Abstract
Several recent studies have advanced the thesis that ancient Judaism and the emerging Christian movement took up the Middle Platonic trichotomic model of the human being. This article analyzes all instances of in the works of Josephus. All passages in which Josephus talks about in relation to living people can most plausibly be interpreted in the sense of “breath.” In addition, he uses the lexeme for demons, for the divine spirit and for wind, i.e., in the entire breadth of common language usage. A philosophical concept of cannot be identified and there are no traces of a Jewish adaption of Middle Platonic anthropology in Josephus. He does not use to denote a connection between human beings and the divine, nor does he have a -model of humanity.