Sculpting idolatry in Flavian Rome : (an)iconic rhetoric in the writings of Flavius Josephus / Jason von Ehrenkrook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ehrenkrook, Jason von.

Series:

Early Judaism and its literature ; no. 33.

Society of Biblical Literature early Judaism and its literature ; no. 33

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Josephus, Flavius--Criticism and interpretation.

Josephus, Flavius.

Idolatry.

Idols and images--Worship.

Idols and images.

Idols and images--Rome.

Sculpture, Hellenistic.

Jews--History--168 B.C.-135 A.D.

Jews.

History.

Judaism--History--Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.

Judaism.

Judaism--Post-exilic period (Judaism).

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xiv, 226 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature, [2011]

Summary:

In this revision of his dissertation (at U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Ehrenkrook (classical Judaism, U. of Pittsburgh) offers a detailed discussion of the issue of sculpture as representing idols, both in the writings of Flavius Josephus and in the larger context of his times. Full chapters are devoted to how the worship of idols was described by Jewish and Roman writers, Josephus's arguments on the presence of statues in Roman cities, his portrayal of the treatment of statues by Romans and Jews in his Bellum Judaicum, and his idealizing of a statue-free past in Antiquitates Judaicae. The frequent quotations from Greek and Hebrew include English translation. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

Reading idolatry in(to) Josephus

Jewish responses to images in cultural context

The second commandment in Josephus and Greco-Roman Jewish literature

Sculpture and the politics of space in Bellum Judaicum

Idealizing an aniconic past in Antiqitates Judaicae

The poetics of idolatry and the poiltics of identity

Appendix 1. Statuary lexicon in the Josephan corpus

Appendix 2. The second commandment in Josephus.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-208) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781589836228

1589836227

9781589836235

1589836235

OCLC:

756837108