#{} are me not really wanting to just post the tetragammatron on my blog

[bijoumikhawal]

"A further notable aspect of the text is the choice of the name of Ḥezekiah, the main protagonist of our story. As mentioned, many scholars were adamant to see in Ḥezekiah a historical person.⁷³ True, that behind the character indeed stands a historical person, though not Ḥezekiah. Instead, I wish to propose a literary explanation for the substitution of the name of the high priest who came to Egypt. We may recall that Ḥezekiah (reigned ca. 715–686 BCE) was one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.⁷⁴ Ḥezekiah witnessed the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Sargon the Assyrian in 720 BCE and himself reigned over Judah when Jerusalem was invaded and besieged by the Assyrian Sennacherib in ca. 701 BCE. The siege was miraculously lifted by a plague that afflicted Sennacherib’s army. Isaiah (and Micah) prophesied during his reign.⁷⁵ As Josiah, Ḥezekiah is praised for having enacted religious reforms, banning the worship of foreign deities in Judah and cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem, thus restoring the worship of {the Jewish god}.⁷⁶

If we recall Onias’ fate and the function of the Ḥezekiah story in the work of Pseudo-Hecataeus, some remarkable parallels emerge.⁷⁷ Firstly, like Ḥezekiah, Onias was an antagonist to the Seleucids (= Assyrians). Also in Onias’ days, Syrians came to Jerusalem in a belligerent manner (the outcome was of course different, for the invasion of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV caused Onias’ flight to Egypt). Moreover, the Bible praises Ḥezekiah for purging the Temple from all pagan influences and cults and stresses that he performed its rededication as well. If Josephus’ report in Ant. 13.67 is reliable, which I am convinced it is, then Onias too purged a temple (a former Egyptian one dedicated to Bubastis) of the worship of a pagan deity and rededicated it to {the Jewish god}.⁷⁸ The only difference between the two is their means of coping with the Temple crisis: Onias fled to Egypt and erected a new one, while Ḥezekiah stayed on and cleansed the old one." (Pg 282)

"But first, and to return to the question of the aim of the story, I have already illustrated that, next to a constitutional concern, the story is deeply interested in legitimizing Jewish residence and Jewish life in Egypt among non-Jewish Greeks and Egyptians. Of note is that the treatise seeks to defend Jewish residence in Egypt on two fronts, namely vis-à-vis fellow Jews (presumably mostly of Judaean origin) and vis-à-vis Greeks (and Egyptians), all of whom opposed Jewish residence in Egypt. The treatise underscores that Jews are perfectly and comfortably embedded in their Diasporan life in Egypt since, so the author claims, the Jews originated there.⁸⁴ Living in Egypt too, does not militate against rigorously following Jewish law and the willingness to defend it by laying down one’s lives for it.⁸⁵ Concerning the relationship between Jews and Greeks, we take note that the treatise highlights the point that some Jews even went to Greece as colonists together with Cadmus and Danaus, while others went to Judaea (Diodorus 40.3.2). This was obviously introduced to reinforce the view that Jews and Greeks not only get along well with each other, but share a common heritage.⁸⁶ The Ḥezekiah story, we recall, is deliberately placed into the chronological context of the time and reign of Ptolemy I in order to promote the view that not only were Jews welcomed since his reign, but they were also present in Egypt ever since the first days of the Ptolemaic dynasty.⁸⁷ In addition to that, the story of Ḥezekiah’s arrival not only legitimizes the foundation of Jewish settlements (the meaning of which most probably refers to military settlements),⁸⁸ but also seeks to explain the prominence and overall presence of Jewish administrators in the Ptolemaic government and court.⁸⁹" (pg 284-285)

From Priests in Exile by Meron M Piotrkowski

#cipher talk #actually egyptian tag #Masr #Mitzrayim #{} are me not really wanting to just post the tetragammatron on my blog #The Oniad Temple #Leontopolis