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Hasmonean Historical Traditions Preserved in a Tenth-Century CE History of Ancient Israel: The Intriguing Case of Sefer Yosippon

Publication date: 24.04.2026

ELECTRUM, 2026, Volume 33, pp. 327-350

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.26.016.23129

Authors

Kenneth Atkinson
University of Northern Iowa
, United States of America
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1915-5056 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Hasmonean Historical Traditions Preserved in a Tenth-Century CE History of Ancient Israel: The Intriguing Case of Sefer Yosippon

Abstract

The tenth-century CE Hebrew historical work known as Sefer Yosippon has been among the most widely circulated and influential histories of ancient Israel for Jews and non-Jews alike for over a millennium. Long believed to be a lost work of the first-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus that he wrote in Hebrew for Jews, the book’s author is anonymous. Scholars generally agree that its unknown writer resided in Italy, possibly Naples, with some suggesting that he had access to libraries, perhaps including monastic collections, to explain his extensive use of classical sources. It is this aspect of Sefer Yosippon that is of special importance to historians of Second Temple Judaism and ancient Mediterranean history, particularly of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, as the book incorporates numerous classical texts and unknown sources in its account of Jewish history. This study proposes that Sefer Yosippon’s author and redactors used works now lost that documented the Maccabean Revolt and the early Hasmonean period, particularly Jewish and Parthian relations. This article investigates this likelihood by highlighting possible new information about the origin of the Maccabean Revolt and the reign of John Hyrcanus in Sefer Yossippon and its major redaction that may shed new light on these enigmatic periods of history.

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Information

Information: ELECTRUM, 2026, Volume 33, pp. 327-350

Article type: Original scientific article

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1915-5056

Kenneth Atkinson
University of Northern Iowa
, United States of America
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1915-5056 Orcid
All publications →

University of Northern Iowa
United States of America

Published at: 24.04.2026

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY 4.0  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Kenneth Atkinson (Author) - 100%

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English

Hasmonean Historical Traditions Preserved in a Tenth-Century CE History of Ancient Israel: The Intriguing Case of Sefer Yosippon

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