Szántó Zsuzsanna the Jews of Ptolemaic Egypt in the Light
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Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bölcsészettudományi Kar DOKTORI DISSZERTÁCIÓ SZÁNTÓ ZSUZSANNA THE JEWS OF PTOLEMAIC EGYPT IN THE LIGHT OF THE PAPYRI Történelemtudományi Doktori Iskola Vezetője: Dr. Erdődy Gábor, DSc, egyetemi tanár Ókortörténeti Doktori Program Vezetője: Dr. Németh György, DSc, egyetemi tanár A bizottság tagjai: Elnök: Dr. Ritoók Zsigmond MHAS, professor emeritus Bírálók: Dr. Tal Ilan, PhD, professor Dr. Kőszeghy Miklós, PhD, hab. egyetemi docens Tag: Dr. Bolonyai Gábor, PhD, hab. egyetemi docens Titkár: Dr. Bácskay András, PhD, egyetemi adjunktus Póttagok: Dr. Hegyi W György, PhD, egyetemi adjunktus Dr. Bajnok Dániel, PhD, egyetemi adjunktus Témavezetők: Dr. Németh György, DSc, egyetemi tanár Dr. Grüll Tibor, PhD, hab. egyetemi docens Budapest, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………….. ii Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………….. iv List of Abbreviatons ……………………………………………………………………. vi Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1. Framework of the Study……………………………………………………………. 7 1.1.Chronological Distribution of Jewish Papyri………………………………… 8 1.1.1. A brief summary of the political history of the Jews in Egypt ……... 9 1.1.2. List of Jewish papyri according to date………….………………….. 22 1.1.3. List of doubtful Jewish papyri according to date…………………… 28 1.2. Geographical Distribution of Jewish Papyri………………………………… 31 1.2.1. Jewish settlements in Ptolemaic Egypt………………………………. 31 1.2.1.1. Alexandria……………………………………………………….. 31 1.2.1.2. Nile Delta………………………………………………………... 32 1.2.1.3. Memphis ………………………………………………………… 39 1.2.1.4. Arsinoite nome (Fayum Oasis)…………………………………... 40 1.2.1.5. Herakleopolite nome ……………………………………………. 45 1.2.1.6. Diospolis Magna (Thebes)………………………………………. 47 1.2.1.7. Apollinopolis Magna (Edfu)…………………………………….. 49 1.2.2. List of Jewish papyri according to provenance………………………. 52 1.2.3. List of doubtful Jewish papyri according to provenance…………….. 58 2. Onomastics of the Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt ……………………………………….. 62 2.1. Early Semitic Names in Upper Egypt – Local Particularity ………………… 65 2.2. Effects of the Hellenization ………………………………………………… 70 2.2.1. Reflection of the political power on Jewish onomastics……………... 71 2.2.1.1. Hamonean names………………………………………………… 71 2.2.1.2. Names of the Ptolemaic dynasty………………………………… 74 2.2.2. Greek names…………………………………………………………. 80 2.2.2.1. Double names……………………………………………………. 80 2.2.2.2.Greek names phonetically close to biblical names………………. 82 2.2.2.3. Greek theophoric names…………………………………………. 85 2.3. Egyptian Environment………………………………………………………. 88 2.3.1. Influence of the Egyptian environment……………………………….. 88 2.3.2. The special case of the name Shabbethai / Sabbataios………………… 90 2.4. Biblical Names and Biblical Heroes………………………………………… 96 2.4.1. Abram(-os) instead of Abraham? …………………………………….. 97 2.4.2. Jacob, Isaac and Joseph……………………………………………….. 99 2.5. Summary…………………………………………………………………….. 102 ii 3. Jews in the Ptolemaic Army…………………………………………………………. 105 3.1. Aramaic-speaking Military Settlers in Upper Egypt………………………… 105 3.2. Greek-speaking Military Settlers……………………………………………. 108 3.2.1. Jews on active service…………………………………………………. 112 3.2.2. Jews of the Epigone…………………………………………………… 120 3.2.3. Jews as “Macedonians” and “Persians of the Epigone”………………. 125 4. Jews in the Civil Society……………………………………………………………… 132 4.1.Civil Police…………………………………………………………………… 134 4.2.Officials in the Administration………………………………………………. 140 4.3. Jews in the Banking Life…………………………………………………….. 144 4.3.1. Banking system in Ptolemaic Egypt…………………………………... 145 4.3.2. The role of the Jews in banking life…………………………………… 149 4.3.3. Money lending among Egyptian Jews………………………………… 153 4.4. Farmers and Land-holders…………………………………………………… 160 4.5. Merchants and Craftsmen…………………………………………………… 168 5. Judaism and “Anti-Judaism” in Ptolemaic Egypt………………………………… 171 5.1.Practicing Judaism in Ptolemaic Egypt……………………………………… 171 5.1.1. Sabbath observance…………………………………………………… 171 5.1.2. Synagogue attendance………………………………………………… 178 5.2. Signs of “Anti-Judaism”…………………………………………………….. 189 5.2.1. Anti-Jewish Greco-Egyptian literature………………………………... 189 5.2.2. Documentary sources reflecting anti-Jewish attitude………………… 199 6. The Jewish Politeuma in Herakleopolis…………………………………………….. 205 6.1. Research History of Politeumata……………………………………………. 205 6.1.1. Different meanings of the word “politeuma”…………………………. 205 6.1.2. Ethnic politeumata in the Hellenistic world…………………………... 207 6.1.3. What was an ethnic politeuma? ……………………………………..... 212 6.2. The Jewish Politeuma Archive ……………….…………………………….. 212 6.2.1. Jewishness and structure of the politeuma……………………………. 215 6.2.2. Geographical and social competence of the politeuma……………….. 218 6.2.3. Military and political role of the politeuma…………………………… 224 6.2.4. Jewish politeumata in Leontopolis and Alexandria…………………... 228 6.3. Politeuma and Jewish Identity………………………………………………. 231 6.3.1. Financial matters………………………………………………………. 232 6.3.2. Marriage-related questions……………………………………………. 236 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….. 248 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………… 252 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of five years of research, and has been supported by a number of people over these years. I must begin my acknowledgements with Prof. Tibor Grüll, who first suggested to me the present papyrological research topic. I chose him as one of my supervisors when I began my doctoral studies in ancient history at the Eötvös Loránd University. Since then, he has continuously supported and guided me in my research. I am also grateful to Prof. György Németh, the Head of the doctoral program and the department of Ancient Studies, who became my inner supervisor. He has also been very supportive and always encouraged me to apply for different scholarships. Indeed, the compilation of this thesis would not have been possible without the help of grants and scholarships. The support of the grant entitled TÁMOP-4.2.1.B-09/1/KMR “Kultúrák közötti párbeszéd,” made it possible for me to spend one month in the Papyrussammlung (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) in Vienna in January 2012. I will never be able to thank enough Prof. Bernhard Palme, the director of the Papyrussamlung, for his permission to research and work in the papyrus collection, which has certainly one of the best libraries in the world in terms of papyrology. Since then, I have been enjoying his constant support whenever I need to go to the Papyrussammlung. I was also very lucky to have been selected to participate in the Summer Papyrological Institute that was held at the University of Chicago in July 2012. I owe many thanks to Prof. Maryline Parca, Prof. James Keenan and Prof. David Martinez, the chief instructors of the papyrological seminar, for my training in papyrology. The excellent lectures given by distinguished scholars and papyrologists from all over the world as well as the days spent over unpublished papyrus fragments contributed a great deal to my knowledge of papyrology. Finally, I am most grateful to the Campus Hungary grant thanks to which I could spend five memorable months at the Freie Universität of Berlin, Institut für Judaistik under the supervisorship of Prof. Tal Ilan in the fall semester of 2013/14. I wish to express my greatest gratitude to her for the time she devoted to me, for her precious comments on different aspects of my research topic as well as for the trust she has put in me. When I arrived in Berlin in October 2013, Prof. Ilan had just set up a research project related to the Jews of Egypt. This project, entitled Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum IV papyri project, is still iv ongoing under the directorship of Prof. Tal Ilan from the Freie Universität of Berlin and Prof. Noah Hacham from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The continuation of the work of V. A. Tcherikover, A. Fuks and M. Stern has long been the aim of different scholars. The late Itzhak F. Fikhman undertook the composition of CPJ IV decades ago, but his health conditions and death did not make possible the publication of his research work. His unfinished manuscript has been offered to Tal Ilan and Noah Hacham who, in the framework of the CPJ IV project, will finally publish all of Prof. Fikhman’s research with substantial reworking. The new volume will contain not only Greek papyri, but also Aramaic, Hebrew and Demotic texts. I am deeply indebted to Tal Ilan for giving me full access to Fikhman’s manuscript as well as to her own research material about the Jews of Egypt. Although I had already prepared my corpus of Jewish papyri before arriving to Berlin, I profited much from the research work of the above-mentioned scholars. There are some Greek papyri that escaped my attention when I was looking for Jewish papyri, and I am grateful to Tal Ilan to have drawn my attention to these texts: O.Ont.Mus. II 74, O.Eleph. DAIK 6, SB XXIV 16272, BGU XIV 2423 + BGU X 1938, P.Dion. 22 and P.Col. IV 77. Since the Demotic papyri related to Jews and Judaism had not been collected previously, I offered my Demotic material to the project with pleasure and prepared the documents for publication. Besides, Prof. Ilan entrusted me to rework the Ptolemaic Greek documentary papyri collected by Prof. Fikhman, which basically overlapped with my corpus and PhD topic. Prof. Fikhman’s notes were precious and thoughtful, thus, I mentioned his point of view several times in this thesis. Last but not least, I am most grateful to my parents, Zsuzsanna and András Szántó, for their constant support, and special thanks are due to my fiancé, Federico Satriano