ancient jewish diaspora essays on hellenism

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Ancient Jewish Diaspora

Essays on hellenism, series:  supplements to the journal for the study of judaism , volume: 206.

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Table of contents, part 1 moses and exodus, part 2 places and ruins, part 3 theatre and myth, part 4 antisemitism and reception, share link with colleague or librarian, product details.

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Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, Leiden 2022

2022, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism JSJS

Contents Introduction Acknowledgments I. Moses and Exodus 1. Alexandria in Pharaonic Egypt: Projections in De vita Mosis 2. Moses and the Charlatans: On the Charge of γόης καὶ ἀπατεών in Contra Apionem 2.145, 161 3. Moses: Motherless with Two Mothers 4. Leaving Home: Philo of Alexandria on the Exodus II. Places and Ruins 5. Geography without Territory: Tacitus’s Digression on the Jews and its Ethnographic Context 6. Show and Tell: Myth, Tourism, and Jewish Hellenism 7. What if the Temple of Jerusalem Had not Been Destroyed by the Romans? III. Theatre and Myth 8. Philo’s Struggle with Jewish Myth 9. Part of the Scene: Jewish Theatre in Antiquity 10. Take Your Time: Conversion, Confidence and Tranquility in Joseph and Aseneth IV. Antisemitism and Reception 11. Antisemitism and Early Scholarship on Ancient Antisemitism 12. A Leap into the Void: The Philo-Lexikon and Jewish-German Hellenism 13. Tacitus’s Excursus on the Jews over the Centuries: An Overview of the History of its Reception 14. Polytheism and Monotheism in Antiquity: On Jan Assmann’s Critique of Monotheism 15. Testa incognita: The History of the Pseudo-Josephus Bust in Copenhagen Index of cited passages Index of names Index of subjects

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Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 206)

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• ISBN-10 9004521887
• ISBN-13 978-9004521889
• Publisher Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date November 14, 2022
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 1 x 9.25 inches
• Print length 361 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brill Academic Pub (November 14, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
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Religious Studies

You are here, between athens and jerusalem: jewish identity in the hellenistic diaspora.

A landmark study of Hellenistic Judaism by one of the world’s recognized experts-now fully revised and updated. One of the most creative and consequential collisions in Western culture involved the encounter of Judaism with Hellenism. In his widely acclaimed study of the intellectual and moral relationship between “Athens and Jerusalem”, John J. Collins examines the literature of Hellenistic Judaism, treating not only the introductory questions of date, authorship, and provenance, but also the larger question of Jewish identity in the Greco-Roman world. First published in 1984, BETWEEN ATHENS AND JERUSALEM is now fully revised and updated to take into account the best of recent scholarship.

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Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities

Thomas robinson , religious studies, the university of lethbridge. [email protected].

This book is a collection of twelve essays delivered at a conference in 1997 under the auspices of the Consultative Committee for the Bible and the Ancient Near East in the Royal Irish Academy. The articles cover a considerable range of issues, and most focus on some aspect of the city, although not all the articles capture the editor’s vision of the city as a “symbolic universe” (5). The book as a whole provides a feel for the state of flux on a number of questions regarding diaspora Judaism that, until a few years ago, were largely thought to be settled.

The somewhat informal chapter by Lester L. Grabbe, “The Hellenistic City of Jerusalem,” looks at the “Hellenistic” reforms by Jason in Jerusalem in the early part of the Seleucid rule. Grabbe thinks in terms of the Greek polis in his description of Hellenistic cities and takes no note that this view has been challenged by John D. Grainger [ The Cities of Seleukid Syria (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)]. Grabbe challenges the portrait of this era in Jerusalem’s history as it is described by the unsympathetic Jewish authors of the Maccabean literature. According to Grabbe, Jewish religion continued to function normally: Jason’s reform was cultural and political. Calling for a closer reading of the Maccabean literature, Grabbe contends that these books tell us as much by their silences as by their stories. Jason’s reforms become a far less explosive episode in the life of the population of Jerusalem than in the pen of the authors of the Maccabean literature.

Tessa Rajak’s contribution, “Synagogue and Community in the Greco-Roman Diaspora,” questions the widespread view of the diaspora synagogue as the center of Jewish life, an institution that supposedly brought into its orbit most dimensions of Jewish experience. First, Rajak explains why that common portrait of the synagogue became so popular: the influence of the portrait in Acts, the Christian structure of the ecclesia, the imbalance in the corpus of inscriptions, and the remains of excavated buildings. She then points out that, in spite of the considerable evidence, “the actual functioning of the Greco-Roman synagogue remains desperately elusive” (6). Rajak notes the surprising variety of terms that is used to identify the institution uniformly referred to in modern literature as the synagogue; this, she suggests, reveals the diverse developments and uses of the institution (26-32). As well, Rajak sees the transfer of the sanctity of the Temple to the synagogue as “gradual and diffuse” (31). The structure of Jewish diaspora communities is discussed, particularly the meaning of the politeuma . Rajak concludes that the evidence suggests “adaptation and experimentation” of the synagogue concept (37) and the ability of Jewish communities to creatively use types of association already familiar in the Greco-Roman environment.

In the first two-thirds of the chapter “The Jews in the Hellenistic Cities of Acts,” Fearghus Ô Fearghail surveys the variety of situations of Jewish communities in the diaspora with which Christians had interaction. Then he offers a brief section on “Historical Questions.” While agreeing that Luke paints a picture probably more consistent than it was, Fearghail treats the stories in Acts with a fair degree of respect. Particularly helpful is his description of the “god-fearers” and groups of other sympathizers on the fringe. He points out that the Acts evidence does not suggest that god-fearers flocked into the church in greater numbers than Jews did; also, he notes that some god-fearers were opponents of the Christian movement. Neither point has been adequately recognized in the frequent discussions of god-fearers.

Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley provides the chapter, “Synagogue Communities in the Graeco-Roman Cities.” She discusses such matters as the variety of terms, architecture, and locations of synagogues, and she finds no consistency. The synagogue would have generally been viewed by outsiders as an immigrant club, not unlike the associations that other immigrants formed, and the Jewish associations would have been adapted to the features of such clubs, though there would have been differences between synagogues and other clubs too. The role of Jerusalem and the impact of the destruction of the temple on the life of the synagogue are discussed. While most groups gradually were absorbed into the surrounding culture and lost their distinctive identity, she thinks Jews were able to maintain their identity successfully. This is a common position, but it is challenged within this volume by Gideon Bohak.

Brian McGing addresses the still largely unsettled question of the size of the Jewish population in the ancient world in his chapter “Population and Proselytism: How many Jews were there in the ancient world?” The article does a useful service in providing a balanced survey of the efforts to establish population figures for the ancient world; the article does an essential service by challenging the methodology and evidence employed in most population studies. Typical of McGing’s assessment and tone is the comment: “The ancient sources are so tendentious and unreliable as to be virtually without value, in much the same way as Baron’s patriotic guess of 8 million” (105). McGing offers a realistic approach to the issue.

Sacha Stern’s “Jewish Calendar Reckoning in the Graeco-Roman Cities” deals with whether Jewish calendar reckoning contributed to Jewish distinctiveness in the ancient world. Most calendars in the Near East had been lunar, as was the Jewish. The exception was the solar calendar of the Egyptians, which Jews may have used while retaining a lunar calendar for religious purposes. With the advance of the Roman Empire, the solar calendar came to be more and more adopted, and in so far as the Jews resisted this advance, they would have become more distinctive.

In the chapter “The Essenes in Greek Sources: Some reflections,” John Dillon considers the evidence from Philo and Josephus in an effort to establish a link between the Essenes and the Qumran community. He dismisses those who contend that there were two distinctive groups. Discrepancies between the descriptions can be accounted for by recognizing that neither author had first-hand knowledge of his subject. Such discrepancies are typical when authors treat foreign subjects — indeed, such differences can appear even when an author has closer familiarity with the subject.

John Barclay takes on the issue of “Apologetics in the Jewish Diaspora.” He discusses the debate provoked by Martin Goodman’s analysis of Jewish apologetic literature and Goodman’s qualification of Jewish proselytizing interests. In general, the rethinking of Jewish apologetic literature stems largely from a reconsideration of the audience, whether Gentile (thus the literature serves a defensive and missionary purpose, which was the older view) or Jewish (thus the literature is primarily edifying). In the latter case, the literature is considered “apologetic” only by expanding the definition of apologetic, as has widely been done in recent scholarship. Barclay argues for a middle ground: while apologetic literature was not designed primarily as a tool for proselytizing purposes, such literature evoked a range of positive responses to Judaism, of which conversion to Judaism was occasionally the outcome.

Jonathan Dyck, in an article on “Philo, Alexandria and Empire,” examines ideas about the role of allegory in Alexandrian and imperial politics, using the theories of David Dawson and Daniel Boyarin as the backdrop. Much of the discussion relates to theories of language and the play between literal and allegorical interpretation of texts. To some extent, the debate reflects similar concerns in the debate over the purpose of apologetic literature, addressed in other articles of this volume: is the audience primarily Gentile or Jewish? The key question around which the debate has its usefulness is the status of Jews in Alexandria and the nature of Jewish rights there.

Gideon Bohak’s article on “Ethnic continuity in the Jewish Diaspora in antiquity” confronts head-on the common assumption that diaspora Judaism was characteristically and successfully fixed on the preservation of its ancient heritage in the midst of temptations to assimilate into the culture of the larger society. Bohak dismisses that view of diaspora Judaism as accurate only of medieval Judaism and thus challenges the position of some of the contributors to this volume. Bohak offers a variety of observations about the character of diasporas in general and sets the Jewish diaspora within that discussion. Bohak’s primary query is whether it is more likely that the Jewish diaspora was atypical of diasporas in general, for he finds that diasporas typically assimilated. The Phoenicians are offered as an example. There the tendency of immigrants was either towards assimilation or a return to the homeland. Bohak offers brief comments on the process of naturalization and how, in spite of efforts of immigrant communities to maintain traditional features of their native culture, these efforts were largely unsuccessful. He then considers whether the Jewish diaspora should be treated as a diaspora of a special kind, examining particularly the Jewish experience in the Egyptian chora . Not everyone will be convinced by his interpretation of the evidence, and Bohak himself recognizes the provisional nature of his reconstruction, but he raises enough questions about diasporas in general and about specific aspects of the Jewish diaspora to make the received view of the Jewish diaspora slightly less convincing.

Eric Meyers examines the evidence for the Jewish practice of ritual washing in Galilee in his chapter “Aspects of Everyday Life in Roman Palestine.” He looks particularly at examples of domestic architecture in Sepphoris, examining the variety of evidence that might demonstrate attention to ritual washing, and he supplies numerous photographs to illustrate a variety of ritual pools. Meyers’ challenge to Hengel’s thesis of the clash between Hellenism and traditional Jewish piety, however, seems to add little to his overall examination.

What we have in this volume is not intended as a summary of the current scholarly consensus on matters related to diaspora Judaism. There is, clearly, no such consensus out there. This volume offers, rather, a glimpse of how unsettled many of the matters are that were once considered firmly established and how unexplored many of the issues of the Jewish diaspora remain.

The book contains an 18-page bibliography and a 10-page index.

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Ancient Jewish Diaspora

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Jews established communities in new regions, from Antioch to Alexandria.

By Robert M. Seltzer

In Egypt, Jewish settlements were established by Jewish soldier contingents brought there by the Persians. These exilic and postexilic communities were a modest prelude to the remarkable expansion in the numbers and distribution of diaspora Jews that occurred in the Hellenistic era

Diasporas were a common feature of the Hellenistic-Roman world. In the fourth century BCE, colonies of Egyptian, Syrian, and Phoenician merchants were frequently in the seaports of Greece and Italy. After the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greeks and Macedonians constituted an immense diaspora throughout the Near East. Ethnic resettlement and religious diffusion went hand in hand, as settlers brought with them ancestral cults and won for their gods new worshippers among the local population. Although not unique, the Jewish diaspora was outstanding in its ability to preserve and perpetuate its identity at considerable distance from the homeland and over large stretches of time.

Several factors guided the spread of the Jewish dispersions in Hellenistic times, of which the political history of the Mediterranean basin was the most important. During Ptolemaic rule of Judea, large-scale Jewish settlement in Egypt began. Under the first Ptolemies, Jewish captives, when freed, established communities throughout the country. The Ptolemies brought in Jewish soldiers and their families, and other Jews migrated from Judea to Egypt probably for economic reasons.

At its height, Egyptian Jewry in Hellenistic time was highly diversified: There were peasants and shepherds, Jewish generals in the Ptolemaic army, and Jewish officials in the civil service and police. At Leontopolis, an Aronide priest form Jerusalem founded a small temple with a sacrificial cult modeled on that of Jerusalem. (The shrine survived for over two centuries until just after 70 CE, but it does not seem to have been an important place of worship for Egyptian Jewry as a whole.)

Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemies and the intellectual center of Hellenistic civilization, became one of the most populous Jewish communities in the world between the third century BCE and the end of the first century CE, numbering several hundred thousand at least. Alexandrian Jewry included wealthy merchants, bankers, and shippers at one end of the social spectrum and masses of Jewish artisans and shopkeepers at the other. The Ptolemies also founded Jewish colonies in the cities of Cyrenaica (modern-day Libya). The Falashas [or “exiles” in Amharic], black Jews of Ethiopia [who refer to themselves as “Beta Yisrael”, house of Israel], may stem from Egyptian Jewish contacts during Hellenistic and Roman times.

Asia Minor and Other Northern Settlements

The northern diaspora arose when the Seleucids took control of Judea after 200 CE. Around 210-205, the Seleucid King Antiochus III moved several thousand Jewish soldiers and their families from Babylonia to Asia Minor. Within two centuries, large Jewish communities were to be found in Antioch and Damascus, in the Phoenician ports and in the Asia Minor cities of Sardis, Halicarnassus, Pergamum, and Ephesus.

By the turn of the Common Era, Jews lived on most of the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Cyprus and Crete, in mainland Greece and Macedonia, on the shores of the Black Sea, and in the Balkans. Jewish inscriptions from the early centuries CE have been found in the Crimea and in modern Romania and Hungary.

Rome and Other Western Settlements

When the Roman presence was felt in the Near East, the growth of Jewish settlement further west ensued. By the mid-first century BCE, the Roman statesman Cicero, in his speech in defense of Flaccus, insinuates the Jews were a troublesome element among the Roman masses.

Large masses of Jews were brought to Rome as slaves by Roman generals campaigning in Judea. Ransomed by other Jews and augmented by a steady stream of voluntary migrants, they swelled the Roman-Jewish community, despite occasional government efforts, on one pretext or another, to reduce their numbers. According to satirical remarks in the Roman poets, most Roman Jews were poor and some were beggars, but there were Jewish storekeepers, craftsmen, and actors in Rome and visiting Jewish diplomats, merchants, and scholars.

In the later Roman Empire, cities in southern Italy became important Jewish centers and large settlements appeared in western North Africa and in Spain. Jewish groups were found in Gaul (modern-day France) and in the Roman garrison towns on the Rhine. A remark attributed to the Greek geographer Strabo, partly true in his time (the first century BCE), was certainly characteristic of the Roman Empire at its height: “This people has already made it way into every city, and it is not easy to find any place in the habitable world which has not received the nation and in which it has not made its power felt. (Josephus, Antiquities XIV, 115)

The following article is reprinted from Jewish People, Jewish Thought , published by Prentice-Hall.

Robert Seltzer is a Professor of History at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Seltzer, Robert R., Jewish People, Jewish Thought, © 1982. Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. -->

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