Josephus Flavius und der Hellenismus

Abstract

Josephus seems to be a typical Hellenistic Jewish author of the Diaspora. But we have to keep in mind that he was a „Diaspora Jew by adoption“ and that he had spent the first half of his life in Jewish Palestine. How was it then possible that he composed his Bellum in very good Greek style only five years after arriving in Rome? Did he need „assistants“ (cf. Ap 1:50) who helped him to write the Greek text or who even wrote some parts of the text themselves? Or was he so acquainted with the Greek language from his earliest years in Jewish Palestine that he was able to learn very quickly how to write history in it (cf. Ant 20:262–264)? This article argues for the second possibility pointing to some hints Josephus himself gives us with regard to his knowledge of Greek.