography] (December 1988): 1-11 (original) (raw)
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Josephus and his Historiographical Balancing Act
Until recently, Josephus was the most trusted and only comprehensive source in piecing together events surrounding the Great Jewish Revolt of A.D. 65 – 73. Yet Josephus was a man torn between his Jewish roots and a desire to impress his Roman benefactors. His works are often contradictory and demonstrate his torn allegiance. How much then, can we rely on the account of events he records in his work, The Jewish Wars? This publication evaluates Josephus' historiographical method, his sources, target audience and conflicting accounts and interests with a view to discerning where the historian demonstrates objectivity and where it may be compromised.
Josephus, in Oxford History of Historical Writing
It would be difficult to find another writer in Graeco-Roman antiquity such as Flavius Josephus who learned two separate, independent historiographical traditions-in Josephus' case, Greek and biblical-and combined them into unitary works of history. This chapter is not a general introduction to Josephus or a survey of his works, but an assessment of his place in the Graeco-Roman and biblical or Jewish historiographical traditions. As a Jewish priest, self-styled prophet, and self-appointed explicator and defender of Judaism, he wrote and rewrote in Greek a grand historical narrative from biblical times to his day, using Greek literary models and a biblical conception of the direction and purpose of history. As a Greek historian of the Roman Empire recounting central events in Roman history, he wrote in direct and open imitation of Thucydides, declared rigorous adherence to objective truth, quoted numerous classical authors, assiduously sought out sources, adopted Greek rhetorical techniques and historiographical topoi, paid homage to a Greek idea of tyche (Fortune) in historical processes, and translated Jewish concepts and phenomena into Greek and Roman terms. Yet in his conception of the historical process, the meaning of the past and its connection to the present, and the role of the divine in human history, he remained deeply rooted in his Jewish origins. In trying to satisfy, persuade, and educate different audiences with sometimes contradictory needs, and in trying to hammer vast, multifarious material into a coherent narrative, Josephus discovered ingenious solutions, and sometimes failed. He was well aware of the differences between Greek and Jewish historiographical traditions, and even discussed the problem openly. As a Jewish historian, Josephus reflects the currents of Jewish debate and thought of his day on the existential questions preoccupying Jews. As a Roman historian, Josephus reflects, at one and the same time, the view of Rome from the provinces, and from Rome itself where he wrote all his books.
The reception of Josephus needs no justification as the topic of this special issue of the International Journal of the Classical Tradition. In almost every nook and cranny of the early modern cultural landscape, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus makes an appearance: in theological discourses and polemics, in chronology and historiography, in biblical criticism and even in drama. What was the appeal of Josephus, and when and how was he read? Why was he the most popular of the ancient historians? Was it because of, or despite, the role of his writings within sacred history, as well as within the classical tradition, and how did early modern authors and readers respond to his status as a Jew? These are some of the questions discussed in the following essays, which are drawn from a seminar held in Oxford in 2014 under the auspices of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Josephus was a Jewish priest from Judaea who participated in the Jewish revolt against Rome which culminated in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the emperor Titus in 70 CE. Of his extant literary works, all of which survive only in Greek and translations from the Greek, the first was an account in seven books of the revolt and its aftermath, of which at least the first six books were composed, probably in Rome and primarily for Roman readers, within a decade of the end of the war. The Jewish War (Bellum Judaicum) was followed, a little over ten years later, by the monumental Jewish Antiquities (Antiquitates Judaicae), of which the first half traced Jewish history from earliest times, paraphrasing the biblical texts, and the second half brought the narrative up to Josephus's own day. Appended to the twenty books of the Antiquitates was an autobiography (Vita), which focused on Josephus's role as a rebel commander in Galilee during the war against Rome. His