Torah in the Diaspora: a Comparative Study of Philo and 4 Maccabees
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-22-2013 12:00 AM Torah in the Diaspora: A Comparative Study of Philo and 4 Maccabees Christopher J. Cornthwaite The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Daniel A. Smith The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Christopher J. Cornthwaite 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Cornthwaite, Christopher J., "Torah in the Diaspora: A Comparative Study of Philo and 4 Maccabees" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1207. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1207 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TORAH IN THE DIASPORA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PHILO AND 4 MACCABEES (Thesis format: Monograph) by Christopher J. Cornthwaite Graduate Program in Theology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Christopher J. Cornthwaite 2013 Abstract This thesis examines how Judaism was Hellenized by comparing how difference, boundaries, and syncretism function in both Philo and 4 Maccabees. Recent historical and anthropological methods demand rejection of old approaches to these works which differentiated between the Judaism and the Hellenism in them and were often dominated by attempts to show where these authors’ intellectual fidelities lay. By re-evaluating ideas of boundaries and identity, this thesis argues that these authors could be committed to the ends of both Judaism and Hellenism. This necessitates recognition that identity and boundaries are ultimately products of individual self-consciousness; these authors attempt to understand the world around them using multifarious resources. While the Torah is vitally important to the Jewish identity of both these authors, it becomes a symbol which transcends perceived boundaries between Judaism and Hellenism and becomes applicable to both paradigms. Keywords Judaism, Jewishness, Jews, Hellenism, Hellenization, 4 Maccabees, Philo, Symbol, Identity, Boundary, Torah, Law, Natural Law, Ancestral Law, Diaspora, Alexandria ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Daniel A. Smith of Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. I would also like to thank the faculty and staff of Huron University College for their encouragement over the years. Finally, I would like to thank the Social Science and Research Humanities Council of Canada for their generous support to undertake this project. iii Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction and Literature Review ............................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Synopsis .................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Literature Review.................................................................................................. 10 1.3.1 Hellenization and Judaism ........................................................................ 10 1.3.2 Jewish Identity in the Diaspora ................................................................. 14 1.3.3 Diaspora Identity, Symbol, and Patriotism ............................................... 16 1.3.4 Past Approaches ........................................................................................ 18 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 28 2 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 28 2.1 The Crisis of Applicability.................................................................................... 28 2.2 Torah as a Symbol ................................................................................................ 38 2.3 Rethinking Boundaries as Opportunities .............................................................. 47 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 50 3 Philo: Jewish Universalism through Natural Law ....................................................... 50 3.1 Universal History: Undermining Difference ........................................................ 51 3.2 Allegory: Meaning beyond the Text ..................................................................... 53 3.3 Natural Law: Meaning behind the Text ................................................................ 60 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 70 4 4 Maccabees: Jewish Superiority through Ancestral Law ........................................... 70 4.1 The Emphasizing of Difference ............................................................................ 71 4.2 The Personification of Difference ......................................................................... 75 iv 4.3 Difference and Patriotism ..................................................................................... 77 4.4 The Transcending Torah ....................................................................................... 79 Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 87 5 Towards Hellenistic Ends ............................................................................................ 87 5.1 Philosophical Eclecticism ..................................................................................... 88 5.2 The Tripartite Soul and the Passions .................................................................... 91 5.3 Education and the Passions ................................................................................... 96 5.4 The Triumph of the Mind ..................................................................................... 99 5.5 The Struggle for Virtue ....................................................................................... 101 5.6 Freedom and Morality......................................................................................... 102 6 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 105 7 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 114 7.1 Primary Sources .................................................................................................. 114 7.2 Secondary Sources .............................................................................................. 114 8 Curriculum Vitae ........................................................................................................ 125 v 1 Chapter 1 1 Introduction and Literature Review 1.1 Introduction Though the Hellenization of Judaism was ubiquitous in the Graeco-Roman world, the question of what Hellenistic Judaism was is far from settled.1 Sometimes used as a catch all title, or subdivided by various geographical locations or cities as though each one presented a homogenized center of Judaic thought, the reality is that Hellenistic Jewish theology and philosophy does not present a fixed position at any point in time but rather many evolving discourses. 1 There are ongoing discussions of whether the term “Judaism” is accurate and/or legitimate. Shaye Cohen traced the emergence of “Judaism” as an “ethno-religion” in The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 109-138. Daniel Boyarin argues that the mutual emergence of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity defined both in Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). The term “Judaism” is further problematized by Seth Schwartz, as is the term “religion.” He argues that it was not until the branding of “Judaism” as a religion and its interaction with Christianity (300-400 C.E.) that Jews turned inward and became pronounced religious communities in Imperialism and Jewish Society 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 198. Daniel Schwartz, examines the problem of translation into English terms in “‘Judean’ or ‘Jew’: How should we translate Ioudaios in Josephus?” in Jewish Identity in the Greco-Roman World, ed. Jörg Frey, Daniel R. Schwartz, and Stephanie Gripentrog (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 3-29. In his article, “Jews, Judeans, Judaizing,