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David's Provisions for the Temple According to Josephus

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David's Provisions for the Temple According to Josephus 9471-06_ETL2006-4_06 22-12-2006 15:36 Pagina 453 Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 82/4 (2006) 453-465. doi: 10.2143/ETL.82.4.2018922 © 2006 by Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. All rights reserved. David’s Provisions for the Temple According to Josephus Christopher T. BEGG Catholic University of America, Washington As part of his extended account (1 Chronicles 22-29) of the smooth and easy transition from the reign of David to that of Solomon, the Chronicler in 1 Chron- icles 22 relates various measures taken by David on behalf of the temple that he leaves his son to build1. In this essay I shall examine Josephus’ rendition of 1 Chronicles 22 in Antiquitates judaicae (hereafter Ant.) 7.335-3422. My investi- gation aims, first of all, to ascertain what can be learned about the text-form(s) of 1 Chronicles 22 used by Josephus3. Secondly, it seeks to identify the kinds of rewriting techniques Josephus applies to the data of Chronicles and the distinc- tiveness of his rendering that results from their application. Finally, my essay will compare Josephus’ handling of 1 Chronicles 22 with its treatment by another postbiblical Jewish historian, i.e. Eupolemus4. For purposes of my comparison, I divide up the material of 1 Chronicles 22 and Ant. 7.335-342 into four parallel segments as follows: (1) David’s census and collection (22,2-4, etc. // 7.335); (2) David’s declaration (22,5 // 7.336); (3) David addresses Solomon (22,6-16 // 7.337-340); and (4) David addresses leaders (22,17-19 // 7.341-342). 1. The account given in 1 Kings 1–2 of Solomon’s succeeding David is very different, marked as it is by intrigue and violence. Josephus weaves together elements of both presentations in his narrative of Solomon’s succession in Ant. 7.335-8.21a. 2. For the text and translation of Ant. 7.335-342 I use R. MARCUS, Josephus V (LCL), Cambridge, MA – London, 1934, pp. 540-545. See also the relevant text, translation and notes of E. NODET, Les Antiquités juives. Livres VI et VII, Paris, 2001, pp. 226-228* as well as the annotated translation of C.T. BEGG, Flavius Josephus Judean Antiquities 5–7, Leiden, 2005, pp. 297-299. 3. In pursuing this question I shall concentrate on comparing Josephus’ rendition with three major witnesses for the text of 1 Chronicles 22, i.e. MT (BHS; 1 Chronicles 22 is not extant in the Qumran material), Codex Vaticanus (hereafter B; see A.E. BROOKE – N. MACLEAN – H.ST.J. THACKERAY, The Old Testament in Greek 2:2 I and II Chronicles, Cambridge, 1930, pp. 454-455) and the Antiochene or Lucianic (hereafter L) manuscripts of the LXX (see N. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS – J.R. BUSTO SAIZ, El Texto antioqueno de la Biblia griega III. 1-2 Crónicas [TECC, 60], Madrid, 1996, pp. 55-56). 4. Eupolemus’ relevant work On The Kings of Judaea, dating likely from the middle of the second century B.C., has come down to us in quotations by Alexander Polyhistor that are themselves preserved in the Praeparatio evangelica (hereafter Praep. ev.) of Eusebius. The passage of interest for our study is Praep. ev. 9.30.5-7. I use the translation of this passage by F. FALLON, in J.H. CHARLESWORTH (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha II, Garden City, NY, 1985, 866-867. For a detailed study of the passage in relation to the biblical parallel, see B.Z. WACHOLDER, Eupolemus. A Study of Judaeo-Greek Literature, Cincinnati, OH, 1974, pp. 145-150. 9471-06_ETL2006-4_06 22-12-2006 15:36 Pagina 454 454 C.T. BEGG DAVID’S CENSUS AND COLLECTION 1 Chr 22,2a moves rather abruptly to a new initiative by David, i.e. his num- bering of the aliens, following the account of the king’s ill-advised census of his own people (1 Chr 21,1–22,1)5 that ends (22,1) with his designating the newly acquired threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite as the site of the future temple. Josephus (7.335a) takes care to establish a smoother transition between the two items: “After receiving this prophecy (profßteian)6, the king ordered the aliens (toùv paroíkouv; compare MT 22,2 jirge; LXX BL toùv prosjlútouv7), and there were found to be one hundred and eighty thousand 8”. In 22,2b David pro- ceeds to assign an unspecified number of “stonecutters” to prepare the stones that will be used in the temple’s construction. Josephus’ version (7.335b) expatiates on this notice in light of his preceding addition concerning the outcome of David’s census of the aliens: “Of these, he designated eighty thousand to be stonecutters9, 5. A second, earlier version of David’s census of the Israelites, differing in many details from that of the Chronicler is found in 2 Samuel 24. Josephus’ rendering of the episode appears in Ant. 7.318-335, on which see C.T. BEGG, Josephus’ Version of David’s Census, in Henoch 16 (1994) 199-226. 6. With this phrase (I italicize such elements that lack a counterpart in 1 Chronicles 22) Josephus harks back to his version of 1 Chr 22,1 (“Then David said, ‘Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel’”) in Ant. 7.337 (“Then, David … resolved to call that entire place the altar of the people and to build a temple to God; and in uttering this word he came close to foretelling what was later to happen, for God sent a prophet [tòn profßtjn] to say that in this place a temple would be built by the son who was destined to succeed him on the throne”). As will be noted, in this formulation Josephus has the Chronistic David’s decision about the site of the future temple confirmed by an anonymous prophet. This Josephan addition has a certain counter- part in Eupolemus (apud Eusebius, Praep. ev. 9.30.5), where in response to David’s request that God show him a place for the altar, the Deity dispatches a angel – subsequently named, in an apparent confusion with the biblical prophet Nathan as “Dianathan” – who informs the kingthat he himself is not to built the temple in view of the blood he has shed in his wars (see 1 Chr 22,8). 7. It is noteworthy that Josephus in his vast corpus never uses this LXX term. His avoidance of the term may reflect his awareness of Roman sensibilities about current Jewish proselytism, on which see L.H. FELDMAN, Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible, Berkeley, CA, 1998, pp. 158-160. 8. 1 Chr 22,2 leaves the number of aliens that David’s census brought to light unspec- ified. In filling this source gap Josephus draws, as MARCUS, Josephus V (n. 2), pp. 540-541 n. b points out, on biblical data given in connection with Solomon’s organizing both Israelites and foreigners for his temple-building project. Specifically, Josephus apparently arrived at his figure for the aliens counted by David by combining the total for Solomon’s forced levy of all Israel (30,000) cited in 1 Kgs 5,27 [MT] with that for his “burden bearers” (70,000) and “hewers of stone” (80,000) according to 5,29 (MT). (Josephus reutilizes these figures in his version of 1 Kgs 5,27ff. in Ant. 8.58-59). Cf. also 2 Chr 2,1 (= 2,17), where Solomon’s census of the aliens, conducted as a followup to that undertaken by David, yields a total of 153,600 persons. 9. Josephus derives his figure for David’s stonecutters from 1 Kgs 5,29 (MT) where it appears in connection with Solomon’s organization of his labor force; see previous note. (The same figure appears in the Chronicler’s anticipated version of 1 Kgs 5,29 in 2 Chr 2,1 [MT], itself reiterated in 2,17 [MT]). 9471-06_ETL2006-4_06 22-12-2006 15:36 Pagina 455 DAVID’S PROVISIONS FOR THE TEMPLE ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS 455 and the rest of their number to carry the stones10; and three thousand five hundred of them he set over the workmen11”. David’s provisions for the temple continue in 1 Chr 22,3-4 as he assembles two types of metals (iron and bronze) as well as cedar timber to be used in its construction. The historian (7.335c) reproduces the basic content of the biblical materials list, while modifying various of its details: “He also collected a great quantity of iron12 and bronze for the work, and many cedar-trees of very great size, sent to him by the Sidonians and the Tyrians13, from whom he had ordered a supply of the wood14”. DAVID’S DECLARATION Having assembled the materials cited in 22,3-4, David next makes a statement (22,5a) concerning his rationale for doing this. The Josephan version (7.336), e.g., supplies an addressee for the king’s declaration, while also rearranging and elaborating its components. It reads: And he told his friends15 that he was preparing these things now, in order that he might leave the materials for the building of the temple (toÕ naoÕ16) 10. 1 Kgs 5,29 (= 2 Chr 2,1 and 17) specifies that Solomon deployed 70,000 burden bearers. Josephus, in this instance, does not supply a total for the contingent. If, how- ever, one subtracts the two numbered divisions of 7.335b (i.e. 80,000 stonecutters and 3,500 overseers) from the 180,000 aliens spoken of in 7.335a, one arrives at a total of 96,500 “carriers”.
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