TORONTO, November 12, 2002 -- A new Canada Research Chair in the study of the ancient world awarded today at York University promises to make valuable resources from the Mediterranean basin in Roman times more accessible, beginning with the 30 volumes written by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus -- the most important source in the period after the Bible for Judean history and the origins of Christianity in the first century A.D.
The research program will establish York as an international centre for the study of ancient texts, using new technologies to digitize texts and commentaries and improve access to research by scholars worldwide. The Canada Research Chair in Cultural Identity and Interaction in the Greco-Roman World (Tier I) has been awarded to Prof. Steve Mason, a historian in the Division of Humanities at York and an eminent scholar in the field.
Mason will be among the five international scholars at a public session in Toronto this month commenting on the authenticity of the ossuary recently damaged en route to the Royal Ontario Museum, believed by some to have once contained the bones of James, brother of Jesus. He will be commenting on Josephus’ portrait of James. Mason is a Killam Research Fellow, Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and editor of the Brill Josephus Project to provide the world’s first comprehensive commentary on Josephus, along with a modern translation from the original Greek. The commentary will be placed on line where it can be easily updated, consulted, and linked with archeological reports, providing a template for similar work with other valuable ancient texts.
"The Canada Research Chairs Program is key to Canada’s competitiveness in the knowledge economy," said Industry Minister Allan Rock, who announced the new Chairs at Canadian universities in St. John’s today.
The writings of Josephus tell us much about how the ancients handled intercultural conflict and negotiation, in their analysis of relations between the ‘superpower’ of the day and the smaller subject states. Josephus has traditionally been viewed as a traitor to the Romans, and therefore dismissed as a thinker, but Mason says this "ingrained assumption has blinded readers to the treasures" that his writings preserve.
"Although Josephus stands in a long line of politicians whose nations had fallen before Rome," his works alone have suffered extreme neglect as reactions to this situation," said Mason. "And yet they are some of the most valuable because they come from the geographical and social fringe. Even though we must read Josephus in his own historical context, it is remarkable to see how much some basic problems of human life – not only death and taxes, but also questions of human and national dignity, legal protection, and political-military power – have remained the same." Mason says it is important for a civilized society to maintain a dialogue with as many thoughtful minds as possible, "whether current or long dead, whether perceived as winners or losers in the stream of history."
The research will draw on the talents of many scholars of ancient history at York, which has been a leader in Canada in creating an integrated, multidisciplinary environment for the study of Mediterranean antiquity, spanning the fields of history, philosophy, classics, anthropology, religion and art. The technological dimension of the project is a significant innovation in scholarly research that will create the first "living commentary" on line that links scholarship to other historical resources on the Web and makes knowledge of the ancient world more dynamic and accessible.
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For further information, please contact:
| Prof. Steven Mason | Susan Bigelow |
| Division of Humanities | Media Relations |
| York University | York University |
| 416-736-5158 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22091 |
| smason@yorku.ca | sbigelow@yorku.ca |
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