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E-book
Author Gruen, Erich S

Title Heritage and hellenism : the reinvention of Jewish tradition / Erich S. Gruen
Published Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 1998

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Description 1 online resource (xx, 335 pages)
Series Hellenistic culture and society ; 30
Hellenistic culture and society ; 30.
Contents Hellenism and the Hasmonaeans -- The use and abuse of the Exodus story -- The Hellenistic images of Joseph -- Scriptural stories in new guise -- Embellishments and inventions -- Kings and Jews -- Pride and precedence
Summary "In the wake of Alexander the Great's triumphant successes, Greeks and Macedonians came as conquerors and settled as ruling classes in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Jews endured a subordinate status politically and militarily, a minor nation amid the powers of the Hellenistic world. Erich Gruen's work, however, highlights Jewish creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness, as the Jews engaged actively with the traditions of Hellas, adapting genres and transforming legends to articulate their own legacy in modes congenial to a Hellenistic setting. Drawing on a wide and diverse array of texts composed in Greek by Jews over an extended period of time, Gruen explores works by Jewish historians, epic poets, tragic dramatists, writers of romances and novels, exegetes, philosophers, apocalyptic visionaries, and composers of fanciful fables - not to mention pseudonymous forgers and fabricators. In these fictive creations, Jewish writers reinvented their own past, offering us vital insights into Jewish self-perception."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-320) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Judaism -- History -- Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.
Greek literature -- Jewish authors -- History and criticism
Judaism -- Apologetic works -- History and criticism
Hellenism.
Literature -- greek
Greek World
Jews -- history
Civilization -- history
Hellenism.
RELIGION -- Judaism -- History.
HISTORY / Ancient / General
Greek literature -- Jewish authors
Hellenism
Judaism -- Apologetic works
Judaism -- Post-exilic period (Judaism)
Hellenisme.
Jodendom.
Joden.
Culturele invloeden.
Judaism.
Religion.
Philosophy & Religion.
Judaïsme -- 586 av. J.-C.-210 (Période postexilique)
Littérature grecque hellénistique -- Auteurs juifs -- Histoire et critique.
Judaïsme -- Ouvrages apologétiques -- Histoire et critique.
Hellénisme.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 97038808
ISBN 9780520929197
0520929195
0585103356
9780585103358