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Product Description

This is a collection of essays focusing on the threads in Josephus (a first century Jewish historian and apologist whose works provide valuable insight into the background of first century Judaism and early Christianity) that are of particular interest to people studying the background and development of Christianity.

“Some of our most basic analytical categories, such as ‘religion,’ ‘Judaism,’ and even ‘gospel,’ do not map onto ancient conceptions or language.” This insight, gained from long study in the biblical world, governs Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins. Steve Mason combines recently published essays with new studies to produce a coherent, sequential exploration of “methods and categories” important for the study of Roman Judea and Christian beginnings.

This book takes up basic but often overlooked questions of historical method in studying first-century Judea and the origins of Christianity. Many of these questions concern the use of Josephus (the first-century Jewish historian whose work is of crucial importance for this period) for reconstructing this history. Chapters deal with Josephus’ authority, his method of publication and audiences, “Judaism,” Pharisees, Essenes, “gospel,” and much else.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I: Josephus, Interpretation and Historical Method
Part II: Josephus and Judaean Society
Part III: Josephus and Christian Origins

Reviews

“Has the sense of setting a new, definitive standard of scholarly treatments of the Josephian corpus. Mason’s comprehensive volume will no doubt quickly merit the gramercy of all scholars of Christian antiquity.”
—American Theological Inquiry

“Mason, a professor of History at York University in Toronto, has written extensively on Josephus and the history of the New Testament period. Here he gathers a number of his previously published essays, along with two that have not been published before (including the introductory essay, which gives a broader assessment of Josephus’s historical reliability). Mason’s characteristic perspective is to apply caution in attempting to construct first-century history from Josephus’s works (or, for that matter, from the New Testament books themselves)—not simply because of the frequently-alleged bias or exaggerations of this famed first-century chronicler, but because Josephus’s intention, expressed in the literary form of his works, was to construct “artistic narratives” whose historical reliability must therefore be carefully weighed.”— The Bible Today

Steve Mason is Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction at York University, Toronto. He is the author of Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees and general editor of the twelve-volume series Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary.

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