The Background to the Maccabean Revolution:
Reflections on Martin Hengel’s
‘‘ Judaism and Hellenism’’
*Introduction
The truism that important events are understood best when considered at
some distance in time may serve as an excuse for surveying only so belat-
edly the vast contribution to Jewish and Hellenistic history made by Hengel’s
major work, first published in German in , revised and enlarged in ,
and issued in an English translation in .^1 If some alternative perspectives
are suggested in what follows, and some doubts expressed about the central
concept of a Hellenistic reform movement on the part of a group within the
Jewish community, that implies no lack of admiration or gratitude for what
is, along with P. M. Fraser’sPtolemaic Alexandria(), the most important
contribution to the history of the Hellenistic world since M. I. Rostovtzeff ’s
Social and Economic History(). More specifically, as a study of the inter-
action of Judaism and Hellenism, it has been rivalled in recent years only by
the great work of Menahem Stern,Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Juda-
ismI–III (–),^2 and by the penetrating essay of A. D. Momigliano in
chapters – ofAlien Wisdom(). In looking back on Hengel, it will be
possible to take this and other subsequent work into account; but the im-
*First published inJournalofJewishStudies (): –. Versions of this paper were given
at seminars at the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London, and the Oxford Cen-
tre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. I am very grateful to Tessa Rajak and Geza Vermes
for helpful comments.
. M. Hengel,Judaism and Hellenism: Studies inTheir Encounter in Palestine during the Early
Hellenistic PeriodI–II (), henceforth Hengel. Cf. also hisJuden, Griechen und Barbaren:
Aspekte der Hellenisierung des Judentums in vorchristlicher Zeit().
. See Tessa Rajak, ‘‘The Unknown God,’’JJS (): –.