The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'on the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature): 8

513 Pages·2015·1.982 MB·English

by  Benjamin G. Wright

Benjamin G. Wright III
The Letter of Aristeas
Commentaries on
Early Jewish Literature
(CEJL)
Edited by
Loren T. Stuckenbruck
and
Pieter W. van der Horst · Hermann Lichtenberger
Doron Mendels · James R. Mueller
De Gruyter
Benjamin G. Wright III
The Letter of Aristeas
‘Aristeas to Philocrates’ or
‘On the Translation of the Law of the Jews’
De Gruyter
ISBN 978-3-11-043904-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-043134-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-043149-0
ISSN 1861-6003
Library of Congress – Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet
at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY DAD
TERRY WEBER
(OCTOBER 30, 1927–MAY 21, 2015)
WHO TAUGHT ME THAT SAILING IS MORE
THAN BEING IN A BOAT
IT IS A LESSON IN LIVING

Preface
No one writes a book on one’s own, and I have certainly not written this
one alone. This project has taken much longer than I had anticipated when
I first agreed to do it, and so, I have many people to thank, some for their
direct input and effect on what ultimately I thought and wrote and others
for saving my sanity and offering the emotional and spiritual support that
I needed to complete this project.
My first expression of gratitude goes to Loren Stuckenbruck, who is
one of the finest people that I know. I ended up writing this particular
commentary, because at a very difficult time in my life, he showed me great
compassion for which I am grateful to him. I thank him for his patience in
waiting for a book that I should have sent him long ago. He also encour-
aged me and provided important feedback for me at various stages of the
work. His graduate assistant Amanda Bledsoe also read the manuscript and
made numerous helpful suggestions.
There are many scholarly colleagues to whom I owe a great debt for
their encouragement and support, and in the same manner as so many
other prefaces that I have read, I ask forgiveness of anyone whose name I
have omitted inadvertently. Hindy Najman has been a constant conver-
sation partner. She is one of the most collaborative colleagues I know. I am
indebted to her for always pushing me to think farther down the path than
where I am. Many colleagues have read or heard pieces of this commen-
tary over the years, either through direct conversation or giving feedback
on sections of the text or answering my questions, and they all have had
an impact on the final product. Others have been consistently encouraging
of this project, especially at times when I thought it would never materi-
alize. I am grateful to Sylvie Honigman, Erich Gruen, Albert Pietersma,
Cameron Boyd-Taylor, Tessa Rajak, Jan Joosten, Jim Aitken, Eibert Tigche-
laar, Robert Kraft, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Steven Fraade, Robert Hiebert,
Sidnie Crawford, Judith Newman, Liv Lied, Matthias Henze, Esther Cha-
zon, Adele Reinhartz, Charlotte Hempel, Alison Salvesen, Michael Law,
Géza Xeravits, Josef Zsengellér, Gabriele Boccaccini, Francis Borchardt,
Eva Mroczek, Myles Schoonover, Stewart Moore. Whatever shortcomings
this book has rest on my shoulders alone, however. Over the years, I have
had opportunities to speak about the Letter of Aristeas at a number of
VIII Preface
institutions and seminars, and this commentary has benefited from every
one of those conversations. I appreciate the kind invitations to speak and
all of the questions and challenges that came my way on those occasions.
They all helped to sharpen my thinking and to make this a better work of
scholarship.
I have received valuable support from my colleagues at my home insti-
tution, Lehigh University. Specifically my thanks go to the Humanities
Center and its director Edurne Portela for a generous summer grant in
2009 and to my former student Deborah Streahle, who spent a summer as
a research assistant in 2009 tracking down available images of manuscripts
of Aristeas. Marian Gaumer, the Academic Coordinator in the Religion
Studies Department, always has a positive and encouraging word to say.
I am especially indebted to my Lehigh faculty colleagues, Suzanne Edwards,
Khurram Hussain, Bill Bulman, Rob Rozehnal and Roslyn Weiss. I owe a
special expression of gratitude to my colleague and my friend of 35 years –
although that word seems inadequate to the relationship that we have had
all this time – Michael Raposa. We have seen many joyful and difficult
times together, and he has supported my work in myriad ways as friend,
colleague and department chair.
On a personal level, my family and many friends have lived through
this process with me. In so many ways, their contributions have ranked
right up with those of my scholarly colleagues, since laughter, consolation,
music, a shared meal and a good bottle of wine (or two) are all good for
the soul. Many thanks to Frank and Michele Pappalardo, Bill and Carole
Schachter, Roy and Cheryl Donkin, and my breakfast club, Rick Santee
and Don Kirts. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, Carol and Chaz
Hutchison for all the rides to the airport.
Finally, I owe the greatest debt to my family – my spouse Mary and my
three children, Rachel, Nathan and Kate. Without them and their love,
the rest means nothing. Mary has been the single greatest support any-
one could hope for, and she has taught me the true meaning of the word
partner. As I have written this book, my children have moved from middle
school to high school through college and into their adult lives. It has been
a delight watching them mature, and I could not be more proud of them.
To the most important people in my life, I dedicate this book.
Bethlehem, PA
January 14, 2015 Benjamin G. Wright
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Present Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Historical Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Title of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4. The Author of Aristeas and His Provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5. Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6. Textual Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
a. The Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
b. Josephus and Eusebius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7. Integrity of Aristeas and Its Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8. Genre, Literary Forms and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
a. Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
b. Literary Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
c. Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
9. Relation to Other Jewish Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
10. Audience and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
II. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Editions and Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Other Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
III. TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY
Preface (§§ 1–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The Library Project (§§ 9–11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The Liberation of the Jewish Slaves (§§ 12–27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Demetrius’s Report (§§ 28–34a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
X Table of Contents
Ptolemy II’s Letter to Eleazar (§§ 34b–40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Eleazar’s Reply to Ptolemy (§§ 41–51a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
The Construction of the King’s Gifts (§§ 51b–82) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Ptolemy Requisitions Gifts for the Jerusalem Temple (§§ 51b–56) 177
The Table (§§ 57–72) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
The Bowls (§§ 73–82) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Jerusalem and its Environs (§§ 83–120) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The Temple (§§ 84–87) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The Temple’s Water System (§§ 88–91) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
The Priests and Their Ministrations (§§ 92–95) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
The High Priest’s Vestments (§§ 96–99) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
The Citadel (§§ 100–104) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
The City and Its Streets (§§ 105–106) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
The Surrounding Countryside and Comparison to Alexandria
(§§ 107–111). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Palestine and its Resources (§§ 112–118) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
The Mines of Arabia (§§ 119–120) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Eleazar’s Farewell to the Translators (§§ 121–127) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Eleazar’s Apologia for the Law (§§ 128–171) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Why Distinguish between Clean and Unclean Animals
(§§ 128–133). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Eleazar Criticizes Gentile Idol Worship (§§ 134–139) . . . . . . . . . . 256
The Purpose of Kosher Law (§§ 140–143) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Kosher Laws Explained Allegorically (§§ 144–157) . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Tefillin and Mezuzot (§§ 158–160) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Kosher Laws Continued (§§ 161–171) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
The Reception of the Translators at Alexandria (§§ 172–186) . . . . . . 313
Excursus on Aristeas, Hellenistic Symposia and Peri Basileus
Literature (Part 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
The Symposia (§§ 187–300) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The First Symposium (§§ 187–202) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The Second Symposium (§§ 203–220) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
The Third Symposium (§§ 221–235) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
The Fourth Symposium (§§ 236–247) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
The Fifth Symposium (§§ 248–261) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
The Sixth Symposium (§§ 262–274) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
The Seventh Symposium (§§ 275–292) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Excursus on Aristeas, Hellenistic Symposia and Peri Basileus
Literature (Part 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Aristeas’s Praise of the Translators (§§ 295–300) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
The Execution of the Translation (§§ 301–307) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433