Perplexing Pseudepigraphy

Abstract

The fragments of the “Pseudonymous Greek Poets” constitute a collection of genuine and spurious quotations of renowned Greek poets – Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, etc. – on topics current in Hellenistic Jewish philosophy. The functions of these fragments are most often considered in terms used to characterize Hellenistic Jewish literature more broadly, i. e.: missionary literature, an apologetic defense of Judaism for a non-Jewish audience, an affirmation of Judaism for a Jewish audience, or a testament to the superiority of Judaism in the Hellenistic world. Each of these readings is guided by the presumption that Jews viewed the Hellenistic world as a foreign entity in need of some degree of “assimilation,” “resistance,” or “reconciliation,” and that Hellenistic Jewish literature reflects this process. This paper undermines this premise, demonstrating that the pseudonymous Greek fragments functioned instead to situate Hellenistic Jewish principles – as well as those who shared them – as part and parcel of broader Hellenistic trajectories.