The Hellenistic World and Rome
ture and conventions were fundamentally non-Greek. We lack a similarly
informed witness from the end of the third century (though Agatharchides
in the second, looking back to Ptolemy I’s conquest of Judaea, gives a quite
detailed description of the observance of the Sabbath).^25 But in any case the
distinctive features of Jewish society are clearly documented in the ‘‘Seleucid
charter of Jerusalem,’’ Antiochus III’s letter to an official called Ptolemaios,
laying down Jewish privileges, granted as a reward for their favourable re-
ception of him when he took Palestine from the Ptolemies in ..After
listing provisions for sacrifice and materials for building work on the Temple,
he continues, ‘‘And all the members of the nation shall have a form of govern-
ment in accordance with the laws of their country, and the senate [gerousia],
the priests, the scribes of the temple and the temple singers [Levites] shall
be relieved of the poll tax.’’ A subsequent proclamation gave royal backing
to the prohibition on entry to the Temple for gentiles and unclean Jews, and
forbade the import into Jerusalem of the meat or skins of animals declared
unclean by the dietary laws.^26
The work of Ben Sira, written some time in the high priesthood of
Simon II (late third or early second century..), is notable as an original
work composed in Hebrew, as emphasising two distinctive features of con-
temporary Jewish society, the class of hereditary priests and the scribes, and as
reflecting (esp. chaps. –) a deep sense of continuity with the past.^27 Ve r y
similar characteristics mark the book of Daniel, which indisputably reached
its final form in the mid-s. The documents from Qumran show that these
were not isolated features. Without going into details beyond the compe-
tence of the author, it will be enough to emphasise that the Qumran texts
include parts of every old Testament book except Esther, and a substantial
range of original works related to biblical themes and written in this period
is in either Hebrew or Aramaic.^28 For instance, no reader of the fascinating
fragments edited by J. T. Milik^29 will be readily disposed to assent without
severe qualification to the proposition that Palestinian Judaism was as Hel-
. Josephus,C. Ap, – Stern,Greek and Latin AuthorsI, no. a.
. Preserved only by Josephus,Ant. , –. But note the documents relating to this
Ptolemaios in the inscription published by Y. H. Landau, ‘‘A Greek Inscription Found near
Hefzibah,’’IEJ (): – (SEGXXIX ).
. See E. Rivkin, ‘‘Ben Sira—The Bridge between the Aaronide and Pharisaic Revo-
lutions,’’Eretz-Israel (): –. Part of the original Hebrew text has, of course,
been recovered at Masada; see Y. Yadin, ‘‘The Ben Sira Scroll from Masada,’’ inMasada:Final
ReportsVI (), –.
. See up-to-date surveys in DJD XXXIX ().
. J. T. Milik,The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave ().