Davies, Jonathan (2019) Covenant and Pax Deorum: Polyvalent Prodigies in Josephus' "Jewish War". Histos, 13. pp. 78-96. ISSN 2046-5963

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Abstract

This paper considers the question of culturally-directed doublespeak in Josephus’ Jewish War, of the possibility of Josephus sending different messages to Gentile and Jewish readers in the same text. It offers two readings of a passage in Jewish War 6 which describes the portents which prefigure the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, and explores how Josephus expresses his narrative in a way which simultaneously evokes parallels with both Roman religion and biblical prophecy and historiography, resulting in a passage which resonates radically differently depending on the parallels which the reader can bring to bear, and which inverts the cultural power-dynamic of Roman imperialism by offering greater interpretative power to those readers who come from an unprivileged provincial culture. It offers a fruitful approach to considering an author who is marked above all by hybridity, and by a mastery of more than one literary tradition.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Josephus; Judaism; Roman religion; hybridity; biblical historiography; doublespeak;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Ancient Classics
Item ID:	14072
Depositing User:	Jonathan Davies
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2021 17:01
Journal or Publication Title:	Histos
Publisher:	Newcastle University
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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