Preserving Josephus in Two Ninth-Century Byzantine Chronicles

What is it about?

The works of the first-century CE Jewish historian Josephus were preserved & cited by the Church Fathers to prove the triumph of Christianity & the defeat of the Jews. This article discusses the extensive and contrasting uses of Josephus' Jewish Antiquities & the Jewish War by two ninth-century Byzantine chroniclers, George Synkellos & George the Monk -- the former, by scholarly, meticulous research, and the latter, as part of a Christian narrative. Their chronicles, copied & recycled, contributed to the Byzantine revival & growing interest in Antiquity during the ninth century.

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Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Byzantine world chronicles, written in Greek mainly by churchmen, were a major genre of history writing from the sixth-twelfth centuries. Whereas previous chroniclers quoted the first-century Jewish historian indirectly & briefly, the ninth-century chronicles by George Synkellos & George the Monk used Josephus extensively. Their contrasting styles & uses of Josephus show the diversity of the genre of chronography, previously viewed as a dull & repetitive corpus, & the recovery of fuller texts of Josephus during the ninth-century Byzantine revival.

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