tra Apionem(2.123). John M.G. Barclay (1995a, 120) observes that Jose-
phus may have considered it politic not to label Tiberius Alexander an apos-
tate until after he was dead (i.e., in Antiquitates judaicae,but not in Bellum
judaicum). Though we don’t have Tiberius Alexander’s view on the matter,
to describe him merely as a non-observant Jew seems not to catch the
flavour of his career and, if he did not openly renounce Judaism, he appears
to have followed a path which steadily drew him toward the practices,
ideals, and politics of the non-Jewish world (contra Feldman 1993a, 81). S.
Applebaum (1976, 705) suggests that Tiberius was, “if not actually a rene-
gade, at least a studious neglecter of Judaism,” while Barclay (1995a, 120)
raises the interesting hypothetical question whether Alexander would have
been viewed differently if he had been able to be of advantage to the Jews
in Egypt and Judea. We can only guess. Pursuit of a political career may also
have led to the deracination of Herod’s great-grandchildren, who are said
to have abandoned (ekleipô) Judaism in favour of the Greek way of life
(Josephus,A.J.18.141).
That Josephus was concerned about contemporary problems of Jewish
assimilation and apostasy is indicated by the way he recasts two biblical nar-
ratives: (i) the seduction of Israelite men by the Midianite and Moabite
women, which led to the eating of forbidden foods, worship of foreign
gods, murder of an apostate Jew (Zimri=Zambrias in Josephus) and his
pagan consort by the zealous Phinehas, and further punishment of Israel
by a plague (Num. 25; Josephus, A.J.4.126–155); and (ii) Solomon’s down-
fall (1 Kgs 11:1–13, Josephus, A.J.8.190–198) when he took foreign wives
and began to worship their gods. In the first story, the arguments used by
Zambrias, which Willem Cornelius van Unnik has called a “rationale for
apostasy,” may very well reflect the views of Jewish defectors who had
succumbed to intellectual arguments in favour of the pluralism of pagan
religion (1974, 261; in this paragraph, I summarize van Unnik [1974], who
is followed by Borgen 1995, 33–36). The pressure on Jews to join in pagan
worship is indicated in Josephus, Antiquitates judaicae12.125–126; 16.58–59;
Contra Apionem 2.66. In the second case, “the story dramatically highlights
the on-going contemporary problem of assimilation vis-à-vis fidelity to
‘ancestral customs’” (Begg 1997, 313; van Unnik [1974, 251] also connects
this story with Josephus’s account of Num. 25). In both instances, Josephus
seems particularly alert to the dangers of exogamy and the ease with which
transgression of food laws can lead down the slippery slope to apostasy.
Philo is a rich source of information about Jews who drifted away
from their community. In De virtutibus 182, he speaks of “rebels against the
holy laws” (tous tôn hierôn nomôn apostantes) who favour instead strong
Rivalry and Defection 57