Hidden Criticism of the Angry Tyrant in Early Judaism and the Acts of the Apostles by Drew J. Strait

Abstract

Reviewed by: Hidden Criticism of the Angry Tyrant in Early Judaism and the Acts of the Apostles by Drew J. Strait Linda Maloney drew j. strait, Hidden Criticism of the Angry Tyrant in Early Judaism and the Acts of the Apostles (Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019). Pp. xiv + 423. $130. Drew Strait's book could use a snappier title, but the one it has is descriptive of its content. S. is a Mennonite scholar; Hidden Criticism is based on his doctoral thesis for Gert Steyn at the University of Pretoria (2015). He received his A.M.R.S. at the University of Chicago Divinity School and his indebtedness to Prof. Hans-Josef Klauck at that institution is both acknowledged and well footnoted. Strait's book is essentially aimed at demonstrating that Paul's Areopagus speech (Acts 17) is an attack on idols, icons, and the emperor cult and by no means an apologia for them. In a foreword, David P. Moessner describes the work as "nothing less than an iconoclastic blast through a time-honored evaluation of Paul's classic speech against pagan idolatry to illuminate a new discovery from Hellenistic legitimations of divine kingship" (p. x). Probably the book's greatest strength is its deep and detailed examination of postexilic Jewish authors' veiled verbal resistance to Greek and Roman veneration for idols and, ultimately, for idolized emperors. It seems to me that S. is more indebted than he acknowledges to Todd Penner's earlier In Praise of Christian Origins: Stephen and the Hellenists in Lukan Apologetic Historiography (Emory Studies in Early Christianity 10; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), which has prepared the ground well in its treatment of the character, background, and purposes of Stephen's speech in Acts 7. After a first chapter introducing the subject and method, part 1, "Objects of Resistance," sets out the ways in which honor was bestowed on divine beings in the ancient world by means of images and sacrifices, and how such honors were ultimately hybridized to revere rulers. S.'s command of the ancient record, both written and epigraphic, is remarkable. In part 2, "Strategies of Resistance," he focuses on the means by the worship of idols and idolized rulers from Alexander onward was covertly undermined—by Greek philosophers but also and primarily in the Books of Maccabees and in Alexandria, especially by Philo. Special attention is paid to Roman imperial figures, particularly Augustus. S. examines how Philo and other Jewish writers of the period refined their approach to the First Commandment (which S. treats in Protestant fashion as two). In this presentation, the First Commandment asserts monotheism, the Second monolatry; thus there are separate treatments of the ways Jewish writers accommodated divine sovereignty with earthly rule and of how they coped with the question of images. For me the most interesting part of the book was chap. 7, "The Wisdom of Solomon and Empire." In S.'s portrayal, "Ps.-Solomon is an acculturated Hellenistic Jew who is more likely responding to local ethnic tensions under the hegemony of imperial power"—in Alexandria. Cited in support of this location (which is generally accepted) are "Wisdom's invective toward Egyptian theriolatry (Wis 13–14), animosity toward Egypt through its retelling of the Exodus narrative (Wis 10–19), and parallels with Philo" (p. 248). In particular, the Book of Wisdom paints a portrait of the ideal king of Israel (Solomon) as a counterexample to the earthly rulers the author knew. It begins (1:1): "Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth" and concludes its introductory section with chap. 6: "Listen therefore, O kings, and understand. … For your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High" (6:1-2). "Most High" is a key expression; Jews of the Hellenistic period were encouraged to see their God as supreme, and in a cultural climate [End Page 723] in which monotheism was scarcely understood by ordinary people that was a good strategy. Unjust rulers are equated with the wicked (cf. Wis 5:17-23), and God's condemnation of the wicked was a familiar theme in the Hebrew Bible as in the LXX. Still, according to S., "The...