Bibliography
| Title: The Debut of the Divine spirit in Josephus's Antiquities [Num 22-24] Secondary Title: HThR Volume: 87 Pages: 123-138 Type: Journal Article Year: 1994 Abstract: IZGB 41 (1995/1996), 268-269: "A 4:108.118.119 (his version of Num 22-24) contains the highest concentration of references to the divine spirit in contrast to his tendency elsewhere to omit such references eliminating all other references in the Torah. The divine spirit appears (as an angel) first to the ass. A 4:102-130 is a focal point for Josephus's understanding of inspiraton. Plutarch's De defectu oraculorum provides synchronically in summery form the source of Josephus's interpretation".
Collins, John J.: "On Josephus' version of Numbers 22-24. In this article the author uses Josephus's version of Numbers 22-24 to examine how he conceived of the divine spirit. Elsewhere in the Antiquities Josephus repeatedly deleted references to the divine spirit, with the result that this story contains the densest concentration of them. The original biblical text actually describes the being which Balaam's ass perceives as an angel, which Josephus then identifies as the divine spirit. Other scholars have already recognized that this move reflects a Jewish tradition also apparent in such texts as the nonbiblical Hebrew scrolls at Qumran. Levison suggests, however, that Greco-Roman influence can be detected here as well. Balaam describes inspiration in terms of an angelic being which enters someone, or takes on bodily form of its own and compels utterances of its choosing. This notion of an invading being does not have antecedents in the Bible, but it is very much like the description Plutarch gives in De defectu oraculorum. This fact, along with the interpretation of sacrifice as pyromancy and the use of the verb e/piqeia/zein , persuade Levison that in his description of the divine spirit, Josephus stands at a "juncture of the Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds". Such a view of inspiration as Josephus describes serves the apologetic function of forestalling other, cruder readings of the text by preserving God's transcendence, while also following a theory of oracular utterance that was familiar to a Gentile audience". Keywords: Antiquities |