Josippon
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Josippon (
History
The Sefer Josippon was compiled in Hebrew early in the 10th century by a Jewish native of the Greek-speaking community of the Catepanate of Italy in Southern Italy, which was at that time part of the Byzantine Empire.[2] Later, Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi, a Romaniote from Ohrid, edited and expanded the Sefer Josippon.[3][4]
The first edition was printed in
The anonymous author of the work writes that he is copying from the writings of the old Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, whom the author calls Joseph ben Gorion (יוסף בן גוריון). The name "Joseph" is given the Greek ending "on", resulting in the book's title "Josephon," "Joseppon," or "Josippon".
His Arabic name "Yusibus" is, according to Wellhausen, identical with "Hegesippus". A gloss gives the form from the Italian, "Giuseppe." Trieber held the singular view that the author lived in the fourth century, and derived much of his material from Hegesippus.
Content
Commencing with
Value as a historical source
"Yosippon" was much read and was highly respected as a historical source by the Jews of the Middle Ages. Joseph Justus Scaliger in his "Elenchus Trihæresii Nicolai Serarii" was the first to doubt its worth; Jan Drusius (d. 1609) held it to be historically valueless on account of its many chronological mistakes; Zunz and Delitzsch have branded the author as an impostor. In fact, both the manuscripts and printed editions are full of historical errors, misconceptions of its sources, and extravagant outbursts of vanity on the part of the author. But there is scarcely any book in Jewish literature that has undergone more changes at the hands of copyists and compilers; Judah ibn Moskoni knew of no less than four different compilations or abridgments. The later printed editions are one-third larger than the editio princeps of Mantua.
Evolution of the title
It was perhaps due to Jerahmeel ben Solomon that the work received its traditional title "Yosippon." He supplemented his copy from Josephus, whom he designates as "the great Joseph." The original title of the work, according to Trieber, was probably "History of Jerusalem",[8] or, as a manuscript suggests, "History and Wars of the Jews." It is quoted in the Hebrew-Persian dictionary of Solomon ben Samuel (14th century), under the title "History of the Second Temple."
Literary criticism
There remains, as the nucleus of the whole chronicle, a history of the Second Temple, beginning with the apocryphal stories concerning Daniel, Zerubbabel, etc., and finishing with the restoration of the Temple under Herod. A copyist of Pseudo-Hegesippus, however, identified the "Joseph ben Gorion" (Josephum Gorione Genitum), a prefect of Jerusalem, mentioned in iii. 3, 2 et seq., with the historian Josephus ben Mattithiah, at this time governor of the troops in Galilee. This may account for the fact that the chronicle was ascribed to Joseph b. Gorion.
The book emphasized national pride rather than religious devotion. It was the first time that the biblical phrase "
Editions
- The first edition of the "Yosippon" was published in Mantua by Abraham Conat (1476–79), who also wrote a preface to it. Other editions are:
- Constantinople, 1510; arranged and enlarged, with a preface by Tam ibn Yahya ben David. It is borrowed to a great extent from that of Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi (b. 1328), published in Otzar Ṭob, 1878, i. 017 et seq.[14] The text in this edition is divided into ninety-seven chapters.
- Basel, 1541; with a De la Bigne's Bibliotheca Patrum, Paris).
- Venice, 1544; reprinted from the Constantinople edition, as were all the following editions.
- Cracow, 1588 and 1599.
- Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1689.
- Gotha, 1707 and 1710; with Münster's preface and a Latin translation and notes by Friedrich Breithaupt. Other editions appeared at Amsterdam (1723), Prague (1784), Lvov (1855).[15]
Translations and compilations
A Yiddish translation with illustrations was published by Michael Adam (Zürich, 1546; Prague, 1607; Amsterdam, 1661); it was later revised by Menahem ben Solomon ha-Levi, and published under the title Keter Torah (Amsterdam, 1743). Another Latin translation, with Tam ibn Yahya's preface, was published by Joseph Gagnier (Oxford, 1706); a French translation of Kyberus' Latin supplement by F. de Belleforest was published in Gilbert Génébrard's French translation of Josephus (Paris, 1609). The oldest extant abstract was made in southern Italy, about 1150, by Jerahmeel ben Solomon[16] and the translation of a portion by Moses Gaster.[17] Another abstract, made in 1161 by Abraham ibn Daud and used as the third book of his Sefer Seder ha-Qabbalah was published (Mantua, 1513; Venice, 1545; Basel, 1580, etc.), with Münster's Latin translation, at Worms (1529) and Basel (1559).
An English translation of this abstract was made by Peter Morvyn (London, 1558, 1561, 1575, 1608). A Yiddish compendium by Edel bat Moses was published in Kraków in 1670; the oldest German extract, under the title "Joseppi Jüdische Historien" (author not known) is described in Wolf, "Bibl. Hebr." (iii. 389). Some short extracts, in German, are given in Joseph Zedner, Auswahl aus Hebräischen Schriftstellern (pp. 16 et seq.), and in Winter and Wünsche, Die Jüdische Litteratur. iii. 310 et seq.).
In November 2022, Steven B. Bowman released his English translation of Sepher Yosippon, which is a translation of David Flusser's critical edition of the text.[18] Moreover, in 2023 an English translation of Hayim Hominer's edition of Yosippon, as well as an English translation based on the critical edition of Murad Kamil's Ge'ez text, called Zena Ayhud, are being prepared for publishing.
In the Arabic and Yemenite translations, the author is called "Yusuf ibn Qaryun."
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-974391-9
- ^ Historiography among Byzantine Jews: The case of Sefer Yosippon. Saskia Dönitz, 2012, Brill
- ^ Medieval Jewish Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, Norman Roth, 2014 p. 127.
- ^ Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, Robert Bonfil, 2011, p. 122
- JSTOR 29777757.
- JSTOR 1453342.
- ^ Histoire des Juifs, vii. 89, Paris, 1710.
- ^ as in ed. Mantua, p. 133a
- ^ Basel, 1541.
- ^ ch. i.-iii.
- David Kimchi, "Sefer ha-Shorashim," s.v.
- ^ see Kimchi on Zechariah xi. 14 [1]; also Sefer ha-Shorashim.
- S2CID 162015828.
- ^ see Berliner's "Magazin," 1876, p. 153.
- ^ see Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl." xi. 62.
- ^ See the fragments published by Neubauer, M. J. C. i. 190; J. Q. R. xi. 364.
- ^ The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, London, 1899.
- ^ "Sepher Yosippon | Wayne State University Press". www.wsupress.wayne.edu. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
Bibliography
- David Flusser, ed., Sepher Josippon . The Josippon [Josephus Gorionides], 2 vols. Jerusalem, 1978,1980;
- Shulamith Sela, "Josippon", Medieval Jewish Civilization. An Encyclopedia, ed. Norman Roth, 2003;
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gottheil, Richard; Max Schloessinger (1901–1906). "Joseph ben Gorion". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Josippon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 521. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the