Flavius Josephus: Against Apion: Translation and Commentary - Paperback

by John M. G. Barclay (Author)

This volume contains a fresh English translation of Josephus' apologetic treatise Against Apion, based on the new textual research conducted by the Münster Josephus project. It also provides the first English commentary on this treatise, with comprehensive treatment of the historical, literary, and rhetorical features of Josephus' most engaging literary product.
Against Apion contains the most important evidence for hostility to Judeans in antiquity, as Josephus responds to both Egyptian and Hellenistic slurs on the Judean people, their origins and character. Josephus' robust defense of his people, with his striking account of the Judean constitution ("theocracy"), also constitutes the finest example of Judean apologetics from antiquity.
The commentary will provide a richly-documented resource for the many readers of this treatise - those who study and teach early Judaism, early Christianity, and the cultural politics of antiquity. It also offers the first "postcolonial" reading of Josephus, in his attempt to present his Judean tradition under the cultural hegemony of the Greek intellectual tradition and the political power of Rome.

Author Biography

John M.G. Barclay (Ph.D. 1986 University of Cambridge) is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University. His previous publications include Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora from Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE - 117 CE) (T & T Clark/University of California Press: 1996).