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Josephus’ Account of Masada as a Source of the National Identity of Modern Israel

Year 2013, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 7 - 39, 11.11.2014

Abstract

Archaeology has become a most important legitimacy tool of the construction of the ethnic identity and nation-building for the modern ideologies. This is especially true for Israel. The modern state of Israel has turned the country into a virtual archaeological site to prove that they are the ancient owners of the land. Masada represents one of the centers of archaeological researches having this purpose. Mytical Masada definition shaped according to Josephus’ account of Masada is seen as a major source forming Israeli national identity. However, there is a highly serious criticism about the reliability of archaeological data and the authenticity of Josephus’ account of Masada.

References

  • Alan Segal, Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (London: Random Hause, 2010).
  • Amos Elon, The Israelis: Founders and Sons (Pelican Books, 1983).
  • Bekir Zakir Çoban, ‚Hıristiyanlık Öncesi Yahudilik Tarihi Bağlamında Josephus Flavius‛, Bütün Yönleriyle Yahudilik: Dinler Tarihi Araştırmaları VIII (Ankara, 2012).
  • Bruce G. Trigger, A History of Archaeological Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
  • David P. Henige, Historical Evidence and Argument (Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).
  • Francis Schmidt, ‚Between Jews and Greeks: The Indian Model‛, Between Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism, ed. H. Goodman (New York: State University of New York Press, 1984).
  • Friedrich Avemarie, Jan Willem van Henten, Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Noble Death (London: Routledge, 2002).
  • Gregorio Kohon, ‚The Aztecs, Masada, and the Compulsion to Repeat‛, Time and Memory, ed. R. Perelberg (London: Karnac Books, 2007).
  • Hatice P. Erdemir, Halil Erdemir, ‚66-70 Yılları Arası Kudüs’te Yahudi İsyanı ve Günümüze Yansımaları‛, Fırat Üniversitesi Orta Doğu Araştırmaları Merkezi, Uluslararası Dördüncü Orta Doğu Semineri: İlkçağlardan İslamiyetin Doğuşuna Kadar Orta Doğu (Elazığ, 29-31 Mayıs 2009).
  • James J. Bloom, The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66-135 (Jefferson: McFarland, 2010).
  • Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of the Holy Land (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), John C. H. Laughlin, Archaeology and the Bible (London: Routledge, 2000).
  • (JW) Josephus, The Jewish War, Books IV-VIII, tr. J. Thackeray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961).
  • Keith W. Whitelam, The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History (New York: Routledge, 2009).
  • Louis H. Feldman, ‚Introduction‛, Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity, ed., L. H. Feldman, G. Hata (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987), ______, Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).
  • Magen Broshi, Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001).
  • Maja Gori, ‚The Stones of Contention: The Role of Archaeological Heritage in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict‛, Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 2013.
  • Mark Andrew Brighton, The Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 2009).
  • M. Evan Brooks, Military History’s Most Wanted (Washington: Brassey’s, Inc., 2002).
  • Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel, (Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).
  • ______, Ben-Yehuda, ‚The Masada Mythical Narrative and the Israeli Army‛, The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, ed. E. LomskyFeder, E. Ben-Ari (Albany: State University of New York, 1999).
  • ______, Ben-Yehuda, ‚Excavating Masada: The Politics-Archeology Connection at Work‛, Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts, ed. P. L. Kohl, M. Kozelsky, N. Ben-Yehuda (Chicago: The University Press of Chicago, 2007).
  • Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
  • Neil Asher Silberman, ‚Masada‛, The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, ed. B. M. Fagan, C. Beck (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
  • ______, Between Past and Present: Archaeology, Ideology, and Nationalism in the Modern Middle East (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1989).
  • Nicole Kelley, ‚The Cosmopolitan Expression of Josephus's Prophetic Perspective in the ‘Jewish War’‛, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 97, No. 3, 2004.
  • Ofer Bar-Yosef, Amihai Mazar, ‚Israeli Archaeology‛, World Archaeology, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Regional Traditions of Archaeological Research II, Feb., 1982).
  • Paul Archambault ‚Flavius Josephus‛, Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook, ed. A. F. Amoia, B. L. Knapp (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002).
  • Peige Desjarlas, ‚Excavation Zion: Archaeology and Nation-making in Palestine/Israel‛, Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology, vol. 21, Issue 1, 2013.
  • Philip L. Kohl, Clare Fawcett, ‚Archaeology in the Service of the State: Theoretical Considerations‛, Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology, ed. P. L. Kohl, C. Fawcett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
  • Randi Haaland, Gunnar Haaland, ‚Landscape‛, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, ed. T. Insoll (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Robert Karl Gnuse, Dreams and Dream Reports in the Writings of Josephus: A Traditio-Historical Analysis (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
  • Shaye J. D. Cohe, The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010).
  • Shlomo San, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland, tr. G. Forman (London: Verso, 2012).
  • Steven J. Mock, Symbols of Defeat in the Construction of National Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
  • Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, ‚Masada, Josephus and Yadin‛, Jewish Spectator, 32 (1967): 5.
  • Valentin Nikiprowetzky, ‚Josephus and the Revolutionary Parties‛, Josephus, the Bible, and History, ed. L. H. Feldman and G. Hataby (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1989).
  • Yigael Yadin, Masada: Herod’s Fortress and the Zealots’ Last Stand (New York: Random House, 1966).
  • Yael Zerubavel, ‚The Multivocality of a National Myth: Memory and Counter-Memories of Masada‛, The Shaping of Israeli Identity: Myth, Memory, and Trauma, ed. R. S. Wistrich, D. Ohana (Portland: Frank Cass, 1995).

Modern İsrail’in Milli Kimlik Kaynağı Olarak Josephus’un ‘Masada’ Anlatısı

Year 2013, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 7 - 39, 11.11.2014

Abstract

Arkeoloji, etnik kimlik ve ulus inşası konusunda modern ideolojilerin en önemli meşruiyet aracısı haline gelmiştir. Bu, İsrail açısından özellikle geçerli bir durumdur. Modern İsrail devleti, üzerinde bulundukları toprakların kadim sahipleri olduklarını ispatlamak için ülkeyi adeta bir arkeolojik sit alanına çevirmişlerdir. Masada, bu amaçla sürdürülen arkeolojik araştırmaların merkezlerinden birisini ifade etmektedir. Josephus’un Masada anlatısı üzerine şekillendirilen Masada mitik tanımı, İsrail milli kimliğini tesis eden önemli bir kaynak olarak görülmektedir. Bununla birlikte elde edilen arkeolojik veriler ile anlatının gerçekliği ve Josephus’un güvenilirliği hakkında çok ciddi eleştiriler söz konusudur.

References

  • Alan Segal, Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (London: Random Hause, 2010).
  • Amos Elon, The Israelis: Founders and Sons (Pelican Books, 1983).
  • Bekir Zakir Çoban, ‚Hıristiyanlık Öncesi Yahudilik Tarihi Bağlamında Josephus Flavius‛, Bütün Yönleriyle Yahudilik: Dinler Tarihi Araştırmaları VIII (Ankara, 2012).
  • Bruce G. Trigger, A History of Archaeological Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
  • David P. Henige, Historical Evidence and Argument (Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).
  • Francis Schmidt, ‚Between Jews and Greeks: The Indian Model‛, Between Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism, ed. H. Goodman (New York: State University of New York Press, 1984).
  • Friedrich Avemarie, Jan Willem van Henten, Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Noble Death (London: Routledge, 2002).
  • Gregorio Kohon, ‚The Aztecs, Masada, and the Compulsion to Repeat‛, Time and Memory, ed. R. Perelberg (London: Karnac Books, 2007).
  • Hatice P. Erdemir, Halil Erdemir, ‚66-70 Yılları Arası Kudüs’te Yahudi İsyanı ve Günümüze Yansımaları‛, Fırat Üniversitesi Orta Doğu Araştırmaları Merkezi, Uluslararası Dördüncü Orta Doğu Semineri: İlkçağlardan İslamiyetin Doğuşuna Kadar Orta Doğu (Elazığ, 29-31 Mayıs 2009).
  • James J. Bloom, The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66-135 (Jefferson: McFarland, 2010).
  • Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of the Holy Land (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), John C. H. Laughlin, Archaeology and the Bible (London: Routledge, 2000).
  • (JW) Josephus, The Jewish War, Books IV-VIII, tr. J. Thackeray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961).
  • Keith W. Whitelam, The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History (New York: Routledge, 2009).
  • Louis H. Feldman, ‚Introduction‛, Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity, ed., L. H. Feldman, G. Hata (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987), ______, Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).
  • Magen Broshi, Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001).
  • Maja Gori, ‚The Stones of Contention: The Role of Archaeological Heritage in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict‛, Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 2013.
  • Mark Andrew Brighton, The Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 2009).
  • M. Evan Brooks, Military History’s Most Wanted (Washington: Brassey’s, Inc., 2002).
  • Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel, (Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).
  • ______, Ben-Yehuda, ‚The Masada Mythical Narrative and the Israeli Army‛, The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, ed. E. LomskyFeder, E. Ben-Ari (Albany: State University of New York, 1999).
  • ______, Ben-Yehuda, ‚Excavating Masada: The Politics-Archeology Connection at Work‛, Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts, ed. P. L. Kohl, M. Kozelsky, N. Ben-Yehuda (Chicago: The University Press of Chicago, 2007).
  • Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
  • Neil Asher Silberman, ‚Masada‛, The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, ed. B. M. Fagan, C. Beck (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
  • ______, Between Past and Present: Archaeology, Ideology, and Nationalism in the Modern Middle East (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1989).
  • Nicole Kelley, ‚The Cosmopolitan Expression of Josephus's Prophetic Perspective in the ‘Jewish War’‛, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 97, No. 3, 2004.
  • Ofer Bar-Yosef, Amihai Mazar, ‚Israeli Archaeology‛, World Archaeology, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Regional Traditions of Archaeological Research II, Feb., 1982).
  • Paul Archambault ‚Flavius Josephus‛, Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook, ed. A. F. Amoia, B. L. Knapp (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002).
  • Peige Desjarlas, ‚Excavation Zion: Archaeology and Nation-making in Palestine/Israel‛, Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology, vol. 21, Issue 1, 2013.
  • Philip L. Kohl, Clare Fawcett, ‚Archaeology in the Service of the State: Theoretical Considerations‛, Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology, ed. P. L. Kohl, C. Fawcett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
  • Randi Haaland, Gunnar Haaland, ‚Landscape‛, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, ed. T. Insoll (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Robert Karl Gnuse, Dreams and Dream Reports in the Writings of Josephus: A Traditio-Historical Analysis (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
  • Shaye J. D. Cohe, The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010).
  • Shlomo San, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland, tr. G. Forman (London: Verso, 2012).
  • Steven J. Mock, Symbols of Defeat in the Construction of National Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
  • Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, ‚Masada, Josephus and Yadin‛, Jewish Spectator, 32 (1967): 5.
  • Valentin Nikiprowetzky, ‚Josephus and the Revolutionary Parties‛, Josephus, the Bible, and History, ed. L. H. Feldman and G. Hataby (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1989).
  • Yigael Yadin, Masada: Herod’s Fortress and the Zealots’ Last Stand (New York: Random House, 1966).
  • Yael Zerubavel, ‚The Multivocality of a National Myth: Memory and Counter-Memories of Masada‛, The Shaping of Israeli Identity: Myth, Memory, and Trauma, ed. R. S. Wistrich, D. Ohana (Portland: Frank Cass, 1995).
There are 37 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language tr; en
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Hakan Olgun

Publication Date November 11, 2014
Submission Date November 11, 2014
Published in Issue Year 2013 Volume: 10 Issue: 1

Cite

ISNAD Olgun, Hakan. “Modern İsrail’in Milli Kimlik Kaynağı Olarak Josephus’un ‘Masada’ Anlatısı”. Milel ve Nihal 10/1 (November 2014), 7-39.