Translations, adaptations and transformations of Scripture in Flavius Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews (original) (raw)

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Translations, adaptations and transformations of Scripture are profoundly examined in Flavius Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews". Josephus approaches the difficult task of rendering the David-Bathsheba narrative in a manner that resonates with a Roman audience, raising questions about his intentions in translating sacred texts. Through this exploration, the paper highlights the ideological and cultural implications of Josephus’ adaptations, emphasizing the nuances of translation beyond mere linguistic transposition.

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176*. “Approaches towards Scripture Embraced by the Ancient Greek Translators,” Revised version: Emanuel Tov, Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran (2008), 325–38.

This study focuses on the philosophy behind the approaches of ancient translators towards Hebrew/Aramaic Scripture. The background of these approaches can be researched more easily now than two generations ago, as the recently discovered Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek manuscripts from the Judean Desert provide us with new insights into individual scribes and translators from antiquity. 1 The major focus in this discussion is upon the general approaches of translators, which are usually expressed in terms of "freedom" and "literalism" in the case of translators and "carefulness" and "carelessness" when referring to scribes, while realizing that these terms are very general.

The Tasks of the Translators: The Rabbis, The Septuagint and the Cultural Politics of Translation

This article traces the development of rabbinic legends surrounding the creation of the Septuagint. It places these texts in the context of their Hellenistic antecedents and Christian parallels. I argue that the different rabbinic versions of the Septuagint legend reflect the rabbis' concerns and anxieties not only about the Septuagint, but also about their own self-defined position as transmitters of the Mosaic tradition in a world in which they are challenged both by a hegemonic Greco-Roman culture and numerous other groups claiming to be the true inheritors of the prophets. r abbinic accounts of the Septuagint legend present a rare opportunity for scholars to use rabbinic narratives for historical and literary study beyond the narrow confines of the world of the beit midrash and to shed light on the broader history of religion in Greco-Roman antiquity. In general, rabbinic litera-ture is famous for its insularity with regard to other literary traditions. Rabbinic texts almost never make reference to literary works outside the Bible and the rabbinic canon. Similarly, the postbiblical traditions that they relate rarely have direct parallels in other literary traditions, except occasionally in Josephus. The rabbinic Septuagint narratives, however, stand firmly within a broader cultural context. They refer directly to, and even purport to quote from, the Septuagint, the central text of Greek-speaking Judaism in antiquity and a work of crucial significance to early Christianity. Further, these narratives are a part of a literary

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