03_Biblica_Sharon_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:46 Pagina 50 50 NADAV SHARON II. A Scribal Error? Numerous scholars suggest, accordingly, that there is a scribal error in Antiquities and that it should read “twenty-five”; that is, although the current text spells out the age, it originally had keV as numerals, and that was mistakenly copied at some point as ieV 3. This suggested emendation has been so commonly accepted as his- torical fact that it has even been used by W.E. Filmer as one of the reasons for his rejection of the consensus view that Herod died in 4 BCE, dating his death to 2/1 BCE instead 4. The matter has aroused interest especially insofar as the date of Herod’s death has obvious implications for the dates of the birth and the crucifixion of Jesus. However, methodologically it is obviously problematic to base an argument upon an unattested emendation, unless that emen- dation is essentially necessary. Given that there is no manuscript support for this emendation, it seems that caution should be exercised before turning to the easy solution of rejecting Josephus’ statement as a scribal error. One may argue that if Herod was close to seventy years old prior to his death in 4 BCE, he should have been 27 or 26, not 25, in 47 BCE. Admit- tedly, in the War Josephus only says he was scedo,n (nearly) seventy before his death, so that one may possibly argue that he may have actually died at the age of 69 or 68 5. However, the parallel passage in Antiquities, which may perhaps be a closer rendering of Josephus’ source 6, must be taken into account. There Josephus uses the prepo- sition peri, (about) which can be understood equally to mean that he was younger, or even older, than seventy. Additionally, it should be recalled that some unspecified amount of time (in which several events took place) passed between Herod’s illness, in reference to which Josephus says he was nearly seventy, and his death (War 1.665; Ant. 17.191). 3 E.g. SCHÜRER, History, 1:275 and n. 29; E.M. SMALLWOOD, The Jews under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian. A Study in Political Relations (Leiden 1981) 44 and n. 1; BARNES, “Date of Herod’s Death”, 209 and n. 3; P. RICHARDSON, Herod. King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Colum- bia, S.C. 1996) 108 n. 52. Cf. KOKKINOS, The Herodian Dynasty, 156 n. 2. 4 FILMER, “Chronology of the Reign”, 293. 5 Cf. KOKKINOS, Herodian Dynasty, 156 n. 2. 6 Cf. D.R. SCHWARTZ, “On Drama and Authenticity in Philo and Jose- phus”, SCI 10 (1989-90) 113-129, and see further below, n. 24.