Abstract:
2 Samuel 15:13-16:14 tells of David's flight from Jerusalem to the Jordan in the
face of his son Absalom's rebellion and of the five encounters that occur during that journey. This
article focuses on Josephus' retelling of the episode in his Ant 7.198-210. The article's detailed
comparison between the Samuel passage and its Josephan version aims to find answers to such
questions as: Which of 2 Samuel 15:13-16:14 text-forms(s) did Josephus utilize? What rewriting
techniques has he applied to the data of his source and what is distinctive about his own resultant
rendering? Finally, how does Josephus' handling of the Scriptural data in this case compare with how
the data is treated elsewhere in early Jewish and Christian tradition?
