Language:
English
Year of publication:
1992
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Jewish Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
43,2 (1992) 203-220
Keywords:
Antisemitism History To 500
;
Eretz Israel Relations
;
Egypt Relations
;
Eretz Israel History 70-1517, Roman, Byzantine and Arab periods
Abstract:
Explores reasons for the massacres of Jews in Egypt in the suppression of the Jewish revolt, in which Jews destroyed pagan temples. The Romans, unprepared for the revolt, drafted Egyptian peasants to combat it; these seem to have acted much more violently than the official Roman army. Quotes a prophecy circulating at the time calling on the Egyptians to defend their temples and holy cities from devastation by the "Typhonians" - strangers and enemies of Isis and Osiris. The very presence in Egypt of these "impious and impure" strangers was seen as a threat to the cosmic order, and the land must be purified of them. Hypothesizes that this prophecy was interpreted as referring to the Jews, and circulated by the priests in order to incite the populace against them; and that it was also the priests who instituted a festival in Oxyrhynchus, mentioned in the late 2nd century, celebrating the victory over the Jews.
URL:
Click here for fulltext (may be restricted to subscribers)
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink