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| Title: Josephus as Interpreter of Biblical Law. The Representation of the High Court of Deut. 17:8-12 according to Jewish Antiquities 4.218 Pages: 30-42 Type: Generic Year: 1995 Abstract: "IZGB 41 (95/96) 269: A tentative conclusion is now offered to the solution of the interpretation of A 4:218: namely, that here Josephus refers to what he reconstructs from the biblical narratives as the Mosaic model of supreme judicial authority to replace that of Moses himself. According to this the gerousia represents the elders; the High Priest the figure of Eleazar the priest; and the ""prophet"" the figure of Joshua. The identification of Joshua as a prophet was known to Josephus and others in antiquity. The choice of the term was, no doubt, intended to stress the continuity of the prophetic function of Moses in the secular leader. If it is correct that Josephus intends to evoke the models of authority bequeathed by Moses to replace his own supreme authority, it is possible that he does so on the basis of the connection between this rule and the narratives of Ex 18,22 and Dtn 1,17, according to which Moses, as the supreme authority, is to deal with cases unresolved at local level. According to Josephus' interpretation then, this pattern is continued in that the successors of Moses, as the supreme authority, identified by Josephus as the High Priest, Joshua, and the elders, continue this function originally attributed to Moses. It my be also that Josephus' presentation here is prompted by the future orientation of the command in Dtn 17,8-13 and, in particular, the phrase appended to the list of the legal authorities in Dtn 17,9, which looks to a time beyond that of the speaker Moses. The fact that Josephus does not name Eleazar or Joshua may be motivated by the desire to represent this body as valid for a timeless present. // JSJ 27 (1996) 212: here Josephus refers to what he reconstructs from the biblical narratives as the Mosaic model of supreme judicial authority to replace that of Moses himself. According to this the gerousia represents the elders; the High Priest the figure of Eleazar the priest; and the ""prophet"" the figure of Joshua. The identification of Joshua as a prophet was known to Josephus and other in antiquity. The choice of the term was, no doubt, intended to stress the continuity of the prophetic function of Moses in the secular leader. // Levison, John Robert in: OTA 20,3 (1997) 516: The differences between the nature and composition of the supreme court in Ant. 4.218 and its source, Deut 18:8-12, are the result of Josephus' intrabiblical exegesis rather than his alleged attempt to modify the nature of his high court with an eye to the Sanhedrin in the first century. Ant. 4.218 thus owes less to contemporization that to exegesis. Josephus' introduction of references to the gerousia, the High Priest, and the prophet in his version of Deut 17:8-12, therefore, represents a theoretical ideal modeled on the biblical successors to Moses' supreme authority The Josephan gerousia corresponds to the ""elders"" of the Mosaic narratives, while the High Priest corresponds to Eleazar the priest, and the prophet to the biblical figure of Joshua." Keywords: Josephus as Theologian |