Premium
Mistranslations of Josephus and the expansion of public charity in late antiquity
Author(s) -
Anderson Mark
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/emed.12198
Subject(s) - josephus , classics , ancient history , eleventh , siege , history , ruler , period (music) , confusion , historiography , late antiquity , judaism , art , archaeology , psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , acoustics , psychoanalysis , aesthetics
Three Latin mistranslations of Josephus' Jewish War I.61 between the fourth and the seventh centuries ce reflect the expansion of a series of charitable institutions, called xenodocheia and nosokomeia , around the Mediterranean in late antiquity and the early medieval period. In the late fourth century, authors known as pseudo‐Rufinus and pseudo‐Hegesippus independently mistranslated Josephus' report that the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus hired mercenary troops at the conclusion of a Seleucid siege of Jerusalem. In their confusion, these authors both interpreted this as a charitable action and pseudo‐Hegesippus anachronistically imported the xenodocheion into the Hellenistic period. In the early seventh century Isidore of Seville expanded upon pseudo‐Hegesippus' mistake to transform the hiring of mercenaries into the genesis of both the xenodocheion and the nosokomeion . Isidore's inclusion of these institutions in his Etymologiae indicated their ubiquity and popularity by the seventh century, while for later writers his work canonized the mistaken origin.