the preservation and transmission of early Jewish literature written in
Greek is itself problematic. This, in turn, helps explain why so many of the
texts rewrite, explicate, or refer to the Bible: the corpus itself reflects to a
great extent the church fathers’ selective interests.The Use of Biblical Traditions
Most early Jewish works composed in Greek that have come down to us
deal with biblical topics. Obviously, in the case of works that survive only
in fragments, we do not know exactly what topics were dealt with in the
sections that have not been preserved. At any rate, the evidence we have
looks roughly as follows: ten works deal partly or exclusively with the book
of Genesis and eight with the book of Exodus; one is based on a story from
the book of Judges; two refer in some way to the history of the kings of Ju-
dah (roughly 2 Samuel through 2 Kings); one is based on the book of Jo-
nah; and two retell the story of Job. The works of Philo and Josephus,
which are particularly long and well preserved, deal with a greater variety
of biblical texts: the whole Pentateuch and even, in the case of Josephus,
most of the books eventually included in the Masoretic canon, plus a few
others.Writings Based on Genesis
Among the Jewish writers who wrote about Genesis, Demetrius probably
comes first. He evokes the episode of Isaac’s sacrifice, the fate of Jacob, his
two wives and his twelve sons, and the story of Joseph, focusing on chro-
nological issues (frgs. 1 and 2). Then we have Artapanus, who recalls Abra-
ham’s descent to Egypt, mentions that he taught Pharaoh astrology, and
retells the story of Joseph, attributing to him agricultural reform as well as
the invention of measures (frgs. 1 and 2).
Other creative rewritings of the Genesis account include fragments
of two authors known through Polyhistor: Cleodemus and Pseudo-
Eupolemus. Cleodemus freely elaborates upon Gen. 25:1-4, which lists
Abraham’s offspring by his wife Keturah. He imagines that two sons of
Abraham helped Heracles fight Antaeus, and that one of them, called
Aphran, even gave him his daughter in marriage. Pseudo-Eupolemus, who
probably was a Samaritan, and who seems to have used Berossus’sBab-231Early Jewish Literature Written in GreekEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:05 PM