Jewish Paideia in the Hellenistic Diaspora: Discussing Education, Shaping Identity
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Jewish Paideia in the Hellenistic Diaspora: Discussing Education, Shaping Identity by Jason M. Zurawski A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Professor Gabriele Boccaccini, Chair Professor Sara Ahbel-Rappe Associate Professor Brian B. Schmidt Professor Raymond H. Van Dam Professor Benjamin G. Wright III, Lehigh University For my parents, who taught me the value of paideia and encouraged me to peak my head out of the cave ii Acknowledgements This project owes a great debt to many people, no one more so than my advisor, Gabriele Boccaccini, who has been a constant presence and guide in my development as a scholar and a teacher and has shown me the benefits of collegiality and academic collaboration. I am also grateful to the other members of my dissertation committee: Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Brian Schmidt, Ray Van Dam, and Benjamin Wright. They have challenged me with their sage counsel and provided encouragement through their steadfast belief in this project. The idea to explore Jewish paideia would likely have never arisen had it not been for my early obsession with the Greek language, and I would like to thank those teachers who first helped to foster this fascination, in particular Ben Acosta-Hughes, Netta Berlin, and Traianos Gagos. Traianos was a teacher, a friend, and a mentor, and I learned as much from him over pints at Ashley’s as I ever did in the classroom. He taught me not only about Greek and papyrology, but about being a teacher and an academic, valued guidance I still strive to follow today. I think he would have liked this project. He is sorely missed. I would like to thank the Wisdom and Apocalypticism group at the Society of Biblical Literature, particularly Matthew Goff and Karina Martin Hogan, for allowing me opportunities to present some of this research at an early stage. The participants of the Nangeroni Meeting I organized last summer in Naples, Italy, “Second Temple Jewish Paideia in Its Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic Contexts,” taught me that a true, comprehensive picture of Second Temple education necessitates interdisciplinary collaboration. Fellowships from the Rackham iii Graduate School and the Department of Near Eastern Studies provided the time and space necessary for research and writing, and financial support from the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the Enoch Seminar, the Alessandro Nangeroni Foundation, and the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies allowed me ample opportunity to travel throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States over the past several years for conferences and research. I am fortunate to have had a wonderful group of colleagues over the years at the University of Michigan, including but not limited to Stephanie Bolz, Rodney Caruthers, Helen Dixon, Harold Ellens, Deborah Forger, Noah Gardiner, Anne Kreps, Isaac Oliver, Ron Ruark, Joshua Scott, Adrianne Spunaugle, Jason Von Ehrenkrook, and James Waddell. I would like to express my eternal gratitude for the continual and much-needed friendship of Yale Cunningham, Andy Green, Brandi Green, and Jun Park. This project would never have been completed without my dissertation accountability buddy, Nancy Linthicum, and our weekly Thursday meetings at Vinology. She has been a source of unwavering support, motivation, and friendship. Finally, I would like to thank my parents Dean and Barbara and my brother Nick, who have always encouraged me without question over the years to pursue my goals and my passions, no matter the seemingly odd directions they may have taken. iv Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract vi Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Part I. From Musar to Paideia 19 Chapter 2. Musar and Paideia: Semantic Distinctions 23 Chapter 3. Musar to Paideia in the Septuagint 59 Part II. Thinking about Paideia in the Hellenistic Diaspora 93 Chapter 4. Philo of Alexandria 96 Chapter 5. The Wisdom of Solomon 173 Chapter 6. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 215 Summary and Conclusions 259 Bibliography 265 v Abstract While the integral role of paideia in Greek, Roman, and early Christian history has been widely recognized, the place of paideia in Jewish thought and the resultant influence on late antique Christianity, and thus on Western education as a whole, has been largely neglected. This study examines the theories of ideal Jewish education from three contemporaneous, but unique Diaspora Jews—Philo of Alexandria, the pseudonymous author of the Wisdom of Solomon, and Paul of Tarsus—particularly in light of the role of the Greek Septuagint translations. The purpose is not to locate a unified concept of Jewish Hellenistic paideia, but to allow the views of each author to stand on their own. The diverse educational theories all developed out of a complex amalgam of Jewish and Greco-Roman influences, brought together and reimagined thanks to the Septuagint and the consistent use of paideia as a translation for the Hebrew musar. The translators of the ancient Hebrew scriptures handed down to future generations a textbook and a teacher, a lens through which later Jewish thinkers could merge and morph ancestral traditions with contemporary Platonic and Stoic philosophy in the creation of new and innovative paideutic concepts. With their textbook in hand, these authors would deploy their ideal notions of paideia as a means of contemplating on and shaping the self and Jewish identity. Paideia, then, becomes the mechanism by which the most highly valued constituents of Jewish ethics and culture are formed and employed. The diverse developments in Jewish education explored reveal the varied dynamics both within the Jewish community and between the Jews and the wider cultural world. vi Paideia became the perfect surrogate, a common, universal good which could touch on every facet determinative in the construction of the self. vii Chapter 1. Introduction Paideia has long been marked as a defining concept in the intellectual, cultural, and social histories of ancient Greece and Rome. The Greek term, notoriously difficult to translate, can refer at once to education, culture, and enculturation through education, and classicists have highlighted the centrality of paideia through to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, both as an idealized concept and in all the ways it would surface on the ground. Scholars of early Christianity too have pointed to the integral role of Greek paideia in the development and history of the early Church. In addition, Greek encyclical paideia, which would come to be known as the artes liberales, is commonly understood as the basis of modern, Western education, the influence of Greek paideia being mediated through late antique and medieval Christianity. However, the place of paideia in early Jewish thought and the influence it had on late antique Christianity, and thus on Western education as a whole, has been largely neglected. The following study considers three unique views of idealized paideia from contemporaneous, Greek-speaking, Diaspora Jews: Philo of Alexandria, the pseudonymous author of the Wisdom of Solomon, and Paul of Tarsus. These conceptions of model education for the Jewish people all evince a creative amalgam of ancestral tradition and contemporary Greco- Roman philosophical theory. This conceptual hybridity was facilitated by the revered scriptures of the Diaspora communities, the Greek Septuagint, and, in particular, the consistent rendering of the Hebrew musar with the Greek paideia throughout the translations. Therefore, this study of Jewish paideia appropriately begins with the Septuagint itself, examining in detail the effect the 1 musar to paideia transition had on how these texts came to be read and understood in the centuries following the initial translations. The Septuagint was received and utilized as a textbook and a teacher, a singular educational resource for the Greek-speaking Jews of the Second Temple period. Perhaps even more importantly, the Septuagint would serve as a lens, through which later Jewish thinkers could reimagine, merge, and morph both their ancient received traditions and contemporary Platonic and Stoic philosophy in the creation of new and innovative paideutic concepts. With their textbook in hand, these authors could discuss and debate the proper means of Jewish education in major Hellenistic cities and its value and role within the life of the individual and the community at large. But, the discussions on paideia we find extend beyond issues of pedagogy or curricula, well beyond what one might reasonably expect to surface on the ground. The supremely elevated nature of and deference to paideia made it the perfect surrogate which could reach any and all facets determinative in the construction of the self. Paideia, then, becomes the mechanism by which the most highly valued constituents of Jewish ethics, culture, and identity are formed and employed. 1. STATE OF THE QUESTION Scholarship on the Second Temple period has progressed considerably in the past century, both in terms of method and approach, and yet, despite the far greater historical understanding of the era as a result, knowledge of Jewish education during this time has been nominal, and there has been a lack of critical research conducted on the topic. Early studies on the subject often assumed an educational system based on either ancient Israelite or rabbinic models, a problematic basis from which to begin for several reasons, including the fact that many of these 2 studies took place at a time when, one, few scholars distinguished the diversity of the Second Temple period from later late antique forms of Judaism, and, two, critical research into early Israelite and Judahite education was still in its infancy. Compared to the extensive history of research on education in ancient Israel and Judah,1 scholarship on Second Temple education appears quite meager. Swift highlights this embarrassing oversight in the preface to his 1919 monograph, bemoaning the lack of proper studies on “Hebrew education,” and the disregard of the Jewish contribution to larger histories of 1 For a review of the pertinent literature, see James L.