The Hellenistic World and Rome
We cannot avoid returning (‘‘Antiochus Epiphanes and Judaism,’’ below) to
the question of whether Antiochus had a ‘‘policy’’ of his own, and if so why
and to what end.
But the central question remains (last section but one): what was the na-
ture of the cult or cults observed in the Temple between and ..?We
can understand (more or less) the nature of the faith which triumphed in the
Maccabean revolution. If we do not understand exactly what was the nature
of the cult which was supposed to replace it, it would be better to say so,
and not to build vast historical interpretations on hypotheses as to matters
of fact.
Greek and Native Cultures in the Syrian Region
As mentioned above, only new evidence could improve Hengel’s portrayal
of Hellenism in Judaea itself. One such item is indeed the bilingual ostracon
from Khirbet el-Kôm, between Hebron and Lachish, with brief Aramaic and
Greek texts acknowledging a loan.^4 This third-century..text (probably of
..) is notable as the earliest Greek document from Palestine, as attest-
ing the loan-wordQPYLS, from the Greekkapelos,atrader,andasaperfect
exemplification of the commercial influences which Hengel emphasises.
But for a fuller understanding of the phenomena of Hellenism in Pales-
tine we need a wider perspective. Firstly, it is noticeable that on the fringes
of the Syrian region, in Nabataea and Palmyra, flourishing mixed cultures
could grow up in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, employing
both Greek and dialects of Aramaic in their public documents, exhibiting
exotic and magnificent variants of Greek architecture, and observing cults in
which Greek elements intermingled with indigenous ones.^5 In Syria proper,
notably at Hierapolis/Bambyce and at Heliopolis/Baalbek, it is notorious
that there survived within Greek cities temples and cults which both were,
and were perceived at the time to be, entirely non-Greek in origin and char-
acter. The obvious instance is Lucian’s description inOn the Syrian Goddess
of the cult of Atargatis/Hera at Hierapolis, with references to that of Mel-
qart/Hercules at Tyre and to cults at Heliopolis (which he thought to be of
Egyptian origin), Byblos, and Apheca. Similarly, when Herodian comes to
. L. T. Geraty, ‘‘The Khirbet el-Kôm Bilingual Ostracon,’’BASOR (): –;
cf. A. Skaist, ‘‘A Note on the Bilingual Ostracon from Khirbet el-Kom,’’IEJ (): –.
. For Nabataea, see, e.g., the brief survey and bibliography in Schürer, Vermes, and
Millar,HistoryI, app. ; and P. C. Hammond,The Nabataeans: Their History, Culture and
Archaeology(). For Palmyra see M. A. R. Colledge,The Art of Palmyra().