Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography

For centuries scholars have recognized the apologetic character of the Hellenistic Jewish historians, Josephus, and Luke-Acts; they have not, however, addressed their possible relationships to each other and to their wider cultures. In this systematic effort to set these authors within the framework of Graeco-Roman traditions, Professor Sterling has used genre criticism as a method for locating a distinct tradition of historical writing, apologetic historiography. Apologetic historiography is the story of a subgroup of people which deliberately Hellenizes the traditions of the group in an effort to provide a self-definition within the context of the larger world. It arose as a result of a dialectic relationship with Greek ethnography. This work traces the evolution of this tradition through three major eras of eastern Mediterranean history spanning 600 years: the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman.