Subproject 2: Latinitas Iudaica

The Use of Latin Sources in Yosippon

René Bloch, Carson Bay

Our cluster has explored the reception of Josephus Latinus and other Latin sources in the Sefer Yosippon, a 10th-century historiographical work written in Hebrew, probably in Southern Italy. The Yosippon is remarkable evidence for the Jewish reception of pagan and Christian(-ized) Latin literature and our focus has been on how the Yosippon rewrites and reclaims Latin sources and contextualizes these changes and adaptations in light of contemporary political and cultural conditions. We were interested in the extent to which the Jewish minority in 10th-century southern Italy could participate in the intellectual goods of the Christian majority. Using the example of the Hebrew Yosippon – created from a plethora of sources, many of them Latin – we examined how Josephus Latinus (primarily the De excidio but also the Antiquities) was rewritten from a Jewish perspective and thereby “reclaimed” for Judaism. At the same time, the use of pagan and Christian sources – in both cases transmitted by Christians – in the Yosippon constitutes a case study of Jewish reception in the Christian-dominated power structures of Byzantium.

Publications include:

Bay, Carson (2020) “Jewish National Decline and Biblical Figures as Classical Exempla in Pseudo-Hegesippus: Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and Elisha in De Excidio 5.2.1,” Journal of the Bible and Its Reception 7, no. 2: 167–204.

Bay, Carson (2021) “Pseudo-Hegesippus and the Beginnings of Christian Historiography in Late Antiquity,” Studia Patristica CXXVI: 255–66.

Bay, Carson (2021) “A New King David for Late Antiquity: Classical Exemplarity & Biblical Personality in Pseudo-Hegesippus,” Journal of Early Christian History 11. 2: 1–49.

Bay, Carson (2021) “Writing the Jews out of History: Pseudo-Hegesippus, Classical Historiography, & the Codification of Christian Anti-Judaism in Late Antiquity,” Church History 90, no. 2: 265–85.

Bay, Carson (2021) “Exemplarity, Exegesis, & Ethnography: Abraham in Pseudo-Hegesippus as a Test Case for Biblical Reception in Christian Late Antiquity,” Journal of the Bible and Its Reception 8. 1: 35–59.

Bay, Carson (2021) “Disease and the Christian Discourse of Jewish Death in De Excidio Hierosolymitano 5, 2,” Vox Patrum 77: 247–72.

Bay, Carson (2021) “On the Multivocality of the Latin Josephus Tradition: A Comparison Between the Latin War, Latin Antiquities, Pseudo-Hegesippus, and Rufinus Based on the Egyptian Pseudo-Prophet Episode (War 2.261–263, Antiquities 20.169–172a),” Medaevalia et Humanistica 46: 1–36.

Bay, Carson (2022) “Reinventing the Hammer: Judah the Maccabee and the Hasmonean Legacy in Sefer Yosippon,” in J. W. van Henten (ed.), The Books of the Maccabees: Literary, Historical, and Religious Perspectives. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium CCCXXVIII. Leuven: Peeters, 663–76.

Bay, Carson (2022) “Contagion of the Jews: Metaphorical and Rhetorical Uses of Sickness, Plague, and Disease in Pseudo-Hegesippus”, Studies in Church History 58: 8–27.

Bay, Carson (2022) “The Jerusalem Temple and Jewish Identity Between Pseudo-Hegesippus & Sefer Yosippon: The Discursive Aftermath of Josephus’ Temple Ekphrasis,” European Journal of Jewish Studies 16: 1–25.

Bay, Carson (2022) “The ‘Maria Story’ in Greek, Latin, & Hebrew: The Teknophagia Episode (BJ 6.201-13) in Josephus, Latin Josephus, Rufinus, Pseudo-Hegesippus, and Sefer Yosippon with Introduction, Texts, Translations, Notes, & Commentary,” Judaica 3: 1–105.

Bay, Carson (2023) Biblical Heroes & Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, & Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Reviews: Kelsie G. Rodenbiker, Journal for the Study of the New Testament 46, no. 5 (2024): 95; Agnès Molinier Arbo, Histos 18 (2024): xxii–xxviii [French]; Michael P. Hanaghan, Plekos 25 (2023): 699–705.

Bay, Carson (2024) “A Rose Among Thorns? Reading Pseudo-Hegesippus (De excidio Hierosolymitano) Amidst the Latin Josephus Tradition,” in K. Kletter and P. Hilliard (eds.), A Companion to the Latin Josephus in the Western Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 36–60.

Bay, Carson (2024) “Killing Matthias: De Excidio 5.22 and Sefer Yosippon 81 (פא),” in C. Bay, M. Avioz, and J. W. van Henten (eds.), From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond: Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 215. Leiden: Brill, 368–89.

Bay, Carson (2024) “Pseudo-Hegesippus: Classical Historian? Latin Roman Historiography between De Excidio Hierosolymitano, the Historia Augusta, and Ammianus Marcellinus,” in O Devillers and B. B. Sebastiani (eds), Sources et modèles des historiens anciens, 3. Scripta antiqua. Bordeaux: Ausonius Éditions, 293–301.

Bay, Carson (forthcoming 2025) “The Subaltern Speaks, in Hebrew: Medieval Judaism, Marginalized Voices, & the Significance of Sefer Yosippon”, Medieval Encounters.

Bay, Carson (forthcoming 2025) “Orosius in Hebrew? Sefer Yosippon 8 (ח) & the Sources of its Cyrus-vs-Scythians narrative between Orosius (2.7) and Herodotus (1.201–15)”, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies.

Bay, Carson (forthcoming 2025) “The Semitic Josephus Traditions: Maria’s teknophagia in Syriac, Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Copto-Arabic, and Ethiopic,” in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.

Bay, Carson – Avioz, Michael –van Henten, Jan Willem (eds) (2024) From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond: Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 215. Leiden: Brill.

Bay, Carson – Avioz, Michael – van Henten, Jan Willem (2024) “Introduction: Josephus, Yosippon and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of a Josephan Legacy in Modern Scholarship,” in C. Bay, M. Avioz, and J. W. van Henten (eds), From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond: Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 215. Leiden: Brill, 1–22.

Bay, Carson – Ellis, Anthony (forthcoming 2025) “Introduction: The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism in Latin Europe,” in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.

Bay, Carson – Ellis, Anthony – Mania, Judith – Moscone, Sara – Tröger, Lena (eds.) (forthcoming 2025), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basel: Schwabe.

Bloch, René. 2021. ‘How much Hebrew in Ancient Alexandria?’ in J. Frey; T. J. Kraus, J. Rüggemeier, B. Schliesser (eds.), Alexandria – Hub of the Hellenistic World. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 261–278.

Bloch, René. 2021. ‘Jew or Judean: The Latin Evidence’, in V. M. Lepper, J. Schröter, M. Witte (eds.), Torah, Temple, Land: Constructions of Judaism in Antiquity. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 231–242.

Bloch, René; F. Bakker, Arjen; Fisch, Yael; Fredriksen, Paula; Najman, Hindy (eds.). 2022. Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism. Leiden: Brill.

Bloch, René; Pearce, Sarah. 2022. What is Hellenistic Judaism? Special issue of the Journal for the Study of Judaism. Journal for the Study of Judaism 53.4–5, 459–464.

Bloch, René. 2022. Ancient Jewish Diaspora. Leiden: Brill.

Bloch, René. 2023. ‘Der Verlust des Tempels in der jüdischen Erinnerung: “Nächstes Jahr in Jerusalem”, in Damals. Das Magazin für Geschichte , 55, 42–44.

Bloch, René. 2023. ‘Testa incognita: The History of the Pseudo-Josephus Bust in Copenhagen’, in R. Brody (ed.), “A Vision of the Days”: Studies in Early Jewish History and Historiography in Honor of Daniel R. Schwarz. Leiden: Brill, 419–442.

Bloch, René. 2025. ‘Shifting Grounds: The Letter of Aristeas in Azaria de’ Rossi’s Meor Enajim’, in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.