Per Bilde's Place in Research on Josephus

Per Bilde of Aarhus played a pivotal role in generating the seismic shifts that created the subdiscipline of Josephus research in the 1970s through 1990s. His 1988 book Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome, which developed lines from his 1983 dissertation on Josephus as historian with respect to the Caligula affair, quickly became the closest thing we had—and have—to an Einleiting in Josephus. Its chapters methodically cover Josephus’ life, writings, thought, meaning, and use, in dialogue with research in several languages. The English manuscript was completed in June 1985. Casting about for a way to characterise Bilde’s Josephus oeuvre, I settled on this. He was the first to lay out in a comprehensive way the case for understanding Josephus as an earnest, intelligent, and self-conscious author and to show how we might read Josephus’ works as whole compositions. The products of Bilde’s research became foundation stones in the emerging sub-discipline ‘Josephus studies’. To explain why I say this, I first situate his work in relation to what came before it, then review his own methodological and substantive contributions, in the book and in various articles, and finally survey what has happened since Bilde’s 1988 book. So: Before Bilde, Bilde, and Post-Bilde