Animal Farm

Following the lead of other more notable bloggers I am going to begin providing book reviews of texts which I consider to be important for one reason or another. Recently I finished John Barclay’s indispensable history “Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan. “ For anyone interested in either the formative communities for early Christendom or a look at how Diaspora Judaism interacted with various non-Judaic cultures this text is a must read. Barclay undertakes a careful survey of important figures, events and customs which shaped how non centralized Judaism grew and thrived. Rather than the traditionalist paradigm which has Diaspora Judaism radiating out of a Palestinian epicenter Dr. Barclay has convincingly argued that there was a wide give and take between the various centers of Judaism. His main argument is that one ought not view Second Temple Judaism as a monolith with less faithful variants, but rather as a collection of trajectories which all have distinctive elements and define for themselves what Judaism ought to be. In this way he points to a reality of Judaism in the ancient world which is being replicated in some ways in the modern world with the advent of post modernism and cultural specific viewpoints. One of the more fascinating treatments he offers to this end is of Philo and Alexandrian Judaism.  Philo was, according to Barclay, not just a wayward Jew influenced by Platonism and negligent of Torah. Rather Philo was a person who in his own context helped to define just what torah observance was and was not. Because of his integration with Hellenistic customs, Philo was in a unique position to provide both reflection on the core considerations of Judaic identifiers in the Second temple and to establish better relationships with those who viewed these customs as suspect. Because of this Philo (et al) not only played a role for their own communities, but helped to define the numerous trajectories of other less Hellenistic Jewish areas who were also beneath Roman hegemony and struggling with the implications of that relationship. In fact it is arguable that Philo was as important for Alexandrian Judaism as he was for Palestinian Judaism. He was selected as a delegate to represent Alexandrian Jews (and by extension all Judaism within the empire) to Emperor Caligula. As Josephus records the event Caligula had decided to erect a statue of himself in the Judean Temple, effectively destroying the Legis Religionis (legal religion) status which Judaism held. Philo argued against this practice, and for other concerns that effected specifically the Alexandrian Jewish contingent, but universally were important to all Jews everywhere. Rather than seeing Philo’s level of Hellenization as a loss of Jewish distinctive, Dr. Barclay argues that Jews living in nexuses of Hellenistic culture existed on a continuum of torah observance and were actually necessary for the survival of the Judaic distinctives in other places. In my opinion through examples such as Philo and a myriad of others he has amply proven his case. His even handed treatment of this historical data combined with a good writing style and well researched text makes for an enjoyable and profitable read. I would hardily recommend the book as a strong historical introduction to the world of Diaspora Judaism in the Second Temple.