To Dierk:
I wrote (to Dave Hindley) that I did not see the relevance of the
"military supply" you mentioned for determining Josephus' audience. You
replied,
> The ancient Romans had seen the relevance pretty well.
Could you explain the relevance to me, please?
To George Brooks, who wrote:
> While your vigorous prose serves you well,
If I wrote with more vigour than substance, I apologize. The reasons for
my urgency are two:
One, I am currently working on a paper on the differences among the
sects according to Josephus (particularly the use of heimarmene in AJ
13.171-173). If I am making any serious errors of judgement about
Josephus' audience, I would like to know it before I submit this paper.
Two, (forgive my naïveté or arrogance, whichever it is) I was sincerely
surprised that anyone would propagate on the respectable Orion list what
seemed to me uninformed guesses about Josephus' audience. By uninformed
I meant in conflict with yet not in dialog with current scholarly
discussions.
> And certainly there were other high placed Jews who would
> enjoy a nice dinner with their Roman friends or patrons, and
> would *hear* the writings of Josephus read out to the
> assembled guests. And this would happen both in Rome and in
> the Syrian territories.
Thank you for your corrective. My reply to Heb Basser reflects its
influence.
To Herb Basser, who wrote:
> I find it difficult to imagine Jos didnt have at least some
> jews in mind
> when he keeps writing apologies to hius brethren jews for
> saying things he
> does and tries to reassure themn he is not revelaing to much
> of things.
>
> Of course he expected Jews to read his work and addresses them in his
> work.
Ok, maybe I overstated my case.
I can see the sense in imagining that Josephus figured some Jews might
hear his work when they were invited to a reading of Josephus' works put
on by his friends who had copies made for themselves (something like
what George Brooks described). This is different than imagining that
Josephus was writing for a Jewish audience.
Steve Mason writes in his intro. to AJ: "That a fellow-Judean might read
his work he leaves open as a possibility, at least for the rhetorical
purpose of defending his arrangement of the laws (Ant. 4.197), but he
assumes the posture of an insider relating his story to outsiders."
Are there other passages in which Josephus addresses Jews?
In the end, for the practical purposes of deciding what Josephus meant,
we need to think of his primary audience. I still think it is not
helpful to think of this primary audience as Jewish.
I also feel frustrated that we are chasing a red herring (and may be
getting off topic for the Orion list); In the quest to figure out why
Josephus might say "Essenes, being Judeans/Jews...," most respondents
have addressed the question of who might be predisposed to think the
Essenes were NOT Jews.
I still think this was NOT a misconception Josephus was trying to
correct, but I have had no feedback here.
I base my view on the men-de construction in BJ 22.119 (here quoted
without the relative clause):
TRITON DE ESSHNOI KALOUNTAI,
IOUDAIOI MEN GENOS ONTES,
FILALLHLOI DE KAI TWN ALLWN PLEON.
Is he not expressing a balance between being Judeans/Jews and being a
tight-knit group?
He is trying to anticipate or correct the misconception that their
relative closeness implies a repudiation of their Jewishness or of all
other Jews, is he not?
Ken Penner, M.C.S. (Regent College), M.A. (McMaster)
Ph.D. Student, Religious Studies, Biblical Field (Early Judaism major)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For private reply, e-mail to "Penner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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