Bibliography
| Title: Mirror, Mirror. Third Maccabees, historical fictions and Jewish self-fashioning in the Hellenistic period Type: Thesis Year: 1996 Abstract: "This study seeks to identify the purpose of the creation of historical fictions in a wide range of hellenistic jewish texts. Historical fictions are used in these texts to develop various models of Jewish identity in the Hellenistic word. Part I consists of a close analysis of one particular text, 3 Maccabees, while Part II extends the insights gained from 3 Maccabees to other Jewish fictions. The first chapter demonstrates that 3 Maccabees is a late hellenistic text, composed ca. 100 B.C.E. The second chapter traces important themes in 3 Maccabees within a broader literary context. Thematically, 3 Maccabees is not a confrontational text, but one which seeks to promote cooperation between Jews and Gentiles in the Hellenistic world. The third chapter evaluates the evidence for the authorship, audience and purpose of 3 Maccabees. 3 Maccabees was composed in Alexandria by a hellenized upper-class Jew, writing for other hellenized Jews. It sought to establish a model of hellenistic Jewish identity which would encourage the audience to preserve its traditional Jewish heritage while still participating in the wider Greek world. The fourth chapter analyzes the historicity of the persecution described in 3 Maccabees. The persecution described by the author is entirely fictional. Nevertheless, the author self-consciously locates this fictional persecution within a detailed historical setting. His purpose is not to deveive the audience, but to create a historical fiction which supports his view of hellenistic jewish identity. Part II focuses upon the purpose of historical fictions in the Letter of Aristeas, 2 Maccabees, Esther, Daniel, Judith, Tobit, Josephus' account of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem and of the activities of the Tobiad family, the fragments of Artapanus, and Joseph and Asenath. The use of historical fictions cuts across all boundaries of language, provenance, genre and even purpose. In each of these texts, the author uses historical fiction to construct a particualar model of hellenistic Jewish identity through the re-invention of the past. The models of identity differ, but all seek in some way to explore relations between Jews and wider non-Jewish world". Keywords: Hellenism, Hellenistic Judaism, Philo |