The Anonymous Italian Jew Who Turned Christian Sources into a Jewish Classic

It was not until the 19th century that the works of the 1st-century Roman Jewish historian Josephus were rendered into Hebrew from Greek. But many Jews from the Middle Ages onward were familiar with a book called Sefer Yosippon, which presented itself as a copy or translation of Josephus. In fact, the author of this chronicle of Jewish history—likely a 10th-century Greek-speaking Jew from southern Italy, then ruled by the Byzantine empire—drew heavily on several Christian works, freely reinterpreting and expanding on them. Carson Bay delves into this fascinating, and once popular, book in conversation with J.J. Kimche. (Audio, 62 minutes.)