1,720,986 research outputs found
Philo, the Gospel of John, and Two Moses Traditions: Traditionary Competition over a Cultural Icon
No full textThis article shows how Philo of Alexandria and the author of the Gospel of John represented Moses in contrasting ways within Hellenistic Judaism. It then argues that John's portrayal of Moses constitutes a contradiction to Philo's portrayal (and vice versa), suggesting that Philo and John represent two competing Moses traditions within first-century Judaism
Joshua as Hebrew Hero of Late Antique Christian Historiography: Iesu Naue in Pseudo-Hegesippus
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Pseudo-Hegesippus at Antioch? Testing a Hypothesis for the Provenance of the De Excidio Hierosolymitano
Full text linkA significant proportion of the meager scholarship that treats Pseudo-Hegesippus, or De Excidio Hierosolymitano, has been spent arguing about whether or not Ambrose was the author of the work. Part and parcel of this argument has been the implicit or explicit location of the text’s provenance in Rome. However, there are very good reasons for believing that the text, or the text’s author, hailed from Antioch in Syria instead; at the very least he held some significant attachment to that city. Here I argue that the text of De Excidio suggests for itself an Antiochene author. By presenting together a series of evidence that suggests an Antiochene provenance for De Excidio, I submit that scholarship should at least retain the possibility that De Excidio is a product of Antioch (or an Antiochene), as this is a more likely provenance than Rome.A significant proportion of the meager scholarship that treats Pseudo-Hegesippus, or De Excidio Hierosolymitano, has been spent arguing about whether or not Ambrose was the author of the work. Part and parcel of this argument has been the implicit or explicit location of the text’s provenance in Rome. However, there are very good reasons for believing that the text, or the text’s author, hailed from Antioch in Syria instead; at the very least he held some significant attachment to that city. Here I argue that the text of De Excidio suggests for itself an Antiochene author. By presenting together a series of evidence that suggests an Antiochene provenance for De Excidio, I submit that scholarship should at least retain the possibility that De Excidio is a product of Antioch (or an Antiochene), as this is a more likely provenance than Rome
Writing the Jews out of History: Pseudo-Hegesippus, Classical Historiography, & the Codification of Christian Anti-Judaism in Late Antiquity
No full textScholarly narratives of the development of Christian anti-Jewish thinking in antiquity routinely cite a number of standard, well-known authors: from Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr in earlier centuries to Eusebius, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine in the fourth and early fifth centuries. The anonymous author known as Pseudo-Hegesippus, to whom is attributed a late fourth-century Latin work called On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), rarely appears in such discussions. This has largely to do with the fact that this text and its author are effectively unknown entities within contemporary scholarship in this area (scholars familiar with Pseudo-Hegesippus tend to be specialists in medieval Latin texts and manuscripts). But “Pseudo-Hegesippus” represents a critical contribution to the mosaic of Christian anti-Jewish discourse in late antiquity. De Excidio's generic identity as a Christian piece of classical historiography makes it a unique form of ancient anti-Jewish propaganda. This genre, tied to De Excidio's probable context of writing—the wake of the emperor Julian's abortive attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, resurrect a robust Judaism, and remove Christians from public engagement with classical culture—renders De Excidio an important Christian artifact of both anti-Judaism and pro-classicism at the same time. This article situates Pseudo-Hegesippus in a lineage of Christian anti-Jewish historical thinking, argues that De Excidio codifies that discourse in a significant and singular way, frames this contribution in terms of its apparent socio-historical context, and cites De Excidio's later influence and reception as testaments to its rightful place in the history of Christian anti-Judaism, a place that modern scholarship has yet to afford it. As a piece of classical historiography that mirrors not Christian historians—like Eusebius and others—but the historians of the broader “pagan” Greco-Roman world—like Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus—De Excidio leverages a cultural communicative medium particularly well equipped to undergird and fuel the Christian historiographical imagination and its anti-Jewish projections
A New King David for Late Antiquity: Classical Exemplarity & Biblical Personality in Pseudo- Hegesippus
No full textIn late ancient Christian literature, King David is ubiquitous. Not simply cited as the famous author of many psalms, he almost always appears as a model of penitence, a foreshadow of Christ, or a paradigm of Christian virtues and values. But not always. In one fourth-century Christian text, King David appears in a striking and distinctive relief. This Latin text, known as De excidio Hierosolymitano (On the Destruction of Jerusalem), sometimes called PseudoHegesippus, presents King David as a figure familiar from Judaeo-Christian tradition, but in a way that resonates most strongly with classical Greco-Roman literary norms. This text rewrites Josephus’s Jewish War from a Christian perspective, and mentions David at a dozen points. In each case, David appears as an exemplum associated with a particular biblical episode or theme. Often, the treatment of these episodes in Josephus or other early Christian literature helps explain why Pseudo-Hegesippus presents David in particular lights. However, taking all of the appearances of David in De Excidio into view, this article shows that Pseudo-Hegesippus is not only beholden to biblical, Josephan, or early Christian precedents, but creatively constructs his own portrait of David within his historiographical framework. This article then suggests that this David’s rhetorical valence and distinctive character are best explained vis-à-vis the traditional (Greek and) Roman use of exempla inasmuch as Pseudo-Hegesippus’s David conspicuously lacks any of the theological, doctrinal, or ethical features so characteristic of his portrayal in most of ancient Christian literature. Pseudo-Hegesippus portrays King David in terms resonant of both Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian traditions
Whose Latin Josephus? Between Übersetzung and Bearbeitung in Latin Josephus, Pseudo- Hegesippus, and Rufinus
No full textSourcing the Second Canon: Josephus, Hebrew Heroes, and the Rhetoric of National Decline in De Excidio Hierosolymitano
No full textTo Instruct, to Rebuke, to Correct’: 2 Timothy 3:16, Josephus Against Apion 1.3, and Hellenistic Apologetic between Christian Epistolography and Jewish Historiography
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