Alexander the Great in Jerusalem

Myth and History

Ory Amitay (Senior Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, University of Haifa)

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English

Oxford University Press
18 April 2025

Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Judaism; Judaism: mysticism

Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: Myth and History discusses four different stories told in antiquity about the meeting between Alexander the Great and the Judeans of Jerusalem. In history, this meeting passed without noticeable events. Into the historical void stepped various Judean storytellers, who wrote not what was, but what could (or even should) have been. The tradition as a whole deals with an issue that resurfaced time and again in ancient Judean history: conquest and regime installment by new foreign rulers. It does so by using Alexander as a cipher for a current Hellenistic and Roman foreign rule. The earliest version can be traced to the context of the Seleukid monarch Antiochos III ""the Great"", and postulates a Judean text from that time that has been hitherto unknown, and which survived in a Byzantine recension (epsilon) of the Alexander Romance. The second and third chapters turn to rabbinic sources, and deal with the Judean approaches and attitudes towards Roman occupation and rule, first at the advent of Pompey and then at the institution of provincia Judaea at the expense of the Herodian dynasty. The final story is the most famous, previously considered the latest, rather than the earliest;that of Josephus. Alexander the Great in Jerusalem demonstrates how the historical tradition consistently maintained the moral and sacral superiority of the Jerusalem temple and of Judaism, making Alexander either embrace monotheism or prostrate himself before the Judean high priest. This not only bolstered Judean self-confidence under conditions of military and political inferiority, but also brought the changing foreign rulers into the fold of Judean sacred history.

By: Ory Amitay (Senior Lecturer Senior Lecturer University of Haifa)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 14mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 235mm
Weight: 473g
ISBN: 9780198929529
ISBN 10: 0198929528
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 18 April 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1: The Greek Alexander Romance (Epsilon) 2: Alexander and Gviha Ben-Psisa 3: Alexander and Simon the Just 4: Josephus 5: From Myth to History Conclusion

Ory Amitay is Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa where he has been teaching Ancient History since 2003. He studied Ancient History and Classics at Tel-Aviv University and completed his graduate studies in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of California, Berkely. His academic focus is on the meeting points of myth and history, in particular in cases of inter-cultural exchange, and he has previously published on the mythology and history of Alexander the Great.