The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 2: The Hellenistic Age (review)

Abstract

Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991 143 tion of the Temple and the end of the religious persecution among Judas' achievements. On the one hand, Bar-Kochva has given us much more than a biography of Judas Maccabaeus: we receive a well documented and illustrated introduction to hellenistic warfare, elucidations on many aspects of Jewish history, and a running commentary on substantial portions of First Maccabees , filled with military, historical, and philological insights. On the other hand, however, we have here considerably less than a biography, because the focus is almost entirely on some of the military aspects of Judas' career, leaving out the rededication of the Temple and other important achievements . , Even considering these limitations, Professor Bar-Kochva is to be congratulated on having created a very important work which provides new perspectives on the life and times of Judas Maccabaeus. Last but not least, it is lucidly written, clearly organized, and very handsomely produced~ Joseph Sievers Teresianum and St. Anselmo Schools Rome The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 2: The Hellenistic Age, edited by W. D. Davies and Louis Finkelstein. London: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 738 pp. $85.00. In a series so well established and respected as the Cambridge History, we expect certain predictable virtues: comprehensive coverage of the period in question in all its aspects, solid representation of the state of scholarship on each issue without excessive novelty or speculation,.usefulness as a point d'appui for further research. The present volume has all of these virtues in some but not always in full measure. The reader expects and finds articles devoted to archeology, social and political issues, linguistic developments, institutionalization in the diaspora and in Palestine, some notice of the idiosyncracies of the nascent sects and Samaritans, and extensive attention to the literature produced by Jews during this period. The general student of History, or the graduate student in the History of Judaism, can make good use of this one-volume compendium. Simply fo'r including the long articles by Martin Hengel on Hellenistic and Jewish interactions, and for its evenhanded treatment of the Samaritans by James Purvis, the volume makes a valuable contribution. Some aspects of the volume are, however, problematic. Part of the difficulty undoubtedly comes from the nature of "The Hellenistic Age,"·to which 144 SHOFAR this volume is dedicated. No one will seriously challenge the contention that this was a time of fundamental importance in the shaping of what has come to be called "Judaism," that is, the dominant heir to the religious tradition of ancient Israel. But getting an appropriate handle on "the Hellenistic Age" is itself difficult: what period of time is best designated by that title, what are its constitutive elements, how do these interact with Jewish traditions? These questions are all the more difficult to answer today, after (indeed during) a period of unprecedentedly rich discovery of primary source material, as well as the editing, translating, and publishing of previously inaccessible materials. It is not yet clear how all this new information fits within the old framework , or whether an entirely new framework is required. Should we work with the idea of a "Normative Judaism" with a few odd deviances, or is the very essence of "Judaism" in this period up for question? Individual experts work with different versions of these options and therefore make quite different uses of the evidence. Thus, even though the evidence from Qumran figures prominently in discussions about linguistic developments, no mention is made of the excavations at Wadi Qumran in the chapter devoted to archeology; likewise, though literature as recent as The Book of Wisdom and Joseph and Aseneth are explicitly covered (and a fine chapter is devoted to the Targumim), the writings from Qumran are discussed only peripherally. So also, Finkelstein's two essays on the development of leadership in the Pharisaic tradition ("The Men of the Great Synagogue [circa 400-170 BCE]", pp. 229-244, and "Pharisaic Leadership after the Great Synagogue," pp. 245-277) give very late evidence high marks for historicity with little explicit acknowledgment of the critical questions such a procedure begs; the acknowledgement in a footnote that other views "appear in another volume" do not...