Jewish antiquities
Jewish antiquities (Greek Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία Ioudaikḗ archaiología, Latin Antiquitates Iudaicae , German also Jewish archeology ) is a work of 20 books by the Roman - Jewish historian Flavius Josephus from 93 or 94 AD, describing the Greek Jewish history inJoseph Darin Language for its non-Jewish patrons. With the Jewish Antiquities and his other great work, the Jewish War (De bello Iudaico) ,Josephus providesvaluable background information on Judaism in the first century and on the early Christian period.
Background and content
In Rome, where the Jews lived as a minority in a non-Jewish environment, Josephus came into contact with local hostility towards Jews , which he believed to be based on a lack of knowledge of the history and religious traditions of Judaism. In order to counter the hostility to Jews, the author resolved to present Jewish history to the Roman readership and at the same time to prove the old age of the Jewish people.
The period described begins with creation and extends until the outbreak of the Jewish War in 66. The work largely follows the descriptions of the Tanach , as far as they are historical, but also omits some parts. It also includes the Maccabees and Hasmoneans as well as the 1st century before and after Christ, i.e. the time of Herod the Great and his sons and the time of early Christianity . It is the main available source for this period of Hellenistic Judaism .
The title probably refers to Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία Rômaïkề Archaiología (Latin Antiquitates Romanae ), the main work of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , whose work falls in the time of Emperor Augustus .
Translations
A German translation was done by Heinrich Clementz . He translated the Greek "text edition by Dindorf (Paris, Didot 1865) using the critical edition by Havercamp (Amsterdam 1726)".
- Flavius Josephus' Jewish antiquities . Translated and provided with an introduction and comments by Dr. Heinrich Clementz. Two volumes (= Library of the Complete Literature . Volumes 1329/1339 and 1368/1380), Hendel, Halle ad p. 1899 (Volume 1: Book I to X; Volume 2: Book XI to XX plus name register). Reprints: Fourier, Wiesbaden undated [1989] (in one volume) and “Complete Edition”, Marix, Wiesbaden 2012
This German translation of the complete antiquities, which is the only one to date, should be used with caution; on the one hand the underlying Greek text is out of date, on the other hand Clementz also translated imprecise and paraphrased difficult passages. The planned new translation of the antiquities by the Josephus working group of the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum in Münster was canceled; the translation of the first book that has already been made is available on the Internet.
The translation by William Whiston from 1737 is best known in the English-speaking world . It has been printed continuously since then. In the academic context, reference is made to the more recent translation of the Loeb Classical Library . This translation is based on the critical edition by Benedikt Niese , who introduced a new way of counting. Niese changed the (previous) book / chapter / section counting to a book / section counting, which was not always taken into account when translations (e.g. Clementz) were reprinted.
Web links
- Pre-publication of a translation of the first 68 pages of the work on uni-muenster.de (PDF; 436 kB)
- Translation by Heinrich Clementz: Vol. 1: Books 1–10 and Vol. 2: Books 11–20 ; also as a "personal book" (E-Text) for the Logos Biblesoftware Vol. 1 and 2
- Greek text (ed. Niese) in the Perseus project at Tufts University
- English translation by William Whiston for the Perseus Project at Tufts University
Remarks
- ^ Abraham Schalit in Encyclopedia Judaica , 2nd edition, Volume 11, 2007, p. 438.
- ^ Introduction to his translation, p. 9.
- ↑ A revised version of Whiston's translation was published by Hendrickson Publishers in 1987.
- ^ Flavius Josephus: Jewish Antiquities . Ed .: Henry St. John Thackeray . Volume 1, pp. Xviii – xix ( archive.org )