Josephus Matters - Who Knew?

[Charles Wilson]

https://themarginaliareview.com/why-josephus-matters/

CW

[lsayre]

https://themarginaliareview.com/why-josephus-matters/

CW

This link doesn't work for me. I get a blank page.

[perseusomega9]

same

[Charles Wilson]

https://themarginaliareview.com/why-josephus-matters/

Just <selected> the URL and it worked for me.
Try again?

Note: I tried the Re-Posted URL just above and it worked.
I dunno.

[lsayre]

https://themarginaliareview.com/why-josephus-matters/

Just <selected> the URL and it worked for me.
Try again?

Note: I tried the Re-Posted URL just above and it worked.
I dunno.

Works now!

[Didymus914]

I'd like to see Josephus compared to Philo of Alexandria, who was also pretty damn consequential.

[perseusomega9]

Thanks for pointing us to that site Charles, lots of good articles.

[Charles Wilson]

Thanks for pointing us to that site Charles, lots of good articles.

You're welcome. Glad we're all working to a similar end.

CW

[Didymus914]

Excellent article. Thank you!

[StephenGoranson]

Steve Mason makes a very good case that Josephus matters to many people. And Josephus does come up often, here. Mason began (first paragraph):

"If we leave biblical and New Testament authors out of the frame, Flavius Josephus (37–100+ CE) was the most consequential ancient writer in the West. This claim is not provable by statistics, but a process of elimination supports it. Plato was big, Aristotle too. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius had their admirers, and every literate Roman knew Cicero and Livy. But Christian Crusaders did not take Plato into battle in the Holy Land. Thucydides was not rewritten in Latin and Hebrew versions, as Josephus was, amplifying his already huge impact. From the first to the twenty-first centuries, Josephus’ work has mattered to more people and more consistently than any other non-biblical text."

Yet his case that Josephus was, in the west, other than Bible authors, "the most consequential….From the first to the twenty-first century [it is not clear, potentially ambiguous, whether here he still limits to “ancient" ones],' perhaps could be questioned. Granted that Plato was not in every Crusaders' baggage--nor was Josephus?--but Plato and Aristotle influenced practically all later western philosophers. Including Augustine and Thomas of Aquino. Who is studied more in schools: Josephus or Shakespeare? Many lives have been affected by Freud and Marx….