Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum: Volume 4

374 Pages·2020·2.714 MB·English

by  Noah Hacham (editor), Tal Ilan (editor)

CORPUS PAPYRORUM JUDAICARUM
Volume IV

CORPUS PAPYRORUM
JUDAICARUM
Volume IV
Edited by
NOAH HACHAM and TAL ILAN
BASED ON THE WORK OF THE LATE
ITZHAK FIKHMAN
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Meron M. Piotrkowski and Zsuzsanna Szántó
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY
Robert Kugler, Deborah Jacobs, Thomas Kruse
MAGNES
This research was supported by the EINSTEIN STIFTUNG (2013-6); the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (grant No. 142/16) and the publication
was supported by a grant from the Arieh (Leo) Lubin Foundation, Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
ISBN 978-3-11-067450-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-067452-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-067457-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934815
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
& Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem
Cover illustration: P.Polit Iud. 8: A document that mentions explicitly “the politeuma of the Jews” of Herakleopolis;
courtesy © Papyrussammlung Köln.
Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin
Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgement
In collecting, editing and composing the trilogy of the new Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum
we did not begin from scratch. We have benefitted greatly from the generous contribution
of the scholarly estate of the late outstanding papyrologist Itzhak Fikhman, who had devoted
many years to the preparation of a new CPJ but did not live to complete it. On his deathbed,
he handed his entire oeuvre over to Professor Hannah M. Cotton of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, who had then generously shared it with us. We are most grateful for this
wonderful gift, without which we would not have been able to produce this (and the
following) volume(s) in the relative short time that was available to us. The foundation of
this project, laid down by a professional papyrologist of international standing such as
Fikhman, has greatly contributed to its quality. It is for this reason that CPJ IV is dedicated
to his blessed memory. As students of the late Professor Itzhak Fikhman (Hacham) and of
the late Professor Menahem Stern (Ilan), the youngest editor of the old CPJ, we consider
this project as one link in the chain of tradition.
This new Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum project has been made possible by generous
grants of the Einstein-Stiftung in Berlin (2013-16) and the Israel Science Foundation (Grant
142/16). These allowed us to employ over this time period several resourceful students
(Judith von Bresinsky, Cecilia Biondi-Haendler, Marcel Aulich and Dominique Bobeck) and
three excellent research assistants (Dr. Meron M. Piotrkowski, Dr. Zsuzsanna Szántó and
Dr. Deborah Jacobs), whose outstanding contribution to the project can be seen on each of
its pages. Piotrkowski and Szántó’s contributions to the present volume have been
substantial. Piotrkowski wrote the bulk of the commentary on the Aramaic papyri, and the
Aramaic inscriptions in the inscription appendix. Szántó wrote the entries on the Demotic
papyri and also thoroughly edited and occasionally wrote the commentaries on the Greek
documentary papyri (a first draft of which was composed by Itzhak Fikhman). She also wrote
the entries to the two hieroglyphic inscriptions in the inscription appendix. Jacobs wrote the
commentary on one literary papyrus (CPJ 614: A Sibylline Oracle: The Seventh King), as
well as the commentaries on the two Greek inscriptions in the inscription appendix. The
author of each commentary is mentioned at the end of each entry.
We have been helped along the way by several wonderful colleagues, who each
generously shared with us his/her expertise. Professor Robert Kugler of Lewis and Clark
University (Portland, Oregon) has provided us with his new readings and excellent
translations of the politeuma papyri (CPJ 557-576), as well as sharing with us a large number
of insights into their contents and meaning. In some cases he has agreed to co-author the
commentary. Professor Thomas Kruse of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
has kindly shared with us a new unpublished politeuma papyrus (CPJ 577) which is
presented here for the first time, and to which he also wrote the introduction. Professor Willy
Clarysse of the University of Leuven has also shared with us one unpublished papyrus (CPJ
606) and one unpublished ostracon (CPJ 555), which we bring here for the first time.
Moreover, he has generously read all our Demotic entries, offered corrections and made
many helpful suggestions.
We also consulted Professor Ada Yardeni of Jerusalem on various readings of the Aramaic
papyri as well as the one Hebrew biblical text published here (CPJ 609). While this book
was in print, Professor Yardeni passed away – ךורב הרכז יהי. We benefitted from the advice
and support of Professor Robert Kraft of the University of Pennsylvania on biblical Greek
papyri (CPJ 609-13) and from the support of Professor Nikolaos Gonis of the University
vi Acknowledgement
College of London and Prof. Sacha Stern of Kings College London. Professor Alexandra
von Lieven has carefully read the hieroglyphic inscriptions for us (JIGRE 167, 170) and has
made many helpful suggestions, guarding us from pitfalls and errors. Pierre-Luc Angles and
Gert Baetens shared with us their publication of a Demotic papyrus mentioning Jews (CPJ
616).
Partial results of our research on the Jewish papyri to be published in these volumes have
been presented by us, as well as by our research assistants, in the Brill conference in
Jerusalem 2013, the International collaborative conference of the SBL and the EABS in
Vienna 2014, the EABS conference in Cordoba in 2015, in the SBL meeting in Atlanta 2015,
in the Orion conference in Jerusalem 2016, in a research seminar in Oxford on the Jews of
Egypt in 2016, in the international papyrological conference in Barcelona in 2016 and in a
session in the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in 2017. We were offered
many helpful tips on these occasions, too numerous to count, and we thank all who offered
us assistance.
The present editors have overseen, directed and guided the entire project. We have gone
through all the work of our research assistants, revising, rewriting, editing and adding to it.
In doing this we benefited from the comfortable and inviting space provided to us by the
Mandel-Scholion Interdisciplinary Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies of the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The responsibility for the whole project is of course ours.
We take full responsibility for any error that may have fallen in the present volume: ןילת יתא
יתגושמ (Job 19:4).
Noah Hacham and Tal Ilan Jerusalem and Berlin, Nissan 5778, Spring 2018
Table of contents
Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................. v 
List of abbreviations .......................................................................................................... xi 
Explanatory note ...................................................................................................... xxxviii 
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 
Papyri of the Ptolemaic Period: Introduction ............................................................. 21 
Documentary papyri ...................................................................................................... 30 
521. A Jew in textile production ...................................................................................... 30 
522. A salt-tax receipt ...................................................................................................... 30 
523. An Aramaic-Demotic bilingual salt-tax receipt ....................................................... 31 
524. A Demotic-Greek bilingual salt-tax receipt ............................................................. 33 
525. Account of sales, income, and inventory ................................................................. 34 
526. A fragmentary letter ................................................................................................. 43 
527. A fragmentary letter ................................................................................................. 46 
528. A fragmentary letter concerning the sale of grain .................................................... 46 
529. Notice of dispatch of a goat and vessels .................................................................. 48 
530. A land registry .......................................................................................................... 49 
531. An account ............................................................................................................... 50 
532. An account in silver currency .................................................................................. 52 
533. An account in silver currency .................................................................................. 53 
534. An account in silver currency .................................................................................. 55 
535. An account of grain contribution ............................................................................. 56 
536. A receipt for wine? ................................................................................................... 57 
537. An account of vessels ............................................................................................... 59 
538. An account of wheat................................................................................................. 60 
539. A list of names ......................................................................................................... 61 
540. An inscription on a jar-ostracon ............................................................................... 61 
541. A reclamation letter .................................................................................................. 62 
542. An account in silver currency .................................................................................. 63 
543 (CPJ 49). Aristomenes son of Ioseph ....................................................................... 64 
543a. A Demotic-Greek bilingual receipt of measurement ........................................ 65 
543b. A wine-tax receipt ............................................................................................ 67 
544. A Demotic receipt of measurement.......................................................................... 67 
545 (CPJ 77-9). Isakis son of Straton .............................................................................. 69 
545a. A Demotic receipt of measurement .................................................................. 69 
545b. A Greek grain harvest tax receipt ..................................................................... 71 
545c. A Demotic receipt for wheat for the food of the ibis ........................................ 72 
546 (CPJ 100-2). A receipt for delivery of chaff ............................................................. 72 
547. A tax receipt ............................................................................................................. 73 
548. Notification to an epistates....................................................................................... 74 
549. A Demotic receipt of measurement.......................................................................... 75 
550. A receipt for beer-tax ............................................................................................... 76 
551. A receipt for grazing and pasture-tax ....................................................................... 77
viii Table of contents
552. An Account of consignment of oil ........................................................................... 78 
553. A receipt for delivery of an earthenware vessel ....................................................... 79 
554. End of a letter (?) with a list of names ..................................................................... 80 
555. A list of names ......................................................................................................... 81 
556. A loan contract ......................................................................................................... 82 
557-77. The Archive of the Jewish Politeuma in Herakleopolis ..................................... 86 
557. Petition to Alexandros politarches and the politeuma of the Jews .................... 89 
558. Petition to Alexandros politarches and the politeuma to release a prisoner ...... 93 
559. Petition to the archontes concerning a marriage contract .................................. 95 
560. Petition to the archontes of the Jewish politeuma regarding dissolution
of a betrothal ....................................................................................................... 98 
561. Petition to the archontes regarding ownership of a house ............................... 101 
562. Petition to the archontes regarding an unfinished investigation ...................... 103 
563. Petition to the archontes for the return of Philippa .......................................... 107 
564. Petition to the archontes concerning a loan ..................................................... 111 
565. Petition to the archontes about the purchase of a slave and a
wet-nursing contract .......................................................................................... 114 
566. Petition to the archontes about non-delivery of ordered wool ......................... 118 
567. Petition to the archontes about a debt .............................................................. 119 
568. Petition to the archontes about an unpaid lease ............................................... 120 
569. Petition to the archontes ................................................................................... 122 
570. Petition to the archontes ................................................................................... 123 
571. Petition to the archontes (?) ............................................................................. 124 
572. Petition to the archontes (?) ............................................................................. 125 
573. Letter about the release of Jews from prison .................................................... 126 
574. Letter from the judges in Peenpasbytis to the judges in Herakleopolis ........... 128 
575. Report from the elders in Peene to the archontes of the Jewish politeuma
in Herakleopolis ................................................................................................ 129 
576. Letter from the elders in Tebetnoi to the archontes in Herakleopolis .............. 131 
577. Petition to Straton politarches and the archontes ............................................. 132 
578. Acknowledgement of a paid debt by a guarantor ................................................... 135 
579. Complaint against a Jew concerning an inheritance .............................................. 139 
580. Notification to Dioskourides phrourarchos about a Jewish soldier committing
domestic disturbance .............................................................................................. 142 
581. Petition of a Jew to Ktesias archiphylakites .......................................................... 144 
582. A letter mentioning the Sabbath ............................................................................. 146 
583. A letter mentioning the Sabbath ............................................................................. 147 
584. A List of names ...................................................................................................... 149 
585-588. Zenon papyri ................................................................................................... 150 
585 (CPJ 2). A list of products from Palestine ........................................................ 151 
586. Accounts concerning wheat and monetary payments ...................................... 152 
587. An Account submitted by Hermias to Zenon ................................................... 153 
588. A fragment mentioning Jews ............................................................................ 155 
589-94. Greek tax-registers from the Fayum ................................................................. 155 
589. Greek composite tax-register for Trikomia and other villages ......................... 157 
590. Greek tax-collection register from Trikomia .................................................... 164 
591. Greek composite tax-register for Lysimachis, Trikomia and Lagis ................. 165
Table of contents ix
592. Greek tax-register for Trikomia ....................................................................... 166 
593. Fragment from a Greek composite tax-register ................................................ 167 
594. Tax-collection register ...................................................................................... 168 
595. Contracts from Samareia concerning Jews ............................................................ 169 
595a. Lease of a vineyard ......................................................................................... 171 
595b. Dowry receipt ................................................................................................. 174 
595c. Receipt for the restitution of a dowry ............................................................. 176 
595d. A contract of lease and of cultivation of a garden .......................................... 178 
596. Demotic salt-tax area record .................................................................................. 180 
597 (CPJ 127). Dositheos son of Drimylos ................................................................... 181 
597a. Dositheos son of Drimylos in a Greek contract .............................................. 183 
597b. Dositheos son of Drimylos in a Greek contract ............................................. 184 
597c. Dositheos son of Drimylos in a Demotic contract .......................................... 185 
598. Petition concerning an illegal construction ............................................................ 186 
599. List of persons receiving grain ............................................................................... 188 
600. Greek village list of ethnic groups mentioning Jews ............................................. 189 
601. Fragment of a list of Ptolemaic klerouchoi ............................................................ 190 
602. Beginning of a document concerning a loan between Jews ................................... 191 
603. A work contract involving Jews ............................................................................. 193 
604. Fragment of a list of klerouchoi ............................................................................. 196 
605. Private account mentioning the Sabbath ................................................................ 197 
606. Greek house-by-house register ............................................................................... 199 
607. List of payments ..................................................................................................... 200 
608. Account of brick suppliers ..................................................................................... 204 
Literary papyri ............................................................................................................. 206 
609. The Nash Papyrus: Decalogue and Shema ............................................................. 207 
610. Fragments of LXX Deuteronomy .......................................................................... 212 
611-613. Three early scrolls of the Septuagint (P.Fouad 266) ...................................... 216 
611. Fragments of a LXX Genesis scroll ................................................................. 216 
612. Fragments of a LXX Deuteronomy scroll ........................................................ 219 
613. Fragments of another LXX Deuteronomy scroll .............................................. 257 
614. A Sibylline Oracle: The Seventh King................................................................... 261 
615. A pseudo-historical account mentioning Samaria and Jerusalem .......................... 265 
Appendix 1: Additional Jewish papyri and ostraca .................................................. 275 
616. A Demotic memorandum submitted by a Jew ....................................................... 275 
617. Jewish suppliers of an outpost in the desert ........................................................... 277 
617a. Abi... son of Psenshabtai ................................................................................ 277 
617b. Iosepos son of Psenshabtai ............................................................................. 278 
618. Demotic marriage contract ..................................................................................... 279 
619. Registration of contributions to a proseuche ......................................................... 282 
Appendix 2: Ptolemaic inscriptions ........................................................................... 285 
157-165. The Aramaic inscriptions from Edfu .............................................................. 285 
157. An Aramaic family epitaph .............................................................................. 286 
158. A reused Aramaic tombstone ........................................................................... 287 
159. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 287
x Table of contents
160. An Aramaic epitaph .......................................................................................... 288 
161. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 288 
162. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 288 
163. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 289 
164. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 289 
165. A fragmentary Aramaic epitaph ....................................................................... 290 
166. An Aramaic epitaph from Latopolis ...................................................................... 290 
167. A funerary stele of a Buchis bull ............................................................................ 290 
168. A Jewish epitaph for Ionathas ................................................................................ 296 
169. A Jewish epitaph mentioning Ioseph ..................................................................... 297 
170. A Hieroglyphic statue -inscription from Tanis ...................................................... 298 
Appendix 3: Documents not considered Jewish and not included in N.CPJ IV ..... 301 
Indices ............................................................................................................................ 303 
1. Literary sources .......................................................................................................... 303 
2. Papyri, ostraca, and inscriptions ................................................................................. 307 
3. Alexander the Great and the royal family of the Ptolemies ....................................... 315 
4. Months ........................................................................................................................ 315 
5. Names and prosopography of Jews ............................................................................ 316 
6. Ethnica ........................................................................................................................ 323 
7. Titles ........................................................................................................................... 323 
8. Professions of Jews .................................................................................................... 323 
9. Geographical locations ............................................................................................... 324 
10. Technical terms ........................................................................................................ 325 
11. Religion .................................................................................................................... 326 
Table of measurements .................................................................................................. 329 
Tables of sources, dates and locations of papyri in N.CPJ ............................................ 332