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Binyam, Y. (2017). Studies in Sefer Yosippon: The Reception of Josephus in Medieval Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic Literature. Retrieved from http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_SUMMER2017_Binyam_fsu_0071E_14085
In this dissertation I analyze the reception of Josephus in Ethiopia by way of the Hebrew Sefer Yosippon, its Latin sources, and its subsequent Arabic translations. I provide the first English translations and comparative analysis of selected passages from the Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic texts that transmit Josephus’s Jewish War. The first part of this project provides an introduction to four texts that play important roles in the transmission of Josephus’s Jewish War from first-century Rome to fourteenth-century Ethiopia: the fourth-century Latin De Excidio Hierosolymitano, the tenth-century Hebrew Sefer Yosippon, the twelfth-century Arabic Kitāb akhbār al-yahūd, and the fourteenth-century Ethiopic Zena Ayhud. After discussing the critical issues related to these texts, the second part of the dissertation presents a detailed comparison of the receptions of the famous story of Maria found Josephus’s account of the siege of Jerusalem. I pay close attention to the redactional changes made by the author of each text and note the ideological, cultural, rhetorical, and historical factors that lie behind the various editorial activities. Ultimately my research seeks to contribute to our understanding of the way in which non-western cultures receive the historiographical traditions of the classical period. In doing so, it will highlight the uniqueness of understudied literary and historiographical traditions that flourished in the medieval period.
Ethiopic Studies, Josephus, Reception, Sefer Yosippon
Date of Defense
July 17, 2017.
Submitted Note
A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references.
Advisory Committee
David B. Levenson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter P. Garretson, University Representative; Matthew J. Goff, Committee Member; Nicole E. Kelley, Committee Member.
Publisher
Florida State University
Identifier
FSU_SUMMER2017_Binyam_fsu_0071E_14085
Binyam, Y. (2017). Studies in Sefer Yosippon: The Reception of Josephus in Medieval Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic Literature. Retrieved from http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_SUMMER2017_Binyam_fsu_0071E_14085