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Re: orion-list Josephus Vita 9-12

At 11:51 PM 02/13/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Since I'll want my current undergrad DSS Class to have a look at this
>passage, for which George Brooks of Tampa FL has supplied us with the
>Whiston translation, it seemed like a good idea to go through it once more
>with the Loeb translation (Thackeray, 1926) also in view, as well as the
>surviving Greek text. As I tell my students when they don't know the
>original languages, try to check at least two translations done from
>different perspectives before basing an argument on details of the text.
>10a. [Whiston (Life 2 = new numbering 10-12):] and when I was about
>sixteen years old, I had a mind to make trial of the several sects that
>[Thackeray:] At about the age of sixteen I determined to gain personal
>10b. [Whiston:] These sects are three: - The first is that of the
>Pharisees, the second that of the Sadducees, and the third that of the
>Essenes, as we have frequently told you;
>11c. [Wh:] but when I was informed that one, whose name was Banus, lived
>in the desert, 
>[Thack:] on hearing of one named Bannus, who dwelt in the wilderness,
>12a. [Wh:] and continued with him three years.
>[Thack:] With him I lived for three years,
>12d. [Wh:] being now nineteen years old, and began to conduct myself
>according to the rules of the sect of the Pharisees, which is of kin to
>the sect of the Stoics, as the Greeks call them.
>[Thack:] Being now in my nineteenth year I began to govern my life by the
>rules of the Pharisees, a sect having points of resemblance to that which
>the Greeks call the Stoic school.

Bob, I have another question for you. Josephus says his formal training was
from 16-19. That can be at most 4 years. Three of which was in the desert.
That means AT MOST he spent a full year learning about THREE groups. How
much could he know? He later claims to be a very learned Pharisee, but
whenever I read this, I start to wonder. Any thoughts on this?

moshe shulman mshulman@NOSPAMix.netcom.com    718-436-7705
CHASSIDUS.NET - Yoshav Rosh            http://www.chassidus.net
Outreach Judaism                       http://www.outreachjudaism.org/
ICQ# 52009254

For private reply, e-mail to Moshe Shulman <mshulman@ix.netcom.com>
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