The Hypomnesticon of Joseph (PG 106:10-176) is a Christian handbook
of biblical learning compiled from the Bible itself and from a variety
of Jewish, pagan, and early Christian sources. It was likely composed in
the later fourth century by Joseph of Tiberias, whose association with
the patriarch Hillel II, conversion to Christianity, and church-building
in the Galilee are described by Epiphanius of Salamis (Panarion
30.4-11). The chapters of the Hypomnesticon consist mainly of lists on
subjects as varied as the generations from Adam to Christ, the names of
the high priests, the titles of the Old Testament books, translators of
the Scriptures into Greek, the variety of Christian heresies, and how
many men named John are mentioned in the New Testament. A significant
portion of the work is devoted to prophecy and dreams, and (in a passage
borrowed, at least in part, from Porphyry of Tyre) to Greek forms of
divination. This paper seeks to understand Joseph's discussion of
prophecy in the context of the fourth-century pagan/Jewish/Christian
debate over the relationship between divinatory practice and religious
truth, to which the Hypomnesticon provides an important witness.
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