Any other English translations of Josephus
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 10:10 pm
Does anybody here know if there are other English translations, besides William Whiston's,
available?
available?
Investigating the roots of western civilization (ye olde BC&H forum of IIDB lives on...)
https://earlywritings.com/forum/
There are two Loeb editions. Look for Josephus here. It has links to Archive editions of Josephus (ie online) as well as the currently sold Loeb editions. Thackeray, Marcus & Feldman each have edited and translated sections of the works of Josephus for Loeb.Premo316 wrote:Does anybody here know if there are other English translations, besides William Whiston's,
available?
Thanksspin wrote:There are two Loeb editions. Look for Josephus here. It has links to Archive editions of Josephus (ie online) as well as the currently sold Loeb editions. Thackeray, Marcus & Feldman each have edited and translated sections of the works of Josephus for Loeb.Premo316 wrote:Does anybody here know if there are other English translations, besides William Whiston's,
available?
It's centuries old, less accurate, uses words and word senses that will confuse the reader and a system of numbering that is obsolete. Besides that, it's free.steve43 wrote:Whiston is what I use.
Is there anything hugely controversial about his translation?
A few rough examples from AJ 18.63-64:steve43 wrote:Less accurate in any substantive way? Thanks for being specific.
If you want to think that a translation made in 1737 is just as accuirate as one made in the 19th, 20th or 21st century, good luck with that.steve43 wrote:Less accurate in any substantive way? Thanks for being specific.
Text: |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name: | Calculated year of birth (Anno Mundi) | Age at birth of son per text | Calculated year of birth of son (Anno Mundi) | age at death per text | Calculated year of death (Anno Mundi) |
SARUG | 2927 | 132 | 3059 | Not given | |
NAHOR | 3059 | 79 | 3138 | Not given | |
TERAH | 3138 | 70 | 3208 | 205 | 3343 |
ABRAAM | 3208 | 100 | 3308 | 175 | 3383 |
Text: |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
Josephus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name: | Calculated year of birth (Anno Mundi) | Age at birth of son per text | Calculated year of birth of son (Anno Mundi) | age at death per text | Calculated year of death (Anno Mundi) |
SARUG | 2927 | 132 | 3059 | Not given | |
NAHOR | 3059 | 120 | 3179 | Not given | |
TERAH | 3179 | 70 | 3249 | 205 | 3384 |
ABRAAM | 3249 | 100 | 3349 | 175 | 3424 |
You may be right about Mahor being a typo.andrewcriddle wrote:I think Mahor is a typo Introduced in Nimmo's late 19th century edition of Whiston's translation.
Andrew Criddle
DCHTHESE three volumes, comprising the “Life” and “ Antiquities,” form the first instalment of a revision of Whiston’s well-known translation of Josephus, which first saw the light in 1736, and has since that time retained the field, not so much from its intrinsic merit, as from the fact that the magnitude of the work, and the want of a good critical edition of Josephus’ Greek Text, has deterred scholars from the Atlantean labour of a new translation. In my revision there is, indeed, not much of Whiston left, though I have retained him where practicable. In revising him, I have amended his baldness, pruned and curtailed his archaisms, corrected his misspelling of names and mistranslations, and generally speaking been throughout close to the text where he has been turgid and paraphrastic. There are also frequently short omissions in Whiston’s translation. These I have restored.
With regard to Whiston’s Notes, some I have retained, some curtailed, some erased. Those I have omitted have been omitted on the following grounds. Many of them are puerile, many irrelevant, some based upon a less pure Greek text, some obtruding Whiston’s very strange and erratic notions on religion, some absolutely incorrect. I have added a W to all the Notes of Whiston which I have retained. The few critical Notes are my own.
Sir C. W. Wilson, one of the heroes of Khartoum, and well known earlier as one of the pioneers of Palestine Exploration, is responsible for the Geographical and Topographical Notes.
Josephus and his works are so well known, and so deservedly popular, that there is no need here to say anything about him or them. But one word is due as to the text which I have used in this revision. Neither the edition of Niese, nor the first instalment of that of Naber in the Bikbliotheca Teubneriana, appeared in time for me to make any use of them. I have translated from the edition of Diudorf, in the Didot collection of editions of Classical works, Paris, 1865.
With these few words I commend my revision of Whiston to the theological and general reader. These three volumes will at no distant date be followed by two more, which will contain “ The Jewish War,” and “Josephus on the Antiquity of the Jews against Apion.”
Cambridge,
September, 1889.