Table Of ContentMnS.Mader.205vwc 21-03-2000 14:03 Pagina 1
JOSEPHUS AND THE POLITICS
OF HISTORIOGRAPHY
MnS.Mader.205vwc 21-03-2000 14:03 Pagina 2
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
H. PINKSTER • H. W. PLEKET
C.J. RUIJGH • D.M. SCHENKEVELD • P. H. SCHRIJVERS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
C. J. RUIJGH, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM QUINTUM
GOTTFRIED MADER
JOSEPHUS AND THE POLITICS
OF HISTORIOGRAPHY
MnS.Mader.205vwc 21-03-2000 14:03 Pagina 3
JOSEPHUS AND THE POLITICS
OF
HISTORIOGRAPHY
APOLOGETIC AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
IN THE BELLUM JUDAICUM
BY
GOTTFRIED MADER
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON • KÖLN
2000
MnS.Mader.205vwc 21-03-2000 14:03 Pagina 4
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mader, Gottfried.
Josephus and the politics of historiography : apologetic and impression
management in the Bellum Judaicum / by Gottfried Mader.
p. cm. — (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.
Supplementum, ISSN 0169-8958 ; 205)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004114467 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Josephus, Flavius. De bello Judaico. 2. Jews—History—Rebellion,
66-73—Historiography. I. Title. II. Series.
DS122.8.J83 M33 2000
933’.007’202—dc21 00–022449
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
[Mnemosyne / Supplementum]
Mnemosyne : bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. – Leiden ;
Boston ; Köln : Brill
Früher Schriftenreihe
Teilw. u.d.T.: Mnemosyne / Supplements
Reihe Supplementum zu: Mnemosyne
205. Mader, Gottfried: Josephus and the politics of historiography – 2000
Mader, Gottfried:
Josephus and the politics of historiography : apologetic and
impression management in the Bellum Judaicum / by Gottfried Mader. –
Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2000
(Mnemosyne : Supplementum ; 205)
ISBN 90–04–11446–7
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN 90 04 11446 7
© Copyright 2000 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................... vii
Preface .................................................................................................. ix
Chapter One. Means and Ends .......................................................... 1
1. Premise ........................................................................................ 1
2. Josephus and Classical Historiography ...................................... 5
3. Josephus and the Jewish Insurgents ............................................ 10
4. Method ....................................................................................... 17
Chapter Two. Manufactured Motives: A ‘Rationalist’ Model of
Cause and Effect ............................................................................... 19
1. Spes credula—Apocalypse Now (6.283-288) .................................. 19
2. Ka‹ ¶rvw §n°pese to›w pçsin... (2.345-347) ................................... 25
3. Animus turpis admissi memor (6.2-4) ................................................. 30
4. De-Mythologizing Beth Horon (2.517-518; 3.9-25) .................... 37
5. Auri sacra fames (5.556-560) ........................................................... 48
6. Summary .................................................................................... 52
Chapter Three. The Semantics of Stasis: Some Thucydidean
Strands in BJ 4.121-282 .................................................................. 55
1. Josephus and Thucydides as Krisenhistoriker .................................. 56
2. Enter ÉIvãnnhw doli�tatow (4.103-135) ....................................... 67
3. Iusque datum sceleri: Meaning Destabilized
(4.138-146; 147-157) .................................................................... 73
1. Predicate and prÒfasiw (4.138-146) ........................................... 75
2. The appointment of Phanni (4.147-157) ...................................... 77
4. ÉEtÊmouw to›w prãgmasi tåw klÆseiw §farmÒzein :
Meaning Reconstituted (4.162-192) ............................................ 82
5. Deception Unmasked: John and the Idumaeans
(4.193-235) ................................................................................... 87
6. The Grand Antilogy as Self-Reflexive Discourse
(4.236-282) ................................................................................... 92
7. Summary .................................................................................... 101
vi contents
Chapter Four. Message and Medium: Further Lines of Cohesion ...... 105
1. ÉAriste¤a, Art and Ideology ....................................................... 105
1. Longinus (5.309-316) .................................................................. 106
2. Sabinus the Syrian (6.54-67) ......................................................... 108
3. Julianus the Bithynian (6.81-91) ................................................... 110
4. Jonathan, Pudens and Priscus (6.169-176) .................................... 112
5. Longus (6.186-189) ..................................................................... 115
6. Simon (2.469-476) ..................................................................... 117
7. Form and function ....................................................................... 119
2. Kine›n tå ék¤nhta: Dramatizing és°beia .................................... 123
3. Diet and Design in BJ: stãsiw, sparagmÒw and
éllhlofag¤a ................................................................................ 133
Chapter Five. Model and Mirror: Impression Management by
Intertextual Strategy ........................................................................ 147
Bibliography ......................................................................................... 159
Indices
Index of Passages .............................................................................. 167
General Index ................................................................................... 171
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a pleasant duty to record various debts of gratitude incurred during
the writing of this essay. Professor Mireille Hadas-Lebel (Paris) responded
to queries and kindly sent me materials to which I would not otherwise
have had access. For hospitality, encouragement and valuable suggestions
on repeated occasions I wish to thank Professors Klaus Rosen and Otto
Zwierlein (Bonn), Franz Römer (Vienna) and Gerhard Petersmann
(Salzburg); a substantial part of my work on Josephus was done at their
institutes, which provided a congenial environment for reflection and
writing. The usual disclaimers apply. Several visits to these centres were
made possible by generous research funding from the University of South
Africa, for which I express my sincere thanks. The Centre for Science
Development (HSRC, South Africa) also contributed in part towards my
travel costs on my last visit in 1998.
Pretoria Gottfried Mader
August 1999
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PREFACE
Commentators on Josephus widely agree that the present form of Bellum
Judaicum presupposes a substantial Greco-Roman influence, but such
claims often rest on little more than broad generalizations or inventories of
lexical and thematic parallels. And from here it is just a short step to the
dubious conclusion that the classical features in BJ are simply a matter of
style or superficial ornatus. One reason, no doubt, for this lack of critical
interest in Josephus’ use of his classical predecessors and his adaptation of
generic conventions is the traditional bias of Josephan research, which has
tended to emphasize the theological, historical and political aspects over
questions of composition, literary artistry and intellectual affiliation. But
the works that have ‘traditionally been a hunting-ground for theologians’
(Rajak [1983] 79) are much more than that, and it has well been remarked
that ‘the time has come to realize that Josephus’ works contain more than
what theologians sought therein: secular history prevails over sacred
history’ (Hadas-Lebel [1994] 106). And secular history is related to the
question of secular historiography. It is time to reconceptualize the
question of Josephus’ intellectual affiliation to his classical predecessors and
to the nÒmoi t�w flstor¤aw, to consider the work’s classical and generic
features in other than just formal-stylistic terms, and to pay closer attention
to the neglected literary, artistic and structural aspects of BJ.
The main thesis of this essay is that there is a demonstrable correlation
between Josephus’ use of classical themes and generic conventions on the
one hand, and his tendentious interpretation of the Jewish revolt on the
other—between his historiographical method, that is, and his political
agenda. Both areas have indeed long been recognized as significant issues
in their own right, but have traditionally been treated apart from each
other. I argue instead that they are not only closely interconnected, but
that each can be better understood when they are analysed in tandem and
as a conscious reciprocity. At the intersection of these two lines, it is
proposed, we can get a clearer picture of the historian who stands
intellectually between Jerusalem and Rome.
In an attempt to do justice to a question of this complexity, each
chapter consciously takes a different perspective and approach. The first
surveys recent opinion on Josephus’ relationship to classical historiography,
reviews his treatment of the Jewish insurgents, and then suggests how these
