Bibliography
| Title: Jewish Rights in the Roman World: The Greek and Roman Documents Quoted by Josephus Flavius Secondary Title: TSAJ 74 Type: Unknown Year: 1998 Abstract: "Lange, Nicholas R. M. de in: BJGS 23 (1998/99) 18-19:The authenticity of the official documents quoted by Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities is a question that has fuelled a great deal of debate among ancient historians, especially since the publication of a sceptical article by H.R. Moehring in the Festschrift for Morton Smith (1975). The documents concern rights and privileges said to have been granted to Jewish communities, and it is consequently a matter of the greatest importance to ascertain how reliable they are for the reconstruction of Jewish life in the Mediterranean world in the time of the late Republic and the Principate. Miriam Pucci Ben Zeev has rendered a signal service by grasping the nettle and confronting the complex issues head-on. The main part of this substantial book is occupied by a detailed study of each of the thirty documents, with in each case a full bibliography, text and translation. Line-by-line commentary and discussion. From this study it emerges clearly how similar the documents are to genuine documents of the period known from other sources. The author has no hesitation, therefore, in couching for their essential authenticity: Josephus did not forge them, even if he quotes them in a confusing and sometimes inaccurate way, and if corruptions have crept in in the course of transmission. Not content with this considerable achievement, the author has carried her investigation further in a series of essays concerned both with Josephus's methods and with the actual rights and privileges concerned. This remarkable book marks a definitive stage in the study of Jewish history and historiography in antiquity, and will certainly establish itself as an indispensable point of reference. // in NTAb 43,2 (1999) 433: The Roman and Greek documents quoted in Josephus' antiquities represent the main information that we have about the rights and privileges bestowed upon the Jews, both in Judea and in the Diaspora, by the Roman authorities in the 1 st century B.C. and A.D. After a brief survey of the evidence of Greek inscriptions and papyri, this volume presents texts, translations, and commentary for the pertinent passages in books 14, 16 and 19 of Josephus' Antiquities, offers general conclusions, and provides a table of the Jewish rights according to the documents quoted by Josephus. Then it considers whether bronze tablets concerning Jewish rights really existed, the problems of Josephus' sources, the right to follow Jewish customs and laws, the geographical and chronological validity of the Jewish rights, and whether the Jewish rights were a privilege in the Roman word. Pucci Ben Zeev, Senior lecturer in Second Temple Jewish history at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, concludes that the rights given to the Jew should be regarded not as proof or special consideration for Jewish need but rather as an application of common principles of Roman policy. // Feldman, Louis Harry in: OTA 22,3 (1999) 341-542: This volume consists of two parts. In the first, after a discussion of the nature and patterns of documents written in the Republican and Imperial periods, including decrees issued by Roman magistrates, senatus consulta, letters written by Roman magistrates, and decrees issued by the councils of Greek cities, imperial edicts, and edicts issued by Roman prefects, B.Z. gives the Greek text (with occasional modifications), the Loeb Library translation (with a few odifications), line by line commentary, and general discussion of the following thirty documents: Ant. 14.185-95, 196-98, 199, 200-1, 202-10, 211-12, 213-16, 217-22, 223-28, 228-29, 230, 231-32, 234, 235, 236-37, 237-40, 241-43, 244-46, 256-58, 259-61, 262-67; 16.160-65, 166, 167-68, 169-70, 171, 172-78; 19.278-85, 286-92, 300-12. There follows a general discussion concerning the character and features of the documents quoted by Josephus and concerning Josephus' approach to his sources, to which are appended tables concerning the rights of Jews according to these documents in Julius Caesar's time and in the period from Caesar to Claud
ius. B.Z.'s second part discusses the following topics: the testimony of Josephus and of the inscriptions as to whether bronze tablets concerning Jewish rights really existed; Josephus' literary sources; Roman and archival sources and how the documents quoted by him reached Josephus; the practical meaning of the right to live according to Jewish laws and customs from the Persian period to Claudius' days; the geographical and chronological validity of the Jewish rights; and the question of which Jewish rights were actual privileges. B.Z. concludes that both in their formal features and in their content the documents quoted by Josephus are similar to those appearing in the official documents preserved by inscriptions and papyri and that the documents are authentic. As to corruptions in the texts quoted by Josephus, she concludes that Josephus did not quote authentic, original Roman and Greek documents, but rather copies or copies of copies of these, some of which had already been translated into Greek." Keywords: Cultural and Religious History of Ancient Judaism |