The late fourth-century work often called Pseudo-Hegesippus, or De Excidio Hierosolymitano (On the Destruction of Jerusalem), is a
rendition of Jewish history from the second century BCE to 70/74 CE. It ends with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 and a brief mention of the
Jewish mass-suicide atop Masada in 74. In effect, it is a Christian attempt to write the Jews out of history. Within this literary enterprise,
the work enlists biblical traditions and classical rhetorical habits and motifs to construct an aesthetically- and ideologically-compelling
history. Though based upon Flavius Josephus' Jewish War in large part, this work is a Christian history written for particular discursive
purposes; namely, to explain why Jerusalem's and the Temple's destruction in 70 CE marked the effective historical endpoint of the Jews. This
dissertation illustrates and explores the character of this text through what is arguably its most interesting and important chapter: Book 5,
Chapter 2. It shows how the author creatively interweaves biblical references to key characters and episodes to construct an anti-Jewish
rhetoric. It argues that this text must be understood in the light of the classical tradition. The Greek and Roman authors of classical
antiquity established a tradition that prescribed particular ways of articulating the past and the people that populated it. Pseudo-Hegesippus
draws heavily upon these traditions. This dissertation illustrates this in detail, and explores the particular rhetorical contours of De Excidio
as a text involved in constructing a past-tense Jewish identity for a fourth-century Christian audience. In so doing, it exposes an important
and understudied source for our knowledge of fourth-century Jewish-Christian relations; it reveals a new angle on nascent Christian
historiography in its formative period; and it shows to what extent Greco-Roman literature can function as important framing comparanda for
reading Christian literature from late antiquity. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / October 26, 2018. / Biblical Reception, Classics, De Excidio, Early Christianity, Josephus, Pseudo-Hegesippus / Includes bibliographical references. / David B. Levenson, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Nicole Kelley, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation;
Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, University Representative; Matthew Goff, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_661188 |
| Contributors | Bay, Carson M. (author), Levenson, David B. (professor co-directing dissertation), Kelley, Nicole, 1975- (professor co-directing dissertation), Slaveva-Griffin, Svetla (university representative), Goff, Matthew J. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Religion (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (335 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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