Bibliography
| Title: Greeks and Jews; mutual misperceptions in Josephus' "Contra Apionem" Secondary Title: Ancient Judaism in Its Hellenistic Context Pages: 31-51 Type: Book Section Year: 2005 Abstract: Arguing against the commonly accepted view that Josephus' Against Apion recorded a lot of information about the Hellenistic attitudes towards the Jews, Gruen claims that the book only depicted a fictitious clash between Hellenism and Jewish culture. Josephus only wanted to respond to personal attacks on his previously published works. Josephus looked out for the most ludicrous claims against the Jews in order to show contrast with his sympathetic and reasonable answers. Against Apion thus might not have reflected the Hellenistic attitudes toward the Jews but only provided the account of a distorted relationship between Hellenism and Judaism. Keywords: Greek, Greeks, Hellenism; Against Apion |