Josephus is not looked upon as an object to be clarified, interpreted and made relevant ; it is rather a source from which to draw material. Josephus does not intend his work to contribute anything by way of understanding to account ; it is the biblical account which contributes to the work of Josephus. Therefore, JA as a whole is not a midrash, nor are those sec- used to interpret the Josephus has taken it used it as data for his history ; hence, the material, now no longer ceases to be midrashic. cases the genre of a composition, or of : the biblical tions which contain fictional embellishments taken from targums and JA exemplifies very clearly the role that context plays in some literary genres—to the extent that in some an element of it if it is a composite work, is determined entirely by its con- text. For example, the little story that Nathan tells David in 2 Sm 12,1-4 about the poor man and his ewe lamb is in true enough to life to be a

doi:10.4324/9780203056202-60

Chapter

Josephus is not looked upon as an object to be clarified, interpreted and made relevant ; it is rather a source from which to draw material. Josephus does not intend his work to contribute anything by way of understanding to account ; it is the biblical account which contributes to the work of Josephus. Therefore, JA as a whole is not a midrash, nor are those sec- used to interpret the Josephus has taken it used it as data for his history ; hence, the material, now no longer ceases to be midrashic. cases the genre of a composition, or of

Chapter

Josephus is not looked upon as an object to be clarified, interpreted and made relevant ; it is rather a source from which to draw material. Josephus does not intend his work to contribute anything by way of understanding to account ; it is the biblical account which contributes to the work of Josephus. Therefore, JA as a whole is not a midrash, nor are those sec- used to interpret the Josephus has taken it used it as data for his history ; hence, the material, now no longer ceases to be midrashic. cases the genre of a composition, or of

ABSTRACT

R. Bloch, VDBS 5, 1271 ; P. Ellis, The Men and the Message of the Old Testament (Collegeville, 1963) 260; H . Lusseau, “ L e s livres des Chroniques,” Introduction à la Bible, I (Tournai, 1957) 722-23; L . Hartman, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible (New York, 1963) 365; J. Myers, I Chronicles (New York, 1965) x v i i i ; etc.