Jews and Others
out the others. We have very little background against which to set this nar-
rative and can only stress that it presupposes both a substantial (if quite un-
quantifiable) Jewish presence in the city, with more than one synagogue, and
with sufficient confidence to involve the support of the praefectus, and to
plan violent action against the Christian majority.^48 Of the religious charac-
ter of ‘‘Alexandrian Judaism’’ in this period we know nothing more; but it
is very clear from the writings of Cyril that the confrontation with Judaism
(which in itself did not require or imply any direct contact with Jews) was a
significant element in his thought, explored long since in a major early work
by R. L. Wilken.^49
Before we move on to the second two episodes recorded by Socrates, it
will be relevant to note that two other Christian writers provide quite vivid
side-lights, if not on Alexandrian Judaism as such, at any rate on the Jew-
ish presence in the secular diocese of Egypt (the sphere of responsibility of
the praefectus Augustalis), covering both the various provinces into which
Egypt was divided, and the two provinces of Libya. One such side-light is
provided by the well-known letter of Synesius (Ep. ), dating to..,
before his election as bishop of Ptolemais, and describing a sea voyage from
Alexandria along the coast to Libya. Of the crew of thirteen, including the
pilot, more than half were Jews, ‘‘a treacherous race, and deeply convinced
that piety consisted in causing the death of as many Greeks as possible.’’ Dur-
ing the voyage, a storm broke out, and the Jewish crewmen were not avail-
able to lend a hand. For it was the day before the Sabbath (Paraskeuē), ‘‘and
they count the night as belonging to the day which follows, during which
they do not think it right to engage in any physical activity.’’ It then appeared
that the pilot was himself an observant Jew, and Synesius expostulates on the
hopelessness of a situation where the pilot himself was a ‘‘teacher of the law’’
(nomodidaskalos—we may recall thesophodidaskalosfrom Sardis), who instead
of steering took to reading the Bible. Eventually, under threat of force, the
pilot remembered the rule that the preservation of life took precedence over
the observation of the Sabbath.
Synesius’ tone is satirical—the voyage is represented as a succession of
disasters—so we need not take it that the Jewish pilot literally occupied
some religious office. The implication is rather that he perversely adopted
a role of this sort to the neglect of his immediate duties. All the same, the
. See, however, C. Haas,Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict
(), chaps. and .
. R. L. Wilken,Judaism and the Early Christian Mind: A Study of Cyril of Alexandria’s
Exegesis and Theology().