WORKSHOP ON THE RECEPTION OF JOSEPHUS BY JEWS AND CHRISTIANS

Applications are invited to participate in this workshop, to be held in Oxford, at

the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton Manor, on

January 7-8, 2013.

Please submit your application in English, with a short CV and an abstract (not

more than 500 words) of a research paper to be discussed in the workshop, to

the Registrar of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies

(

registrar@ochjs.ac.uk), by Friday 14 September 2012.

Bursaries to cover travel expenses and accommodation will be available for

selected participants. Please indicate in your application whether you would

like to be considered for a bursary, including an estimate of your travel

expenses.

The workshop will be devoted to discussion of the research papers, which will

be circulated to all participants in advance.

Applicants will be informed of the result of their applications on or before

Friday 21 September 2012.

The workshop will be the first in a series, as part of a project on the reception of

Josephus in Jewish culture from the 18

th century to the present. This project, which is

funded by the AHRC, focuses on the ways in which Jews since the middle of the

eighteenth century have built on earlier uses of Josephus’ writings for their own

purposes, examining the reasons for fluctuations of interest over time and in different

places and seeking to understand how such preferences were influenced by

contemporary issues and how they in turn affected them. The project also looks at

the impact of non-Jewish scholarship on Jewish interpretations of Josephus, and the

extent to which Jewish attitudes to Josephus were affected by responses to the

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historian as a controversial participant in complex political events and as a moral

agent.

In this first workshop, on the reception of Josephus by Jews and Christians before

1750, we hope that the participants will help us to identify the issues in Josephus’

writings which played a key role in the reception of his work in ancient and medieval

times, investigating which themes are specific to specific periods or types of literature

(including translations and adaptations into other languages, notably Latin and

Hebrew) and which remained relevant in later centuries; the reasons why early

modern scholars (both Jewish and Christian) were attracted to Josephus’ writings,

and how their approach differed from earlier reception of Josephus; and the role

played by Josephus in the popular imagination of Jews and Christians throughout

this period.

Topics suitable for paper proposals for the workshop include the Testimonium

Flavianum, patristic uses of Josephus, rabbinic references to Josephus in late

antiquity, the manuscript tradition, Josippon, Azariah de’Rossi, uses of Josephus by

Christian humanists in the early modern period, chronography, early printed editions,

illustrations and artistic representations, and vernacular translations.

Further workshops will address the Jewish reception of Josephus in the 18

th and 19th

centuries in Western Europe (June 17-18, 2013); the Jewish reception of Josephus

in the 19

th and early 20th centuries in Eastern Europe (January 6-7, 2014); and the

Jewish reception of Josephus in the 20

th and 21st centuries (June 16-17, 2014).

We plan to publish a selection of the studies discussed at the four workshops in a

volume, to share the results of the project and to help to define the agenda for future

research.

To apply, and for further information about participation in the workshop and

about bursaries, please contact the Registrar of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew

and Jewish Studies (

registrar@ochjs.ac.uk) before 14 September 2012.

Martin Goodman, Tessa Rajak, Andrea Schatz