Alexander to Actium by Peter Green

Author:Peter Green [Peter Green]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2016-12-23T05:00:00+00:00

In contrast to the Scribes, exegetes of the Torah, and closely associated with the strict sect of the Hasidim,⁶⁴ who achieved new authority and power about the time that Antiochus III confirmed the Jews in their autonomy, there were other figures, very different yet equally symptomatic, who breached the old exclusiveness of the priestly caste by a candid reliance on Mammon rather than God. Of these perhaps the most notable was Joseph, son of that Tobiah who held high rank in the Ptolemaic army (above, p. 503). Quite apart from being Ptolemy II’s military representative in Transjordan, Tobiah had also hedged his sociopolitical bets by marrying the sister of the High Priest Onias II. He was, in addition, a business associate of Apollonius, Ptolemy’s enormously influential finance minister (dioikētēs: above, p. 386). His correspondence reveals a significant degree of Hellenization. His son Joseph thus grew up in a cosmopolitan Greek atmosphere; but he was also nephew to the High Priest. As a Transjordanian—and, worse, one who had dealings with the hated Samaritans—he must have aroused suspicion: his entire career was predicated on a conscious opposition to the kind of narrow ethnic and religious loyalties that were de rigueur among Jewish traditionalists.

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