RT Article
T1 Wearing the Cosmos: The High Priestly Attire in Josephus’ Judean Antiquities
JF Journal for the study of Judaism
VO 52
IS 3
SP 359
OP 387
A1 Pena, Joabson Xavier
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1764703642
AB Abstract In his recounting of the Exodus narrative of the making of the priestly vestments in Judean Antiquities 3.151-180, 184-187, Josephus provides a vivid description of the high priest’s wardrobe, including its cosmological connotations. This article shows that Josephus uses cosmological motifs in his recounting of the high priestly attire in order to convey a message to his intended audience in Rome. Josephus adds his own accents to the biblical narrative to convince his public that the high priest’s fine clothing functions as a statement that the Judean God is not a national deity with restricted power, but the Highest God, who is the only creator, maintainer, and supreme ruler of the universe. Seen from this perspective, we observe Josephus in dialogue with a well-established Greco-Roman clothing imagery tradition that portrays gods and mortals in symbolic garments to enhance their far-reaching power or authority.
K1 Judean God
K1 Cosmos
K1 high priestly attire
K1 tent
K1 Flavius Josephus
DO 10.1163/15700631-BJA10015