Bibliography
| Title: The Samaritans in the Hellenistic Period Pages: 373-396 Type: Generic Year: 1990 Abstract: "Scholarly research on the Samaritans in the Hellenistic period has recently been enriched by new epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological discoveries, which require some revision and re-evaluation of early Samaritan history. After reviewing these discoveries and related material, the author takes up the question of the authenticity of the correspondence between the Samaritans and Antiochus IV (Ant. 12:257-264). The analysis of this document, as proposed here, leads to the conclusion that it is not authentic, as against a widely-held opinion among scholar, all of whom were influenced by E. Bickerman's study of the same document. The author proposes that this correspondence was fabricated by an anti-Samaritan Jewish author in Alexandria, during the second half of the reign of Ptolemy VII Philometor (180-145 BCE). The author goes on to suggest that the Jewish-Samaritan schism is to be dated late in the second century BCE and that the problem concerning the epithet of Zeus of Mt. Gerizim (Xenios according to II Macc. 6:2, Hellenios, according to Ant. 12-61) can be resolved by the assumption that the above-mentioned correspondence is a fabrication." Keywords: Groups and Religious Movements in Palestinian Judaism |