How do ancient Jews fit into the wider patterns of ancient history? The answer to this question depends on the perspective one adopts. On the one hand, one could describe the Jews as yet another minor oriental ethnic group, more significant perhaps than the Nabateans or Palmyreans, but certainly not as important or visible as the Egyptians, the Persians, or the Phoenicians. Unlike these nations, the Jews are totally absent from the pages of archaic and “classical” (fifth-century) Greek literature, and were first noticed by Greek writers around the time of Alexander’s conquest of the East. Even in later periods, they never were deemed worthy of the extensive historical, geographical, ethnographical, or mythographical attention accorded their more powerful and exotic neighbors, and even the small independent kingdom they established for a short period from the mid-second century bc apparently failed to attract much outside attention. Like all other people around the Mediterranean, they too were conquered by the Romans, and although they staged two or three major revolts they never became registered in the Roman psyche as a real threat to Roman power, on a par with the Carthaginians and Germans, or even the Egyptians. Moreover, unlike some Greek-writing Orientals, who made at least some contributions to Greek literary life, Jews hardly figure in the annals of Greek literature, even though they produced numerous Greek-language texts. Even in the pages of the more technical, scientific, or philosophical literature, Jews hardly make an appearance, and this in spite of the numerous (real and imagined) oriental contributions to Greek and Roman geography, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, or astrology; only in late-antique Greek magical texts are Jewish elements more easily discernible. And when it comes to figurative art, architecture, or music, the Jewish contribution to ancient culture is simply non-existent. Even Jewish religion, which we see as entirely different from that of all other ethnic groups in the Greco-Roman world (monotheism as against polytheism) was not seen as such in antiquity, and mostly failed to arouse a great deal of interest.
A Companion to Ancient History Edited by Andrew Erskine © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-13150-6
Seen from this perspective, the Jews hardly merit a chapter of their own in a companion to ancient history.
But one could also adopt a very different perspective, and insist that in spite of their small numbers and provincial location, the Jews are a very special case in ancient history. First and foremost, one could note that while the Greeks were busy molding bronze statues and writing brilliant speeches, just as the Babylonians and Egyptians charted the heavenly orbits of stars and constellations and the Romans were conquering the world and imposing law and order, the Jews gave birth, almost incidentally, to a social and religious movement that conquered the Roman empire from within and entirely transformed European and world history (cf. Curran, the emergence of CHRISTIANITY). One could also argue that whereas the Nabateans and Palmyreans vanished long ago from the annals of history, the Jews are still with us, and that while the Egyptians and Phoenicians have changed both their language and their religion, and are now Arabic-speaking Muslims and Christians, and while the Greeks and the Romans still retain their ancient scripts and a shadow of a reflection of their ancient languages, but not their ancient religions or much of their ancient cultures, one can easily trace a tortuous but unbroken line of linguistic, religious, and cultural continuity from the Jews of antiquity to their modern heirs. Finally, and at the very least, one may note that the Jews are one of the better-documented nations of antiquity, and that in addition to what others said about them we know a great deal about what many Jews actually thought and wrote, as many of these writings were preserved through Christian and Jewish channels of textual transmission, while many others have been found by modern archaeologists. Thus, the Jews provide ancient historians with what is perhaps the best-documented example of the impact of Greco-Roman history and culture on one, albeit not necessarily typical, ethnic group. It is for these reasons that the present chapter will seek to provide both an outline of Jewish history and culture in the Greco-Roman world and an assessment of its wider significance - for ancient history, and for its modern viewers.
World History
