Aristobulus of Paneas

Aristobulus († 160 BC) was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, one of the earliest Jewish philosophers of the Alexandrian school. As later Philo of Alexandria, he tried to join the Jewish tradition with Greek thought.

Life

About the life of Aristobulus, there are few, sometimes contradictory and controversial details of the ancient sources. He probably came from Alexandria. The former name " Aristobulus of Paneas " is erroneous, it is based on a misunderstanding. Regarding the dating of very different approaches were represented long; the dating of his work ranged from the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD, which meant dating to the period after the birth of Christ, that spurious and held the author's name for fictitious. 's work Today, the view has prevailed that Aristobulus under King Ptolemy VI. Philometor ( 180-145 BC) was active, probably as early as the seventies. After cited in 2 Maccabees 1.10 Letter of the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea to Aristobulus and the Egyptian Jews, its authenticity and dating is controversial, Aristobulus was of priestly descent and " teacher of King Ptolemy " by which the pro-Jewish Ptolemy VI. is meant. He may have been the King's adviser on Jewish affairs. Clement of Alexandria referred to him as a peripatetic philosopher, which is not to be understood in the sense of belonging to a Peripatetic school but; the obtained expressions of Aristobulus show little Peripatetic influence. The Bishop Anatolius of Laodicea declared him one of the translators of the Septuagint, which would lead to a completely different dating, but are not.

Work

The work of Aristobulus is lost, the original title unknown. It was dedicated to King Ptolemy. Receive only five extracts. They are in works of Christian writers ( Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and Anatolius of Laodicea ). Apparently it was a fictional, literary dialogue between Aristobulus and Ptolemy, in which Aristobulus responded to questions of the king. The topic was the exegesis of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and possibly other parts of Torah.

Side (of Clement perhaps exaggerated ) Peripatetic there are Platonic and Pythagorean influences and linguistic and conceptual proximity to timely Jewish texts such as the Book of Proverbs, Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, pseudo - Phocylides and 4 Maccabees.

Following the example of the Stoic hermeneutics, which reinterpreted the Greek mythology philosophical, Aristobulus put the Torah texts allegorically. Apparently he was the first Jewish thinker who dared this. In particular, he did not want to be taken literally anthropomorphic formulations. In redrafting of Jewish traditions, he used the Greek philosophical terminology; he described the laws of the Torah as Aretai ( virtues ). Aristobulus taught a pre-existence of wisdom, which he identified as " light," and a key role of the number seven in the cosmic processes, in the human, animal and plant life (fragment 5).

With this project, Aristobulus, sought the one hand, a connection of Jewish intellectuals to the Greek philosophy, on the other hand, a rational justification of Judaism against the mindset of the Greeks. To this end, he advocated a (later often recurring ) historical fiction, according to Greek poets and philosophers such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Homer and Hesiod owed ​​their wisdom Moses. Thus, they had an alleged Greek text version of the Pentateuch was used which was older than the Septuagint. In particular passages of Linus, Orpheus, Musaeus Aratus or stood near the Mosaic tradition. For the texts mentioned as evidence is largely to late forgeries dating back partly on pseudo - Hecataeus. When quoting the cited passages Aristobulus proceeded very free to make his argument seem credible, and even intervened in the traditional Homer's text; this was compared to King Ptolemy, who must have possessed a good knowledge of Homer as all educated Greeks, very bold. This fact therefore was a key argument of those researchers who considered the work of Aristobulus for a late forgery.

The reference to philosophical games at Ecclesiasticus is controversial. There are clear similarities with the Letter of Aristeas; they can with dependence of one plant from the other, but also with dependence both be explained by a common source. In the case of a direct dependency the work of Aristobulus is probably to be regarded as the older ones.

Output

• Carl R. Holladay (ed.): Fragments from Hellenistic Jewish Authors, Volume 3: Aristobulus, Atlanta ( Georgia), 1995 [ critical edition of the Greek text of the fragments with English translation and commentary ]

Translation

• Paul Rießler: Altjüdisches writings outside the Bible, Augsburg 1928 [No. 12, pp. 179-185; German translation of the fragments ]