Diasporas in Antiquity

139 Pages·1993·7.18 MB·English

by  Shaye J.D. Cohen

Program in Judaic Studies
Brown University
BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES
Edited by
Ernest S. Frerichs
Shaye J. D. Cohen, Calvin Goldscheider
Number 288
Diasporas in Antiquity
edited by
Shaye J.D. Cohen
Ernest S. Frerichs
Diasporas in Antiquity
edited by
Shaye J.D. Cohen
Ernest S. Frerichs
Scholars Press
Atlanta, Georgia
Diasporas in Antiquity
edited by
Shaye J.D. Cohen
Ernest S. Frerichs
© 1993
Brown University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diasporas in antiquity / edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Ernest S. Frerichs.
p. cm.—(Brown Judaic studies ; no. 288)
Includes index.
ISBN 1-55540-918-0
1. Jewish diaspora—Philosophy—Congresses. 2. Judaism—History-
Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.—Congresses. 3. Jews-
Identity—Congresses. 4. Migrations of nations—Congresses.
5. Civilization, Ancient—Congresses. I. Cohen, Shaye J. D.
n. Frerichs, Ernest S. HI. Series.
DS134.D5225 1993
930'.04924—dc20 93-37125
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
(S5)
Table of Contents
Preface i
1. "Those Who Say They are Jews and Are Not": How Do You
Know a Jew in Antiquity When You See One?
Shaye J.D. Cohen 1
2. The Unromanized in Rome
Ramsay MacMullen 47
3. How To Be a Greek, and Yet a Jew in Hellenistic
Alexandria
Joseph Meleze-Modrzejewski 65
4. The Birth of a Diaspora: The Emergence of a Jewish Self-
Definition in Ptolemaic Egypt in the Light of Onomastics
Sylvie Honigman 93
Index 129

Preface
This book has its origin in several concerns and rests on several
recognitions. The first of these was an occasion to honor Professor
Shaye J. D. Cohen who was appointed by Brown University in 1991 as its
first Samuel Ungerleider, Jr., Professor of Judaic Studies. Professor Cohen
came to Brown University from the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America where he was serving as Dean of the Graduate School, Professor
of Jewish History, and Shenkman Professor of the Post-Biblical
Foundations of Western Civilization. To honor Professor Cohen was to
provide an opportunity for an inaugural lecture. In planning for such an
occasion, we concluded that it would be desirable to place the inaugural
lecture in the context of a conference examining an issue of significance
in the study of not only ancient Judaism, but antiquity generally.
This concern led to the planning of a conference, Diasporas in
Antiquity, held on the 30th of April, 1992. The conference took as its
premise the belief that the contemporary common usage of the word
"diaspora," which links the word to the experience of the Jewish people
in their exile to Babylon and their dispersion throughout the
Mediterranean world, is too exclusive an application. Viewed as a mass
migration or movement or flight from one location to another location or
locations, diaspora could be viewed as an event in the history of several
peoples of antiquity. Clearly the fact of dispersion and its many
consequences have been an experience of many people, ancient and
modern. Major issues for investigation include the question of whether,
and how, these "dispersed" peoples maintain a sense of self-identity and
a measure of communal cohesion. The central question for diaspora
peoples is adaptation: how to adapt to the environment without
surrendering group identity. These questions faced by the diaspora
communities of antiquity are still apparent in modern times.
a Diasporas in Antiquity
Assembled for the conference were three scholars who would raise
several perspectives on the general issue of diasporas. Professor Joseph
Meleze-Modrzejewski is the Professor of Ancient History at the
Sorbonne, University of Paris I, and Professor of Papyrology and Ancient
Legal History in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, IVeme Section:
Sciences Historique et Philologiques. Professor Meleze-Modrzejewski
explored the notion of diaspora and the adaptation of the Jews of Egypt
to their Greco-Egyptian environment. From an issue in Egypt to an issue
in Rome, Professor Ramsay MacMullen, Dunham Professor of History
and Classics at Yale University, examined the ethnic Syrian communities
of the city of Rome. Professor Cohen centered his attention on the issue
of Jewish identity, exploring the question of how the Jews of the ancient
Diaspora made themselves distinctive without making themselves
conspicuous. On the recommendation of Professor Meleze-
Modrzejewski, the editors invited a French scholar, Ms. Sylvie
Honigman, to contribute an essay on a related topic, the emergence of a
Jewish self-definition in Ptolemaic Egypt as reflected in onomastic usage.
A further concern of the conference was to Uft up the name of the
man for whom the professorship is named, Samuel A. Ungerleider, Jr.,
and to recognize the benefactors who had made this endowed
professorship possible. The man in question was a graduate of Brown in
the Class of 1939 who had pursued several careers in journaUsm and in
the executive leadership of the Central National Corporation-Gottesman,
Inc. His support for Brown and his support for Judaic Studies were well
established before his death in 1972. As Vice-President of the D.S.&R.H.
Gottesman Foundation, Samuel Ungerleider had supported a major
grant from the Gottesman Foundation in the 1960s to enable Brown to
experiment with alternative directions for the development of a Judaic
Studies program at Brown. Following his death the Gottesman
Foundation endowed an Ungerleider Distinguished Scholar's Fund
which continued until a recent benefaction enabled the University to
convert that Fund into the Samuel A. Ungerleider, Jr., Professorship in
Judaic Studies. The Ungerleider Professorship serves as a memorial to
the late husband of Joy Ungerleider Mayerson, President of the Dorot
Foundation of New York City.
This Conference volume will serve as a contribution to the study of
diasporas in antiquity and a stimulus to further investigations of other
ancient diasporas and their effect. It will also serve as a recognition of
the Ungerleider Professorship, its generous donors and Professor Cohen
as the first Ungerleider Professor. Celebrated in this Conference was a
recognition of the vision of many within and without the University who
dreamed and worked to give Judaic Studies a permanent role in the lives
of Brown's students and faculty. We remember with abiding gratitude
Preface in
the contributions of all those who have made the Ungerleider
Professorship and the Program in Judaic Studies possible.
Ernest S. Frerichs
Brown University

1
"Those Who Say They Are Jews
and Are Not":
How Do You Know a Jew in
Antiquity When You See One?
Shaye J.D. Cohen
In the New Testament book of Revelation the risen Jesus appears in a
vision to John of Patmos and instructs him to write letters to the
protecting angels of the seven churches of Asia Minor. The letter to the
church in Philadelphia includes the following lines:
I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my
word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of
the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but
lie - behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet,
and learn that I have loved you. (Revelation 3:8-9)
A similar phrase appears in the letter to the church in Smyrna ("I
know your tribulation and your poverty ... and the slander by those who
This essay has been much improved by the suggestions and criticisms of David
Konstan and Joseph Meleze-Modrzejewski. 1 have also benefitted from several
rabbinic references provided by Hebert Basser, Marc Bregman, and Ranon
Katzoff.
Menachem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (3 vols.;
Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974-1984) is cited
throughout as "Stern." In the citation of rabbinic literature, "M." indicates
Mishnah, "T." Tosefta, "Y." Yerushalmi, and "B." Bavli. In the transliteration of
Greek an omega is indicated by a w.
1