Bibliography
| Title: Josephus v. Apion: Analysis of an Argument Secondary Title: Understanding Josephus. Seven Perspectives Pages: 194-221 Type: Edited Book Year: 1998 Abstract: Paget, James Carleton in: BJGS 25 (1999/2000), 21: "Contra Apionem is a text which in recent times has begun to elicit much scholarly discussion with a number of collections of essay published, and commentaries and specialist studies promised. John Barclay makes a case for seeing Josephus' primary aim in this work as epideictit. ' He [Josephus] wishes to present Jews and Judaism in the best possible light to readers who were exposed to many contrary impressions but whom the hoped to impress' (p. 200) He goes on to examine some of the arguments employed by Josephus, drawing particular attention to their weaknesses. // Feldman, Louis Harry in: OTA 22.1 (1999), 130-131: "Josephus was clearly at an advantage over his literary opponents in being able to select which of their statements he wished to contest. Although he sometimes refers to the location of the material he cites, he probably did not expect his readers to scrutinize his sources carefully. There are sometimes grounds for suspecting that Josephus does not cite Apion exactly and may misrepresent the argument he claims to refute. Even with this advantage, Josephus does not always argue as well as we might expect. Abuse of Apion's character is Josephus1 favorite weapon throughout. In terms of ancient rhetoric this argumentative device counted for a lot. Regarding Josephus' marshalling of argument, the analysis of Contra Apionem 2.20-27 produces rather disappointing results. Sometimes his argument appears sound but insufficient, as in his denial of Apion's etymology with its lack of philological reasoning. Sometimes it carries some logical validity, but hardly the weight which Josephus imagines. Often the reasoning is artificial since the crucial steps in the argument have been inserted by Josephus himself and are not derived from his opponent. Most alarming are those occasions when, for argumentative purposes, Josephus has allowed himself to imply or state facts which contradict what he himself asserts elsewhere (e.g., in Antiquities). B. suspects that Josephus knowingly used some less than perfect arguments in his defense of what he took to be the truth." Keywords: Contra Apionem |