Work

Greek education and cultural identity in Greek-speaking Judaism: The Jewish-Greek historiographers

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: The style of the Jewish-Greek historiographers Eupolemus and Demetrius has often been evaluated as “bad Greek.” This is generally seen as evidence of their lack of education. The negative views on the language of Demetrius and Eupolemus are illustrative of a broader issue in the study of Hellenistic Judaism: language usage has been a key element in the discussion on the societal position of Jews in the Hellenistic world. In this article, I assess the style of the historiographers in the context of post-classical Greek, and conclude that their language reflects standard Hellenistic Greek. The linguistic analysis then becomes a starting point to reflect on the level of integration of Jews in the Greek-speaking world as well as to consider the nature of Jewish multilingualism in the late Second Temple period.

Source: Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

DOI: 10.1177/0951820720936601

Author: Marieke Dhont

Institution: University of Cambridge

Language: English

Topic: Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Subfield: Religious studies

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,000

Funder: British Academy