Table Of Content
Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture
Supplements
to the
Journal for the Study
of Judaism
Editor
John J. Collins
The Divinity School, Yale University
Associate Editor
Florentino García Martínez
Qumran Institute, University of Groningen
Advisory Board
j. duhaime ‒ a. hilhorst ‒ p.w. van der horst
a. klostergaard petersen ‒ m.a. knibb ‒ h. najman
j.t.a.g.m. van ruiten ‒ j. sievers
g. stemberger ‒ e.j.c. tigchelaar ‒ j. tromp
VOLUME 100
Jewish Cult and Hellenistic
Culture
Essays on the Jewish Encounter with
Hellenism and Roman Rule
by
John J. Collins
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2005
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collins, John Joseph, 1946–
Jewish cult and Hellenistic culture : essays on the Jewish encounter with Hellenism
and Roman rule / by John J. Collins.
p. cm. — (Supplements to the Journal for the study of Judaism, ISSN 1384–2161;
v. 100)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90–04–14438–2 (alk. paper)
1. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.–210 A.D. 2. Jews—History—168
B.C.–135 A.D. 3. Jews—Civilization—Greek influences. 4. Hellenism. 5. Bible. O.T.
Apocrypha. Wisdom of Solomon—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 6. Philo, of Alexandria.
7. Jews—Rome—Civilization. I. Title. II. Series.
BM176.C645 2005
296’.09’014—dc22
2005046991
ISSN 1384–2161
ISBN 90 04 14438 2
© Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Preface ........................................................................................ vii
Chapter One. Hellenistic Judaism in Recent Scholarship .... 1
Chaper Two. Cult and Culture: The Limits of
Hellenization in Judea .......................................................... 21
Chapter Three. Reinventing Exodus: Exegesis and Legend in
Hellenistic Egypt .................................................................. 44
Chapter Four. Messianism and Exegetical Tradition:
The Evidence of the LXX Pentateuch .............................. 58
Chapter Five. The Third Sibyl Revisited .............................. 82
Chapter Six. Spells Pleasing to God: The Binding of Isaac
in Philo the Epic Poet ........................................................ 99
Chapter Seven. Joseph and Aseneth: Jewish or
Christian? .............................................................................. 112
Chapter Eight. Life after Death in Pseudo-Phocylides .......... 128
Chapter Nine. The Reinterpretation of Apocalyptic
Traditions in the Wisdom of Solomon .............................. 143
Chapter Ten. The Mysteries of God: Creation and
Eschatology in 4QInstruction and The Wisdom of
Solomon .................................................................................... 159
Chapter Eleven. Anti-Semitism in Antiquity? The Case of
Alexandria ............................................................................ 181
Chapter Twelve. The Jewish World and the Coming
of Rome ................................................................................ 202
Index of Authors ...................................................................... 217
Index of Passages ...................................................................... 221
PREFACE
Eleven of the twelve essays in this volume have appeared elsewhere
over the years 2000 to 2005. (The exception is the first essay, on
“Hellenistic Judaism in Recent Scholarship,” which appears here for
the first time). I have made occasional minor corrections, standard-
ized the style, and updated some references. Otherwise the essays
are reprinted as they originally appeared. In the case of chapter 8,
“Life after Death in Pseudo-Phocylides,” I have added a postscript
to respond to a rejoinder to the original essay by P. W. van der
Horst.
The original publication information is as follows:
1. “Hellenistic Judaism in Recent Scholarship,” not previously pub-
lished, was delivered as a paper at a conference on “Athens and
Jerusalem” at UCLA in March, 2003.
2. “Cult and Culture: The Limits of Hellenization in Judea,” in J.J.
Collins and G. E. Sterling, ed., Hellenism in the Land of Israel (Notre
Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2001) pp. 38–61.
3. “Reinventing Exodus: Exegesis and Legend in Hellenistic Egypt,”
in R. A. Argall, B. A. Bow, and R. A. Werline, ed., For A Later
Generation, The Transformation of Tradition in Israel, Early Judaism and
Early Christianity (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000)
52–62.
4. “Messianism and Exegetical Tradition. The Evidence of the LXX
Pentateuch,” in M. A. Knibb, ed., Messianism and Septuagint (Leuven:
Peeters, 2005).
5. “The Third Sibyl Revisited,” in E. Chazon and D. Satran, ed.,
Things Revealed. Studies in Early Jewish and Christian Literature in Honor
of Michael E. Stone (Leiden: Brill, 2004) 3–19.
6.“Spells Pleasing to God. The Binding of Isaac in Philo the Epic
Poet,” in A. Yarbro Collins and M. M. Mitchell, ed., Antiquity and
Humanity, Essays on Ancient Religion and Philosophy presented to H. D.
Betz (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001) 3–13.
7.“Joseph and Aseneth. Jewish or Christian?” Journal for the Study of
the Pseudepigrapha 14(2004) 57–72.
viii preface
8. “Life after Death in Pseudo-Phocylides,” in F. García Martínez
and G. P. Luttikhuizen, ed., Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome. Studies in
Ancient Cultural Interaction in Honour of A. Hillhorst (Leiden: Brill,
2003) 75–86.
9. “The Reinterpretation of Apocalyptic Traditions in the Wisdom
of Solomon” appeared in Italian as “La Reinterpretazione delle
Tradizioni Apocalittiche nella Sapienza di Salomone,” in G. Bellia
and A. Passaro, ed., Il Libro della Sapienza. Tradizione, Redazione,
Teologia (Rome: Città Nuova, 2004) 157–71. An earlier form of
this article appeared as “Apocalyptic Eschatology in Philosophical
Dress in the Wisdom of Solomon,” in J. L. Kugel, ed., Shem in
the Tents of Japhet. Essays on the Encounter of Judaim and Hellenism
(Leiden: Brill, 2002) 93–107.
10. “The Mysteries of God,” in F. García Martínez, ed., Wisdom
and Apocalyptic (Leuven: Peeters, 2003) 287–306.
11. “The Jewish World and the Coming of Rome,” in W. Dever
and S. Gitin, ed., Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past.
Canaan, Ancient Israel and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age
Through Roman Palestine. Proceedings of the Centennial Symposium, W.F.
Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and American Schools of Oriental
Research, Jerusalem, May 29–31, 2000. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisen-
brauns, 2003) 353–62.
12. “Anti-Semitism in Antiquity? The Case of Alexandria,” in
C. Bakhos, ed., Ancient Judaism in its Hellenistic Context (Leiden:
Brill, 2005) 9–29.
I wish to express my gratitude to University of Notre Dame
Press, Trinity Press International, Peeters, Mohr Siebeck, T. &
T. Clark International, Eisenbrauns and Brill Academic Publishers
for permission to republish.
CHAPTER ONE
HELLENISTIC JUDAISM IN RECENT SCHOLARSHIP
Few episodes in ancient history have had more profound and last-
ing implications than the encounter of Judaism and Hellenism. The
spread of Greek culture to the east was the first great encounter of
east and west, the first instance of a clash of civilizations that has
been repeated in various forms down to the present. Few people in
antiquity could have anticipated that the Jews would be the most
enduring representatives of ancient Near Eastern culture. Alexander
can scarcely have given Judea a second thought. The eventual impor-
tance of Judaism on the world stage would be due in part to the
extraordinarily distinctive self-consciousness of the Jewish people, and
in part to their historic link to the Christian religion, which would
dominate so much of western history. But for the Christian con-
nection, the remarkable corpus of literature produced by Greek-
speaking Jews might well have been lost, like the literature of other
Near Eastern peoples. Be that as it may, the Jews are the only east-
ern people of the Hellenistic world who have left behind a sub-
stantial literature.1 Only in the case of Judaism do we have the
material to assess the response of an eastern people to Hellenism,
and to see how an eastern tradition was adapted in light of the
different and dominant culture of the Greeks.
The encounter between Judaism and Hellenism took place in two
arenas. In the land of Israel, the majority of the population contin-
ued to speak a Semitic language, Aramaic or Hebrew. The initial
attempt to turn Jerusalem into a Hellenistic polis met with violent
rejection, for reasons that were religious rather than cultural in the
1 For surveys see J. J. Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem (New York: Crossroad,
1983; revised ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000); M. Goodman, “Jewish Literature
Composed in Greek,” in E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus
Christ (rev. and ed. G. Vermes, F. Millar and M. Goodman; 3 vols.; Edinburgh:
Clark, 1973–87) 2.470–704; J. M. G. Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1996); E. Gruen, Heritage and Hellenism. The Reinvention of Jewish
Tradition (Berkeley: University of California, 1998).
