Josephus' Jewish War and its Slavonic Version: A Synoptic Comparison (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums 46)

720 Pages·2003·45.8 MB·English

by  H. Leeming

JOSEPHUS'JEWISH WAR AND ITS SLAVONIC VERSION
A R B E I T EN Z UR G E S C H I C H TE
D ES A N T I K EN J U D E N T U MS
U ND D ES
U R C H R I S T E N T U MS
herausgegeben von
Martin Hengel (Tubingen), Peter Schafer (Berlin),
Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht), Martin Goodman (Oxford),
Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem), Gillicrs Brcytcnbach (Berhn)
XLVI
JOSEmVS'JEWISH WAR
AND ITS SLAVONIC VERSION
A Synoptic Comparison of
the English Translation by H. St. J. Thackeray with
the Critical Edition by N.A. Mescerskij
of the Slavonic Version in the Vilna Manuscript
translated into English by H. Leeming and L. Osinkina
EDITED BY
H. LEEMING AND K. LEEMING
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2003
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Cover design by Studio Cursief I Pierre Miny Chustka (Amsterdam)
ISSN 0169-734X
ISBN 90 04 11438 6
© 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Boston
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD vii
EDITORIAL NOTE ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
N.A.ME§CERSKU: A PERSONAL TRIBUTE, Lyubov V. Osinkina xiii
A SCHOLAR AND HIS TIME, Leonid V. Finkelstein xv
TRANSLITERATION xix
ABBREVIATIONS , xxi
INTRODUCTION, N. A. MESCERSKIJ 1
I Previous work.
n The manuscripts; description and location,
in The Vilna Chronograph; description.
rv Classification of manuscripts; the 'chronographic' and the 'separate' versions.
V Josephus Flavius; his life and work; his ideology; reception of his work by Jews and
Christians; the Greek text and early translations.
VI Comparison of the Slavonic translation with the Greek original; omissions and 'additions';
source of 'additions'.
vn Language of original; suspected Aramaicisms; Syriac and Slavonic evidence for a Greek
original.
VIQ Syntactic and lexical evidence of Greek influence in the Slavonic translation. Syntactic and
lexical Graecisms; caiques; textual affiliations of the translator's Greek original.
DC Ruency and freedom of the Slavonic version; phraseology, specificity, direct speech,
rhetorical appeals.
X Philological analysis of East Slavonic phonetic, morphological, lexical characteristics of the
translation.
XI Time and place of the translation; evidence from the chronicles and other Old Russian
sources.
xn Archaisms; contradictory evidence for regional affinities.
Xni Philological account of Old Russian resources of morphology and word formation met in the
translation.
XIV The Hebrew Josippon; description; translations; comparison of Hebrew and Slavonic
versions of an episode from the Romance of Alexander, traces of Hebraic influence in the
Slavonic version; traces of the Josippon in Old Russian literature.
XV Continuing popularity of the work with Russian readers; possible connection with heretical
movements; significance for ideologues of Moscow 'the Third Rome' and 'the New
Jerusalem'. Later translations.
SYNOPTIC COMPARISON 107
COMMENTARY, N. A. MESCERSKIJ 641
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MESCERSKU'S SOURCES 683
INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES 687
INDEX OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 693
FOREWORD
Josephus Flavius' Jewish War is a unique document of ancient history. The Greek version
has been long available to anglophone scholars, with the English translation of H. St. J. Thackeray
published by the Loeb Classical Library. Hitherto the Slavonic version has remained inaccessible to
anglophone readers. In the present synoptic edition, an English translation of the Slavonic text is
made fVom N. A. Me§6erskij's scholarly edition {Istorija ludejskoj Vojny losifa Flavija v
drevnerusskom perevode. Moscow 1958) by H. Leeming (Books 1, 2, 5-7) and L. V. Osinkina
(Books 3 and 4).
The text chosen by MeSderskij constitutes the final section of a 16th-century manuscript
compendium of world history, known as the Vilna Chronograph. MeSCerskij's edition comprises: a
discursive introduction; the text punctuated by the editor and transliterated in a slightly simplified
orthography, with a full apparatus of variant readings from other manuscripts, and a series of
textological notes; a commentary chiefly concerned with the relationship of the Slavonic version to
extant Greek manuscripts; a glossary giving modem Russian equivalents of difficult Old Russian
and Slavonic words; an index of personal names; an index of geographical names.
For this project it was decided to retain from the apparatus only those variant readings which
reflected a semantic divergence, omitting orthographic or morphological alternatives, for the
appreciation of which reference to the work in the original language is essential. Additional notes
refer to variant readings and emendations in Istrin's Paris edition (Istrine V. M. La prise de
Jerusalem de Josiphe le Juif, vol. I. Paris, 1934; vol. 11. Paris 1938). It was also decided to
translate MeSderskij's Introduction and Commentary; this work was undertaken by S. Dossoun Bates
and L. V. Osinkina, respectively.
The whole work was completed, connected and prepared for publication by Henry Leeming
and Kate Leeming.