Other alleged connexions between Josephus and the N.T. are open to
serious question. Few will be inclined to follow Wellhausen, who finds
in the murder of Zacharias son of Baris (or Bariscæus or Baruch)[60] the
incident referred to in our Lord’s words about “the blood of Zachariah
son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar”
(Matt. xxiii. 35). Many critics have maintained that there is a direct
literary connexion between the Jewish historian and St. Luke, whose
writings (not unnaturally, since he alone of the Evangelists composed a
“second treatise”) furnish the majority of the parallels. There is very
little probability in the suggestion[61] that Josephus, in his
description of himself in boyhood being consulted by the Rabbis, was
influenced by Luke ii. 46 f. There is more to be said for the theory
that St. Luke had made a cursory perusal of parts of the _Antiquities_
and had been thereby led, in at least one instance, into serious error;
reasons for rejecting this view will be found elsewhere.[62]
Texts and Translations
The literature on Josephus is immense. It will suffice here to mention
two standard editions of the Greek text and two English translations.
Older editions have been practically supplanted by the great critical
edition of B. Niese in seven volumes, including a full critical
apparatus and introductions on the MSS (Berlin 1887-1895). It cannot be
said that Niese has established a final text; he seems to err in placing
too great reliance on a single class of MSS, with the result that the
true reading is often to be found in the notes rather than in the text.
In his _editio minor_ without critical apparatus (1888-1895) some
corrections of the errors of the MSS have been introduced. On the basis
of the older work of Bekker (1855) and with assistance from Niese, a
handy edition has been issued in the Teubner series of classical authors
by S. A. Naber (6 vols., Leipzig, 1888-1896). Niese’s larger edition is
indispensable to the student, but that of Naber forms a useful auxiliary
and check upon it. Notwithstanding Niese’s work, much remains to be done
in establishing the text on a firm basis. In many difficult passages all
MSS seem to have gone astray and we are left to conjectural emendation;
there are also occasional small _lacunæ_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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