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

JUDEAN NATIONALISM 17
we find references to studying the ancestral philosophy or being
instructed in the laws. They probably do refer to public reading of
Scripture, but we cannot be certain. Fortunately, other texts are
more explicit. Philo recounts how Moses ordained assemblies every
seventh day for the reading of the laws. 33 An equally clear reference
to reading aloud from Scripture every Sabbath is Philo's account of
Essene practice (Omn. Prob. Lib. 81—82). Similarly, Philo has a contemporary
opponent of Egyptian Jewry's Sabbath observance allude
to their reading out loud ( ) from the holy books in
their synagogues (Somn. 2.127).
In Apion 2.175 cited above, Josephus expressly mentions the assemblies
gathered to hear the laws. Since the last four sources undoubtedly
describe weekly public readings from the Torah, it is likely that
the first four do also. Of the eight references, six describe the Diaspora.
The description of the Essenes in Quod omnis probus liber sit does refer
to Judea, but it concerns a small, elite group. While we would normally
assume that Josephus describes the situation in Judea in Against
Apion, many assume that the encomium of the Torah in this book
relies on an Egyptian source (apart from the clearly apologetic and
probably hyperbolic tone of the passage and the fact that it was
written after a quarter century of residence in Rome). 34 Thus, we
still lack unambiguous evidence for a common practice in Judea.
Unambiguous testimony to public reading in Judea does appear
in the famous inscription of Theodotus, recounting how the latter
built the synagogue for, inter alia, "the reading [ ] of the
law and the teaching of the commandments." The inscription thus
suggests that such reading was a regular function of the institution.
However, the dating of the inscription to before 70 is not assured.
More importantly, we are dealing with a Greek-speaking synagogue
in Jerusalem. 35 How indicative its practices are of other synagogues
in Judea remains to be established. For contrast note Pseudo-Philo's
33 Hyp. 7.10-13. Cf. Hyp. 7.14 and Josephus, Apion 2.177-78.
34 For the view that Josephus uses an Egyptian source, see D. R. Schwartz,
"Josephus on the Jewish Constitution and Community," SCI 7 (1983-84): 47, with
literature cited there, n. 59; compare A. I. Baumgarten, "The Torah As a Public
Document in Judaism," SR 14 (1985): 18 n. 8. See the latter for the hyperbole in
Josephus' account.
35 See L. Roth-Gerson, The Greek Inscriptions from the Synagogues in Eretz-Israel
(Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 1987), 76—86. On doubts concerning the date of the
inscription see Flesher, "Palestinian Synagogues before 70," 33 n. 21, and, more
extensively, H. C. Kee, "Defining the First-Century CE Synagogue," NTS 41 (1995):
481-500.