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L.I.F.E. Lecture - Josephus’s Masada Story: Martyrs, Murders, and Myth with Jonathan Klawans

Sunday, March 30, 2025 • 1 Nisan 5785

7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

The story of mass suicide at Masada has been told by our only contemporary source, Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, priest, autobiographer and general. Although his histories may have been written for a Roman audience, this presentation evaluates the story in the context of ancient Jewish sectarianism and nationalism. The validity of the story will be probed, and taken into consideration will be the attitudes toward suicide and martyrdom as articulated by Josephus and other ancient Jewish sources.

JONATHAN KLAWANS is Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies, Religion and Religious Literature of Judaism in Late Antiquity at Boston University. He received B.A.s from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an M.A. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Dr. Klawans has authored: Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning, Denying, and Asserting Innovation in Ancient Judaism; Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism; Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism; and, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism.

Cosponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Forum, BASONOVA, and The Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies.

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Thu, December 26 2024 25 Kislev 5785