Jews and Others
of the author’s strong points. So in chapter he vastly expands the brief
account in Genesis :– of how Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his con-
cubines and sent them away. InJubileesAbraham preaches to them (and to
Isaac and his sons) a sermon on virtuous living and the observance of the
Covenant. Only after that does he send them away:
And he gave to Ishmael and to his sons, and to the sons of Keturah,
gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, and he gave everything
to Isaac his son. And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and
their sons, went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of
Babylon in all the land which is towards the East facing the desert. And
these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and
Ishmaelites.^45As this passage now stands, it brings together the descendants of Hagar and
those of Keturah, and categorises them both as ‘‘Arabs and Ishmaelites.’’ But
what we have depends on Latin and Ethiopic translations of a Greek version.
The discoveries at Qumran have made it certain that the Greek version goes
back to a Hebrew original, probably composed in the second century..;
but the quite numerous Hebrew fragments do not happen to include this
passage.^46 So precisely how it read in the original cannot be determined.
So far as our evidence goes, therefore, it was Josephus alone who both
emphasised the common genealogical origins of circumcision as practised
by Jews and Arabs, and specifically identified the descendants of Ishmaelites
among the peoples of the contemporary world, classifying them as ‘‘Arabs’’
and taking as the prime group among ‘‘Arabs’’ the Nabataean inhabitants of
the kingdom whose capital was Petra.
Was this identification to have any consequences? Or, even if it itself were
not taken up, can it be seen as a reflection of any generally accepted iden-
tification within Judaism, from which consequences could be drawn? The
answer to both questions, as concerns Jewish tradition, seems to be no. There
is, of course, nothing to suggest that Josephus’ works continued to be read
within the Jewish community of Judaea itself; and if there ever were a litera-
ture produced by the Jewish diaspora within the Roman Empire of earlier
centuries.., it has disappeared without trace.^47 Within rabbinic literature
.Jubilees, –, trans. Charles.
. See Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryIII., –; see also the introduction,
translation, and notes by O. S. Wintermute in J. H. Charlesworth, ed.,The Old Testament
PseudepigraphaII (), .
. See F. Millar, ‘‘The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora between Paganism and