Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/193

 only occasional aid, the task of translating his Latin authorities. On the accession of Claudius, when the centre of interest shifts from Rome to Palestine, the normal style is resumed (at XIX. 276).

Now, the mannerisms of Ant. XVII-XIX. 275 recur with wearisome iteration; it is rare to find a sentence which does not contain one or more of them. Thus in the paragraphs immediately preceding the passage about Christ we find three examples of periphrasis with [Greek: chrêsthai] (58, 60, 62); in the paragraph which follows two examples of [Greek: ouk apallassesthai] (65, 68). But the passage itself contains none of the really distinctive features; one phrase alone ([Greek: hêdonê dechesthai]) gives us pause. The following details may be noticed.

"A doer of wonderful works." In compiling a Greek index to Ant. XVI.-XX. I have not noticed another instance of [Greek: paradoxos].

"Men who receive the truth with pleasure." "The truth" ([Greek: talêthê]). The crasis is in the style of Jos., but the phrase is again unexampled, at least in this portion. On the other hand, "to receive with pleasure" ([Greek: hêdonê dechesthai]) recurs in XVIII. 6, 59, 70, 236, 333; XIX. 127, 185 and similar phrases ([Greek: hêdonê pherein], [Greek: chara pherein] or [Greek: dechesthai]) elsewhere in this portion of the work. I account for this, with Norden, by supposing that "the interpolator knew his author." He knew him just well enough to employ the crasis in [Greek: talêthê] and a phrase which he found twice in the immediate context (59, 70).

"The Greeks" ([Greek: tou Hellênikou]). The neut. may be paralleled by B.J. II. 268, but is not uncommon outside Josephus.

"Our principal men." Norden notes that, whereas "the first" or "principal men" ([Greek: hoi prôtoi]) is frequent in Ant. XX. (2, 6, 53, 119, 123, 135, etc.), it never has the personal note ("our") attached to it.

"Those who first loved (him)." [Greek: Agapan] in Jos., never, according to Norden, has the Christian meaning of "love," but only its classical sense of "be content"; an instance occurs in the previous paragraph (60, cp. 242).

"On the third day." The phrase ([Greek: tritên hêmeran echôn]) is again unexampled in Jos.; the N.T. yields the nearest parallel (Lk. xxiv. 21, [Greek: tritên tautên hêmeran agei]).

"Alive again" ([Greek: palin zôn]). Jos. writes elsewhere of a future life [Greek: anabioun] (Ant. XVIII. 14) and [Greek: genesthai te palin kai bion ameinô labein]) (Ap. II. 218); he does not use [Greek: zên] or [Greek: zôê] in this connexion.