Bronze bases similar to spikes of lances’: textual criticism and ‘anchoring’ in Josephus’s Ant. 3.109 (// Ex. 27:10-11)

ABSTRACT. According to Niese’s text of AJ 3.109, Josephus has the bases of the shafts of the tabernacle court as «golden» (vqtrai&) and «of bronze» (vakjai&), and «similar to spikes of lances» (ratqxsg&qrim e\lueqei&|). This article argues that Niese’s text is corrupted and proposes to emend vqtrai& into vakjai&, and omit vakjai&de+ g#ram as a scribal gloss later introduced into the text. With
this formulation, Josephus would emphasize that the bases of the shafts were of bronze, consistently with the Hebrew text of Exodus, and that the tabernacle was a temporary structure, similar to a military camp. Josephus’ intention to present the tabernacle of the desert as a military camp invited the comparison between the bases of the shafts of the court and the spikes at the butt-end of the spear, expressed with a simile, according to a «horizontal anchoring» strategy. This article, moreover, explores the cognitive availability of the term ratqxsg* q used in the simile and argues for Josephus’ allusion to Homer’s description of Diomedes’s camp (Il. 10.153), pointing to a «vertical anchoring» strategy.