Jews in the Mediterranean diaspora : from Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE - 117 CE)

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive survey of the history of the Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora in the Hellenistic and early Roman period. Uniquely, it combines a study of all the important Jewish communities with a thorough examination of the Diaspora literature as a whole. Paul, for example, appears in new light as a Diaspora author in a wider Diaspora context. John Barclay begins by examining the literature and history of the Jews in Egypt, including close analysis of the writings of, for example, Aristeas Artapanus, Aristobulus and Philo. He moves on to the history of the Jewish communities in Cyrenaica, Syria, the province of Asia and the city of Rome, together with the works of Josephus and Paul. Methodologically, a feature of this book is the distinction drawn between assimilation, acculturation and accommodation, categories refined in modern sociological and anthropological studies of minority communities. John Barclay applies them here to illuminate the diversities on reactions among Diaspora Jews to their social and cultural environments. Dr. Barclay provides many new insights in a work of considerable depth and range. His work will be an important reference for all scholars and students with an interest in Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. A study of Jewish life, and literature about the Jews, in the Mediterranean diaspora from 323 BCE-117 CE. Focuses on Egypt, discussing, inter alia, riots and counter-riots in Alexandria in 38-41, during which many Jews were killed or injured; anti-Jewish polemics in the works of Apion, as recorded by Josephus; civil war between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria in 66; the tax levied on Jews after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem; and the Jewish uprising in 116-117 (in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia) and its brutal suppression, which included the destruction of many Jewish communities. Discusses, also, the Jewish uprising in Caesarea in 66-67, provoked by Gentile harassment of Jews, during which many Jews were killed; an anti-Jewish campaign in Rome in the late 1st century, led by Domitian; and anti-Judaism in the works of Juvenal and Tacitus. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) Most studies of Jews in the period from Alexander to Trajan have concentrated almost exclusively on Jerusalem and Judea. In this book, John Barclay assembles and analyzes evidence about the Jewish communities in Egypt, Syria, Cyrenaica, Rome, and Asia. Barclay's goal is to describe the varying levels of assimilation and antagonism between Jews and the non-Jewish communities in these areas for this 440-year period. Includes a concluding review of Jewish identity in the Diaspora as a whole. --From publisher's description