Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome : (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus

In this revision of his dissertation (at U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Ehrenkrook (classical Judaism, U. of Pittsburgh) offers a detailed discussion of the issue of sculpture as representing idols, both in the writings of Flavius Josephus and in the larger context of his times. Full chapters are devoted to how the worship of idols was described by Jewish and Roman writers, Josephus's arguments on the presence of statues in Roman cities, his portrayal of the treatment of statues by Romans and Jews in his Bellum Judaicum, and his idealizing of a statue-free past in Antiquitates Judaicae. The frequent quotations from Greek and Hebrew include English translation. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)