JSJ 28 (1997), 154-194 enodet@gmail.com JOSEPHUS AND THE PENTATEUCH INTRODUCTION In his twenty-book Jewish Antiquities, Josephus, a high-ranking freedman of Caesar’s living at Rome, presents in Greek the history of his nation, from its ori- gins up to the eve of the Galilee war (66). For the first half, from Adam to the Exile, he follows the Bible. The purpose of this paper, prompted by a systematic study of the first four books of the Antiquities 1 , is to summarize what can be said about the Pentateuch used by Josephus 2 , in order to grant him an honorable posi- tion among the first century witnesses of the Bible 3 , despite the notorious sloppi- ness of his paraphrase 4 . The general result of the study can be outlined briefly at the outset: as he stated himself (AJ 1:5 f., CAp 1:54) he did translate from much used library books in Hebrew containing many learned corrections and glosses; this source will be termed H. The first library in which the scrolls were written, stored, corrected and used until the 70 war is most probably the Temple archive; 1. See Étienne Nodet & al., Flavius Josèphe: les Antiquités juives (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, vol. I [Books 1- 3], 2 1992; vol. II [Books 4-5], 1995). Abbr. — Field: Fridericus Field, Origenis hexaplorum quae supersunt (Oxford: Clarendon, 1875); the mention “deest Field” indicates that the verse dealt with does not appear in the extant Hexapla fragments; Hex.: variant witnessed by Aq., Sym. & Theod.; Orig.: Origen’s text and/or editing. — Loeb: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (transl. by H. St. John Thackeray, Ralf Marcus, Allan Wikgren & Louis H. Feldman; Loeb Classical Library, vols. IV-IX). Reinach: Théodore Reinach (éd.), Œuvres complètes de Flavius Josèphe. Antiquités judaïques, Guerre des Juifs (Paris, 6 vols., 1900-1932). — ∑: Massoretic text (Ket.: Ketib; Qer.: Qeré). — Niese: Benedikt Niese, Flavii Iosephi Opera (Berlin, 7 vols., 1885-1895); the mss. sigla of this editio maior are used throughout. — ≈ (A, B, S): translation of the Septuagint, see Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta (Stuttgart, 1935). L: the so-called lucianic recension, see Paul de Lagarde, Libri ueteris testamenti canonici graece (Göttingen, 1883); see also Septuaginta, uetus testamentum graecum auctoritate academiae scientiarum gottingensis (Göttingen, 1974-). — Schalit: Abraham Schalit, Namen- wörterbuch zu Flavius Josephus (Leiden: Brill, 1968). Schlatter HN: Adolf Schlatter, “Die hebräischen Namen bei Josephus”, in: Kleinere Schriften zu Flavius Josephus (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970. Paper first published in 1913.). — TYon, TNeof: Ps.-Jonathan and Neofiti targums, see: Roger Le Déaut, Targum du Pentateuque (SC, 245, 246, 261, 271; Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1978- 1980); TOnq: Onqelos targum, see Alexander Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic. Vol. I: The Pentateuch according to Targum Onkelos (Leiden: Brill, 1959). 2. For a full-scale discussion, see Étienne Nodet, La Bible de Josèphe. I – Pentateuque (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1996). 3. Louis H. Feldman, “Use, Authority and Exegesis of Mikra in the Writings of Josephus”, in Mikra (CRINT 2/1; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988) 455-518. This study is thoroughly used here, as well as the same author’s Josephus and Modern Scholarship (1937-1980) (Berlin & New York: W. de Gruyter, 1984). 4. Naomi G. Cohen, “Josephus and Scripture: Is Josephus’ Treatment of the Scriptural Narrative Similar throughout the Antiquities I-XI ?” JQR 54 (1964) 311-332, concludes from a random sampling that Books 1-5 (from Gen to 1 Sam 4) are more reworked (“hellenized”) than the subsequent ones (6-11). From another point of view, H. St. J. Thackeray, who looked for Josephus’ assistants through stylistic features, showed that a change occurred between Books 5 and 6 (see Loeb, Vol. IV, p. xvi).