- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Other sellers (Hardcover)
-
All (6) from $189.16
-
New (3) from $189.16
-
Used (3) from $260.75
More About This Textbook
Overview
The translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek was the first major translation in Western culture. Its significance was far-reaching: without a Greek Bible, European history would have been entirely different-no Western Jewish diaspora and no Christianity. This literary and social study is about the ancient creators and receivers of the translations and about their impact. For at least half a millennium, the Greek Bible served the Jewish diaspora, providing the foundations of life for a highly text-centred ethnic and religious minority as they fell under the pressures of the powerful imperial cultures of Greece and Rome and of a dominant, 'colonial' language, Greek. Those large communities of the eastern Mediterranean, with their converts and sympathizers, determined the pattern of Jewish life outside Palestine for centuries. Far from being isolated and inward-looking, they were, we now know, active members of their city environments. Yet they were not wholly assimilated. Here we discover how the translations operated as tools for the preservation of group identity and how, even in their language, they embodied the quiet subversion of norms and forms, an expression of society's cultural resistance. The Greek Bible translations ended up as the Christian Septuagint, taken over along with the entire heritage of the remarkable hybrid culture of Hellenistic Judaism, during the process of the Church's long-drawn-out parting from the Synagogue. That transference allowed the recipients to sideline Christianity's original Jewishness and history to be re-written. Here, a great cultural artefact is restored to its original owners.
Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Tessa Rajak is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, University of Reading, and Member of the Jewish Studies Unit, Oxford University.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations xiv
Introduction 1
From Greek Bible to Septuagint 14
The True Text? 16
The Hebrew Hinterland: Torah and Beyond 20
1 The Letter of Aristeas between History and Myth 24
Ancient Translation Precedents 24
Interpreting the Tradition 28
The Aristeas Narrative 30
Evolution of the Story 34
Fact or Fiction? The Search for Historicity 38
The Bible in the Shrine of Serapis? 43
Reading Aristeas as Historical Myth 47
The 'Meaning' of the Story 51
Other Memories of the Early Ptolemies 55
2 Going Greek Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Alexandria 64
Imperialism and Culture 67
Describing the Jews 72
The School of Aristotle and the Jews 74
The Monarch and Judaea 79
Graeco-Egyptians and the Jewish Narrative 82
A Law Code? 84
Jewish Needs and Choices 86
Recipients of Patronage 88
3 The Jewish Diaspora in Graeco-Roman Antiquity 92
Diaspora 92
Ideology 100
Diaspora Locations and Populations 102
Jewish Identity 106
Religious Practice in the Diaspora 107
The Jewish Community 112
Interaction with Non-Jews 114
The Ruling Power 119
Conflict 120
4 Staying Jewish: Language and Identity in the Greek Bible 125
Understanding Septuagint Language 127
Translation Precedents and the 'Dragoman' 136
A Sacred Text 139
The Interlinear Theory: Knowledge of Hebrew 143
Language and Cultural Resistance 152
Vocabulary and History 162
Function and Evolution 172
5 Representing and Subverting Power 176
Talking about Kings 177
Wisdom at Court 181
The Vocabulary of Divine Rulershin 185
The King's Anger 191
Toppling Idols 193
Literature and Subversion 204
6 The Uses of Scripture in Hellenistic Judaism 210
Preliminaries: Canon and Canonicity 212
The Hellenistic-Jewish Tradition 216
The Greek Bible and Jewish Literary Production 222
Text and Users: Scripture in Action 227
7 Parallels and Models 239
The Parallel with Homer 239
A Comparative Approach to Jewish Biblical Cultures 243
Situating Hellenistic Judaism 249
Philo and Josephus 251
The Biblical Culture of Hellenistic Judaism 255
8 The Bible among Greeks and Romans 258
Ptolemy's Legacy 259
The Exodus Controversies 262
Further Echoes: Alexandria and Egypt 264
The Roman Milieu 267
The World of Magic 270
Conclusion 276
9 The Septuagint between Jews and Christians 278
The Abandonment Theory 288
Aquila of Pontus 290
Competing Texts 294
Reinterpreting the Evidence 296
Jewish Attitudes to Translation in the Second Century 303
Bibliography 314
Index 367