Roman Legal Tropes in Josephus 's Prologue to the Antiquities

This contribution offers a fresh reading of the prologue to the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus by focusing on Josephuss presentation of the law of the Jews and searching for Roman as well as Greek conventional notions. It starts from the hypothesis that Josephus integrates not only Greek but also Roman motifs into his argument about the Jewish law. This implies that Josephus would appeal also or specifically to contemporary Roman readers. I will contend that Josephus makes three steps in his argument about the Jewish law and will discuss these steps subsequently: (1) good laws should coincide with good morality, (2) the observance of the laws brings happiness to all, and (3) the Jewish law is founded in natural law, which reflects the will of God. I will argue in addition that Josephus adopts Roman legal tropes in all three cases.