Josephus
Jewish historian. A Syriac translation of the 6th Book of his ‘Jewish War’, entitled ‘On the destruction of Jerusalem’, features under his name at the end of the Ambrosian ms. of the Peshitta OT (7a1) as ‘the 5th Book of Maccabees’ (f. 320v–330v), since it follows I–IV Maccabees; it is also found in one other early Peshitta ms. (8g1). Quotations from other books of the ‘Jewish War’ are found especially in the Syriac translation of Eusebius’s Theophania and in Sargis the Stylite’s ‘Disputation with a Jew’; their presence in the latter suggests that the whole work may once have been translated. In Syriac mss. the name of Aesop became corrupted into Iosipos; hence the ‘Catalogue’ of ʿAbdishoʿ attributes ‘Fables’ to Josephus.
Sources
- P. Bedjan, Homiliae Selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis, vol. 1 (1905; repr. 2006), 770–837. (Text taken from 7a1; a poor earlier partial edition with GT was by H. Kottek, 1886).
- A. M. Ceriani, Translatio syra Pescitto Veteris Testamenti ex codice Ambrosiana sec. fere VI photolithographice edita (1876). (reproduction of 7a1)
- A. P. Hayman, The Disputation of Sergius the Stylite with a Jew (CSCO 339; 1973), 32*–47*.
- A. Whealey, ‘The Testimonium Flavianum in Syriac and Arabic’, NTS 53 (2007), 573–90.
How to Cite This Entry
Footnote Style Citation with Date:
Sebastian P. Brock , “Josephus,” in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018), https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Josephus.
Bibliography Entry Citation:
Brock, Sebastian P. “Josephus.” In Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay. Digital edition prepared by David Michelson, Ute Possekel, and Daniel L. Schwartz. Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018. https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Josephus.
A TEI-XML record with complete metadata is available at /tei.