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The so-called Hegisippus, or more properly De excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae (On the ruin of the city of Jerusalem), is a 4th-century "Christian" retelling of Josephus' Bellum Iudaicum, in Latin, with some original additions. The work has been doubtfully ascribed to Ambrose of Milan.

Overview

Although sometimes labelled as a "translation" of Josephus' Bellum Iudaicum, the Hegesippus is rather a free adaptation which paraphrases the text and includes additional material from Josephus' Antiquitates Iudaicae and other Latin sources. The authors most frequently imitated are Virgil, Sallust, and Cicero, while the Bible is rarely quoted or made use of.

The work is divided in 5 books, the first four corresponding to the first four of Josephus' War, but the fifth combines the fifth, sixth and seventh books of War.

The work is usually dated to between 370-c.375 CE. It began to circulate about the time of the death of Ambrose of Milan, in 398, or shortly after, and some manuscripts attributes the authorship to the Bishop of Milan. The evidence is not conclusive and most modern scholars prefer to talk of an anonymous writing. Hegesippus appears to be a mere corruption of Josephus' Latin name, Iosippus. In any case, the document has nothing to do with the lost works of the second-century writer Hegesippus mentioned by Eusebius.

Hegesippus was the work of a Christian apologist, who altered Josephus' focus so that the narrative now centers on the destruction of Jerusalem and its significance, rather than the Jewish War as a whole. Hegesippus was one of the first authors to link the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus explicitly with the crucifixion and death of Christ as an act of "divine revenge".

The work was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, as much as the Latin translation of the works of Josephus by Rufinus and Cassiodorus. The theological connection he made between the crucifixion and the fall of Jerusalem remained central to medieval texts about the city's destruction. Numerous details would be added in later Christian traditions in order to emphasis such a connection, from the continued rule of Pilate in the city, to the claim that thirty Jews were sold for a penny after the city's fall.

Editions and translations of the Hegesippus

The editio princeps of Hegesippus appeared in Paris in 1510, a few decades after the first edition of the Latin Josephus in 1470, but before the editio princeps of Josephus' Greek text in 1544.

The Hegesippus was translated into Italian in 1544 by Lauro and then in German in 1575 by Lauterbach.

The Latin text was reprinted in Andreas Gallandi's Bibliotheca veterum patrum (tom. vii, 1765-81) at the end of the 18th century and in Migne's Patrologia latina (tom. xv) at the beginning of the 19th century.

A critically revised text was completed by Karl Friedrich Weber and Julius Caesar in Marburg in 1857-63, and then by Ussani in 1932-60.

An English translation by Wade Blocker, based on Ussani's edition and completed in 2005, is freely available on the web (here).

under the title Hegesippus qui dicitur sive Egesippus de bello Judaico ope codicis Casellani recognitus, ed. Weber, opus morte Weberi iuterruptum absolvit Caesar (Marburg, 1864)

Testimonium Flavianum

In book 2 a version of the so-called Testimonium Flavianum can be found, which may come from an interpolated manuscript of Josephus' Antiquities.

"About which the Jews themselves bear witness, Josephus a writer of histories saying, that there was in that time a wise man, if it is proper however, he said, to call a man the creator of marvelous works, who appeared living to his disciples after three days of his death in accordance with the writings of the prophets, who prophesied both this and innumerable other things full of miracles about him. from which began the community of Christians and penetrated into every tribe of men nor has any nation of the Roman world remained, which was left without worship of him. If the Jews don't believe us, they should believe their own people. Josephus said this, whom they themselves think very great, but it is so that he was in his own self who spoke the truth otherwise in mind, so that he did not believe his own words. But he spoke because of loyalty to history, because he thought it a sin to deceive, he did not believe because of stubbornness of heart and the intention of treachery. He does not however prejudge the truth because he did not believe but he added more to his testimony, because although disbelieving and unwilling he did not refuse."