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Recent research on the textual tradition of Latin versions of the Testimonium Flavianum prompts another enquiry into the original text and the transmission of the famous passage. It is suggested here that the Greek/Latin versions highlight a western/eastern early history of the Testimonium and that in turn directs our attention back to the original circumstances of its composition and publication in the city of Rome in the later years of the first century. Restored to its original historical context, the Testimonium emerges as a carefully crafted attack upon the post-Pauline community of Christ-followers in the city.
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2
Suetonius, Vesp. 5.6 described him only as “a noble captive,” omitting any reference to his literary activity. Cf. Dio Cassius, Rom. Hist. 66.1.4 (Epitome of Book 65) where the only fact worth recording about Josephus was that he had prophesied that Vespasian would become emperor.
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4
Jerome, Epistula ad Eustochium 22.35.8. Sozomen, h.e. 1.1.5 claimed he was very famous among Jews and Romans. Chrysostom, Adv. Jud. 5.8 said he was considered by the Jews to be very reliable. For the high reputation of Josephus in late antiquity and into the medieval period, see H. Schreckenberg, Die Flavius-Josephus-Tradition in Antike und Mittelalter (Leiden: Brill, 1972) and R.M. Pollard, “The De Excidio of ‘Hegesippus’ and the Reception of Josephus in the Early Middle Ages,” Viator 46.2 (2015) 65-100.
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8
Tertullian, Apol. 19.6 has him only as “the native vindicator (vindex) of the ancient history of his people.”
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23
Levenson and Martin, “The Latin Translations of Josephus,” 59.
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28
Levenson and Martin, “The Latin Translations of Josephus,” 59.
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29
Levenson and Martin, “The Latin Translations of Josephus,” 59.
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30
Levenson and Martin, “The Latin Translations of Josephus,” 26.
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37
Above all, see S. Mason, “Reading on and Between the Lines,” in Flavian Rome: Culture, Image, Text (ed. A.J. Boyle, W.J. Dominik; Leiden: Brill, 2003) 559-589; S. Mason, “Figured Speech and Irony in T. Flavius Josephus,” in Flavius Josephus and Flavian Rome (ed. J. Edmondson, S. Mason, J. Rives; Oxford: oup, 2005) 243-288; A. Vicent Cernuda, “El Testimonio Flaviano, alarde de solpada ironi,” eb 55 (1997) 355-385; 479-508.
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40
C. Pharr, “The Testimony of Josephus to Christianity,” AJPh 48 (1927) 137-147 at 143.
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50
Cicero, De or. 2.63. See Tacitus, Ann. 4.34 for the reputed eloquence of Livy.
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51
E.J. Kenney, “Books and Readers in the Roman World,” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. II: Latin (ed. E.J. Kenney, W.V. Hausen; Cambridge: cup, 1982) 12. See A.K. Gavrilov, “Reading Techniques in Classical Antiquity,” cq 47 (1997) 56-73. Cf. A.N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (Oxford: oup, 1966) 115: “All classical literature was written to be read aloud, and the recitatio is the logical development of the symposium and the public performances of classical Greece.”
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57
Suetonius, Tit. 7.1; Dio Cassius, Rom. Hist. 66.15.3-5 (Epitome of Book 65); Tacitus, Hist. 2.2. See J. Wilker, Für Rom und Jerusalem: Die herodianische Dynastie im 1. Jahrhundert n. Chr. (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Antike, 2007) 449-454.
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59
Suetonius, Claud. 25. 4, with its famous reference to trouble impulsore Chresto. Dio Cassius, Rom. Hist. 60.6.6 calls into question the idea of a comprehensive expulsion mentioned in the former. Cf. Acts 18:2. P. Lampe, From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (London: Continuum, 2003) 12 thinks the original unrest was prompted by the attempt of followers of Jesus to proclaim him in at least one of the synagogues of Rome.
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80
Carleton Paget, “Some Observations,” 581. Cf. Meier, A Marginal Jew, 61 who located his own emendations in the context “of what is otherwise a concise text carefully written in a fairly neutral—or even purposely ambiguous—tone.”
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88
L.L. Grabbe, An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism (London: T&T Clark, 2010) 80: “One of the methodological failings in so many treatments is to speak of ‘messianism’ or ‘messianic expectation’ in texts which do not use the word Messiah in any way. Some of these passages may be relevant, but this is very much a subjective judgement.”
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Search for other papers by John Curran in
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Recent research on the textual tradition of Latin versions of the Testimonium Flavianum prompts another enquiry into the original text and the transmission of the famous passage. It is suggested here that the Greek/Latin versions highlight a western/eastern early history of the Testimonium and that in turn directs our attention back to the original circumstances of its composition and publication in the city of Rome in the later years of the first century. Restored to its original historical context, the Testimonium emerges as a carefully crafted attack upon the post-Pauline community of Christ-followers in the city.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1451 | 96 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 261 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 108 | 16 | 0 |
