Herod the Procurator - Richard Carrier

employs the translations of Marcus & Thackeray, which matches the Whiston translation
in meaning: “he also associated him with the procurators of Syria, instructing them to
obtain Herod’s consent to all their actions” and he “gave Herod the position of procurator
of all Syria, for the (Roman) procurators were forbidden to take any measures without his
concurrence.” 20 This improves on Whiston in one important respect: whereas Whiston’s
rendering of the BJ allows that the advice merely needed to be sought, not necessarily
followed, Thackeray correctly eliminates this interpretation (following the Greek).
Nevertheless, this same error is repeated in many of the German and French translations
(below). Even the Penguin edition of the BJ by Williamson gets the of fice correct,
though it is less loyal to the text, stating that “he made him procurator of all Syria, with
power to veto any decision of the other procurators.” 21 Unfortunately Feldman’ s
translation and commentary has so far skipped book 1 of the BJ and only reached book
10 of the AJ. 22 And though Cornfeld’s edition of the BJ gives a correct translation, it has a
confusing and not very useful commentary (discussed below). Closely following
Thackeray, he writes that Caesar “awarded Herod the position of procurator of all Syria
so that other (Roman) procurators were forbidden from taking measures without his
concurrence.” 23
These passages have fared worse in other languages in the last century . In
German, the AJ passage is rendered by Clementz as “Auch brachte er ihn in nähere
Beziehungen zu den Statthaltern von Syrien, denen er auftrug, nichts ohne des Herodes
Zustimmung vorzunehmen,” 24 “He also brought him into a closer relationship with the
governors of Syria, instructing them not to act without Herod’ s approval,” the key word
here being ‘Statthalter’ which regularly means “governor” and thus repeats the old errors
of Lodge, Thompson and Price. This error is repeated in his translation of the BJ,
“ernannte er ihn sogar zum Statthalter von ganz Syrien, sodass die unter ihm stehenden
Landpfleger keinerlei Anordnungen tref fen durften, ohne vorher seine Zustimmung
verbatim copy of Whiston, who employed Havercamp’s text; cf. Vol. 2, p. 555 and Vol. 3, p. 464.
20 The AJ passage was translated by Ralph Marcus and edited by Allen Wilkgren when Thackeray’s death
prevented its completion, here quoted from Josephus in Ten Volumes, Vol. 8, 1963, p. 175; the BJ
passage was translated by Thackeray, here quoted from Josephus in Nine Volumes, Vol. 2, 1927, p. 189.
21 G.A. Williamson, The Jewish War, 1959, p. 74.
22 Mason, op. cit.; this began with v. 3 (out of sequence) in 2000, containing bks. 1-4 of the AJ, with tr.
and commentary by Louis Feldman; other volumes have followed, unfortunately many still out of
sequence, and the relevant books for our purposes have not been completed. In 2008, v. “1b” was
published containing only bk. 2 of the BJ.; and the AJ has been brought up only to bk. 10 (in v. 5,
released in 2005).
23 Gaalya Cornfeld, ed., Josephus: The Jewish War, Newly Translated with Extensive Commentary and
Archaeological Background Illustrations, 1982, p. 76.
24 Heinrich Clementz, Des Flavius Josephus Jüdische Altertümer, Bd. 2, 1959 (c1900), p. 353.
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