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Josephus and New Testament Chronology in the Work of Joseph Scaliger

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Notes

  1. Secunda Scaligerana, ed. P. des Maizeaux, Amsterdam, 1740, pp. 398–9: ‘Josephe est un Auteur tres veritable en son histoire, & plus veritable que pas un Auteur, & tres fidelle’.

  2. Ibid., p. 399: ‘Il y a plus de 50 additions ou mutations au Noveau Testament et aux Evangiles; c’est chose estrange, je n’ose la dire; si c’estoit un Auteur profane j’en parlerois autrement.’ On the fate of Scaliger’s working copy of Josephus’s Opera, see H. J. de Jonge, ‘How Did Gomarus Acquire the Copy of Flavius Josephus in Greek from Scaliger’s Library?’, Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 77, 1997, pp. 258–66.

  3. Secunda Scaligerana, ed. P. des Maizeaux (n. 1 above), pp. 398–9.

  4. A. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, II: Historical Chronology, Oxford, 1993, pp. 738–43; H. J. de Jonge, ‘Joseph Scaliger’s Historical Criticism of the New Testament’, Novum Testamentum, 38, 1996, pp. 176–93.

  5. In what follows, I shall cite the following editions: J. J. Scaliger, Opus novum de emendatione temporum, Paris, 1583 = DET (1583); Scaliger, Opus de emendatione temporum, Leiden, 1598 = DET (1598); Scaliger, Thesaurus Temporum, Leiden, 1606 = ThT (1606). The standard monograph on these works and their context is Grafton, Joseph Scaliger (n. 4 above).

  6. This is the argument put forward in C. P. E. Nothaft, Dating the Passion, Leiden, 2012.

  7. DET (1583), pp. 251–6.

  8. Matthaeus Beroaldus, Chronicum, Scripturae Sacrae autoritate constitutum, Geneva, 1575, sig. D3v and p. 184.

  9. Paul Crusius, Liber de epochis seu aeris temporum et imperiorum, omnium facultatum studiosis utilissimus, ed. J. T. Freigius, Basel, 1578, pp. 132–5; Grafton, Joseph Scaliger (n. 4 above), pp. 109–15, 133–9.

  10. On Kepler, see A. Grafton, Worlds Made by Words, Cambridge, MA, 2009, pp. 125–6. For modern assessments, see, e.g., J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, rev ed., Peabody, MA, 1998, pp. 291–8 (with references to further literature); A. Smith, ‘Computerised Resources for Historical Research: Calendars, Chronology and the Life of Jesus Christ’, in Bridging the Gaps, ed. J. Carvalho, Pisa, 2008, pp. 29–56 (41–5).

  11. See Finegan, Handbook (n. 10 above), pp. 298–301, and the recent defence of a death in 1 BC by A. E. Steinmann, ‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’, Novum Testamentum, 51, 2009, pp. 1–29.

  12. DET (1583), pp. 237–40. Scaliger’s conjecture concerning Herod Philip is still relevant to the discussion. See Finegan, Handbook (n. 10 above), p. 301; Steinmann, ‘When Did Herod the Great Reign?’ (n. 11 above), pp. 23–5.

  13. See, e.g., Beroaldus, Chronicum (n. 8 above), p. 184.

  14. DET (1583), pp. 253–55.

  15. C. P. E. Nothaft, ‘A Sixteenth-Century Debate on the Jewish Calendar: Jacob Christmann and Joseph Justus Scaliger’, Jewish Quarterly Review, 103, 2013, pp. 47–73 (62–9).

  16. Cesare Baronio, Annales Ecclesiastici, I, Rome, 1588, pp. 78–9.

  17. DET (1598), sig. γ2v: ‘Nam absque Iosepho esset, quid certi de Herode haberemus? Quis haec tractavit, praeter illum?’ For the chronology of Herod’s reign and the year of Christ’s birth (here shifted to 3 BC), see ibid., pp. 421–3, 433–5, 506–16.

  18. ThT (1606), ICC (bk III), p. 302; Grafton, Joseph Scaliger (n. 4 above), pp. 675–8.

  19. ThT (1606), Animadversiones, col. 161a: ‘…mirum est tam beluinae crudelitatis exemplum a Josepho praeteritum esse, qui tanta diligentia reliqua saevitate Herodianae facinora persequitur’.

  20. Secunda Scaligerana (n. 1 above), p. 399; de Jonge, ‘Joseph Scaliger’s Historical Criticism’ (n. 4 above), pp. 181–2.

  21. S. Mason, Josephus and the New Testament, Peabody, MA, 1992; A. Whealey, Josephus on Jesus, New York, 2003.

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    C. Philipp E. Nothaft

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Nothaft, C.P.E. Josephus and New Testament Chronology in the Work of Joseph Scaliger. Int class trad 23, 246–251 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-016-0403-9

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