Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Studies Quarterly
Angaben zur Quelle:
5,1 (1998) 124-155
Keywords:
Manetho
;
Jews History To 600
;
Hellenism
;
Antisemitism History To 500
;
Egypt History To 332 B.C.
Abstract:
Based on a study of Manethonian fragments, as well as of writings attributed to Manetho in Josephus's "Contra Apionem, " discusses the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt as described in ancient Greek and Latin literature, according to which the Jews, afflicted with leprosy, were driven out of the country by the king of Egypt. States that the attribution of the origins of this story to the Egyptian priest Manetho (3rd century BCE) is debatable. Manetho's works, as quoted by Josephus, actually present two different versions of the origin of the Jews (one associates them with the Hyksos who invaded Egypt, and the other with lepers who lived in Egypt ca. 500 years later), neither of which is antisemitic. However, later historians (e.g. Lysimachus and Apion) wrote other versions of these stories and used them for anti-Jewish propaganda, in which the Jews became "the sworn enemy of mankind." Contends that although Manetho may have fathered antisemitic literature, this was not his intention.
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