Jews and Others
pothesis being examined is that Porphyry was ‘‘at home’’ in the culture or
cultures of ‘‘the Orient,’’ that his only known allusion to Bardesanes is much
less precise than this (texts to nn. – below).
Where there were indeed literary or philosophical works written in a
Semitic language, it might often be possible to gain acquaintance with them
through the medium of Greek translations. This was of course the case with
all the books of the Old Testament, including late works such as Daniel, or
the Wisdom of Ben Sira, which for some reason never formed part of the
Hebrew Bible, but which had been translated in the later second century..
to become the book Ecclesiasticus, and to form part of the Catholic but not
the Protestant Bible.
Here again, we cannot possibly doubt that Porphyry knew the Bible,
for it was, as is well known, precisely he who proved that Daniel was in-
deed a pseudo-prophecy, and had reached its definite form under Antiochus
Epiphanes in the s..^21 But nothing in what is preserved, or reflected in
later sources, of Porphyry’s brilliant discussion shows either that he knew or
used Hebrew, or that he derived anything from ‘‘Syrian’’ exegetes, whether
Christian or ‘‘Jewish.’’ Presumably the notion of a ‘‘Syrian’’Jewishexegete is
intended to refer to the authors of commentary-type (‘‘midrashic’’) works
written in Aramaic. Commentaries on biblical works are indeed found in
Qumran, necessarily dating from several centuries earlier than Porphyry.^22
There is no reason to presume that none were in circulation in his time. But
the earliest examples, which are otherwise known, and which are preserved
along with the wider corpus of Talmudic works, are later.^23 There is in any
case nothing explicit in Porphyry’s writings to show active exchanges with
learned Jews of the sort attested by his older contemporary, Origen.^24 It is
very relevant that Origen, an Alexandrian by birth, wrote most of his works
in Caesarea in Palestine, in an area of Jewish settlement and an active Jewish
religious culture, while Porphyry, as we have seen, is not known to have re-
turned to Syria after the age of about thirty. Eusebius claims explicitly that
Porphyry wroteAgainst the Christiansin Sicily, that he had known Origen in
youth, and that he criticised his interpretation of the Bible.^25
. See the masterly discussion of all the relevant sections of Porphyry’s works by
M. Stern,Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and JudaismII (), ff.
. For this material, see Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryIII (), ff. and ff.
See G. Vermes,The Dead Sea Scrolls in English^4 ().
. See H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger,Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash().
. See N. R. M. de Lange,OrigenandtheJews:StudiesinJewish-ChristianRelationsinThird
Century Palestine().
. Eusebius,HE, .