Topic for the Year 2013–2014 (Year 51):
Rethinking Josephus’ Antiquities
Co-Chairs: Alex Ramos (UPenn),
Jae Han (UPenn),
and Jacob Feeley (UPenn)
PSCO Coordinator: Annette Yoshiko Reed (Penn)
I see that those who wish to compose histories do not have one and the
same motive for their zeal; rather, their reasons are many and very
different from one another.
(Josephus, Antiquities 1.1)
The works of the first-century CE Jewish historian Josephus are widely
recognized as the most important Jewish historical sources from
antiquity. They are invaluable not only for the study of Jewish history
but also for the study of the early Roman Empire and the beginnings of
Christianity. Nevertheless, Josephus’ magnum opus, the Antiquities—a
twenty-volume account of Jewish history from Creation to the first
Jewish revolt against Rome—remains understudied. Scholars have tended to
mine this work for exegetical or historical information, rather than
exploring its larger themes and aims. Its account of the Hellenistic and
early Roman periods have been studied in relative isolation from its
“biblical retellings.” Disciplinary divisions have resulted in different
conceptions of the Antiquities—that is, either as Jewish biblical
retelling or as Greek historical writing.
Our aim for the 51st PSCO is to work towards a more integrative
understanding of the Antiquities. We plan to divide the work into five
sections and hold a series of five text-centered sessions. In each
session, the speaker will be asked to speak to issues or problems that
he or she considers to be important for understanding the section in
question. As a group, then, we will move sequentially through the
entirety of the Antiquities over the course of the year.
We will also explore the Antiquities from the perspectives of different
subfields. Rather than inviting only specialists in Josephus, we will
draw speakers from the fields of Biblical Studies, Classics, Ancient
History, and early Christianity. In the process, we plan to use a focus
on the Antiquities to explore new approaches to history, memory, and
writing in antiquity.
What comparanda from among Hellenistic, Roman, Jewish, and Christian
texts help to locate the discourses about the past in the Antiquities?
Are the traditional categories of “biblical retelling” and Greco-Roman
historiography an impediment to interpreting the Antiquities as a whole?
Are there other, more useful categories? These are some of the
overarching questions that we hope to address through this year's PSCO.
Alex Ramos, Jacob Feeley, and Jae Han are organizing our sessions this year.
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