The Image of Jews in Greek Literature Hellenistic Period

Offers a contribution to the debates about perceptions of the Jews in antiquity that examines the attitudes of Greek writers of the Hellenistic period toward the Jewish people. This book examines the references of these writers and others to the Jews in light of their literary output and personal background. “A brilliant and systematic analysis of twelve key documents' treatment of the Jews, this book does more than collect and arrange references to Judaism. It selects important intellectual authorities and subjects them to a rigorous examination, which places learning on a wholly new foundation. Bar-Kochva changes the face of the scholarship.”—Jacob Neusner, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College This landmark contribution to ongoing debates about perceptions of the Jews in antiquity examines the attitudes of Greek writers of the Hellenistic period toward the Jewish people. Among the leading Greek intellectuals who devoted special attention to the Jews were Theophrastus (the successor of Aristotle), Hecataeus of Abdera (the father of "scientific" ethnography), and Apollonius Molon (probably the greatest rhetorician of the Hellenistic world). Bezalel Bar-Kochva examines the references of these writers and others to the Jews in light of their literary output and personal background; their religious, social, and political views; their literary and stylistic methods; ethnographic stereotypes current at the time; and, more.