historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

10 DAVID GOODBLATT
Even if Herodotus' attribution of this statement to the Athenians is
fictitious and has an ironical intent, I do not think this changes my
point. 18 We see here a mid-fifth-century BCE author define a concept
of Greekness based on common descent, language, religion and
customs. The last three items can be collapsed into the single notion
of culture, as described above.
In the following century that same combination of kinship and
culture lies behind the argument of Isocrates that the cultural component
is more significant. In Panegyricus 50 he writes,
Athens has become the teacher of the cities and has made the name
of Greek [ ] no longer a mark of race [ ] but
of intellect [ ], so that it is those who have our upbringing
[ ] rather than our common nature [ ] who are
called Hellenes. 19
Some take Isocrates to be extending the term 'Hellene' to whoever
adopted Greek culture, while others say he is restricting the term to
those Greeks who share Athenian culture. For my purposes what
matters is the underlying view that Isocrates is trying to modify, viz.,
that Greek identity is based on shared kinship and culture. It is
worth noting that the emphasis on culture over kinship (whether
for inclusion or exclusion) is apparently shared by the author of
2 Maccabees. The critique of the high priest Jason for bringing about
the height of ' in 2 Macc. 4:13 refers to cultural matters,
since his ancestry was never questioned (cf. also 2 Macc.
11:24-25). Consequently, the that the book's heroes are
fighting to defend (2 Macc. 2:21) is also cultural. Thus for the author,
Israelite ancestry is not sufficient, though it may be necessary, for
true 'Judeanness.' 20
What was the basis of the belief in a shared kinship and a com-
18 See the discussion in C. W. Fornara, Herodotus: An Interpretive Essay (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1971), 85—86. Compare Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity,
44-47, who suggests that this definition reflects the emergence during the Persian
war of 479—80 of Greek self-identity in opposition to an image of the barbarian.
19 Translation of F. W. Walbank in his "The Problem of Greek Nationality,"
Phoenix 5 (1951): 45—46 (= Selected Papers in Greek and Roman History and Historiography
[Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985], 5), with a discussion of the interpretation
of the passage.
20 Compare the discussion in S. J. D. Cohen, "Religion, Ethnicity, and 'Hellenism'
in the Emergence of Jewish Identity in Maccabean Palestine," in Religion and Religious
Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom, ed. P. Bilde et al. (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press,
1990), 219-21, and the literature cited there.