Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews "d0e8244"

2. The Title of the Treatise and the Literary Genre

The passages in Josephus, which deal with Jewish customs and traditions, suggest that the book had an ethnographic character. This, however, is not enough to establish its genre. Besides ethnographic material, the book contains a report of a fictitious historical event—the Hezekiah story. This combination may at first sight recall Pseudo-Aristeas, a story (which could even be disguised as a letter) centered around an event in Jewish life in the Hellenistic period, and supplemented, in one way or another, by plentiful ethnographic material, as well as symposia, travelogues, and the like. We must therefore clarify whether the book belongs to the ethnographic genre par excellence , or to a related genre that also included ethnographic features.

The title of a book in Hellenistic and Jewish Hellenistic literature, if not just fanciful in an attempt to catch the eye (Plin. NH pref. 24-25), indicates its literary genre.^[17] To mention just a few titles: Philippica, Hellenica, Anabasis, Chronicon, Periplous , "For ...," "Against ...," "Letter to [or "of"] ...," "Memories of...," "History of ...," "Art

[16] This calculation is based on the data in Kenyon and Roberts (1970) 173-74. See also Schubart (1921) 50-59; Reynolds and Wilson (1974) 2; Turner (1971) 8; Kenney (1982) 16-18; Blum (1991) 107-8.

[17] See, e.g., Kenney (1982) 16, 30-31; Geiger (1984) 3ff., (1985/8) 125ff.

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of...." It is clear from some of the titles that they were modeled after the scheme of a celebrated book, while others simply specify the genre or the contents.

Scholars who have accepted that the passages were taken from a monograph devoted to the Jews alone assume that the book was named PeriIoudaion ("On the Jews").^[18] However, as it is not clearly stated in the sources, the question of the title requires some elaboration.

Josephus's statement that Hecataeus of Abdera "wrote a book about the Jews themselves" (

, Ap . I.183) is again relevant. The sentence, as it stands, may appear to refer to the subject of the book and not to its title. But it has already been mentioned that Josephus recommended consulting the book for further information (I.205). Hecataeus wrote books on various subjects,^[19] and Josephus even believed that the forged book On Abraham was written by him (Ant . I.158-59). Could he have encouraged his reader to consult the complete book without giving any indication of its title? We can thus assume that the name "Jews" or some variant appeared in the title. To judge by parallel titles, it could be either On the Jews or Ioudaika .

No less instructive is the passage in Origen (C. Cels . I.15), quoted in the previous section, where Hecataeus's book is referred to without the article ("there is a book on the Jews by Hecataeus"). The words

, which were certainly taken from Herennius Philo, must indicate the book's contents, title, or both. An allusion to the contents is understandable in view of the context (and see I.14), while the use of an identical reference in Josephus lends support to understanding it rather as a title. The latter alternative is suggested by the title of Herennius Philo's own treatise referred to in the same passage: the preceding article (

, I.15) indicates that it was On the Jews . The same formula for Philo's work is also mentioned by Eusebius (PE I.10, p. 42).^[20] One may suppose that Herennius Philo would not

[18] See Jacoby (1943) 61; Schürer et al. (1973-86) I.41; Goodman, ibid. III.671-72; Holladay (1983) 279.

[19] See pp. 10-11 above.

[20] On the doubts about the present readings of Eusebius's text and their rejection, see M. Stern (1974-84) II.240, 143. Schürer et al. (1973-86) I.41-43 plausibly argue that Eusebius mistakenly attributed a quotation from Philo's Phoenician history to his treatise On the Jews . This does not affect our conclusion.

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have used the same phrase in referring to a book by someone else unless it was indeed its title. Finally, Hecataeus's known ethnographical books were named On the Hyperboreans and On the Egyptians , or Aegyptiaca .^[21] The wish to create an impression of authenticity would have led the forger to imitate external features of Hecataeus's books such as their titles. We can thus conclude that though there is no unequivocal statement to this effect, the name of the book was On the Jews , or less probably Ioudaika .

These names indicate that the book was an ethnogrpahic work. Hellenistic ethnographies were usually entitled with the name of the nation or the land in one of two basic forms: "[Affairs of] ..." (Aithiopike , Indike , Persike , Skythike , and the like) or "On the ..." (Peri tonIndikon , Peri Kyprou, Peri Sikelias, PeritonAithiopeon , PeriAiolikon ).^[22] Significantly enough, almost all the ethnographic books devoted to the Jews known to us were called PeriIoudaion . They were written in the Hellenistic period by both Jews and gentiles. The best-known among them is the book by Alexander Polyhistor (Eus. PE IX.17), a gentile contemporary of Pompey and Sulla, who compiled material from monographs on the Jews by Jewish as well as gentile authors.^[23] This was probably also the name of Apollonius Molon's anti-Jewish book.^[24] The treatise On the Jews by Herennius Philo, written in the first half of the second century A.D. , belongs to the same category. From the brief fragments of two books called On the Jews by two otherwise unknown authors, Damocritus the Tactician and Nicarchus son of Ammonius, it also appears that they belonged to the ethnographic genre, and were perhaps written in the first century A.D.^[25] Of the Jewish authors who

[21] See p. 9 n. 9 above.

[22] Cf. Fornara (1983) 12. See also the PeriEthnon of Hellanicus (FHG I.57, 92, 93) and Damastes (FHG II.64.1). But see Pearson's reservations ([1939] 194) about the name and contents of Hellanicus's work.

[23] On Alexander Polyhistor see the monograph by Freudenthal (1875). Cf. also M. Stern (1974-84) I.157ff.

[25] On the last two, see M. Stern (1974-84) I.530-33.

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wrote books entitled On the Jews ,^[26] we know about Artapanus, Aristeas the Exegete, Theodotus the Poet,^[27] and Pseudo-Eupolemus, who was probably a Samaritan.^[28] These books were written between the middle of the second and the middle of the first century B.C.²⁹

The fragments of the works named On the Jews confirm that they were indeed ethnographic works containing the common components of the genre.^[30] Those written by Jewish authors report on the patriarchs, leaders, and kings: Abraham, Job,^[31] Joseph, Moses and the Exodus, Solomon and the building of the Temple, the last kings of Judea, and the destruction of the First Temple. Stress is laid on the theoretical and practical wisdom of Moses and the patriarchs. Thus the invention of astrology is attributed to Abraham, and that of philosophy, together with a number of useful technical inventions, to Moses. In addition to stories about the leaders, we hear about Jerusalem, the Jewish holy books, the origin of the name "Judea," and the like.

The books named On the Jews written by gentiles contain similar topics, although the contents and attitudes frequently differ. Alexander Polyhistor probably did not contribute much of his own and was content with quotations from earlier ethnographies. The fragments and

[26] See Eus. PE IX.17, 18, 22, 23, 25; Clem. Strom . I.23, 154.2-3.

[27] On the question of whether Theodotus's epic was indeed originally titled On the Jews as stated by Alexander Polyhistor, see the summary of the pros and cons in Holladay (1989) 53-58, 81-82, and the references included there to earlier bibliography. The negative arguments are by no means decisive. That Alexander Polyhistor named the work by Philo the epic poet On Jerusalem is still the most relevant fact for the discussion. It indicates that Alexander Polyhistor would not have applied the general title On the Jews to Theodotus's epic, from which he quotes only verses on a non-Jewish city (Shechem), unless this was indeed its real name.

[28] On the origin of Pseudo-Eupolemus, see Freudenthal (1875) 82ff.; Guttman (1958-63) II.96; Wacholder (1963) 112; Hengel (1973) 162 n. 233; Walter (1965) 282ff., (1976) 137-43; Holladay (1983) 157-59; Doran in Charlesworth (1985) II.873ff.

[29] See the summaries in Holladay (1983) 159, 190, 262; id . (1989) 68-76, 208-10; Goodman in Schürer et al. (1973-86) III.521-24, 526, 529-30, 561-62.

[30] Of these works, the epic of Theodotus does not concern us here. Because of its poetic form, it would certainly have differed in its structure and content from prose monographs.

[31] Job appears in Aristeas's book (Eus. PE IX.25.1-4). Since Job is presented as the son of Esau, there is no doubt that he was mentioned in the context of the patriarchal traditions.

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testimonia of Herennius Philo contain mainly folkloristic-etymological notes: the origin of the words "Judea" and "Jews," the name of the Jewish God, a derogatory nickname ascribed to Moses,^[32] and reservations about Jewish "wisdom" and the authenticity of the treatise attributed to Hecataeus. From the works of Damocritus and Nicarchus we have references to the "blood" libel against contemporary Jewish cult and the leper libel against Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. The remaining fragments of the works entitled On the Jews thus reassure us that they were indeed ethnographical books commenting on the beginnings of the nation and the achievements of its leaders, as well as on the customs (including faith and religious practices) and the land of the Jews. The last two components are also to be found in Pseudo-Hecataeus.