Review of Klawans, Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism

BOOK REVIEW ON H-JUDAIC:

Jonathan Klawans. Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 400 pp. $74.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-992861-3.

Reviewed by Kenneth Atkinson (University of Northern Iowa)
Published on H-Judaic (March, 2013)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Rethinking Flavius Josephus as a Witness to Early Jewish Theologies

Jonathan Klawans’s monograph is a welcome addition to the increasing body of literature devoted to the works of the first-century CE Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus. Well known for his work in the history of Jewish law and ritual, Klawans in this book attempts to put Josephus closer to the center of all studies of ancient Judaism. His book focuses on Josephus’s descriptions of the three major Jewish religious movements (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes) to understand the theologies of ancient Judaism. He proposes that ancient Jewish religious disputes revolved primarily around matters of ritual law, including disagreements over the calendar, and purity practices. Through his examination of Josephus, Klawans challenges the widespread belief that Judaism was shattered by the cumulative events of 70 CE and 135 CE (First and Second Jewish Revolts). For Klawans, Josephus demonstrates that much of the vitality associated with rabbinic Judaism existed in the first century CE, and that there is no evidence that the three major Jewish movements disappeared after the 70 CE Roman destruction of the Jerusalem temple.

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