essays on judaism in the pre hellenistic period

Essays on Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 495

Salvatore infantino , syracuse, italy. [email protected].

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Questo volume tratteggia un lungo e travagliato periodo storico-sociale e religioso, di profonda trasformazione, della vita delle comunità ebraiche (dalla caduta di Gerusalemme nel 586 a.C. alla conquista macedone nel 332 a.C.). Di fronte alla potenza dominante dell’impero, prima babilonese e poi persiano, ci si interroga sul come gestire la nuova condizione esistenziale, cercando di capire il senso degli accadimenti. A partire dal crollo delle istituzioni statali e cultuali (la monarchia, la città santa, il tempio) e dallo shock culturale per l’inserimento geografico in altri contesti sociali con tradizioni diverse, gli ebrei sono chiamati ad affrontare una crisi d’identità religiosa che coinvolge la natura, la potenza e la bontà di Dio. Pertanto, in seno agli esiliati, si sviluppa un’intensa attività di riflessione teologica che conduce, gradualmente, a un profondo riassetto e a una riformulazione della religione jahvista. Dopo tale periodo (intorno al 538 a.C.), col ritorno in Palestina, che sembrerebbe avvenuto a più riprese, si apre una nuova fase storica, contraddistinta dalla ricostruzione delle mura e del tempio di Gerusalemme, dalla restaurazione del culto ufficiale e dalla elaborazione di una serie di scritti che daranno avvio al processo di formazione del canone biblico.

La ripopolazione del territorio, ormai parte costitutiva della provincia imperiale achemenide, è seguita dal sorgere all’interno del variegato movimento giudaico di una questione vitale per la sua sopravvivenza come “corpo ancestrale”, cioè la continuità con il passato, una questione che coinvolge molteplici correnti di pensiero, ciascuna delle quali afferma di detenere la genuina interpretazione delle antiche tradizioni. Ciò sembra aver creato un clima favorevole al nascere di comunità settarie. Comunque, sotto il dominio persiano, con il ritorno dei běnê haggôlâ, il tempio diventa il fulcro e l’emblema dell’identità di gruppo, in cui emerge l’invocazione di Dio come creatore, similmente, e probabilmente in contrapposizione, ai culti degli déi babilonesi (Marduk) e zoroastriani (Ahura Mazda), dei quali viene ripreso il linguaggio cosmologico e protologico.

Il testo in esame raccoglie quindici saggi dello stesso autore, già pubblicati, tranne tre in parte inediti, che formano un «puzzle» storico in cui si espone la mancanza di certezza su alcuni dati fondamentali, cosicché spesso si prosegue per inferenza alla luce dei riscontri letterari e delle scarse prove archeologiche a disposizione. Alcuni esempi riguardano: a) la religione dei deportati e di quelli che erano rimasti in patria; b) la fonte della ricchezza dei rimpatriati nel periodo persiano; c) la data reale della ricostruzione del Tempio e il suo legame con il santuario di Bethel; d) il ritorno degli esiliati, se avvenuto sotto Ciro o Dario, o entrambi, e se sia stato dunque scaglionato nel tempo; e) la redistribuzione della terra agli esiliati; f) le origini e la formazione di gruppi settari.

Degli articoli di Joseph Blenkinsopp qui pubblicati poniamo in evidenza alcuni elementi significativi. Il primo è correlato a Bethel, sito di quel santuario biblico, legato alla narrativa di Giacobbe (Gen 28 e 35), che divenne tempio reale sotto Geroboamo I, il quale, deliberatamente, lo stabilì come rivale del tempio di Gerusalemme (1Re 12,27-28), con un diverso calendario liturgico e sacerdoti non leviti, definiti kōhănê habbāmôt, «sacerdoti dei luoghi alti» (1Re 12,31-33). Secondo l’autore, il punto importante da porre in evidenza è che esso sia sopravvissuto alla conquista assira del 722 a.C. A tal proposito, egli afferma: «After the deportations and the arrival of foreign immigrants the Assyrians reactivated the Bethel sanctuary so that the new population might know and observe “the law of the god of the land” (2 Kgs 17:24–28). We may therefore accept that it continued in existence without interruption as a central place of worship, serving the remaining indigenous population and the mixed population brought in after the fall of Samaria and on subsequent occasions (Ezra 4:2,10 and Isa 7:8b)» (pp. 49-50).

Un conseguente aspetto che lo studioso affronta è l’identità della divinità venerata a Bethel. Non c’è dubbio che un dio chiamato bêt-’ēl (di cui si ha riscontro nell’area semitica nord-occidentale, nel trattato di Esarhaddon del 675 a.C.) era oggetto di culto nel regno d’Israele, nella diaspora, e forse anche in Giuda (Ger 48,13; 1Sam 10,3; Am 3,14; 5,5). Un fattore decisivo per il periodo di cui ci occupiamo è l’esistenza di un culto del dio Bethel nell’insediamento ebraico sull’isola di Elefantina alla prima cataratta del Nilo, e tra i siriani-aramei di Siene sulla sponda orientale di fronte all’isola. Nel tempio di Elefantina, i giudei giuravano «nel nome del dio Bethel» (AP 7), così come le offerte erano fatte per Anath-Bethel e Eshem-Bethel, diverse ipostasi della stessa divinità (AP 22).

Durante il periodo esilico, il sito di Bethel, parte del territorio beniaminita, venne con molta probabilità riattivato come un importante centro di culto. Infatti, la distruzione del tempio di Gerusalemme e l’eliminazione dei capi dei sacerdoti per scoraggiare ogni ulteriore attività cultuale, compresa la contaminazione dell’altare a causa di quelli uccisi in loco, resero il tempio ritualmente inaccessibile. Quindi, c’era la necessità per i non-deportati di un posto di culto alternativo, paragonabile in qualche modo alla situazione successiva alla caduta della Samaria nel 722. L’autore, dunque, ipotizza ragionevolmente, fornendo altre prove a sostegno, che il vecchio santuario di Bethel abbia ottenuto un nuovo impulso di vita, in virtù dello status privilegiato della regione di Beniamino e della vicinanza di Bethel al centro amministrativo di Mizpah; da qui la giustapposizione di Mizpah e Bethel e l’ostilità tra Giuda e Beniamino (Gdc 20-21). Questo contribuirebbe anche a spiegare l’ostilità endemica della popolazione samaritana al ristabilimento di un centro politico e religioso a Gerusalemme durante il primo periodo achemenide (pp. 54-56).

Se questa ricostruzione della situazione cultuale durante l’interim babilonese è sostenibile, sarebbe interessante sapere chi erano i sacerdoti che avevano servito al santuario di Mizpah-Bethel. Un indizio è l’informazione che Finees, figlio di Eleazaro e nipote di Aronne, prestava servizio all’arca nel tempio di Bethel durante la guerra tribale contro Beniamino (Gdc 20,27-28). Questa nota è coerente con l’associazione di Aronne quale “eponimo” dei běnê’ ahăron di Bethel. Che la connessione possa essere dedotta dai paralleli tra l’episodio del vitello d’oro (Es 32), in cui Aronne svolge il ruolo-guida, e l’istituzione cultuale di Geroboamo I a Bethel (1Re 12) è da tempo riconosciuto e non sembra richiedere un’ulteriore elaborazione. In particolare, è da sottolineare che nel Deuteronomio la denominazione standard “sacerdoti leviti” (hakkōhănîm halěviyyîm) sembra polemica, vista la nota che i sacerdoti nominati a Bethel da Geroboamo erano non leviti (1Re 12,31). Se si accetta che il Deuteronomio e la storia correlata datano nella loro forma definitiva al periodo neo-babilonese (attualmente questa è opinio communis), la centralizzazione molto discussa dell’attività cultuale a Gerusalemme, ripetuta in modo ridondante nella sezione della legge del libro (capp. 12 e 16), sarebbe coerente con la situazione esistente in quel momento. Lo stesso si può dire per il rifiuto senza compromessi dei culti non-jahvisti e per l’opposizione alle relative pratiche tra gli abitanti indigeni (Deut 7,1-6; 9,15-21; 12,1- 4.29-31). In definitiva, l’autore sostiene che le diverse linee d’indagine convergono su una forte probabilità: che durante la maggior parte o tutto il periodo tra la distruzione del tempio di Gerusalemme e la sua ricostruzione, Bethel servì come santuario alternativo, imperialmente sponsorizzato, associato al centro amministrativo di Mizpah; e che la posizione privilegiata di Bethel ha messo i sacerdoti, che sostenevano di discendere da Aronne e che esercitavano in quel luogo le loro funzioni, in seria e indiscutibile contesa per la supremazia cultuale dopo la restaurazione di Gerusalemme nel primo periodo persiano (pp. 58-60 ).

Un’altra importante questione storica inerisce il rapporto tempio-società nella Giudea achemenide. Dopo aver chiarito la non plausibilità della cosiddetta teoria Bürger-Tempel-Gemeinde, proposta da Weinberg, 1 Blenkinsopp sostiene che l’autorità sovrana apparteneva al governatore nominato dai persiani e non al sacerdozio del tempio sovvenzionato dalle autorità imperiali. Infatti Neemia era il governatore della provincia, non il leader di una comunità di cittadini che ruotava attorno al tempio; al contrario, egli ha speso molta energia per avere il controllo del tempio, del suo personale e delle sue considerevoli risorse. Il tempio, pur possedendo proprietà terriere, non ha mai rivendicato la proprietà di tutta la terra giudaica, come avrebbe richiesto l’ipotesi di Weinberg. È da sottolineare che i běnê haggôlâ, cioè il gruppo dominante di origine diasporica era un’entità ben organizzata che aveva potere decisionale sul tempio e le sue liturgie (Esd 4,1-5; cf. 8,35), sulle condizioni richieste per appartenere ad essa (Esd 6,19-22) e sulla regolamentazione del matrimonio dei suoi membri (Esd 9-10). Significativamente, ciò è presente solo nel materiale di Esdra ed è assente nella narrazione in prima persona di Neemia che è contemporaneo o vicino agli eventi descritti. Inoltre, l’autore afferma che alcune delle più importanti caratteristiche della società giudaica nel periodo achemenide replicano le caratteristiche di vita nella diaspora, e pertanto è ragionevole concludere che molti coloni giudei condividevano le conseguenze del boom economico. Tra l’altro, le minoranze etniche furono autorizzate a mantenere le loro identità distinte, principalmente per ragioni amministrative e fiscali piuttosto che umanitarie. È possibile che la minoranza etnica giudaica deportata a Babilonia, così come i giudei di Elefantina, avesse un proprio tempio. In realtà sembra sia stato costruito in un luogo chiamato “Casiphià” sotto la reggenza di un certo Iddo (un sacerdote?), dove Esdra era in grado di reclutare personale addetto al culto (Esd 8,15-20). Comunque, deve esserci stata qualche forma organizzata di culto e un quadro istituzionale per preservare le tradizioni della comunità in esilio. Ci sono quindi ragioni per pensare che alcuni aspetti della situazione dei giudei sotto gli achemenidi possa riprodurre accordi sociali già ottenuti dalla minoranza etnica giudaica nel sud della Mesopotamia. I giudeo-babilonesi riuscirono anche a raggiungere due obiettivi essenziali: a) il possesso della terra confiscata e la sua redistribuzione dopo il ritorno in patria; b) il controllo del tempio e delle sue funzioni liturgiche. Secondo l’autore, tale situazione esprime il fondamento su cui è stata costruita l’ideologia dominante descritta in Esdra-Neemia e che, a sua volta, si riflette nel libro delle Cronache (pp. 81-83).

Il volume è di alto livello scientifico. L’esposizione è chiara e condotta con un metodo logico-critico rigoroso. Sarebbe stata utile una conclusione generale che potesse armonizzare e sintetizzare lo sviluppo argomentativo di tutti i saggi, alcuni dei quali sono posteriori all’articolo finale, definito «An Exercise in Virtual History».

Table of Contents

I. The Theological Politics of Deutero-Isaiah (p. 1) II. Deutero-Isaiah and the Creator God: Yahweh, Ahuramazda, Marduk (p. 15) III. Judaeans, Jews, Children of Abraham (p. 30) IV. Bethel in the Neo-Babylonian and early Achaemenid period (p. 48) V. Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah (p. 61) VI. The Intellectual World of Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period (p. 84) VII. Was the Pentateuch the constitution of the Jewish ethnos in the Persian period? (p. 101) VIII. Footnotes to the rescript of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7:11–26 (p. 119) IX. The Nehemiah Autobiographical Memoir (p. 132) X. Ideology and Utopia in the book of Chronicles (p. 144) XI. The social context of the “Outsider Woman” in Proverbs 1–9 (p. 159) XII. Social Roles of Prophets in Early Achaemenid Judah (p. 178) XIII. The sectarian element in early Judaism (p. 192) XIV. Jewish Sectarianism from Ezra to the Hasidim (p. 207) XV. A Case of Benign Imperial Neglect and its Consequences: An Exercise in Virtual History (p. 221)

1 . Per i riferimenti bibliografici su Joel Weinberg, si veda p. 75, nota 35.

Essays on Judaism in the pre-Hellenistic period /

Essays on judaism in the pre-hellenistic period / joseph blenkinsopp..

The essays deal with developments during the period from the liquidation of the Judean state to the conquests of Alexander the Great. This was a critical time in the Near East and the Mediterranean world in general. It marked the end of the great Semitic empires until the rise of Islam in the sevent...

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• Frontmatter
• I. The Theological Politics of Deutero-Isaiah
• II. Deutero-Isaiah and the Creator God: Yahweh, Ahuramazda, Marduk
• III. Judaeans, Jews, Children of Abraham
• IV. Bethel in the Neo-Babylonian and early Achaemenid period
• V. Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah
• VI. The Intellectual World of Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period
• VII. Was the Pentateuch the constitution of the Jewish ethnos in the Persian period?
• VIII. Footnotes to the rescript of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7:11-26
• IX. The Nehemiah Autobiographical Memoir
• X. Ideology and Utopia in the book of Chronicles
• XI. The social context of the "Outsider Woman" in Proverbs 1-9
• XII. Social Roles of Prophets in Early Achaemenid Judah
• XIII. The sectarian element in early Judaism
• XIV. Jewish Sectarianism from Ezra to the Hasidim
• XV. A Case of Benign Imperial Neglect and its Consequences: An Exercize in Virtual History
• Abbreviations
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Biblical Index.
• Introduction to Second Temple Judaism : History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel, and Jesus. by: Grabbe, Lester L. Published: (2010)
• Early Judaism : a Comprehensive Overview. by: Collins, John J. Published: (2013)
• Jews in the Time of Jesus : an Introduction. by: Wylen, Stephen M. Published: (2014)
• The Making of Jewish Universalism : From Exile to Alexandria. by: Simkovich, Malka Published: (2016)
• Normative and sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple period by: Weinfeld, Moshe Published: (2005)

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Essays on Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period by Joseph Blenkinsopp

Published: March 23, 2017

Author: Allison Collins

The essays deal with developments during the period from the liquidation of the Judean state to the conquests of Alexander the Great. This was a critical time in the Near East and the Mediterranean world in general. It marked the end of the great Semitic empires until the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D.,decisive changes in religion, with appeal to a creator-deity in Deutero-Isaiah, Babylonian Marduk cult, and Zoroastrianism.For the survivors of the Babylonian conquest in a post-collapse society the issue of continuity, with different groups claiming continuity with the past and possession of the traditions, there developed a situation favourable to the emergence of sects. The most pressing question, however, was what to do faced with the overwhelming power of empire, first Babylonian, then Persian. Finally, with the extinction of the native dynasty and the entire apparatus of a nation-state, the temple became the focus and emblem of group identity.

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• Foreword ; Overview ; I. The Theological Politics of Deutero-Isaiah ; II. Deutero-Isaiah and the Creator God: Yahweh, Ahuramazda, Marduk ; III. Judaeans, Jews, Children of Abraham ; IV. Bethel in the Neo-Babylonian and early Achaemenid period ; V. Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah ; VI. The Intellectual World of Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period VII. Was the Pentateuch the constitution of the Jewish ethnos in the Persian period? ; VIII. Footnotes to the rescript of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7:11-26 ; IX. The Nehemiah Autobiographical Memoir ; X. Ideology and Utopia in the book of Chronicles XI. The social context of the "Outsider Woman" in Proverbs 1-9 ; XII. Social Roles of Prophets in Early Achaemenid Judah ; XIII. The sectarian element in early Judaism ; XIV. Jewish Sectarianism from Ezra to the Hasidim ; XV. A Case of Benign Imperial Neglect and its Consequences: An Exercise in Virtual History Abbreviations ; Bibliography ; Author Index ; Biblical Index.

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Essays on Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the...

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• Essays on Judaism in the pre-Hellenistic period by: Blenkinsopp, Joseph, 1927- Imprint: (2017)
• Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman period.
• A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 2 : The Coming of the Greeks: the Early Hellenistic Period (335-175 BCE). by: Grabbe, Lester L. Imprint: (2011)
• A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period (vol. 1) : The Persian Period (539-331BCE). by: Grabbe, Lester L. Imprint: (2006)
• Early Judaism : A Comprehensive Overview. by: Collins, John J. Imprint: (2012)

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VI. The Intellectual World of Judaism in the Pre-Hellenistic Period

From the book essays on judaism in the pre-hellenistic period.

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What Is Hellenistic Judaism? An Introduction

The special issue of JSJ brings together four contributions that were originally presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2020 in a panel dedicated to the question “What is Hellenistic Judaism?” The panel was organized by the steering committee of the SBL Hellenistic Judaism section. In the introduction, the editors compare early approaches to Hellenism (Droysen) with contemporary ones (Chaniotis, the contributions in this issue), and discuss the question when Jewish Hellenism ends.

At the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2020, which was supposed to be held in Boston but then for reasons all too well known was transferred into the virtual world, the Hellenistic Judaism section dedicated one session to a question of existential value: What should we understand by “Hellenistic Judaism?” The members of the steering committee took the opportunity to raise this question in the context of our celebrating several anniversaries. It has been fifty years since the Journal for the Study of Judaism ( JSJ ) first appeared and twenty-five years since the launch of its monograph series, the Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism ( JSJS ). Both the journal and the monograph series have long become well established venues for discussing a great variety of topics related to “Hellenistic Judaism.” Moreover, it was just fifty years since Martin Hengel’s groundbreaking (if not unproblematic) book Judentum und Hellenismus had come out (in its original German edition). 1 At the SBL Annual Meeting we invited five scholars who work from different angles on aspects of Hellenistic Judaism to speak on what they understand by Hellenistic Judaism and, more generally, on what they consider the most urgent questions in the field: Shaye Cohen (Harvard University), Maren Niehoff (Hebrew University), Sylvie Honigman (Tel Aviv University), Benjamin Wright (Lehigh University), and Françoise Mirguet (Arizona State University). John Collins (Yale University) kindly agreed to respond to these papers. Except for Maren Niehoff’s paper, which has appeared elsewhere, 2 this special issue of JSJ brings together the papers of the SBL panel, revised and updated for publication. The four papers look at Hellenistic Judaism from very different angles, using different methods and theories. Benjamin Wright in “Globalization and the ‘Hellenization’ of Jews in the Second Temple Period” draws from Globalization Theory for a better understanding of Jews in the Hellenistic Mediterranean oikoumenē . Françoise Mirguet in her contribution on “Josephus’s Lamentations in the Judean War : Body, Emotional Resistance, and Gender” makes use of Emotion Studies as well as Gender Studies. Sylvie Honigman’s paper “In Search of a New Paradigm: Judean Literature as a Crucible of Appropriations from Multiple Imperial and Native Temple Cultures in Hellenistic Times” is inspired by the New Empire Studies. Some of these approaches have been developed only recently. They have proven to be helpful tools for a better understanding of the ancient world and are here brought into connection with what has been labeled “Hellenistic Judaism.” These new approaches are a far cry from how Martin Hengel tackled the topic fifty years ago. Shaye Cohen in “Some Thoughts on Judaism and Hellenism by Martin Hengel” puts that most influential book into perspective and uncovers its Christian agenda. Hengel, Cohen argues, fell into the very trap which he tried to avoid: a sharp distinction between Hellenism in the Jewish diaspora and law obedience in the land of Israel. John Collins in his response agrees with Cohen’s conclusion that “Hengel was motivated by a Christian perspective when he said that post-persecution Jews retreated into the law.” But Collins also refers to later, more nuanced work by Hengel. What remains true, however, is that Hengel’s seminal work Judentum und Hellenismus , his understanding of Hellenistic Judaism, has a teleological touch. Or as Honigman writes more explicitly in her contribution: “Hengel’s narrative is skewed by his positive view of ‘Hellenism’ and negative perception of ‘Judaism’.” 3 In Hengel’s view Hellenistic Judaism is a “praeparatio evangelica.” This is indeed what makes Hellenistic Judaism interesting: “Wer über das Christentum in der antiken Welt sprechen will, muß mit dem antiken Judentum beginnen,” Hengel writes in his self-reflexive article “Hellenisierung des antiken Judentums als Praeparatio Evangelica.” It was in Christianity that the synthesis of Greco-Roman antiquity and Jewish heritage came to a completion. 4

Such a christianocentric view of Hellenistic Judaism, or rather of Hellenism in general, stood at the very beginning. When Johann Gustav Droysen coined the term “Hellenism” for the period between Alexander the Great and the emergence of the Roman empire, he too already conceived the epoch as a preparation for Christianity. Hellenism, Droysen writes, was not “a dead spot in the history of mankind,” but “a living link in the chain of human development” and “bearer of greater determinations that should mature in her lap.” 5 While Droysen deserves credit for having brought to the fore a period that previously had too often been disregarded for being post-classical, his evolutionary understanding of the epoch is problematic, to say the least. Today, not much of Droysen’s understanding of “Hellenism” has survived—besides the term itself. Hellenism is no longer simply, or no longer only, a term for cultural fusion, in the case of Jewish history, of Judaism and Hellenism. As Wright rightly notes at the beginning of his contribution, over the last twenty years something of a consensus developed in scholarship shifting away from Judaism and Hellenism as self-contained and cultural containers in favor of a less static and more inclusive understanding of the Hellenistic Mediterranean oikoumenē .

One more reason why Droysen’s understanding of “Hellenism” is considered to be dated by many scholars (especially of ancient Judaism), is his focus on Greek culture. For Droysen—and indeed already 2 Macc 4:13 in its use of hellēnismos —“Hellenism” referred primarily to the spread of Greek culture. Jewish Hellenism, a term maybe to be preferred to Hellenistic Judaism, 6 is of course more than that, as Collins also stresses in his response. One only needs to think of the scrolls from Qumran.

Droysen was a child of his time, as are all scholars. If Droysen’s presentation of the Hellenistic age could be linked to the Prussian monarchy, 7 contemporary scholars may feel tempted to draw parallels to the modern phenomenon of globalization. Angelos Chaniotis writes in his insightful Age of Conquests: The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian 336 BC – AD 138 : “This period is truly the cosmopolitan era of the Greeks in a way that no preceding period of Greek history was. Many of the phenomena that one observes in the ‘long Hellenistic age’ find parallels in the modern world, and the ‘modernity’ of this historical period adds to its attractiveness for both historians and alert observers of our own day and age.” 8 Future generations will be able to evaluate to what extent new approaches to Hellenism such as Emotion Studies, Empire Studies, Gender Studies and, again, Globalization Studies, were influenced by contemporary ideas and challenges.

Related to the question “What is Hellenistic Judaism?” is the question when that period ends. Chaniotis opts for an unusual date: 138 CE or the end of Hadrian’s reign. Traditionally, at least in Classics and Ancient History, the epoch of Hellenism ends in the year 31 BCE with Octavian’s victory at Actium or, more often, in the year 30 BCE with the Roman annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt. There are good reasons to take the fall of the last great Hellenistic kingdom as a turning point. But as Chaniotis rightly notes, that was “not a turning point in the history of society, economy, religion and culture.” 9 Certainly not, one may add, in Jewish history. For the latter one may rather opt for the year 70 CE (fall of the Jerusalem temple) or the year 100 CE (the approximate death of Josephus, arguably one of the most important sources for Hellenistic Judaism), or indeed the reign of Hadrian with the Bar Kokhba revolt as turning points. For Chaniotis the Hellenistic frame reaches from the Panhellenic alliance of Philip and Alexander to the Panhellenic council of Hadrian. 10 Where does Jewish Hellenism end? As Niehoff pointed out in her paper on the SBL panel, in light of a Greek speaking Jew in third-century CE Caesarea, who engaged in Hellenistic scholarship, and more generally in light of possible connections between Greek and Hebrew-speaking Jewish communities in Late Antique Palestine one may see reasons to stretch the long Hellenistic period even further. 11 The “downfall” (Collins 12 ) of the Jews both in the Diaspora and the land of Israel was if anything only temporary.

A number of further aspects, some of them discussed in the papers of this special issue, continue to be on the horizon of further scholarship on Hellenistic Judaism. Hengel’s dichotomy of Judaism and Hellenism was also simplistic in its geographic cluster understanding: here the Diaspora, mainly in the West, and there the land of Israel. Culture blossomed mainly in the Diaspora, while in Israel, starting with the Hasmonean period, the Law was at the core. Things were hardly that simplistic, in several respects. Philo’s presentation and discussion of the Law needs to be taken seriously; he is not only an allegorist but fundamentally concerned with arguments for observance of the Law. At the same time he is also an important source for the diversity of Hellenistic Judaism: from Philo we hear of Jews who fasted on Yom Kippur “but otherwise did not lead active religious lives” and of others who called the biblical stories into doubt. 13 And the same may be suggested for the land of Israel: as Honigman writes in her contribution, making use of New Empire Studies, the Jerusalem temple too, as other cultic centers of the ancient Mediterranean, may be best understood as a “multifaceted institution that mediated relations with the imperial authorities.” 14 There was probably more fluidity—permeable boundaries—between the Diaspora and the land of Israel and more diversity within these communities than has often been stated in earlier research. The sources available for the study of Hellenistic Judaism remain limited (if only we knew more about the Jews in Rome or Babylonia in the Hellenistic period). As the late Louis Feldman once said: scholars of ancient Judaism are always confronted with the choice between chutzpah and silence. Silence is hardly an option.

• Bibliography

Bloch , René . Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism ( Leiden : Brill , 2022 ).

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Bosworth , Albert B. “ Alexander the Great and the Creation of the Hellenistic Age .” In The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World , ed. Glenn R. Bugh ( Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2006 ), 9 – 27 .

Chaniotis , Angelos . Age of Conquests: The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian 336 BC – AD 138 ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press , 2018 ).

Cohen , Shaye J.D. The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism ( Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck , 2010 ).

Collins , John J. “ What Is Hellenistic Judaism? ” Journal for the Study of Judaism 53 ( 2022 ), 569 – 578 .

Droysen , Johann Gustav . Geschichte des Hellenismus III : Geschichte der Epigonen ( Darmstadt : Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft , 2008 ).

Hacham , Noah , and Tal Ilan , eds. Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum , vol. 4 ( Berlin : De Gruyter , 2020 ).

Heinemann , Isaak . Philons griechische und jüdische Bildung: Kulturvergleichende Untersuchungen zu Philons Darstellung der jüdischen Gesetze ( Breslau : M. & H. Markus , 1932 ; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1962).

Hengel , Martin . Judentum und Hellenismus: Studien zu ihrer Begegnung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Palästinas bis zur Mitte des 2. Jhs. v. Chr. ( Tübingen : J.C.B. Mohr , 1969 ).

Hengel , Martin . Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period . 2 vols. Transl. John Bowden ( Philadelphia : Fortress , 1974 ; repr. 1981).

Hengel , Martin , and Hermann Lichtenberger . “ Die Hellenisierung des antiken Judentums als Praeparatio Evangelica .” Humanistische Bildung 1981/4 , 1 – 30 . Reprinted in Judaica et Hellenistica. Kleine Schriften I ( Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck , 1996), 295–313.

Honigman , Sylvie . “ In Search of a New Paradigm: Judean Literature as a Crucible of Appropriations from Multiple Imperial and Native Temple Cultures in Hellenistic Times .” Journal for the Study of Judaism 53 ( 2022 ), 491 – 525 .

Niehoff , Maren R. “ Tracing Hellenistic Judaism in Caesarea: A Jewish Scholar of the Psalms in Origen’s Gloss .” Zion 87 ( 2022 ), 7 – 35 [Hebrew].

Nippel , Wilfried . Johann Gustav Droysen: Ein Leben zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik ( Munich : Beck , 2008 ).

Hengel, Judentum und Hellenismus . The English translation of the original German edition came out in 1974: Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism .

Niehoff, “Hellenistic Judaism in Caesarea.”

See in this issue, Honigman, “Search of New Paradigm,” 497.

Hengel, “Hellenisierung des antiken Judentums,” 295–96 (“Synthese, die sich im Christentum vollendet”).

Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus III , x; Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora , 6–7.

Already Isaak Heinemann, one of the doyens of the field, speaks of “Jüdischer Hellenismus” ( Philons Bildung , 3, 5) and so does, more recently, Cohen, The Significance of Yavneh .

See Bosworth, “Alexander the Great,” 9. On Droysen see Nippel, Johann Gustav Droysen .

Chaniotis, Age of the Conquests , 6.

Chaniotis, 3.

Chaniotis, 4.

See, in this issue, Collins, “What Is Hellenistic Judaism,” 576.

Philo, Spec. Leg. 1.186; Conf . 2–5. For the heterogeneousness of Hellenistic Judaism see now also the fourth volume of the Corpus Papyrorum Iudaicarum : Hacham and Ilan, Corpus .

See, in this issue, Honigman, “Search of New Paradigm,” 505.

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