Josephusâ Account of John the Baptist: A Christian Interpolation?
In: Journal for the Study of the Historical JesusSearch for other papers by Rivka Nir in
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This essay provides fresh insight into the possibility that the passage in Josephus about John the Baptist (Jewish Antiquities, 18.116-119) was not written by Josephus himself. In making the case for its interpolation or adaptation by the hand of a writer representing an early Christian or Jewish-Christian sect, the essay focuses on how the text describes John's baptism and its distinguishing characteristics as well as the similarities it shares with immersions common amid early Christian or Jewish-Christian sects. Of particular importance to uncovering the theological identity of this baptism is its description as an external physical purification, whose efficacy is preconditioned by inner spiritual purification. This essay shows that baptism of this nature did not exist amid mainstream Jewish circles of the Second Temple period. Such baptism appeared and developed within sectarian groups on the margins of Judaism, as at Qumran. It was then carried on and practised by early Christian or Jewish-Christian groups in the first centuries ce.
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2)
âSee, for example, L.H. Feldman, âFlavius Josephus Revisited: The Man, His Writings, and His Significanceâ, ANRW II/21.2 (1984), pp. 763-862 (821-22); P. Bilde, Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome: His Life, his Works and their Importance (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988), p. 223; J. Ernst, Johannes der Täufer (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1989), p. 255; O. Betz, âWas John the Baptist an Essene?â in H. Shanks (ed.), Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review (New York: Random House, 1992), pp. 206, 207; S. Mason, âFire, Water and Spirit: John the Baptist and the Tyranny of Canonâ, Studies in Religion 21.2 (1992), pp. 163-80 (178-79); idem, Josephus and the New Testament, pp. 213-25; R.L. Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet: A Socio-Historical Study (JSNTSup 62; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), pp. 40-41, 163-216; idem, âJohn the Baptist and his Relation to Jesusâ, in B.C. Chilton and C.A. Evans (eds.), Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 179-229 (190, 191); Meier, âJesus in Josephusâ, pp. 76-103; idem, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, II (New York: Doubleday, 1994), pp. 19, 21-22, 56; J.E. Taylor, The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1997), p. 90; J. Tromp, âJohn the Baptist According to Flavius Josephus and his Incorporation in the Christian Traditionâ, in A. Houtman, A. de Jong and M.W.M. van de Weg (eds.), Empichoi Logoi â Religious Innovations in Antiquity, Studies in honour of Pieter Willem van der Horst (Boston; Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 135-49.
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4)
âH. St J. Thackeray, Josephus, the Man and the Historian (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1967), pp. 110-12, 132, 136; W. Mizugaki, âOrigen and Josephusâ, in H.L. Feldman and G. Hata (eds.), Josephus, Judaism and Christianity (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987), pp. 325-37 (335); E. Nodet, âJesus et Jean Baptist selon Josephusâ, RB 82 (1988), pp. 321-48 (324-26); Mason, âFire, Water and Spiritâ, p. 178; Meier, A Marginal Jew, II, p. 19.
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6)
âL. Herrmann, Chrestos. Témoignages paients et juifs sur le christianisme du premier siècle (Brussels: Latomus, Revue dâEtudes Latines, 1970), p. 99; idem, âHerodiadeâ, REJ 132 (1973), pp. 49-63 (51).
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9)
âGraetz, Geschichte der Juden, p. 276, n. 3; Abrahams, Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels, p. 33.
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11)
âSee K.H. Rengstorf, A Complete Concordance to Flavius Josephus (Leiden: Brill, 2002), I, p. 290. Typically, this verb is used in reference to Bannus and to the Essenes, as I will show below.
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13)
âA.Y. Reed, ââJewish Christianityâ after the âParting of the Waysââ, pp. 197-231; idem, âHeresiology and the (Jewish-) Christian Novelâ, pp. 273-98; idem, ââJewish Christianityâ as Counter-history? The apostolic past in Eusebiusâ Ecclessiastical history and the Pseudo-Clementine Homiliesâ, in Antiquity in antiquity: Jewish and Christian pasts in the Greco-Roman World (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), pp. 173-216; D. Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Judaism and Christianity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999); idem, Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).
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14)
âReed, ââJewish Christianityâ as Counter-history?â, pp. 203-207; S.C. Mimouni, âPour une définition nouvelle du Judéo-Christianisme ancienâ, NTS 38 (1992), pp. 161-86 (184).
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20)
âWebb, John the Baptizer and Prophet, pp. 37, 199-202; idem, âJohn the Baptist and his Relation to Jesusâ, pp. 195-96. Similarly, see Goguel, Au seuil de lâévangile, p. 16; C.H. Kraeling, John the Baptist (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951), p. 119; Thomas, Le mouvement Baptiste en Palestine et Syrie, p. 378; F.J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, The Beginning of Christianity, Part I, The Acts of the Apostles (London: Macmillan, 1920), pp. 102, 105. For counter-argument see G.H. Twelftree, âJesus the Baptistâ, JSHJ 7 (2009), pp. 103-125 (121), who disclaims John's baptism as mark of initiation into a new community. See also Chilton, âJohn the Baptist: His Immersion and his Deathâ, in S.E. Porter and A.R. Cross (eds.), Dimensions of Baptism, Biblical and Theological Studies (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), pp. 25-44 (37).
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22)
âOn this reading see: J.P. Meier, âJohn the Baptist in Josephus: Philology and Exegesisâ, JBL 111.2 (1992), pp. 225-37 (229-33); idem, A Marginal Jew, II, p. 58; E. Lupieri, âJohn the Baptist in New Testament Traditions and Historyâ, ANRW 26.1 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1993), pp. 430-61 (451).
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25)
âB. Przybylski, Righteousness in Matthew and His World of Thought (SNTSMS 41; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 20.
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26)
âPrzybylski, Righteousness, p. 21. See further CD 20.11; 6.10-11 âuntil there arise he who teaches justice at the end of daysâ; 1QS 3.20-22. For more examples see J. Kampen, ââRighteousnessâ in Matthew and the Legal Texts from Qumranâ, in M. Bernstein, F. GarcÃa Martinez and J. Kampen (eds.), Legal Texts and Legal Issues: Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies Cambridge 1995, Published in Honour of Joseph M. Baumgarten (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 461-87.
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âKampen, ââRighteousnessâ in Matthew and the Legal Texts from Qumranâ, p. 486; W. Wink, John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 36: âThe word δικαιοÏÏνη does not spill out by accident; it is Matthew's peculiar way of designating the faith and life of Christians and of Christianity in general (cf. Matt 5:6, 10; 6:1ff).â
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âWebb, John the Baptizer and Prophet, p. 183; idem, âJohn the Baptist and his Relation to Jesusâ, p. 187.
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34)
âA. Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Luke (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1922), p. 86.
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40)
âJ. Milgrom, Leviticus 1â16 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), p. 149. The basic meaning of the form δεκÏÏÏ as used in LXX is ââacceptableâ or âpleasingâ on the basis of a divine willâ. Grundmann, s.v. δÎÏομαι, TDNT, II, p. 58.
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41)
âAgainst Chilton, âJohn the Baptist: His Immersion and his Deathâ, pp. 34-35, who argues: âThe notion that John somewhat opposed the cult in the Temple is weakly basedâ.
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46)
âD. Boyarin, Border Lines (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), pp. 1-23.
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50)
âA. Büchler, Studies in Sin and Atonement in the Rabbinic Literature of the First Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1928), pp. 369, 375-461; Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet, pp. 96-108; D.P. Write, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (SBLDS 101; Atlanta: SBL, 1987), p. 85; Milgrom, Leviticus 1â16, p. 857; G.J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT; Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1979), pp. 26-28. On the absolute separation tannaitic literature draws between the concepts of ritual purity and impurity and of sin and repentance, see J. Klawans, Impurity and Sin, pp. 92-117, 142.
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51)
âB.D. Chilton, Judaic Approaches to the Gospels (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), pp. 26-28; H. Lichtenberger, âThe Dead Sea Scrolls and John the Baptist: Reflections on Josephusâ Account of John the Baptistâ, in D. Dimant and U. Rappaport (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research (STDJ 10; Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 340-46 (344).
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57)
âMason, âFire, Water and Spiritâ, p. 178; idem, Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees: Composition â Critical Study (Leiden: Brill, 1991), p. 87; idem, âWhat Josephus Says about the Essenes in his Judean Warâ, in S.G. Wilson and M. Desjardins (eds.), Text and Artifact in the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Peter Richardson (Canada: Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation des Sciences Religieuses, 2000), pp. 423-55 (440-41); Lichtenberger, âThe Dead Sea Scrolls and John the Baptistâ, pp. 344-46; Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins, p. 98.
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59)
âH.A. Wolfson, Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), II, pp. 218-25.
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61)
âSee also Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 23; 47, and especially 93. See also the pairing in the Qumran scrolls: âto walk in the ways of God, to act righteouslyâ (4Q421 II.12-13) and my discussion on the term tsedaqa above.
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64)
âPhilo, On the Unchangeableness of God 7-9; On Noah's Work as a Planter 164; On the Special Laws 1.191, 1.203-204, 1.275, 1.283-284; 2.35.
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66)
âKlawans, Impurity and Sin, p. 93; Efron, Studies on the Hasmonean Period, pp. 143-47.
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75)
âJ.M. Baumgarten, âSacrifice and Worship among the Jewish Sectarians of the Dead Sea (Qumrân) Scrollsâ, HTR 46 (1953), pp. 141-59 (151); Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet, pp. 159-60.
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80)
âJ.J. Collins, âThe Place of the Fourth Sibyl in the Development of the Jewish Sibyllinaâ, JJS 25 (1974), pp. 365-80 (366-67, 378). According to Collins, baptism in the Fourth Sibylline is a one-time event, in contrast to the frequently repeated immersions practised by the Qumran sect. As I attempt to show, however, it is possible that in all these groups, one-time baptism existed side-by-side with daily immersions.
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âFlusser, âJohannine baptism and the Qumran sectâ, pp. 104-111; idem, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity, p. 52.
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âAccording to J.A. Fitzmyer, âThe Qumran Scrolls, the Ebionites and their Literatureâ, TS 16 (1955), pp. 335-72 (371): âthe sect of Qumran influenced the Ebionites in many ways; Essene tenets and practices were undoubtedly adopted or adapted into the Ebionite way of lifeâ. On the existence of Jewish-Christian groups in the first four centuries, defined as Christian Jews and their Gentile converts who maintained Jewish praxis, see Taylor, âThe Phenomenon of Early Jewish-Christianityâ, p. 327.
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Josephusâ Account of John the Baptist: A Christian Interpolation?
In: Journal for the Study of the Historical JesusSearch for other papers by Rivka Nir in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This essay provides fresh insight into the possibility that the passage in Josephus about John the Baptist (Jewish Antiquities, 18.116-119) was not written by Josephus himself. In making the case for its interpolation or adaptation by the hand of a writer representing an early Christian or Jewish-Christian sect, the essay focuses on how the text describes John's baptism and its distinguishing characteristics as well as the similarities it shares with immersions common amid early Christian or Jewish-Christian sects. Of particular importance to uncovering the theological identity of this baptism is its description as an external physical purification, whose efficacy is preconditioned by inner spiritual purification. This essay shows that baptism of this nature did not exist amid mainstream Jewish circles of the Second Temple period. Such baptism appeared and developed within sectarian groups on the margins of Judaism, as at Qumran. It was then carried on and practised by early Christian or Jewish-Christian groups in the first centuries ce.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1379 | 185 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 472 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 671 | 7 | 0 |
