'היהדות של משה' והיהדות של ימי הבית השני - האתנוגרפיה היהודית של סטראבון

Strabo's ethnographic excursus on the Jews (Geographica XVI, 2, 35-37) is the most enthu-siastic account of Jewish origins to reach us from Hellenistic and Roman literature. While earlier scholars attributed it to Posidonius of Apamea, in the last few decades it has been suggested that Strabo himself was the original author, or that he drew on an unknown Stoic philosopher or a Jewish author with a Stoic education. This paper attempts to show that Pos-idonius was indeed the original author of the excursus. Major features of the excursus are here analyzed both in their own right and in comparison with parallels from Hellenistic literature. The discussion shows that Strabo did little more than copy the 'account' from his source, which was not Jewish. All the features in fact have extant Posidonian parallels. It is shown that some of these features are exclusively Posidonian, while others may be exclusively Posidonian. Those features that are definitely or possibly not exclusively Posidonian are nevertheless not all found combined in any author. All the signs indicate that Posidonius is the source. Posidonius, ethnographic account was most probably included as an introduction to the description of Antiochus VII Sidetes siege of Jerusalem in 132 BCE. Posidonius' version was Utopian, rather like his description of the Golden Age, partially preserved in Seneca (Ep. Mor. 90). Posidonius strictly distinguished between ideal (Mosaic) Judaism in the remote past and the degenerate Judaism of his own time. The former was an exclusive, classless society, the state of the wise, living in harmony under the leadership of Moses and his immediate successors, without laws or formal institutions, believing in the Posidonian version of a Stoic divine being, worshiping it in a simple way and in a modest temple devoid of any material representation of the divine, in which select persons maintained communication with the divine being through dream-divination. This community of the wise was located in an unattractive region, where it had no need of military preparations and could instead cultivate good relations with its neighbors, most of whom willingly accepted the Mosaic-Posidonian philosophy. The decline set in with the rule of the 'superstitious' priests and worsened under the (Hasmonean) tyrants, who made the Jews a war-loving nation. What motivated Posidonius to idealize ancient (Mosaic) Judaism? His wild inaccuracies cannot be put down to sheer ignorance, especially considering the proximity of Jews and gentiles in his native city of Apamea; neither, as can be judged from his description of con-temporary Judaism, was he concerned to glorify the Jewish people. The explanation is based on the peculiar features of the ethnographic genre, to which the Jewish excursus belongs, and on Posidonius' tendency in other historiographical accounts to mobilize the material in the service of his philosophical conceptions. His Utopian description of the Golden Age is particularly suggestive, as it includes several parallels to features in the Jewish excursus. The account of the Golden Age enabled Posidonius to illustrate his ideals in an imaginary society. I suggest that the Jewish ethnography, which was required by the historical context of his narrative, gave him an opportunity to illustrate these ideals in terms of an existing, well established nation, which would therefore more effectively serve his purposes: his ideal society could still be set up in a less than ideal world, and indeed had existed not long before his time and was practicable as long as the rulers were wise. Posidonius was not doing anything unusual, however; it was common practice among Hellenistic ethnographers to mold and shape the ethnographic material in accordance with their views, and they frequently presented the nation they were describing, or certain of its features, as a model for imitation. The Jews were particularly suitable for Posidonius purposes, because of the apparent philosophical nature of their religion, which included their monotheistic convictions and their opposition to material and anthropomorphic representation of the divine. The apparently good relations between Jews and gentiles in Apamea may also have played a role in his choice.