The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism a Chapter in the History of Antisemitism

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chapter 17 The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism A Chapter in the History of Antisemitism

First Encounters

The first encounters between Jews and Greeks known to us generally left among the Greeks a rather positive impression of the Jews. There is, for instance the well-known passage in the work of Aristotle’s pupil, Theophrastus, in which, towards the end of the fourth century BCE, he calls the Jews ‘philosophers.’1 Unfortunately, this earliest testimony is problematic because of a number of text-critical and other problems, so we cannot attach too much value to it.2 We do not have to wait very long, however, before the same sentiment is expressed again, now by another pupil of Aristotle, Clearchus of Soli (about 300 BCE), who tells us in his dialogue De somno that Aristotle had told him he had met a Jew who had a remarkably philosophical mind. This man, said Aristotle, not only spoke Greek, he also had a Greek soul. “During my stay in Asia, he visited the same places as I did and came to converse with me and some other scholars, to test our learning. But as one who had been intimate with many cultivated persons, it was rather he who imparted to us something of his own.”3 One can reasonably doubt the historical trustworthiness of a story about a meeting between Aristotle and a learned Jewish philosopher,4 but that is irrelevant. The point at issue is the fact that at the beginning of the

1 In a fragment from his De pietate preserved by Porphyry, De abstinentia 2.26. This is nr. 4 in the great collection of M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, 3 vols., Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974–1984, 1:10. Henceforth I will refer to this work with the usual abbreviation GLAJJ followed by the number of the fragment. Theophrastus’ fragment is fr. 584A in the new edition with translation by W. Fortenbaugh et alii (eds.), Theophrastus of Eresus. Sources for His Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, vol. 2, Leiden: Brill, 1992, 404–429. 2 See the extensive discussion of these problems in J. Bouffartigue & M. Patillon (edd.), Porphyre, De l’abstinence, livres II–III, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1979, 58–67. 3 Quoted by Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.176-181 = GLAJJ nr. 15. 4 See, e.g., the skepticism voiced by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen, vol. 2, Darmstadt: WBG, 1955, 253 n. 1; also H. Lewy, ‘Aristotle and the Jewish Sage according to Clearchus of Soli,’ Harvard Theological Review 31 (1938) 205–235. See now esp. B. Bar-Kochva, The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature, Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010, 40–89.

Hellenistic era Greek intellectuals were not reluctant to speak about Jews in a positive tone.5 Still relatively free from anti-Jewish sentiments are the fragments of Hecataeus of Abdera (beginning of the Hellenistic era) in which he describes the origins and early history of the Jewish people and does not hide his admi- ration for Moses – he called him a man that excelled in wisdom and cour- age. However, halfway through his excursus on the Jews Hecataeus remarks that, due to their experience of having been expelled as foreigners from Egypt, they do foster a somewhat asocial way of life that is characterized by a certain xenophobia (apanthrôpon tina kai misoxenon bion).6 So a first critical note is already there.

Positive and Negative Voices

It is important, for that reason, to point out that, alongside positive voices, right from the beginning of the Hellenistic era anti-Jewish voices are to be heard as well. It is true that the phenomenon of sympathy for Jews and Judaism on the part of Greeks and Romans continues to exist through the end of antiquity – the best proof being the well attested groups of pagan sympathizers called ‘Godfearers’ (in Greek theosebeis, sebomenoi or phoboumenoi ton theon), that is, gentiles who were in close contact with the local synagogue without becoming

5 Also from the beginning of the third century BCE is a passage from the Indika by Megasthenes in which he says that what the Brahmans are in India, the Jews are in Syria (GLAJJ no. 14). Clearchus, too, has Aristotle say (in the fragment rendered in an abbreviated form above in the text) that what the Kalani are in India, the Jews are in Syria. See further on this topic M. Hengel, Judentum und Hellenismus. Studien zu ihrer Begegnung unter beson- derer Berücksichtigung Palästinas bis zur Mitte des 2. Jh.s v. Chr., Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1969, 464–473 (‘Die Juden als Philosophen nach den frühesten griechischen Zeugnissen’); L.H. Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993, 201–207; Bar-Kochva, The Image of the Jews 136–163. 6 Quoted by Diodorus Siculus, Bibl. Hist. 40, 3, 3 = GLAJJ nr. 11. On the question of which of the other fragments preserved as authored by Hecataeus are authentic see, among others, B. Bar-Kochva, Pseudo-Hecataeus, “On the Jews.” Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora, Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996, and D.R. Schwartz, ‘Diodorus Siculus 40.3 – Hecataeus or Pseudo-Hecataeus?.’ in M. Mor et al. (eds.), Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Land in the Days of the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmud, Jerusalem: Yad Izhak ben-Zvi, 2003, 181–197.