Meron M. Piotrkowski. Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period. Walter de Gruyter, 2019.
Meron M. Piotrkowski enters difficult territory with Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period. For one, as is often the case when working on antiquity, the literary sources on the Temple of Onias conflict one another.[i] Two examples come to us from a single author, Josephus, who provides three different motives for the construction of Onias' Temple and names two different founders. In addition to conflicting material, many, if not most, Hellenistic-Jewish texts do not clearly indicate their place of origin, leading to uncertainty regarding their relationship to Onias' community.
Unfortunately for those interested in Oniad history, the challenges are not confined to the literary material. The archaeological evidence proves just as difficult. On the one hand, scholars are divided over whether the remains of a temple found at Tell el-Yahoudieh belong to Onias' Temple or to a temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Bubastis. But even when the archaeology unquestionably points to an Oniad milieu, there remains the challenging task of offering definitive interpretations; such is the case with the epigraphic material from Tell el-Yahoudieh.
Perhaps more intensely debated than any other issue pertaining to Egyptian Jews of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods is that of their political and social status. This debate is, in part, centered on settlements referred to as politeumata. Suffice it to say that, in addition to disagreeing on who lived in these communities and how they were organized, scholars debate the political rights associated with the settlements.
Rather than shying away from these challenges, Piotrkowski responds to them with a comprehensive survey addressing each of them and many others. He does so while advancing a thesis that confronts the tradition of treating Alexandria as the only Jewish epicenter of Ptolemaic Egypt: "at its pinnacle Onias' Temple was a religious and cultural center of Egyptian Judaism (p. 3)." In making this argument, Piotrkowski tackles questions ranging from who built Onias' sanctuary, and when, to how the Oniad settlement related to other Jewish communities.
Following an introduction that outlines the study and reviews the relevant history of scholarship, Piotrkowski begins part 1 (chs. 1-4) of his study, "The sources on the Temple of Onias." This part opens with a lengthy chapter on Josephus, where Piotrkowski adopts what he calls a "combined approach of source-criticism and literary criticism (pp. 30-31)." As a result, Piotrkowski identifies four sources behind two Josephan narratives on Onias—one in Bellum judaicum (B.J.) and another in Antiquitates judaicae (A.J.) (pp. 34-65). Piotrkowski attributes the differences between the accounts to Josephus' own editing process. In some instances, Josephus simply failed to combine his sources properly, such as his misidentification of Onias IV as the Temple builder in A.J., contradicting his correct identification of Onias III in B.J. Other times, Josephus intentionally edited his sources to project his own perceptions into the Onias narratives. This authorial liberty lies behind Josephus' claim that Onias built an Egyptian sanctuary either to evoke dissent among Jews (B.J.) or because of his own hubris and unlawfulness (A.J.). Rather than reflect historical reality, these additions betray Josephus' own sentiments as a former Jerusalemite priest.
The second chapter is a literary analysis of 2 Maccabees. This analysis is driven by a single question: why, if Onias III was the Egyptian Temple's founder, does 2 Maccabees have him die in Antioch prior to the construction of the sanctuary? Piotrkowski finds the answer in 2 Maccabees' liberal use of historical fiction (p. 119). Either the epitomizer or final editor, he claims, reworked an earlier story to fit the narrative needs of 2 Maccabees. Piotrkowski supports this claim in a short postscript on Theodore of Mopsuestia, who mostly recapitulates the events of 2 Maccabees but leaves out the story of Onias' death in Antioch (pp. 124-27). In its place, he inserts the story of Onias' flight to Egypt. This change, argues Piotrkowski, was likely a deliberate attempt on the part of Theodore to fix a detail of 2 Maccabees that he found ahistorical.
In the next short chapter Piotrkowski evaluates passages from Daniel and the Animal Apocalypse that reference Onias, but he offers no definitive conclusions due mostly to the ambiguity of the passages. This section is followed by an analysis of rabbinic discussions on Onias' Temple. Using a modified version of the "new historical approach" to rabbinic literature, Piotrkowski searches for earlier traditions that may offer historical information on Oniad history. He identifies one such tradition in a baraita of the Jerusalem Talmud, which records Onias III's flight to Egypt following a disagreement over the position of high priest (pp. 153-55).
In the remaining chapters of part 1 (chs. 5-7), Piotrkowski shifts from literary evidence to non-literary material. Chapter 5 briefly reviews the classic archaeological argument linking Onias' sanctuary to Tell el-Yahoudieh. This review is followed by a concise list of counter-arguments, which Piotrkowski believes definitively proves Tell el-Yahoudieh was not the site of Onias' Temple (pp. 166-68). Although Piotrkowski raises significant counterpoints, it is unfortunate that he does not analyze the archaeology in more depth, as his list may not go far enough to support the strength of his conclusion. It remains true that the funerary epitaphs of Tell el-Yahoudieh are our best non-literary attestations to an Oniad settlement, and it is likely that many will still consider the site the best candidate for Leontopolis and the Temple. Nevertheless, despite their brevity, Piotrkowski's objections should be taken seriously. The funerary epitaphs are the focus of chapter 6, where Piotrkowski argues that the Oniad settlement of Tell el-Yahoudieh, though not Leontopolis, was a politeuma. Part 1 closes with a short discussion of the relevant papyri in chapter 7.
Part 2 (chs. 8-11) may spark the most excitement among scholars of Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism. In these chapters, Piotrkowski argues for the Oniad origin of the Third Sibylline Oracle, 3 Maccabees, the Pseudo-Hecataean fragments, and Joseph and Aseneth. He establishes a set of criteria for identification of a text as Oniad: Greek language, references to Heliopolis or the Egyptian chora, priestly and cultic themes, military themes, expressions of loyalty to the Ptolemaic state, and familiarity with the Ptolemaic court (pp. 210-14). However, because none of the compositions lend themselves to definitive conclusions, it is possible that some readers will take issue with Piotrkowski’s claims of provenance. One example of a potential issue is in his attribution of the Third Sibylline Oracle to an Oniad milieu. In Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and its Social Setting (2003), Rieuwerd Buitenwerf insists on a provenance of Asia Minor based on frequent references to topographical features and cities belonging to Asia. Remarkably, the Sibyl refers to fourteen cities in Asia, but only one in Egypt—Alexandria (Buitenwerf 2003: p. 132). Piotrkowski does not address Buitenwerf's provincial argument directly, but rather, contrary to Buitenwerf, he identifies an early layer of the text that has its origin in the Oniad context. This conclusion complements suggestions made by other influential scholars, most notably John J. Collins in The Sibylline Oracles of Egyptian Judaism (1974). In short, as is the case with his archeological conclusions, Piotrkowski's arguments for an Oniad origin are convincing, but they may not put the debates over provenance to rest.
In part 3 (ch. 12) Piotrkowski reconstructs Oniad history in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. He begins this reconstruction by reframing Onias III's flight to Egypt in the context of the Sixth Syrian War. First, the war led to a division of Jewish society along Ptolemaic and Seleucid lines, which then developed into further fracturing with sides supporting either Onias or one of his rivals for high priest. Amidst the fighting came Antiochus IV's infamous invasion of Judaea and defilement of the Jerusalem Temple. It was at this moment, Piotrkowski suggests, that Onias departed to Egypt (p. 328). Next, Piotrkowski discusses Onias' motivation to build a sanctuary in light of these events, arguing that Onias conceived of building an Egyptian temple as a substitute for the one in Jerusalem, which was left inactive following its defilement (p. 332). He then addresses Ptolemy Philometor's motivations for allowing such a project and suggests that this sort of allowance was a common Ptolemaic defensive strategy (pp. 339-42). As for where the Temple was built, Piotrkowski argues that Onias founded multiple mercenary settlements within the Heliopolitan chora, naming one Leontopolis as an allusion to Judaea (p. 348). It was at this Leontopolis, as opposed to the one at Tell Muqdam, that Onias built his sanctuary. Piotrkowski concludes part 3 by reviewing the remaining historical details that can be known about Leontopolis and its Temple, all the way up to the depopulation of the settlement around the time of the Diaspora Revolt under Trajan.
The last section, part 4, begins with a comparison of Oniad ideology and that of the Qumran sect. Due to the ideological similarities of the two communities, such as use of a solar calendar, it has sometimes been assumed that a strong relationship existed between them. Piotrkowski posits two reasons for the ideological similarities, neither of which insinuate a sustained relationship between the groups. The first reason is that both communities shared pre-Hasmonean cultic notions (pp. 381-89). The second reason is that both established substitute temples (pp. 390-95). It should be noted that Piotrkowski restricts the sect at Qumran to a "Temple of Man" that did not offer sacrifices.
The final chapter explores the form of Oniad Judaism. Piotrkowski describes Oniad Judaism as one that combines aspects of the priestly Judaism of Judaea with certain universalistic aspects of Diaspora Judaism. Attesting to the latter is the idea found in Oniad literature that non-Jews could become members of the community if they accept Jewish law. As for Judaean priestly Judaism, the most obvious carryover is the practice of sacrificial worship. Piotrkowski closes his monograph with four short appendices—one charting the Oniad priestly dynasty, the second on the Temple tax, a third on the phenomenon of multiple Jewish sanctuaries, and the last discussing a Greek inscription from Taman that reads "Bothylis son of Onias (?), farewell" (p. 443).
In sum, one truly gets the sense that Piotrkowski addresses every issue related to Onias' Temple. Because of its breadth, Priests in Exile is bound to become essential reading, not only for those interested in Oniad history, but also for anyone interested in Egyptian Judaism or Hellenistic-Jewish literature. As commented above, it is true that the evidence leaves open the possibility of competing interpretations. This is especially the case for the literary material. Nevertheless, scholars should seriously consider Piotrkowski's individual claims. It may be that not every text he addresses was authored in an Oniad milieu, but he rightly directs attention to often overlooked commonalities in the texts and makes a convincing case for the Land of Onias' literary output. Similarly, despite the brevity of his list refuting the identification of Tell el-Yahoudieh as Leontopolis, he provides thorough footnotes for anyone interested in further investigation of the argument. At the very least, and it surely does more, Priests in Exile reaches its goal of proving the Oniad Temple's religious and cultural import among Egyptian Jews.
Miguel M. Vargas is a doctoral student in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently researching Hellenistic Jewish notions of prophecy. He can be contacted at vargas@unc.edu.
[i] In reviewing Piotrkowski's work, I will follow his spelling practices as it pertains to the word "temple:" lowercase "t" to reference general temples and capital "T" to reference specific temples (p. 23).
Bibliography:
1. Buitenwerf, Rieuwerd. 2003. Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and its Social Setting: With an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
2. Collins, John J. 1974. The Sibylline Oracles of Egyptian Judaism. Missoula, MT: Society of Biblical Literature and Scholars Press.