The Purification of the Levites According to Josephus

This paper compares the biblical law in Numbers 8,5-26 regarding the purification of the Levites to Josephus’ rewriting of it in his Antiquities of the Jews (AJ 3.258). Rather than automatically assigning all the differences between the biblical text and its rewriting by Josephus to apologetic reasons, this paper suggests assigning at least some of the changes to exegetical reasons, i.e. his wish to make the biblical text clearer for his readers. The analysis is accompanied with the examination of the relevant texts from the MT, the LXX, Qumran and the Rabbinic literature.