vid

I have encountered claims that Josephus account of Jesus as brother of James is weird language construct ("brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James"). Reasons given are double attribution (who was called, whose name), and mentioning Jesus before James, who is subject of story. These indeed give sense in English, but I am not sure about greek.

Can someone with knowledge of greek examine greek josephus? Greek text is online here

Also, I'd prefer if someone with academic background in this area could comment and also mention his credentials, so I can cite him as "authority" in my article.

Thanks.

Amaleq13

I think you will find what you seek in this previous thread:

Jesus called Christ in Josephus AJ 20.9.1

spin is our resident champion* of the "bad grammar" argument for this passage.




*as in "defender" not necessarily "victor"

Malachi151

While not meeting the criteria you list, this may also be of help in providing an explanation for this passage:

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/ar...history.htm#10

Scroll down to the section on Josephus.

Specifically, see the part that talks about Hegesippus. You may want to just do a search on the page for Hegesippus.

Ben C Smith

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the grammatical issues in this passage somewhat. There is nothing, but nothing, wrong with the grammar of the phrase. That is, the syntax is acceptable Greek. (Actually, I should qualify this statement by noting the one unusual, but not unacceptable, syntactical construction in the passage, to wit, the parenthetical James was his name; this kind of parenthesis sets this particular phrase outside the grammatical constraints of the rest of the passage.)

What are at issue, rather, are the tendencies of the author; the penchant either to supply or not to supply a previous mention of the familial relation is not a grammatical issue, since grammar does not require antecedents for nouns.

I can claim knowledge of Greek; that is, I have been formally trained in it. However, I would balk at being considered an authority; I am an informed and interested amateur. I doubt I would make a very good reference for an article.

Referencing that thread may not be quite fair to spin, who has, IIUC, rightly modified some of the points he makes there. His arguments are stronger now than they were back then, IMVHO.

Ben.

vid

Ben: Thank you, I realized that "grammar" wasn't the best word, but my limited english caused I couldn't think of better one. Maybe it would be better to ask if such expression style was common in greek (especially for Josephus), or whether it appears as later insertion.

Is there any thread / article that summarizes current spin's arguments, then?

Ben C Smith

He himself has linked back to an older post of his as a good summary of his views.

Ben.

Amaleq13

Thanks, Ben