Les Juifs d'Égypte de Ramsès II à Hadrien

by Joseph Mélèze-Modrzejewski

This is the story of the adventures and misadventures of the Jewish people in the land of Egypt. The author uses the clear light of scientific analysis and archaeological research to illuminate the reality underlying the images from the Biblical accounts and Jewish and pagan literary texts, through the great “love affair” between Jews and Hellenic culture. It ends with the brief but crucial episode when budding Christianity and the Alexandrian Jews parted company.

Genres: History, Egypt, Judaism, Nonfiction, Judaica

371 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Dariusz Płochocki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ogrom tłumaczeń egipskich papirusów dotyczących tematyki żydowskiej na mowę Mickiewicza. Czasem trudno zgodzić się z mocno literalnymi wywodami w komentarzach do nich, ale i tak warto sięgnąć.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The core of this book is its discussion of the Jewish community in the Ptolemaic era; Greek-speaking Jews came to Egypt with Ptolemy's army and built prosperous communities, especially in Alexandria. Because the Ptolemies favored Greek-speakers over native Egyptians, Jews were part of the Grecian overclass.

However, things got worse for Jews when Rome conquered Egypt; most Jews (and even rural Greeks) were condemned to second-class citizenship. For reasons that remain unclear, relations between Jews and Greeks deteriorated, and eventually Jews revolted against Rome in the 2nd century, with terrible results.

This book's discussion of the pre-Roman "good times" is more interesting than its discussion of the Roman-era conflicts, probably because the author had more information available about the former. It seems that (at least as of the time this book was written) modern scholars didn't really know very much about the Egyptian Jewish revolt or the tensions that led up to it.

[C.L. Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent survey of a specialized area, especially re the roots of antisemitism. I found myself wishing that the author had gone into more depth, though, all across the board. Thus the 4 stars, rather than 5!

[Israel Drazin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is a relatively short book, it is filled with interesting information that most people do not know about Jews in Egypt from the time of Rameses II, when Joseph and the Israelites were in Egypt, before the exodus with Moses, until the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the early second century, when after the Jews rebelled because of mistreatment, the emperor "inflicted a chastisement on the Jews who had risen in revolt." The Jewish community was deprived "of their homes and their land and could no longer form a nucleus for a possible reconstruction."

Interestingly, earlier, the Jews thrived in Egypt and even had a sanctuary in Leontopolis. In the mid-second century BCE, around 172 BCE, Onias IV, who was a descendant of Zadok, high priest in the time of Solomon, fled to Egypt. Jason “the Hellenist,” brother of Onias III, usurped the role of the High Priesthood from Onias III. The latter took refuge in a pagan temple in Daphne, near Antioch, but was assassinated by order of another Hellenist, Menelaus, Jason’s successor as high priest. Around this time, the precise date is uncertain, Onias III’s son, Onias IV, fled to safety in Egypt.

By 164 BCE, Onias IV was a high dignitary in the Ptolemaic court. He constructed a Jewish temple in Egypt sometime between 167 and 164. Josephus tells us that after the fall of Masada in Israel, in 73 CE, some fighters escaped the disaster and took refuge in Egypt. They attempted to foment a revolutionary movement among the Jews. The then emperor of Rome, Vespasian, ordered the demolition of the Leontopolis temple in 74 CE because Rome saw it as a dangerous symbol of the independence of the Jewish people. Thus, this temple lasted about 240 years.

[Victor Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

While in the processing of writing a novel focused on religious developments in Alexandria, Egypt, in the First Century, I was surprised to discover the size and importance of the Jewish population in that city and in Egypt during that period. Having previously believed that most Jews fled Egypt at the time of Moses and never went back, I went looking for reliable historical material to remedy the misperception. On the informed advice of Dr, Gary Rendsburg, professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, I purchased Joseph Meleze Modrzejewski's The Jews in Egypt.
At first, its considerable size and complexity appeared to be too much for a subject I was studying "only" for background material. But the easy style and pertinent detail drew me in, and then I stayed for its cogent analysis of the interaction among philosophies and religions, some in decline, others in ascendance, so characteristic of this fabulous Mediterranean city, then the cerebrum of the world with its library and university.
A specialty item indeed, but one highly recommended to readers interested in Alexandria as a cultural center and in the Hellenic-Judaic-Christian melding that took place there in the early centuries of the Common Era.