I would like to read some of Flavius Josephus works in English regarding early Judaism (e.g., his History of the Jews). I understand many of the translations generally available are from a very old (1800s !) translation and hard to read.
Would you have a recommendation for an easier to use translation in clear English? I am mostly interested in your actual experience (vs. a reference to Internet material that I have likely already seen).
There's a great, accessible and new (2017) translation of The Jewish War (an eyewitness account of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem), translated by Martin Hammond and published by Oxford University Press. In addition to copious endnotes and an introduction by Josephus scholar Martin Goodman, this edition includes genealogical trees of the Hasmonaean and Herodian families, maps, AND, a schematic layout plan of Josephus's description of the Second Temple.
If you can find a copy, Steimatsky published the complete works of Josephus in paperback in the 1980s or 90s.
I have a copy. The English is modern and readable and there are great indices and footnotes too.
You might want to try Hebrew Book Gallery in Jerusalem. I have found all kinds of hard to find things there in both Hebrew and English.
Here’s their link:
https://bookgallery.co.il/content/english/default.asp
I know you are asking for personal experience but just quickly searching Amazon, they have a newly published complete works which says all the old language of the Whitson translation has been updated to modern English. It also has bumped the type size and leading up for an easier read.
If you look in the reviews there are several good photos from purchasers showing the text quality and style of prose.
Here’s a link for that too:
