Abstract
We have only very scanty remains of the corpus of Hellenistic Jewish epic poetry. From the poems of Sosates, âthe Jewish Homerâ, not even one line has been preserved. From Philo Epicusâ On Jerusalem three fragments (23 lines) in obscure Greek are extant, dealing with Gen. 22, the Joseph story, and the water-supply system of Jerusalem. Several haggadic features in the first fragment recur in later intertestamental and rabbinic literature. From Theodotusâ On Shechem (or On the Jews) six fragments (47 lines) are extant. He is not a Samaritan author, as has often been assumed, for, as in other Jewish sources, his rendering of Gen. 34 (the murder of the inhabitants of Shechem) blackens the Shechemites and excuses their murder by Levi and Simeon. It probably served to justify John Hyrcanusâ destruction of Shechem and the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.
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