'על אברהם והמצרים': חיבור יווני-הלניסטי או יהודי-הלניסטי?

Josephus and Clement of Alexandria testify to a composition called On Abraham or On Abraham and the Egyptians attributed to Hecataeus of Abdera. Clement quotes from the book nine verses which he says Hecataeus drew from a tragedy by Sophocles. The lines promote monotheism and mock idol worship. This has led scholars unanimously to conclude that the work in its entirety is nothing but a Jewish forgery. Prof. Yehuda Liebes, in an exhaustive monograph on the mystic ספר יצירה , recently published, devotes a detailed discussion to the allegedly Hecataean book. Liebes argues that the work is authentic, and that the nine lines adduced therein are indeed by Sophocles. He produces a fascinating theory concerning the contents of the book; its purpose; its particular messages; the description of Abraham in the book; the alleged diplomatic mission of Hecataeus in Sparta which he claims promoted distribution of the book and the legend mentioned in I Maccabees about Abraham being the father common to Jews and Spartans; the religious, political and militan aims of the mission, which he again connects with the Jews; and the work of Hecataeus as a source for the unique account by Josephus of the descent of Abraham and Sarah into Egypt. This article examines the various aspects of the theory put forward by Liebes: the technical claims for accepting the lines as Sophoclean; the strength of religious feelings expressed in the lines compared with Sophocles' own deep religious convictions and observance, and the religious circumstances in which tragedies were staged, together with the religious legal intolerance in Athens in his time: the opinions of Presocratics concerning the divinity and the creation of the cosmos; the religious views of Hecataeus himself; his opinions concerning the absence of Abraham from his account of the Jewish origo ׳ Hecataeus' evaluation of the Jews in relation to certain Greeks; his identification of the Jewish deity with heaven; the apparent source for the mention of a genealogical connection between the Jews and the Spartans in I Maccabees ׳ , Plutarch's reference to Hecataeus 'the sophist', and the 'visit' of Hecataeus to Sparta; and finally, Josephus' source for the story of Abraham's descent into Egypt. After investigating all the relevant points, the article concludes that On Abraham must continue to be considered a forgery. What may be said for certain is that it was written before Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, and that its author seems to have been an Alexandrian Jew. The work emphasized, among other things, the special nature of the Jewish religion, and ridiculed pagan beliefs and cults.