The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

the Greek language, would thereby be qualified to achieve a work of Greek literature, would
the mastery of Greek grammar suffice for Josephus to compose a refined work about the Jewish
War. That is why Josephus refuted Justus’ charge that [128] Josephus’ Greek was illegible for
an educated man, by way of referring to his associates who had assisted him. Still, here it is a
matter of purely stylistic issues that are not applicable to our administrative report nor to the
notes either; for the administrative report is no work of literature, rather only a collection of
material, which must first be formulated into a work of literature. And if someone like Cicero
himself did not shrink from sending his report about the consulship to Posidonius, ut ornatius
de iisdem rebus scriberet (Att. 2.1.1), then for Josephus it was absolutely imperative to consult
expert rhetorical help if he wished to create a work of literature from his unrhetorical
administrative report. The direct linguistic dependency of the War on the administrative
report (cf. page 80) shows at the same time that at least in the introduction, the Greek War
cannot be a literal translation of the Aramaic; in the event that this one even provided a
historical introduction, it would still be based on the administrative report in a similar way as
is the case for the Greek War. Accordingly it is possible that Josephus drafted his sundry notes
in Greek too, and utilized them first for the Aramaic, then for the Greek War.
Chapter V. Book 14 of the Antiquities
The results that we have attained in the preceding investigations are suitable for
elucidating the frequently discussed problem of the relationship of the sources in the
introduction of the War and the corresponding segments of the Antiquities from
an entirely new standpoint. The situation here is indeed quite similar to the narratives of the
War and the Life that we have examined; because, just as long stretches of the War coincide in
substance with the self-portrayal, so also the last books of the Antiquities repeat, albeit in more
detailed form, the report that had furnished the introduction to the War, and it is a fact beyond
all doubt that behind the War and the Antiquities stands a source text, which must therefore be
identified with Josephus’ administrative report, which we have attested [above]. There is a
distinct correspondence [129] in chronological sequence between the series: administrative
report War – self-portrayal, on the one hand and on the other, the series: Josephus’ source –
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