Jews and Non-Jews
A second issue is the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. Especially
prominent is the topic of endogamy, the prohibition against marrying non-
Jews. It is not always stated explicitly but can arise from small modifications
to the biblical narrative. For instance, in Demetrius’s account of the life of
Moses (frg. 3), Zipporah, Moses’s wife, whom the biblical text describes as a
Midianite (Exod. 2:21), becomes a descendant of Abraham. Theodotus is
more straightforward; when retelling the rape of Dinah, he omits Jacob’s
condemnation of his sons’ violence. Moreover, the Shechemites are de-
picted as utterly wicked and are denied the possibility of joining the people
of Israel through circumcision and of marrying the daughters of Israel.
Philo is also quite explicit about the prohibition of marriage to foreigners
(Spec.3.29), but since he is merely paraphrasing Deut. 7:4, which refers to
the Canaanites, it is not clear how he understood this interdiction in his
own context. From the rest of his work, one may guess that he accepted in-
termarriage only with non-Jews who converted to Judaism. The synagogue
sermonOn Samsonuses the example of Samson’s unhappy relationship
with Delilah (Judges 14–16) to insist on the danger represented by a union
with a foreign woman (see especially §§22-23, 33). Similarly, in hisJewish
AntiquitiesJosephus paraphrases the biblical account of the reign of Solo-
mon and condemns his passion for foreign women (Ant.8.190-96). In the
Testament of Job(45:3), Job exhorts his children not to marry foreign
women. Like Demetrius, the author ofJoseph and Asenethaddresses a prob-
lem that stems from the biblical text: the reference to Joseph’s marriage to
the daughter of an Egyptian priest (Gen. 41:45). The author could have
solved the problem by noting that Joseph lived before the Law was given at
Mt. Sinai and therefore did not know the Mosaic legislation concerning for-
bidden unions, but he took a different approach. One passage inJoseph and
Aseneth(8:6) bluntly emphasizes that Joseph hated foreign women. Aseneth
therefore becomes a convert, an outcome that the very beginning of the
work foreshadows by stating that she did not look like the daughters of the
Egyptians but rather like the daughters of the Hebrews, and even like Sarah,
Rebecca, and Rachel (1:7-8).
Jewish authors writing in Greek, then, seem unanimous in their con-
demnation of exogamy. However, there are a few exceptions. Artapanus and
Ezekiel the Tragedian do not seem to have been bothered by the foreign
wives of Joseph and Moses. Moreover, Artapanus apparently had a very
open definition of the descendants of Israel. According to him, Joseph an-242katell berthelotEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:05 PM