Christian Uses of the Works of Josephus: A General Survey

The works of the first-century C.E. Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius (Yosef ben Mattityahu), were preserved by Western and Eastern Church Fathers. There are a greater number of manuscripts of Josephus` writings than of any other ancient Greek or Latin writer, and with the invention of printing, his volumes became extremely popular. In recent decades, the reception of Josephus` The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, and Against Apion, for the most part, has been a subject of numerous studies which focus on a particular book; treatment of important passages or chapters; or later uses of Josephus. Unfortunately, there is very little scholarship on reception of Josephus in Hebrew, whose readers`/scholars` interests lie mainly in identification of archeological sites, the history of the Second Temple period and the complex persona of Josephus. In order to correct this lacuna, I shall present a general, comprehensive survey of Christian uses of and of recent scholarship on reception of Josephus, in Hebrew.