ways of expressing Jewish identity and faith. However, the term “syncre-
tism,” which is sometimes used in connection with Jewish texts written in
Greek, is generally ill chosen. In most Jewish works composed in Greek,
there is no syncretism at all, even if Greek terminology is used and Greek
gods or heroes are referred to. For instance, that the narrator of theLetter
of Aristeascompares the God of Israel with Zeus (16) is no proof of
syncretism on the part of the real author of theLetter,since the narrator is
a Greek. The comparison is part of playing the game of pseudonymous at-
tribution. But even if “Aristeas” had been a Jew, the comparison with Zeus
would still not count as religious syncretism but remain an example of cul-
tural translation: in the mind of a Greek living in the second century
b.c.e., the name “Zeus” did not necessarily conjure up all the mythological
tales told by the poets. It could be used in a more philosophical way and re-
fer to a more sophisticated conception of the divine. So an imperfect cor-
relation could indeed be established between the God of Israel and what
“Zeus” represented from a Greek philosophical perspective. Accordingly,
“Aristeas” defines Zeus as the universal source of life and being, a defini-
tion not completely inappropriate to the God of Israel.
Above all, one should bear in mind that Jews writing in Greek fre-
quently used Greek terminology in a subversive way. The use of a Greek
term did not necessarily imply that the writer accepted the traditional
Greek meaning of the word or all of its cultural implications. For example,
the author of 3 Maccabees uses features of the Hellenistic kings to describe
the God of Israel. One could argue that he was thoroughly Hellenized. His
command of Greek and his knowledge of the language of the Ptolemaic
court are certainly beyond doubt. However, the vocabulary he chose to use
also conveys the idea that God alone is the true king of the world, above all
human kingships. Similarly, the Wisdom of Solomon uses the term
myst 3 riato designate both the holy revelations of Wisdom (2:22) and the
abominable ceremonies of the Dionysian cult (14:23). Yet the use of the
termmyst 3 riain connection with Judaism is not a mark of religious
syncretism but a way to oppose Judaism to pagan mysteries and to cele-
brate the superiority of the former. At a more distinctly philosophical level,
Philo sometimes uses the Stoic termoikeiZsis(“appropriation”), which
carried philosophical implications quite contrary to Jewish ethical princi-
ples. But he subverts its meaning by endowing it with the sense of
homoiZsis tZtheZ,the Platonic “assimilation to God,” which could easily be
linked with the Jewish ideal of the imitation of God.
The encounter with Greek culture certainly represented a challenge to250katell berthelotEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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