JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

egypt
Ptolemies did not generally trust the native Egyptians and encouraged
the Jews to enter three professions:
(a) the army, where, as other nationalities in Egypt, they
were allowed to lease plots of land from the king (called cleruchies),
and were granted tax reductions;
(b) the police force, in which Jews reached high ranks (cf.
the Jewish district chief of police in Frey, Corpus, 2, p. 370);
and
(c) tax collecting (a government executive job) and sometimes
in the chora, tax farming (a government administrative
post; see Tcherikover, Corpus nos. 107, 109, 110).
Others were managers in the royal banks or administrators
(ibid., nos. 99–103, from middle of second century B.C.E.).
In Alexandria there was a greater diversity of occupations and
some Jews prospered in trade and commerce.
Early in the third century B.C.E. synagogues were
founded in Egypt. They are known to have existed at Alexandria,
Schedia (third century B.C.E.), Alexandrou Nesou (third
century B.C.E.), Crocodilopolis-Arsinoe (three: third century
B.C.E., second century B.C.E., and second century C.E.),
Xenephyris (second century B.C.E.), Athribis (two: third or
second century B.C.E.), and Nitriae (second century B.C.E.).
They were usually called προσευχή or εὐχεῖον (from the Greek
euche = prayer), and tablets were often erected dedicating the
synagogue to the king and the royal family.
At first the Jewish immigrants spoke only Aramaic, and
documents from the third century and the first half of the
second century B.C.E. show a widespread knowledge of Aramaic
and Hebrew (cf. Frey, Corpus 2, pp. 356, 365). But from
the second century on there was a rapid Hellenization. Documents
were written in Greek, the Pentateuch was read in the
synagogue with the Septuagint translation, and even such a
writer as *Philo probably knew no or little Hebrew. At first
the Egyptian Jews transliterated their names into Greek, or
adopted Greek names that sounded like Hebrew ones (e.g.,
Alcimus for Eliakim, or Jason for Joshua), but later they often
adopted Greek equivalents of Hebrew names (e.g., Dositheos
for Jonathan, Theodoras for Jehonathan). Gradually Egyptian
Jewry adopted any Greek name (even those of foreign
gods), and among the *Zeno Letters only 25% of the names
are Hebrew.
In the chora the Hellenization was not so strong,
but there the Jews were influenced by the native Egyptians.
Documents testify to Egyptian names among the Jews, and
sometimes to an ignorance of Greek (presumably these Jews
spoke Egyptian). However, the chora Jews were more observant
of the Sabbath and dietary laws than those of Alexandria.
The relations between Greek and Jew was on the whole
good under the Ptolemies. The Jews often sought to explain
Judaism to the Greeks (cf. Aristobulus of Paneas, Philo, and
others). They tried to enter the Greek gymnasium which was a
sign of the cultured Greek. Cases of actual apostasy were rare;
that of Dositheos, son of Drimylos, who renounced Judaism
to enter court, was exceptional (III Macc. 1:3).
CONSTITUTION. It used to be thought that the Jews were
given equal rights with the Greeks by Alexander the Great, and
that they called themselves Macedonians (Wars, 2:487–88).
This has been disproved by papyri where it appears that only
Jews or Jewish military units, who were incorporated into
Macedonian units, were termed “Macedonians” (compare
Tcherikover, Corpus nos. 142 line 3 with no. 143). Since the
population registered its name and racial origin, each nationality
in Egypt formed a separate group through the Ptolemid
period. The Jews, unlike the Greeks, were not granted a
politeia (rights of free citizenship), but received a politeuma
(a constitution by which they had the right to observe their
ancestral laws). Individual Jews were granted citizenship occasionally
by the polis or the king, or by managing to register
in a gymnasium. These, however, were exceptions. From the
papyri of Faiyum and Oxyrhynchus it seems that the majority
of Jews did not use the right of recourse to Jewish courts, but
attended Greek ones even in cases of marriage or divorce. The
head of the Jewish community in Alexandria was the *ethnarch,
while in the chora elders held sway.
Toward the end of the Ptolemid period Jewish-Greek
relations steadily worsened. The Greeks, supported by the
Egyptians, were struggling to strengthen the power of the
polis, while the Jews supported the Ptolemids, first Cleopatra
III (see above), and then *Ptolemy XIII and *Gabinius in
55 B.C.E. Papyri of 58 B.C.E. recorded some unrest in Egypt
of an antisemitic nature (e.g., Tcherikover, Corpus no. 141).
Josephus records that *Julius Caesar was aided by Jewish cleruchs
in Egypt when *Antipater brought reinforcements from
Palestine. In return for this Caesar is said to have reaffirmed
the citizenship of the Alexandrian Jews in 47 B.C.E. (Ant.,
14:131, 188–96).
Roman Period
EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE. The new administration under
*Augustus at first was grateful to the Jews for their support
(cf. the stele of their rights set up in Alexandria; Jos., Ant.
14:188), but generally it relied on the Greeks of Alexandria
for help, which fact caused a great rift between the Jews and
the rest of the population early in their rule. Augustus disbanded
the Ptolemaic army and abolished the tax-collection
system about 30 B.C.E. Both of these acts caused great economic
hardships for the Jews. Few of them joined or were
permitted to join the Roman army in Egypt (an exception being
a centurion of 116 C.E., in Tcherikover, Corpus no. 229).
Jewish tax collectors were mostly replaced by Greek government
officials. The cursus honorum was closed to Jews unless
they renounced their religion, which most refused to do
(an exception being *Tiberius Julius Alexander, prefect of
Egypt). Jewish civil rights (politeuma) were endangered by
Augustus’ revision of the constitution of Egypt. Three classes
were created:
(a) the upper class of Romans, priests, Greek citizens of
Alexandria, Naucratis, and Ptolemais, and those who had registered
in the gymnasium;
228 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6