Auf den Spuren des hellenistischen Judentums in Caesarea: Ein Jüdischer Psalmenforscher in Origenes’ Glosse im Kontext Rabbinischer Literatur

Abstract

Abstract This article offers a close reading of a gloss in Codex Ambrosianus B 106 of Origenes’ Hexapla on Psalms, which has in the past only been analyzed for its reference to the Patriarch. This article focuses on the Jewish scholar described in the gloss and analyzes his method of identifying Moses as the author of ten anonymous Psalms in view of Alexandrian scholarship. As Origen could only have communicated with his Jewish contemporary in Greek, the gloss provides unique insights into Hellenistic Judaism in 3d century Caesarea, which turns out to be well connected to Alexandrian methods of scholarship, available in late Antiquity in numerous intellectual centers of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Caesarea and Gadara. Moreover, the article points to conduits of communication between the Jewish Hellenistic scholar and rabbinic literature, where his conclusions resurface.