Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

nately, this documentation peters out by the end of the fifth centuryb.c.e.

One Hellenistic text, the largely fictionalLetter of Aristeas,claims addi-

tional colonists settled in Egypt with the advent of Persian rule, but no

precise chronology is offered. Still, it is a reasonable inference that there

were Jews living in Egypt at the time of Alexander’s capture of that country

in 332b.c.e.The pattern of military settlement certainly continued under

Macedonian rule.

We are better informed about Palestinian Jewry than any other,

though the picture remains woefully incomplete. Survey archaeology has

revealed a gradual demographic expansion during late Achaemenid times,

as well as significant commercial involvement with the Greek world via the

Phoenician coast. Recent excavations on Mt. Gerizim have firmly dated the

construction of a Samaritan temple there to the mid-fifth century, though

it remains unclear whether or to what extent this event reflects the devel-

oped Jewish-Samaritan rivalry of the Hellenistic period.

The wars of Alexander and his successors undoubtedly disrupted Jew-

ish life in the late fourth century, but the core areas of Jewish settlement

persisted and, in time, expanded. By the time of Pompey, Jews could be

found not only within the lands of the former Persian Empire, but also in

the Aegean, the Greek mainland, North Africa, even the city of Rome. The

consolidation of the Hasmonean state in the late second and early first

centuries extended Jewish settlement (or at least control) over much of

Palestine, transforming Judea from a minute, land-locked, temple com-

munity into a major regional power. In Achaemenid times, many Jews —

perhaps a majority — inhabited the hinterlands of the great urban centers

of the Near East. This was to change during the age of Alexander. In the

course of the Hellenistic period, many Jews would be drawn to the Greek

polisand would absorb and appropriate its culture (selectively) as their

own. This development, more than any other, propelled the creative genius

of early Judaism.

Alexander and the Diadochoi

The principal Greek and Roman historians who chronicled the cam-

paigns of Alexander make no mention of the Jews, who appear to have

played little or no active role in the titanic clashes of that decisive decade.

The first-century-c.e.Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, conjures up a

very different picture. In his account, Alexander visited Jerusalem after his

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chris seeman and adam kolman marshak

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:50 PM