The Latin Translations of Josephus on Jesus, John the Baptist, and James: Critical Texts of the Latin Translation of the Antiquities and Rufinus’ Translation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History Based on Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the first critical texts of the passages on Jesus, John the Baptist, and James in the Latin translation of Josephus’ Antiquitates Iudaicae and the sections of the Latin Table of Contents for AJ 18 where the references to Jesus and John the Baptist appear. A commentary on these Latin texts is also provided. Since no critical edition of the Latin text of Antiquities 6-20 exists, these are also the first critical texts of any passages from these books. The critical apparatus includes a complete list of variant readings from thirty-seven manuscripts (9th-15th c.e.) and all the printed editions from the 1470 editio princeps to the 1524 Basel edition. Because the passages in the Latin AJ on Jesus and John the Baptist were based on Rufinus’ translation of Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica, a new text of these passages in Rufinus is provided that reports more variant readings than are included in Mommsen’s GCS edition. A Greek text for these passages with revised apparatus correcting and expanding the apparatuses in Niese’s editio maior of Josephus and Schwartz’s GCS edition of Eusebius is also provided. In addition to presenting a text and commentary for the passages in the Latin Antiquities and Rufinus’ translation of Eusebius, there is catalogue of collated manuscripts and all the early printed editions through 1524, providing a new scholarly resource for further work on the Latin text of the Antiquities.

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