Selections from Josephus - Kostenloses Hörbuch

Texts and Translations

The literature on Josephus is immense. It will suffice here to mention two standard editions of the Greek text and two English translations.

Older editions have been practically supplanted by the great critical edition of B. Niese in seven volumes, including a full critical apparatus and introductions on the MSS (Berlin 1887-1895). It cannot be said that Niese has established a final text; he seems to err in placing too great reliance on a single class of MSS, with the result that the true reading is often to be found in the notes rather than in the text. In his editio minor without critical apparatus (1888-1895) some corrections of the errors of the MSS have been introduced. On the basis of the older work of Bekker (1855) and with assistance from Niese, a handy edition has been issued in the Teubner series of classical authors by S. A. Naber (6 vols., Leipzig, 1888-1896). Niese’s larger edition is indispensable to the student, but that of Naber forms a useful auxiliary and check upon it. Notwithstanding Niese’s work, much remains to be done in establishing the text on a firm basis. In many difficult passages all MSS seem to have gone astray and we are left to conjectural emendation; there are also occasional small lacunæ.

In English Josephus is best known through the translation of William Whiston, first published nearly two centuries ago (1736). A revision of Whiston was produced by the Rev. A. R. Shilleto in Bohn’s Standard Library, with brief topographical notes by Sir C. W. Wilson (5 vols., London, G. Bell, 1889-1890). The revised Whiston is the most serviceable rendering of the complete works available. Whiston has many merits, but he had not access to a good text, his rendering is often at fault and he had little regard for style; while Shilleto’s revision, which appeared inopportunely just before the two modern editions of the Greek text, unfortunately leaves much to be desired.

Of a very different character is the admirable translation of the Jewish War and the Life made by the Rev. Dr. R. Traill and edited, after his death, with notes by Isaac Taylor (London, 1862). Dr. Traill fell a victim to his exertions in relieving his parishioners during the Irish famine of 1846-7, and the version which he contemplated of the remaining works never appeared. In his translation, which combines faithfulness to the original with a fastidious regard for English style, Traill went far towards accomplishing for Josephus what Jowett did for Thucydides.

My procedure in the following selections has been first to produce a version of my own, and then carefully to revise it with the help of both Shilleto’s, Whiston and Traill. In several instances I had the satisfaction of finding that my rendering practically agreed with Traill’s, but I have not scrupled elsewhere to avail myself of happy turns of expression where, as often, he had the advantage of me. Josephus, with his feeling for good style and the pains which he took to acquire it, deserves and demands much care in translation. While in parts of his work his Greek is simple and easy, passages, on the other hand, where he gives his reflections on the character, or estimates the motives, of his dramatis personæ,^[63] in the involved manner of Thucydides, are extraordinarily difficult both to understand and to reproduce in readable English.

I have selected the passages most relevant to Christian origins and New Testament study, neglecting almost entirely the first twelve books of the Antiquities.

For further literature reference may be made to the articles in the Dictionary of Christian Biography (Edersheim), the Jewish Encyclopædia (S. Krauss), Hastings’ Dictionary of the Apostolic Church (von Dobschütz), Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, Extra Volume (Thackeray), and to Schürer’s Jewish People in the time of Christ (E.T.), div. i. vol. i. pp. 77-110.

I have to acknowledge my gratitude to my sister-in-law, Miss Harriette G. Orr, for her kind assistance in the compilation of the Index.

July 1919.