Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

security for Lower Egypt, as well as supplying manpower for the Ptolemaic

army when called upon.

Although Jewish inhabitants of the region embroiled themselves in

Egyptian conflicts as late as Julius Caesar’s Alexandrine War (48b.c.e.),

testimony for the career of the Oniad family itself is confined to the period

of the dynastic intrigues of Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III (145-102b.c.e.).

In his refutation of Apion’s diatribe against the Jews of Alexandria,

Josephus tells of two Jewish generals, Onias and Dositheos, who supported

Cleopatra II’s claim to the throne against her brother, Physcon, and his Al-

exandrian partisans, following the death of her husband in 145 (Ag. Ap.

2.49-56). Although Josephus does not explicitly connect this Onias with

the expatriate Jerusalemite, the probability of their identification seems

quite strong. (The identity of Dositheos and his relationship to Onias can-

not be determined with certainty.) Two sons of Onias IV — Chelkias and

Ananias — likewise emerge as generals during the reign of Cleopatra III

(whose titulature and propaganda reveal a consistent effort to win over

and maintain the allegiance of her mother’s traditional support base). In

103, Chelkias and Ananias led an Egyptian army into Palestine against the

queen’s would-be usurper, her elder son Ptolemy Lathyrus. Chelkias fell in

battle, but Ananias (if Josephus is to be believed) influenced Cleopatra’s

decision to forge an alliance with the Judean king, Alexander Jannaeus

(Ant.13.324-55).

After this episode, information on the Oniads dries up. But epigraphic

evidence testifies to the continued vitality of the community Onias

founded. More than seventy Jewish funerary inscriptions have been recov-

ered from Tell el-Yahudiyya (ancient Leontopolis) dating as late as the early

second centuryc.e.One epitaph explicitly names the “Land of Onias” as

the patrimony of the deceased (JIGRE38). Like the Maccabean narrative,

the Oniad saga illustrates the capacity of Jews to operate within the frame-

work of the Hellenistic monarchies. But whereas the Oniads were absorbed

into the Ptolemaic hierarchy, the relationship of the Hasmoneans to the

Seleucid state was to develop along quite a different path.

The Hasmonean Dynasty

Seleucid interference in Judean affairs was not ended. But unlike earlier

ventures, which had as their goal the elimination of the Maccabean insur-

gents, containment or curtailment of Hasmonean power now became

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chris seeman and adam kolman marshak

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:51 PM