אריסטו, היהודי המלומד, וה'קַלָנים' ההודים

This article re-examines the well-known account concerning the meeting between Aristotle and the Learned Jew. The story, reported by Clearchus of Soli, one of Aristotle's pupils, in his dialogue 'On Sleep', has been partially preserved by Josephus in his work Contra Apionem (I, 176-183). This paper attempts to clarify several issues: the story's authenticity; what Clearchus knew about the Jews; whether the story is intended to portray admiration for the wisdom of the Jews (as is generally believed); what the main qualities attributed to the Jews in the story are; why the writer attributed them to the Jews; and finally, what might be the purpose of the story as a whole.
As many have already observed, the story of the meeting between Aristotle and the Jewish 'philosopher' has no historical basis whatsoever. I wish to demonstrate that the story is intended to underline the ideas of Clearchus with regard to two of the Aristotelian aretai - karteria and sophrosyne. Judging by the context and other data, Clearchus understood them to involve the ability to tolerate both external and internal pressures. The Jew and his feats were adduced to exemplify these virtues. Clearchus may have intended to use the Jew as a counterweight to the Cynics whom he heartily despised, but who prided themselves on their karteria, and also on what they called sophrosyne.
The only real information supplied by Clearchus concerning the Jews boils down to the fact that they live in Judea and that the name of their city is Hierousalem. He follows Theophrastus in regarding them as a caste of Syrian philosophers, but he adds that they originate from the Indian Kalanoi. The link between Jews and Indians may be ascribable to the similarity between the two names (loudaioi, Indoi), and/or the dietary laws of the Jews and the Indian Brahamins. As for the reference to Kalanoi, no Indian caste's members were ever called by this name. Whoever made this up - perhaps Clearchus himself - was inspired by the stories concerning Kalanos, the Indian wise man whose fame was assured when he had himself burnt to death in the camp of Alexander the Great. The name of Kalanos in ancient literature became closely linked with karteria and sophrosyne, thanks to his ability to withstand internal and external pressures.
This origin of the Jews from the Indians - or more specifically from the Kalanoi - serves as the foundation upon which is constructed the description of these two virtues. The description explicitly referred to in the passage is missing in the Josephan version. Aristotle' reported the wonderful feats of the Jew he met with, feats which emphasized karteria and sophrosyne. Judging by the 'Indian connection' and the framework of Clearchus' composition and its remains, one may assume that the 'wonderful things' of karteria mainly concerned sleeping in the manner for which the gymnosophistai, the Indian naked philosophers, were well known, besides expressions of sophrosyne in their diet. Josephus omitted the description of these feats because he knew very well that they were not Jewish, and that more detail on these feats would raise doubts amongst his readers concerning the authenticity of his source. He was quite happy with the statement that Aristotle emphasized the wondrous nature of the Jews' feats, since this was enough to prove the high admiration felt by the great men of Greek literature toward the Jews. A philological examination, however, reveals that 'Aristotle'- Clearchus did not state (or even hint) that the Jew was wiser than Aristotle or other Greek scholars, and it seems quite certain that he did not indicate that the Jew conveyed to Aristotle 'something' of Oriental (or 'Jewish') wisdom.
All that remains of Clearchus' description of the Jew and his feats is as follows: The Jew had been a guest in the homes of Greek speakers for some time and had consequently soaked up a great deal of Greek and Greek culture. He thought and spoke like a Greek and was quite at home in the discussions among Greek sages. Clearchus certainly intended this description to be flattering, but the highest praise is reserved for his virtues: the Jews originated from the Indian philosophers, and this particular Jew maintained those virtues so characteristic of the Kalanoi, namely karteria and sophrosyne. In these two virtues he was a role model, and therefore deserves admiration.
The aim of Clearchus in mentioning the Jewish virtues becomes clear in light of an examination of those fragments and testimonia where he treats these two virtues. In his Bioi ('Lifestyles'), Clearchus is keen to criticize both individuals and societies for their pleasure-seeking lives of luxury (tryphe). He regarded such lives as the cause of the decline and collapse of cities and kingdoms. He advocates sophrosyne, self-restraint. This approach matches the tendency in literature of the period following the rise and spread of the Macedonian empire to warn against sinking into the mires of self-indulgence in view of the conquerors' increasingly affluent lifestyle, and at the same time to explain in this way the downfall of the Persian Empire. As for Clearchus' position on karteria, this has come down to us through his criticisms of the Cynics who themselves waved the flag of karteria. He rejects the Cynic way because of their antisocial approach, their provocative behaviour and other despicable practices. The 'Cynic' soldier-writer and Clearchus' contemporary, Onesicritus, described Cynic karteria and probably also their sophrosyne as the realization of the teaching the Indian gymnosophistai. This raises the possibility that Clearchus described the karteria of the Jews, the descendants of the Kalanoi, as a counterweight to the fake karteria and sophrosyne of the Cynics.
Whatever the case may be, Clearchus' account contributes nothing to our understanding of the Jews of that period. We learn just how little was known of the Jews by this native of Cyprus who lived in Athens and travelled all the way to the Far East. If anything, his account casts a little more light on the value system of one of the first generation of Peripatetics, his struggle with contemporary social and moral problems, and his position in 'the wars of the philosophers'. Clearchus was no different from other writers of his generation. His contemporary Aristoxenus of Tarentum, another of Aristotle's pupils, reports a similar meeting between Socrates and an 'Indian' sage; the account is purely fictitious and should be seen in the context of 'the wars of the philosophers'. Imaginative invention of ethnographic information which bears little or no resemblance to the actual way of life of the peoples described, but which is designed purely to exemplify philosophical ideas, is well known in Hellenistic literature from its very beginnings.
The Jews are Clearchus' chosen example in this case because of a combination of factors: the popular rumour which linked the Jews with the Indians; the image of the Jews as a 'caste' of philosophers; ignorance concerning real Jewish practices; the relative dispersion of Jews in areas of Greek culture at the end of the fourth century. This last point made it possible to present contemporary Greeks with a plausible interlocuter for Aristotle to encounter in Asia Minor, a Jew, as opposed to a wise Indian. These factors taken all together led to the Jews being chosen as representatives of karteria and sophrosyne after the manner of the Indian Kalanoi.