The uses of Josephus: Jewish history in medieval Christian tradition

The late antique Latin translations of the works of the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus exerted a profound and many-faceted influence on medieval Christian scholarship in the Latin West. Though the ubiquitous nature of the influence and incorporation of these works has generally been recognized, there has been no overall study of the ways these works were used by Christian writers.;This dissertation examines specific aspects of the dissemination, use and influence of the Latin translations of two historical works by Josephus, the Antiquities of the Jews and the Jewish War. Many have linked the preservation of Josephus' works within the Christian historical canon to the "Testimonium Flavianum," a passage in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities referring to Jesus. However, this dissertation considers Josephus' influence on medieval Christian views of the past more generally. Using England in the twelfth century as a central example in terms of manuscript evidence and diversity of historical use, this dissertation traces the development of the adaptation of Josephan material and its incorporation into Christian history and exegesis.;The medieval use of Josephus' historical and apologetic works was based on and defined by a need or requirement to situate Christian history and Christian political and social realities in a wider historical and theological framework. These needs and requirements were codified by a set of conventions in the earliest period of the development of Christian historiography and apologetics. This framework necessarily incorporated distinct views of both the Jewish and the pagan past, though that distinctiveness was shaped by Christian concerns in different ways at different times.;A renewal of interest in ancient and early Christian history was one aspect of the cultural and intellectual phenomenon known as the Twelfth Century Renaissance. Interest in Josephus in this period, evidenced by a proliferation of manuscripts of his works, may be linked to this renewal of interest. This dissertation also explores the relation of the use of Josephan histories to contemporary phenomena such as the Crusades and the growing intolerance of the Jewish presence in Christendom over the course of the twelfth century.