Bernd Bader, Josephus Latinus. De Bello Iudaico Buch 1. Palingenesia, 119. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019. Pp. 256. ISBN 9783515124300 €54,00.This book is a new edition of the pseudo-Rufinus translation of book 1 of the Jewish War.Review by Shoni Ben Lavie-Driver, Jesus College, Cambridge. sbl31@cam.ac.uk
Many scholars would be surprised to learn that we possess no fewer than three different Latin versions of works of Josephus, dating from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD. One is a translation of the Jewish Antiquities and the Against Apion in 22 books realised under the direction of Cassiodorus, and there are also two separate versions of the Jewish War. One is a Christianising reworking and appropriation of Josephus known as pseudo-Hegesippus; it is more an original work than a translation. The other version, pseudo-Rufinus, translates Josephus much more directly. ...
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