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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



1162
Anon., Letter Of Aristeas, 134-140


nanhe would not escape detection, for he made it clear that the power of God pervaded the whole of the law.


nanBeginning from this starting point he went on to show that all mankind except ourselves believe in the existence of many gods, though they themselves are much more powerful than the beings whom they vainly worship. For when they have made statues of stone and wood, they say that they are the images of those who have invented something useful for life and they worship them, though


nanthey have clear proof that they possess no feeling. For it would be utterly foolish to suppose that any one became a god in virtue of his inventions. For the inventors simply took certain objects already created and by combining them together, showed that they possessed a fresh utility: they


nandid not themselves create the substance of the thing, and so it is a vain and foolish thing for people to make gods of men like themselves. For in our times there are many who are much more inventive and much more learned than the men of former days who have been deified, and yet they would never come to worship them. The makers and authors of these myths think that they are


nanthe wisest of the Greeks. Why need we speak of other infatuated people, Egyptians and the like, who place their reliance upon wild beasts and most kinds of creeping things and cattle, and worship them, and offer sacrifices to them both while living and when dead?'


nan'Now our Lawgiver being a wise man and specially endowed by God to understand all things, took a comprehensive view of each particular detail, and fenced us round with impregnable ramparts and walls of iron, that we might not mingle at all with any of the other nations, but remain pure in body and soul, free from all vain imaginations, worshiping the one Almighty God above the whole


nan'Now our Lawgiver being a wise man and specially endowed by God to understand all things, took a comprehensive view of each particular detail, and fenced us round with impregnable ramparts and walls of iron, that we might not mingle at all with any of the other nations, but remain pure in body and soul, free from all vain imaginations, worshiping the one Almighty God above the whole 140 creation. Hence the leading Egyptian priests having looked carefully into many matters, and being cognizant with (our) affairs, call us " men of God ". This is a title which does not belong to the rest of mankind but only to those who worship the true God. The rest are men not of God but of meats and drinks and clothing. For their whole disposition leads them to find solace in these things. 141 Among our people such things are reckoned of no account. but throughout their whole life their 142 main consideration is the sovereignty of God. Therefore lest we should be corrupted by any abomination, or our lives be perverted by evil communications, he hedged us round on all sides by 143 rules of purity, affecting alike what we eat, or drink, or touch, or hear, or see. For though, speaking generally, all things are alike in their natural constitution, since they are all governed by one and the same power, yet there is a deep reason in each individual case why we abstain from the use of certain things and enjoy the common use of others. For the sake of illustration I will run over one or two 144 points and explain them to you. For you must not fall into the degrading idea that it was out of regard to mice and weasels and other such things that Moses drew up his laws with such exceeding care. All these ordinances were made for the sake of righteousness to aid the quest for virtue and 145 the perfecting of character. For all the birds that we use are tame and distinguished by their cleanliness, feeding on various kinds of grain and pulse, such as for instance pigeons, turtle-doves, 146 locusts, partridges, geese also, and all other birds of this class. But the birds which are forbidden you will find to be wild and carnivorous, tyrannizing over the others by the strength which they possess, and cruelly obtaining food by preying on the tame birds enumerated above and not only so, but 147 they seize lambs and kids, and injure human beings too, whether dead or alive, and so by naming them unclean, he gave a sign by means of them that those, for whom the legislation was ordained, must practice righteousness in their hearts and not tyrannize over any one in reliance upon their own strength nor rob them of anything, but steer their course of life in accordance with justice, just as the tame birds, already mentioned, consume the different kinds of pulse that grow upon the earth 148 and do not tyrannize to the destruction of their own kindred.


nancreation. Hence the leading Egyptian priests having looked carefully into many matters, and being cognizant with (our) affairs, call us' men of God'. This is a title which does not belong to the rest of mankind but only to those who worship the true God. The rest are men not of God but of meats and drinks and clothing. For their whole disposition leads them to find solace in these things.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

55 results
1. Septuagint, Tobit, 1.10-1.11 (10th cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

1.10. Now when I was carried away captive to Nineveh, all my brethren and my relatives ate the food of the Gentiles; 1.11. but I kept myself from eating it
2. Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy, 7.6, 7.18, 10.15, 10.21, 12.2-12.4, 12.31, 14.2, 14.11-14.19, 14.21, 32.12 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

7.6. כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּךָ בָּחַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה מִכֹּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃ 7.18. לֹא תִירָא מֵהֶם זָכֹר תִּזְכֹּר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפַרְעֹה וּלְכָל־מִצְרָיִם׃ 10.15. רַק בַּאֲבֹתֶיךָ חָשַׁק יְהוָה לְאַהֲבָה אוֹתָם וַיִּבְחַר בְּזַרְעָם אַחֲרֵיהֶם בָּכֶם מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה׃ 10.21. הוּא תְהִלָּתְךָ וְהוּא אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה אִתְּךָ אֶת־הַגְּדֹלֹת וְאֶת־הַנּוֹרָאֹת הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ׃ 12.2. כִּי־יַרְחִיב יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת־גְּבוּלְךָ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־לָךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֹכְלָה בָשָׂר כִּי־תְאַוֶּה נַפְשְׁךָ לֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר בְּכָל־אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר׃ 12.2. אַבֵּד תְּאַבְּדוּן אֶת־כָּל־הַמְּקֹמוֹת אֲשֶׁר עָבְדוּ־שָׁם הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם יֹרְשִׁים אֹתָם אֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם עַל־הֶהָרִים הָרָמִים וְעַל־הַגְּבָעוֹת וְתַחַת כָּל־עֵץ רַעֲנָן׃ 12.3. הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן־תִּנָּקֵשׁ אַחֲרֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵי הִשָּׁמְדָם מִפָּנֶיךָ וּפֶן־תִּדְרֹשׁ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם לֵאמֹר אֵיכָה יַעַבְדוּ הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה אֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם וְאֶעֱשֶׂה־כֵּן גַּם־אָנִי׃ 12.3. וְנִתַּצְתֶּם אֶת־מִזְבּחֹתָם וְשִׁבַּרְתֶּם אֶת־מַצֵּבֹתָם וַאֲשֵׁרֵיהֶם תִּשְׂרְפוּן בָּאֵשׁ וּפְסִילֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶם תְּגַדֵּעוּן וְאִבַּדְתֶּם אֶת־שְׁמָם מִן־הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא׃ 12.4. לֹא־תַעֲשׂוּן כֵּן לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ 12.31. לֹא־תַעֲשֶׂה כֵן לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ כִּי כָּל־תּוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵא עָשׂוּ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם כִּי גַם אֶת־בְּנֵיהֶם וְאֶת־בְּנֹתֵיהֶם יִשְׂרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם׃ 14.2. כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וּבְךָ בָּחַר יְהוָה לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה מִכֹּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃ 14.2. כָּל־עוֹף טָהוֹר תֹּאכֵלוּ׃ 14.11. כָּל־צִפּוֹר טְהֹרָה תֹּאכֵלוּ׃ 14.12. וְזֶה אֲשֶׁר לֹא־תֹאכְלוּ מֵהֶם הַנֶּשֶׁר וְהַפֶּרֶס וְהָעָזְנִיָּה׃ 14.13. וְהָרָאָה וְאֶת־הָאַיָּה וְהַדַּיָּה לְמִינָהּ׃ 14.14. וְאֵת כָּל־עֹרֵב לְמִינוֹ׃ 14.15. וְאֵת בַּת הַיַּעֲנָה וְאֶת־הַתַּחְמָס וְאֶת־הַשָּׁחַף וְאֶת־הַנֵּץ לְמִינֵהוּ׃ 14.16. אֶת־הַכּוֹס וְאֶת־הַיַּנְשׁוּף וְהַתִּנְשָׁמֶת׃ 14.17. וְהַקָּאָת וְאֶת־הָרָחָמָה וְאֶת־הַשָּׁלָךְ׃ 14.18. וְהַחֲסִידָה וְהָאֲנָפָה לְמִינָהּ וְהַדּוּכִיפַת וְהָעֲטַלֵּף׃ 14.19. וְכֹל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף טָמֵא הוּא לָכֶם לֹא יֵאָכֵלוּ׃ 14.21. לֹא תֹאכְלוּ כָל־נְבֵלָה לַגֵּר אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ תִּתְּנֶנָּה וַאֲכָלָהּ אוֹ מָכֹר לְנָכְרִי כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא־תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ׃ 32.12. יְהוָה בָּדָד יַנְחֶנּוּ וְאֵין עִמּוֹ אֵל נֵכָר׃ 7.6. For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be His own treasure, out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth." 7.18. thou shalt not be afraid of them; thou shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt:" 10.15. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, as it is this day." 10.21. He is thy glory, and He is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and tremendous things, which thine eyes have seen." 12.2. Ye shall surely destroy all the places, wherein the nations that ye are to dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every leafy tree." 12.3. And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place." 12.4. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God." 12.31. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God; for every abomination to the LORD, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods." 14.2. For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth." 14.11. of all clean birds ye may eat." 14.12. But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the great vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray;" 14.13. and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kinds;" 14.14. and every raven after its kinds;" 14.15. and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds;" 14.16. the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl;" 14.17. and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant;" 14.18. and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat." 14.19. And all winged swarming things are unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten." 14.21. Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; thou mayest give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk." 32.12. The LORD alone did lead him, And there was no strange god with Him."
3. Hebrew Bible, Esther, 2.9 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

2.9. וַתִּיטַב הַנַּעֲרָה בְעֵינָיו וַתִּשָּׂא חֶסֶד לְפָנָיו וַיְבַהֵל אֶת־תַּמְרוּקֶיהָ וְאֶת־מָנוֹתֶהָ לָתֵת לָהּ וְאֵת שֶׁבַע הַנְּעָרוֹת הָרְאֻיוֹת לָתֶת־לָהּ מִבֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיְשַׁנֶּהָ וְאֶת־נַעֲרוֹתֶיהָ לְטוֹב בֵּית הַנָּשִׁים׃ 2.9. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her ointments, with her portions, and the seven maidens, who were meet to be given her out of the king’s house; and he advanced her and her maidens to the best place in the house of the women."
4. Hebrew Bible, Exodus, 5.3, 6.7, 23.24, 33.16 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

5.3. וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֱלֹהֵי הָעִבְרִים נִקְרָא עָלֵינוּ נֵלֲכָה נָּא דֶּרֶךְ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְנִזְבְּחָה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ פֶּן־יִפְגָּעֵנוּ בַּדֶּבֶר אוֹ בֶחָרֶב׃ 6.7. וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לִי לְעָם וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הַמּוֹצִיא אֶתְכֶם מִתַּחַת סִבְלוֹת מִצְרָיִם׃ 23.24. לֹא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם וְלֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כְּמַעֲשֵׂיהֶם כִּי הָרֵס תְּהָרְסֵם וְשַׁבֵּר תְּשַׁבֵּר מַצֵּבֹתֵיהֶם׃ 33.16. וּבַמֶּה יִוָּדַע אֵפוֹא כִּי־מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ אֲנִי וְעַמֶּךָ הֲלוֹא בְּלֶכְתְּךָ עִמָּנוּ וְנִפְלֵינוּ אֲנִי וְעַמְּךָ מִכָּל־הָעָם אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃ 5.3. And they said: ‘The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days’journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.’" 6.7. and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." 23.24. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars." 33.16. For wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? is it not in that Thou goest with us, so that we are distinguished, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?’"
5. Hebrew Bible, Genesis, 9.18-9.27, 12.1-12.3 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

9.18. וַיִּהְיוּ בְנֵי־נֹחַ הַיֹּצְאִים מִן־הַתֵּבָה שֵׁם וְחָם וָיָפֶת וְחָם הוּא אֲבִי כְנָעַן׃ 9.19. שְׁלֹשָׁה אֵלֶּה בְּנֵי־נֹחַ וּמֵאֵלֶּה נָפְצָה כָל־הָאָרֶץ׃ 9.21. וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מִן־הַיַּיִן וַיִּשְׁכָּר וַיִּתְגַּל בְּתוֹךְ אָהֳלֹה׃ 9.22. וַיַּרְא חָם אֲבִי כְנַעַן אֵת עֶרְוַת אָבִיו וַיַּגֵּד לִשְׁנֵי־אֶחָיו בַּחוּץ׃ 9.23. וַיִּקַּח שֵׁם וָיֶפֶת אֶת־הַשִּׂמְלָה וַיָּשִׂימוּ עַל־שְׁכֶם שְׁנֵיהֶם וַיֵּלְכוּ אֲחֹרַנִּית וַיְכַסּוּ אֵת עֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם וּפְנֵיהֶם אֲחֹרַנִּית וְעֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם לֹא רָאוּ׃ 9.24. וַיִּיקֶץ נֹחַ מִיֵּינוֹ וַיֵּדַע אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה־לוֹ בְּנוֹ הַקָּטָן׃ 9.25. וַיֹּאמֶר אָרוּר כְּנָעַן עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים יִהְיֶה לְאֶחָיו׃ 9.26. וַיֹּאמֶר בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי שֵׁם וִיהִי כְנַעַן עֶבֶד לָמוֹ׃ 9.27. יַפְתְּ אֱלֹהִים לְיֶפֶת וְיִשְׁכֹּן בְּאָהֳלֵי־שֵׁם וִיהִי כְנַעַן עֶבֶד לָמוֹ׃ 12.1. וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ וַיֵּרֶד אַבְרָם מִצְרַיְמָה לָגוּר שָׁם כִּי־כָבֵד הָרָעָב בָּאָרֶץ׃ 12.1. וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־אַבְרָם לֶךְ־לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ׃ 12.2. וַיְצַו עָלָיו פַּרְעֹה אֲנָשִׁים וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֹתוֹ וְאֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ׃ 12.2. וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה׃ 12.3. וַאֲבָרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה׃ 9.18. And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan." 9.19. These three were the sons of Noah, and of these was the whole earth overspread." 9.20. And Noah, the man of the land, began and planted a vineyard." 9.21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent." 9.22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without." 9.23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness." 9.24. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him." 9.25. And he said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." 9.26. And he said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; And let Canaan be their servant." 9.27. God enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be their servant." 12.1. Now the LORD said unto Abram: ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee." 12.2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing." 12.3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’"
6. Hebrew Bible, Leviticus, 11.21-11.24, 18.3, 18.5-18.24, 20.13, 20.24-20.26 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

11.21. אַךְ אֶת־זֶה תֹּאכְלוּ מִכֹּל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף הַהֹלֵךְ עַל־אַרְבַּע אֲשֶׁר־לא [לוֹ] כְרָעַיִם מִמַּעַל לְרַגְלָיו לְנַתֵּר בָּהֵן עַל־הָאָרֶץ׃ 11.22. אֶת־אֵלֶּה מֵהֶם תֹּאכֵלוּ אֶת־הָאַרְבֶּה לְמִינוֹ וְאֶת־הַסָּלְעָם לְמִינֵהוּ וְאֶת־הַחַרְגֹּל לְמִינֵהוּ וְאֶת־הֶחָגָב לְמִינֵהוּ׃ 11.23. וְכֹל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ אַרְבַּע רַגְלָיִם שֶׁקֶץ הוּא לָכֶם׃ 11.24. וּלְאֵלֶּה תִּטַּמָּאוּ כָּל־הַנֹּגֵעַ בְּנִבְלָתָם יִטְמָא עַד־הָעָרֶב׃ 18.3. וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת־מִשְׁמַרְתִּי לְבִלְתִּי עֲשׂוֹת מֵחֻקּוֹת הַתּוֹעֵבֹת אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשׂוּ לִפְנֵיכֶם וְלֹא תִטַּמְּאוּ בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ 18.3. כְּמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ־מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם־בָּהּ לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּכְמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ־כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם לֹא תֵלֵכוּ׃ 18.5. וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה׃ 18.6. אִישׁ אִישׁ אֶל־כָּל־שְׁאֵר בְּשָׂרוֹ לֹא תִקְרְבוּ לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָה אֲנִי יְהוָה׃ 18.7. עֶרְוַת אָבִיךָ וְעֶרְוַת אִמְּךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה אִמְּךָ הִוא לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָהּ׃ 18.8. עֶרְוַת אֵשֶׁת־אָבִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה עֶרְוַת אָבִיךָ הִוא׃ 18.9. עֶרְוַת אֲחוֹתְךָ בַת־אָבִיךָ אוֹ בַת־אִמֶּךָ מוֹלֶדֶת בַּיִת אוֹ מוֹלֶדֶת חוּץ לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָן׃ 18.11. עֶרְוַת בַּת־אֵשֶׁת אָבִיךָ מוֹלֶדֶת אָבִיךָ אֲחוֹתְךָ הִוא לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָהּ׃ 18.12. עֶרְוַת אֲחוֹת־אָבִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה שְׁאֵר אָבִיךָ הִוא׃ 18.13. עֶרְוַת אֲחוֹת־אִמְּךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה כִּי־שְׁאֵר אִמְּךָ הִוא׃ 18.14. עֶרְוַת אֲחִי־אָבִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה אֶל־אִשְׁתּוֹ לֹא תִקְרָב דֹּדָתְךָ הִוא׃ 18.15. עֶרְוַת כַּלָּתְךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה אֵשֶׁת בִּנְךָ הִוא לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָהּ׃ 18.16. עֶרְוַת אֵשֶׁת־אָחִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה עֶרְוַת אָחִיךָ הִוא׃ 18.17. עֶרְוַת אִשָּׁה וּבִתָּהּ לֹא תְגַלֵּה אֶת־בַּת־בְּנָהּ וְאֶת־בַּת־בִּתָּהּ לֹא תִקַּח לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָתָהּ שַׁאֲרָה הֵנָּה זִמָּה הִוא 18.18. וְאִשָּׁה אֶל־אֲחֹתָהּ לֹא תִקָּח לִצְרֹר לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָתָהּ עָלֶיהָ בְּחַיֶּיהָ׃ 18.19. וְאֶל־אִשָּׁה בְּנִדַּת טֻמְאָתָהּ לֹא תִקְרַב לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָתָהּ׃ 18.21. וּמִזַּרְעֲךָ לֹא־תִתֵּן לְהַעֲבִיר לַמֹּלֶךְ וְלֹא תְחַלֵּל אֶת־שֵׁם אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה׃ 18.22. וְאֶת־זָכָר לֹא תִשְׁכַּב מִשְׁכְּבֵי אִשָּׁה תּוֹעֵבָה הִוא׃ 18.23. וּבְכָל־בְּהֵמָה לֹא־תִתֵּן שְׁכָבְתְּךָ לְטָמְאָה־בָהּ וְאִשָּׁה לֹא־תַעֲמֹד לִפְנֵי בְהֵמָה לְרִבְעָהּ תֶּבֶל הוּא׃ 18.24. אַל־תִּטַּמְּאוּ בְּכָל־אֵלֶּה כִּי בְכָל־אֵלֶּה נִטְמְאוּ הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִי מְשַׁלֵּחַ מִפְּנֵיכֶם׃ 20.13. וְאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁכַּב אֶת־זָכָר מִשְׁכְּבֵי אִשָּׁה תּוֹעֵבָה עָשׂוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם מוֹת יוּמָתוּ דְּמֵיהֶם בָּם׃ 20.24. וָאֹמַר לָכֶם אַתֶּם תִּירְשׁוּ אֶת־אַדְמָתָם וַאֲנִי אֶתְּנֶנָּה לָכֶם לָרֶשֶׁת אֹתָהּ אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר־הִבְדַּלְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן־הָעַמִּים׃ 20.25. וְהִבְדַּלְתֶּם בֵּין־הַבְּהֵמָה הַטְּהֹרָה לַטְּמֵאָה וּבֵין־הָעוֹף הַטָּמֵא לַטָּהֹר וְלֹא־תְשַׁקְּצוּ אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם בַּבְּהֵמָה וּבָעוֹף וּבְכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר־הִבְדַּלְתִּי לָכֶם לְטַמֵּא׃ 20.26. וִהְיִיתֶם לִי קְדֹשִׁים כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה וָאַבְדִּל אֶתְכֶם מִן־הָעַמִּים לִהְיוֹת לִי׃ 11.21. Yet these may ye eat of all winged swarming things that go upon all fours, which have jointed legs above their feet, wherewith to leap upon the earth;" 11.22. even these of them ye may eat: the locust after its kinds, and the bald locust after its kinds, and the cricket after its kinds, and the grasshopper after its kinds." 11.23. But all winged swarming things, which have four feet, are a detestable thing unto you." 11.24. And by these ye shall become unclean; whosoever toucheth the carcass of them shall be unclean until even." 18.3. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes." 18.5. Ye shall therefore keep My statutes, and Mine ordices, which if a man do, he shall live by them: I am the LORD." 18.6. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness. I am the LORD." 18.7. The nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness." 18.8. The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness." 18.9. The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. ." 18.10. The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover; for theirs is thine own nakedness." 18.11. The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness." 18.12. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman." 18.13. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister; for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman." 18.14. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy fathers brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt." 18.15. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law: she is thy son’wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness." 18.16. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness." 18.17. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; thou shalt not take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness: they are near kinswomen; it is lewdness." 18.18. And thou shalt not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime." 18.19. And thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness." 18.20. And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her." 18.21. And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD." 18.22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination." 18.23. And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion." 18.24. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you." 20.13. And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." 20.24. But I have said unto you: ‘Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who have set you apart from the peoples." 20.25. Ye shall therefore separate between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and ye shall not make your souls detestable by beast, or by fowl, or by any thing wherewith the ground teemeth, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean." 20.26. And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I the LORD am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that ye should be Mine."
7. Hebrew Bible, Numbers, 23.7-23.10 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

23.7. וַיִּשָּׂא מְשָׁלוֹ וַיֹּאמַר מִן־אֲרָם יַנְחֵנִי בָלָק מֶלֶךְ־מוֹאָב מֵהַרְרֵי־קֶדֶם לְכָה אָרָה־לִּי יַעֲקֹב וּלְכָה זֹעֲמָה יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ 23.8. מָה אֶקֹּב לֹא קַבֹּה אֵל וּמָה אֶזְעֹם לֹא זָעַם יְהוָה׃ 23.9. כִּי־מֵרֹאשׁ צֻרִים אֶרְאֶנּוּ וּמִגְּבָעוֹת אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ הֶן־עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן וּבַגּוֹיִם לֹא יִתְחַשָּׁב׃ 23.7. And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram Balak bringeth me, The king of Moab from the mountains of the East: ‘Come, curse me Jacob, And come, execrate Israel.’" 23.8. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I execrate, whom the LORD hath not execrated?" 23.9. For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him: Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations." 23.10. Who hath counted the dust of Jacob, Or numbered the stock of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let mine end be like his!"
8. Hebrew Bible, Proverbs, 28.4 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

28.4. עֹזְבֵי תוֹרָה יְהַלְלוּ רָשָׁע וְשֹׁמְרֵי תוֹרָה יִתְגָּרוּ בָם׃ 28.4. They that forsake the law praise the wicked; But such as keep the law contend with them."
9. Hebrew Bible, Psalms, 115.4-115.8, 135.15-135.18 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

115.4. עֲ‍צַבֵּיהֶם כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵי אָדָם׃ 115.5. פֶּה־לָהֶם וְלֹא יְדַבֵּרוּ עֵינַיִם לָהֶם וְלֹא יִרְאוּ׃ 115.6. אָזְנַיִם לָהֶם וְלֹא יִשְׁמָעוּ אַף לָהֶם וְלֹא יְרִיחוּן׃ 115.7. יְדֵיהֶם וְלֹא יְמִישׁוּן רַגְלֵיהֶם וְלֹא יְהַלֵּכוּ לֹא־יֶהְגּוּ בִּגְרוֹנָם׃ 115.8. כְּמוֹהֶם יִהְיוּ עֹשֵׂיהֶם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־בֹּטֵחַ בָּהֶם׃ 135.15. עֲצַבֵּי הַגּוֹיִם כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵי אָדָם׃ 135.16. פֶּה־לָהֶם וְלֹא יְדַבֵּרוּ עֵינַיִם לָהֶם וְלֹא יִרְאוּ׃ 135.17. אָזְנַיִם לָהֶם וְלֹא יַאֲזִינוּ אַף אֵין־יֶשׁ־רוּחַ בְּפִיהֶם׃ 135.18. כְּמוֹהֶם יִהְיוּ עֹשֵׂיהֶם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־בֹּטֵחַ בָּהֶם׃ 115.4. Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands." 115.5. They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not;" 115.6. They have ears, but they hear not; Noses have they, but they smell not;" 115.7. They have hands, but they handle not; Feet have they, but they walk not; Neither speak they with their throat. ." 115.8. They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them." 135.15. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands." 135.16. They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not;" 135.17. They have ears, but they hear not; Neither is there any breath in their mouths." 135.18. They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them."
10. Hebrew Bible, 1 Samuel, 7.4 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

7.4. וַיָּסִירוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־הַבְּעָלִים וְאֶת־הָעַשְׁתָּרֹת וַיַּעַבְדוּ אֶת־יְהוָה לְבַדּוֹ׃ 7.4. Then the children of Yisra᾽el put away the Be῾alim and the ῾Ashtarot, and served the Lord only."
11. Hebrew Bible, Isaiah, 43.11, 44.1-44.6, 44.9-44.20, 46.9 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

43.11. אָנֹכִי אָנֹכִי יְהוָה וְאֵין מִבַּלְעָדַי מוֹשִׁיעַ׃ 44.1. מִי־יָצַר אֵל וּפֶסֶל נָסָךְ לְבִלְתִּי הוֹעִיל׃ 44.1. וְעַתָּה שְׁמַע יַעֲקֹב עַבְדִּי וְיִשְׂרָאֵל בָּחַרְתִּי בוֹ׃ 44.2. כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה עֹשֶׂךָ וְיֹצֶרְךָ מִבֶּטֶן יַעְזְרֶךָּ אַל־תִּירָא עַבְדִּי יַעֲקֹב וִישֻׁרוּן בָּחַרְתִּי בוֹ׃ 44.2. רֹעֶה אֵפֶר לֵב הוּתַל הִטָּהוּ וְלֹא־יַצִּיל אֶת־נַפְשׁוֹ וְלֹא יֹאמַר הֲלוֹא שֶׁקֶר בִּימִינִי׃ 44.3. כִּי אֶצָּק־מַיִם עַל־צָמֵא וְנֹזְלִים עַל־יַבָּשָׁה אֶצֹּק רוּחִי עַל־זַרְעֶךָ וּבִרְכָתִי עַל־צֶאֱצָאֶיךָ׃ 44.4. וְצָמְחוּ בְּבֵין חָצִיר כַּעֲרָבִים עַל־יִבְלֵי־מָיִם׃ 44.5. זֶה יֹאמַר לַיהוָה אָנִי וְזֶה יִקְרָא בְשֵׁם־יַעֲקֹב וְזֶה יִכְתֹּב יָדוֹ לַיהוָה וּבְשֵׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל יְכַנֶּה׃ 44.6. כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגֹאֲלוֹ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֲנִי רִאשׁוֹן וַאֲנִי אַחֲרוֹן וּמִבַּלְעָדַי אֵין אֱלֹהִים׃ 44.9. יֹצְרֵי־פֶסֶל כֻּלָּם תֹּהוּ וַחֲמוּדֵיהֶם בַּל־יוֹעִילוּ וְעֵדֵיהֶם הֵמָּה בַּל־יִרְאוּ וּבַל־יֵדְעוּ לְמַעַן יֵבֹשׁוּ׃ 44.11. הֵן כָּל־חֲבֵרָיו יֵבֹשׁוּ וְחָרָשִׁים הֵמָּה מֵאָדָם יִתְקַבְּצוּ כֻלָּם יַעֲמֹדוּ יִפְחֲדוּ יֵבֹשׁוּ יָחַד׃ 44.12. חָרַשׁ בַּרְזֶל מַעֲצָד וּפָעַל בַּפֶּחָם וּבַמַּקָּבוֹת יִצְּרֵהוּ וַיִּפְעָלֵהוּ בִּזְרוֹעַ כֹּחוֹ גַּם־רָעֵב וְאֵין כֹּחַ לֹא־שָׁתָה מַיִם וַיִּיעָף׃ 44.13. חָרַשׁ עֵצִים נָטָה קָו יְתָאֲרֵהוּ בַשֶּׂרֶד יַעֲשֵׂהוּ בַּמַּקְצֻעוֹת וּבַמְּחוּגָה יְתָאֳרֵהוּ וַיַּעֲשֵׂהוּ כְּתַבְנִית אִישׁ כְּתִפְאֶרֶת אָדָם לָשֶׁבֶת בָּיִת׃ 44.14. לִכְרָת־לוֹ אֲרָזִים וַיִּקַּח תִּרְזָה וְאַלּוֹן וַיְאַמֶּץ־לוֹ בַּעֲצֵי־יָעַר נָטַע אֹרֶן וְגֶשֶׁם יְגַדֵּל׃ 44.15. וְהָיָה לְאָדָם לְבָעֵר וַיִּקַּח מֵהֶם וַיָּחָם אַף־יַשִּׂיק וְאָפָה לָחֶם אַף־יִפְעַל־אֵל וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ עָשָׂהוּ פֶסֶל וַיִּסְגָּד־לָמוֹ׃ 44.16. חֶצְיוֹ שָׂרַף בְּמוֹ־אֵשׁ עַל־חֶצְיוֹ בָּשָׂר יֹאכֵל יִצְלֶה צָלִי וְיִשְׂבָּע אַף־יָחֹם וְיֹאמַר הֶאָח חַמּוֹתִי רָאִיתִי אוּר׃ 44.17. וּשְׁאֵרִיתוֹ לְאֵל עָשָׂה לְפִסְלוֹ יסגוד־[יִסְגָּד־] לוֹ וְיִשְׁתַּחוּ וְיִתְפַּלֵּל אֵלָיו וְיֹאמַר הַצִּילֵנִי כִּי אֵלִי אָתָּה׃ 44.18. לֹא יָדְעוּ וְלֹא יָבִינוּ כִּי טַח מֵרְאוֹת עֵינֵיהֶם מֵהַשְׂכִּיל לִבֹּתָם׃ 44.19. וְלֹא־יָשִׁיב אֶל־לִבּוֹ וְלֹא דַעַת וְלֹא־תְבוּנָה לֵאמֹר חֶצְיוֹ שָׂרַפְתִּי בְמוֹ־אֵשׁ וְאַף אָפִיתִי עַל־גֶּחָלָיו לֶחֶם אֶצְלֶה בָשָׂר וְאֹכֵל וְיִתְרוֹ לְתוֹעֵבָה אֶעֱשֶׂה לְבוּל עֵץ אֶסְגּוֹד׃ 46.9. זִכְרוּ רִאשֹׁנוֹת מֵעוֹלָם כִּי אָנֹכִי אֵל וְאֵין עוֹד אֱלֹהִים וְאֶפֶס כָּמוֹנִי׃ 43.11. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside Me there is no saviour." 44.1. Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen;" 44.2. Thus saith the LORD that made thee, And formed thee from the womb, who will help thee: Fear not, O Jacob My servant, And thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen." 44.3. For I will pour water upon the thirsty land, And streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My spirit upon thy seed, And My blessing upon thine offspring;" 44.4. And they shall spring up among the grass, As willows by the watercourses." 44.5. One shall say: ‘I am the LORD’S’; And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, And surname himself by the name of Israel." 44.6. Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer the LORD of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, And beside Me there is no God." 44.9. They that fashion a graven image are all of them vanity, And their delectable things shall not profit; And their own witnesses see not, nor know; That they may be ashamed." 44.10. Who hath fashioned a god, or molten an image That is profitable for nothing?" 44.11. Behold, all the fellows thereof shall be ashamed; And the craftsmen skilled above men; Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; They shall fear, they shall be ashamed together." 44.12. The smith maketh an axe, And worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, And worketh it with his strong arm; Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; He drinketh no water, and is faint." 44.13. The carpenter stretcheth out a line; He marketh it out with a pencil; He fitteth it with planes, And he marketh it out with the compasses, And maketh it after the figure of a man, According to the beauty of a man, to dwell in the house." 44.14. He heweth him down cedars, And taketh the ilex and the oak, And strengtheneth for himself one among the trees of the forest; He planteth a bay-tree, and the rain doth nourish it." 44.15. Then a man useth it for fuel; And he taketh thereof, and warmeth himself; Yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; Yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; He maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto." 44.16. He burneth the half thereof in the fire; With the half thereof he eateth flesh; He roasteth roast, and is satisfied; Yea, he warmeth himself, and saith: ‘Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire’;" 44.17. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; He falleth down unto it and worshippeth, and prayeth unto it, And saith: ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god.’" 44.18. They know not, neither do they understand; For their eyes are bedaubed, that they cannot see, And their hearts, that they cannot understand." 44.19. And none considereth in his heart, Neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say: ‘I have burned the half of it in the fire; Yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh and eaten it; And shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?’" 44.20. He striveth after ashes, A deceived heart hath turned him aside, That he cannot deliver his soul, nor say: ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’" 46.9. Remember the former things of old: That I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me;"
12. Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah, 10.3-10.16 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

10.3. כִּי־חֻקּוֹת הָעַמִּים הֶבֶל הוּא כִּי־עֵץ מִיַּעַר כְּרָתוֹ מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵי־חָרָשׁ בַּמַּעֲצָד׃ 10.4. בְּכֶסֶף וּבְזָהָב יְיַפֵּהוּ בְּמַסְמְרוֹת וּבְמַקָּבוֹת יְחַזְּקוּם וְלוֹא יָפִיק׃ 10.5. כְּתֹמֶר מִקְשָׁה הֵמָּה וְלֹא יְדַבֵּרוּ נָשׂוֹא יִנָּשׂוּא כִּי לֹא יִצְעָדוּ אַל־תִּירְאוּ מֵהֶם כִּי־לֹא יָרֵעוּ וְגַם־הֵיטֵיב אֵין אוֹתָם׃ 10.6. מֵאֵין כָּמוֹךָ יְהוָה גָּדוֹל אַתָּה וְגָדוֹל שִׁמְךָ בִּגְבוּרָה׃ 10.7. מִי לֹא יִרָאֲךָ מֶלֶךְ הַגּוֹיִם כִּי לְךָ יָאָתָה כִּי בְכָל־חַכְמֵי הַגּוֹיִם וּבְכָל־מַלְכוּתָם מֵאֵין כָּמוֹךָ׃ 10.8. וּבְאַחַת יִבְעֲרוּ וְיִכְסָלוּ מוּסַר הֲבָלִים עֵץ הוּא׃ 10.9. כֶּסֶף מְרֻקָּע מִתַּרְשִׁישׁ יוּבָא וְזָהָב מֵאוּפָז מַעֲשֵׂה חָרָשׁ וִידֵי צוֹרֵף תְּכֵלֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן לְבוּשָׁם מַעֲשֵׂה חֲכָמִים כֻּלָּם׃ 10.11. כִּדְנָה תֵּאמְרוּן לְהוֹם אֱלָהַיָּא דִּי־שְׁמַיָּא וְאַרְקָא לָא עֲבַדוּ יֵאבַדוּ מֵאַרְעָא וּמִן־תְּחוֹת שְׁמַיָּא אֵלֶּה׃ 10.12. עֹשֵׂה אֶרֶץ בְּכֹחוֹ מֵכִין תֵּבֵל בְּחָכְמָתוֹ וּבִתְבוּנָתוֹ נָטָה שָׁמָיִם׃ 10.13. לְקוֹל תִּתּוֹ הֲמוֹן מַיִם בַּשָּׁמַיִם וַיַּעֲלֶה נְשִׂאִים מִקְצֵה ארץ [הָאָרֶץ] בְּרָקִים לַמָּטָר עָשָׂה וַיּוֹצֵא רוּחַ מֵאֹצְרֹתָיו׃ 10.14. נִבְעַר כָּל־אָדָם מִדַּעַת הֹבִישׁ כָּל־צוֹרֵף מִפָּסֶל כִּי שֶׁקֶר נִסְכּוֹ וְלֹא־רוּחַ בָּם׃ 10.15. הֶבֶל הֵמָּה מַעֲשֵׂה תַּעְתֻּעִים בְּעֵת פְּקֻדָּתָם יֹאבֵדוּ׃ 10.16. לֹא־כְאֵלֶּה חֵלֶק יַעֲקֹב כִּי־יוֹצֵר הַכֹּל הוּא וְיִשְׂרָאֵל שֵׁבֶט נַחֲלָתוֹ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ׃ 10.3. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; For it is but a tree which one cutteth out of the forest, The work of the hands of the workman with the axe." 10.4. They deck it with silver and with gold, They fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." 10.5. They are like a pillar in a garden of cucumbers, and speak not; They must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, Neither is it in them to do good." 10.6. There is none like unto Thee, O LORD; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might." 10.7. Who would not fear Thee, O king of the nations? For it befitteth Thee; Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royalty, There is none like unto Thee." 10.8. But they are altogether brutish and foolish: The vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock;" 10.9. Silver beaten into plates which is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; Blue and purple is their clothing; They are all the work of skilful men." 10.10. But the LORD God is the true God, He is the living God, and the everlasting King; At His wrath the earth trembleth, And the nations are not able to abide His indignation." 10.11. Thus shall ye say unto them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’" 10.12. He that hath made the earth by His power, That hath established the world by His wisdom, And hath stretched out the heavens by His understanding;" 10.13. At the sound of His giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, When He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; When He maketh lightnings with the rain, And bringeth forth the wind out of His treasuries;" 10.14. Every man is proved to be brutish, without knowledge, Every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image, His molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." 10.15. They are vanity, a work of delusion; In the time of their visitation they shall perish." 10.16. Not like these is the portion of Jacob; For He is the former of all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name."
13. Septuagint, Isaiah, 44.24 (8th cent. BCE - 6th cent. BCE)

14. Herodotus, Histories, 9.82 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

9.82. This other story is also told. When Xerxes fled from Hellas, he left to Mardonius his own establishment. Pausanias, seeing Mardonius' establishment with its display of gold and silver and gaily colored tapestry, ordered the bakers and the cooks to prepare a dinner such as they were accustomed to do for Mardonius. ,They did his bidding, but Pausanias, when he saw golden and silver couches richly covered, and tables of gold and silver, and all the magnificent service of the banquet, was amazed at the splendor before him, and for a joke commanded his own servants to prepare a dinner in Laconian fashion. When that meal, so different from the other, was ready, Pausanias burst out laughing and sent for the generals of the Greeks. ,When these had assembled, Pausanias pointed to the manner in which each dinner was served and said: “Men of Hellas, I have brought you here because I desired to show you the foolishness of the leader of the Medes who, with such provisions for life as you see, came here to take away from us our possessions which are so pitiful.” In this way, it is said, Pausanias spoke to the generals of the Greeks.
15. Aristobulus Cassandreus, Fragments, 4 (4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

16. Aristotle, Politics, 7 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

17. Septuagint, Tobit, 1.10-1.11 (4th cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

1.10. Now when I was carried away captive to Nineveh, all my brethren and my relatives ate the food of the Gentiles; 1.11. but I kept myself from eating it
18. Anon., 1 Enoch, 91.9 (3rd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

91.9. And all the idols of the heathen shall be abandoned, And the temples burned with fire, And they shall remove them from the whole earth,And they (i.e. the heathen) shall be cast into the judgement of fire, And shall perish in wrath and in grievous judgement for ever.
19. Ezekiel The Tragedian, Exagoge, 99 (3rd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

20. Anon., Jubilees, 20.4, 22.16-22.20 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

20.4. And if any woman or maid commit fornication amongst you, burn her with fire, and let them not commit fornication with her after their eyes and their heart; 22.16. May nations serve thee, And all the nations bow themselves before thy seed. 22.17. Be strong in the presence of men, And exercise authority over all the seed of Seth. Then thy ways and the ways of thy sons will be justified, So that they shall become a holy nation. 22.18. May the Most High God give thee all the blessings Wherewith he hath blessed me And wherewith He blessed Noah and Adam; May they rest on the sacred head of thy seed from generation to generation for ever. 22.19. And may He cleanse thee from all unrighteousness and impurity, That thou mayest be forgiven all (thy) transgressions; (and) thy sins of ignorance. 22.20. And may He strengthen thee, And bless thee. And mayest thou inherit the whole earth, brAnd may He renew His covet with thee, That thou mayest be to Him a nation for His inheritance for all the ages
21. Anon., Testament of Naphtali, 3.3-3.5 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. CE)

3.3. The Gentiles went astray, and forsook the Lord, and changed their order, and obeyed stocks and stones, spirits of deceit. 3.4. But ye shall not be so, my children, recognizing in the firmament, in the earth, and in the sea, and in all created things, the Lord who made all things, that ye become not as Sodom, which changed the order of nature. 3.5. In like manner the Watchers also changed the order of their nature, whom the Lord cursed at the flood, on whose account He made the earth without inhabitants and fruitless.
22. Dead Sea Scrolls, Community Rule, 6.3-6.23, 8.16-8.18 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

23. Dead Sea Scrolls, Messianic Rule, 2.11-2.22 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

24. Hebrew Bible, Daniel, 1.1-1.16, 5.4 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

1.1. וַיֹּאמֶר שַׂר הַסָּרִיסִים לְדָנִיֵּאל יָרֵא אֲנִי אֶת־אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר מִנָּה אֶת־מַאֲכַלְכֶם וְאֶת־מִשְׁתֵּיכֶם אֲשֶׁר לָמָּה יִרְאֶה אֶת־פְּנֵיכֶם זֹעֲפִים מִן־הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר כְּגִילְכֶם וְחִיַּבְתֶּם אֶת־רֹאשִׁי לַמֶּלֶךְ׃ 1.1. בִּשְׁנַת שָׁלוֹשׁ לְמַלְכוּת יְהוֹיָקִים מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה בָּא נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל יְרוּשָׁלִַם וַיָּצַר עָלֶיהָ׃ 1.2. וַיִּתֵּן אֲדֹנָי בְּיָדוֹ אֶת־יְהוֹיָקִים מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה וּמִקְצָת כְּלֵי בֵית־הָאֱלֹהִים וַיְבִיאֵם אֶרֶץ־שִׁנְעָר בֵּית אֱלֹהָיו וְאֶת־הַכֵּלִים הֵבִיא בֵּית אוֹצַר אֱלֹהָיו׃ 1.2. וְכֹל דְּבַר חָכְמַת בִּינָה אֲשֶׁר־בִּקֵּשׁ מֵהֶם הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיִּמְצָאֵם עֶשֶׂר יָדוֹת עַל כָּל־הַחַרְטֻמִּים הָאַשָּׁפִים אֲשֶׁר בְּכָל־מַלְכוּתוֹ׃ 1.3. וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְאַשְׁפְּנַז רַב סָרִיסָיו לְהָבִיא מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִזֶּרַע הַמְּלוּכָה וּמִן־הַפַּרְתְּמִים׃ 1.4. יְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר אֵין־בָּהֶם כָּל־מאום [מוּם] וְטוֹבֵי מַרְאֶה וּמַשְׂכִּילִים בְּכָל־חָכְמָה וְיֹדְעֵי דַעַת וּמְבִינֵי מַדָּע וַאֲשֶׁר כֹּחַ בָּהֶם לַעֲמֹד בְּהֵיכַל הַמֶּלֶךְ וּלֲלַמְּדָם סֵפֶר וּלְשׁוֹן כַּשְׂדִּים׃ 1.5. וַיְמַן לָהֶם הַמֶּלֶךְ דְּבַר־יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ מִפַּת־בַּג הַמֶּלֶךְ וּמִיֵּין מִשְׁתָּיו וּלְגַדְּלָם שָׁנִים שָׁלוֹשׁ וּמִקְצָתָם יַעַמְדוּ לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ 1.6. וַיְהִי בָהֶם מִבְּנֵי יְהוּדָה דָּנִיֵּאל חֲנַנְיָה מִישָׁאֵל וַעֲזַרְיָה׃ 1.7. וַיָּשֶׂם לָהֶם שַׂר הַסָּרִיסִים שֵׁמוֹת וַיָּשֶׂם לְדָנִיֵּאל בֵּלְטְשַׁאצַּר וְלַחֲנַנְיָה שַׁדְרַךְ וּלְמִישָׁאֵל מֵישַׁךְ וְלַעֲזַרְיָה עֲבֵד נְגוֹ׃ 1.8. וַיָּשֶׂם דָּנִיֵּאל עַל־לִבּוֹ אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יִתְגָּאַל בְּפַתְבַּג הַמֶּלֶךְ וּבְיֵין מִשְׁתָּיו וַיְבַקֵּשׁ מִשַּׂר הַסָּרִיסִים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִתְגָּאָל׃ 1.9. וַיִּתֵּן הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת־דָּנִיֵּאל לְחֶסֶד וּלְרַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי שַׂר הַסָּרִיסִים׃ 1.11. וַיֹּאמֶר דָּנִיֵּאל אֶל־הַמֶּלְצַר אֲשֶׁר מִנָּה שַׂר הַסָּרִיסִים עַל־דָּנִיֵּאל חֲנַנְיָה מִישָׁאֵל וַעֲזַרְיָה׃ 1.12. נַס־נָא אֶת־עֲבָדֶיךָ יָמִים עֲשָׂרָה וְיִתְּנוּ־לָנוּ מִן־הַזֵּרֹעִים וְנֹאכְלָה וּמַיִם וְנִשְׁתֶּה׃ 1.13. וְיֵרָאוּ לְפָנֶיךָ מַרְאֵינוּ וּמַרְאֵה הַיְלָדִים הָאֹכְלִים אֵת פַּתְבַּג הַמֶּלֶךְ וְכַאֲשֶׁר תִּרְאֵה עֲשֵׂה עִם־עֲבָדֶיךָ׃ 1.14. וַיִּשְׁמַע לָהֶם לַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיְנַסֵּם יָמִים עֲשָׂרָה׃ 1.15. וּמִקְצָת יָמִים עֲשָׂרָה נִרְאָה מַרְאֵיהֶם טוֹב וּבְרִיאֵי בָּשָׂר מִן־כָּל־הַיְלָדִים הָאֹכְלִים אֵת פַּתְבַּג הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ 1.16. וַיְהִי הַמֶּלְצַר נֹשֵׂא אֶת־פַּתְבָּגָם וְיֵין מִשְׁתֵּיהֶם וְנֹתֵן לָהֶם זֵרְעֹנִים׃ 5.4. אִשְׁתִּיו חַמְרָא וְשַׁבַּחוּ לֵאלָהֵי דַּהֲבָא וְכַסְפָּא נְחָשָׁא פַרְזְלָא אָעָא וְאַבְנָא׃ 1.1. IN THE third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it." 1.2. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with all of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god, and the vessels he brought into the treasure-house of his god." 1.3. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz his chief officer, that he should bring in certain of the children of Israel, and of the seed royal, and of the nobles," 1.4. youths in whom was no blemish, but fair to look on, and skilful in all wisdom, and skilful in knowledge, and discerning in thought, and such as had ability to stand in the king’s palace; and that he should teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." 1.5. And the king appointed for them a daily portion of the king’s food, and of the wine which he drank, and that they should be nourished three years; that at the end thereof they might stand before the king." 1.6. Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Haiah, Mishael, and Azariah." 1.7. And the chief of the officers gave names unto them: unto Daniel he gave the name of Belteshazzar; and to Haiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego." 1.8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the officers that he might not defile himself." 1.9. And God granted Daniel mercy and compassion in the sight of the chief of the officers." 1.10. And the chief of the officers said unto Daniel: ‘I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces sad in comparison with the youths that are of your own age? so would ye endanger my head with the king.’" 1.11. Then said Daniel to the steward, whom the chief of the officers had appointed over Daniel, Haiah, Mishael, and Azariah:" 1.12. ’Try thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." 1.13. Then let our counteces be looked upon before thee, and the countece of the youths that eat of the king’s food; and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.’" 1.14. So he hearkened unto them in this matter, and tried them ten days." 1.15. And at the end of ten days their counteces appeared fairer, and they were fatter in flesh, than all the youths that did eat of the king’s food." 1.16. So the steward took away their food, and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse." 5.4. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."
25. Septuagint, 1 Maccabees, 1.62-1.63 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

1.62. But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. 1.63. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covet; and they did die.
26. Septuagint, 2 Maccabees, 5.27, 6.18-6.31, 7.1-7.42, 14.3, 14.38 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

5.27. But Judas Maccabeus, with about nine others, got away to the wilderness, and kept himself and his companions alive in the mountains as wild animals do; they continued to live on what grew wild, so that they might not share in the defilement.' 6.18. Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh.' 6.19. But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh,' 6.20. as men ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.' 6.21. Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal which had been commanded by the king,' 6.22. o that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them.' 6.23. But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs which he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.' 6.24. Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life, he said, 'lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion,' 6.25. and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age.' 6.26. For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty.' 6.27. Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age' 6.28. and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.'When he had said this, he went at once to the rack.' 6.29. And those who a little before had acted toward him with good will now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness.' 6.30. When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: 'It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.' 6.31. So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.' 7.1. It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh.' 7.2. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, 'What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.' 7.3. The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated.' 7.4. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.' 7.5. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying,' 7.6. The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'' 7.7. After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, 'Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?' 7.8. He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, 'No.'Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.' 7.9. And when he was at his last breath, he said, 'You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.' 7.10. After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands,' 7.11. and said nobly, 'I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.' 7.12. As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.' 7.13. When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way.' 7.14. And when he was near death, he said, 'One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!' 7.15. Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. 7.16. But he looked at the king, and said, 'Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people.' 7.17. Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!' 7.18. After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, 'Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened.' 7.19. But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!' 7.20. The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord.' 7.21. She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them,' 7.22. I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.' 7.23. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.' 7.24. Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs.' 7.25. Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself.' 7.26. After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son.' 7.27. But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: 'My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you.' 7.28. I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.' 7.29. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.' 7.30. While she was still speaking, the young man said, 'What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.' 7.31. But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God.' 7.32. For we are suffering because of our own sins. 7.33. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.' 7.34. But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven.' 7.35. You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God.' 7.36. For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God's covet; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.' 7.37. I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God,' 7.38. and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation.' 7.39. The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn.' 7.40. So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.' 7.41. Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.' 7.42. Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.' 14.3. Now a certain Alcimus, who had formerly been high priest but had wilfully defiled himself in the times of separation, realized that there was no way for him to be safe or to have access again to the holy altar,' 14.38. For in former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and for Judaism he had with all zeal risked body and life.'
27. Septuagint, Judith, 16.19 (2nd cent. BCE - 0th cent. CE)

16.19. Judith also dedicated to God all the vessels of Holofernes, which the people had given her; and the canopy which she took for herself from his bedchamber she gave as a votive offering to the Lord.
28. Septuagint, Wisdom of Solomon, 15.14-15.17, 18.13 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

15.14. But most foolish, and more miserable than an infant,are all the enemies who oppressed thy people. 15.15. For they thought that all their heathen idols were gods,though these have neither the use of their eyes to see with,nor nostrils with which to draw breath,nor ears with which to hear,nor fingers to feel with,and their feet are of no use for walking. 15.16. For a man made them,and one whose spirit is borrowed formed them;for no man can form a god which is like himself. 15.17. He is mortal, and what he makes with lawless hands is dead,for he is better than the objects he worships,since he has life, but they never have. 18.13. For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts,yet, when their first-born were destroyed,they acknowledged thy people to be Gods son.
29. Septuagint, 4 Maccabees, 4.26, 5.16-5.27 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

4.26. when, then, his decrees were despised by the people, he himself, through torture, tried to compel everyone in the nation to eat defiling foods and to renounce Judaism. 5.16. We, O Antiochus, who have been persuaded to govern our lives by the divine law, think that there is no compulsion more powerful than our obedience to the law. 5.17. Therefore we consider that we should not transgress it in any respect. 5.18. Even if, as you suppose, our law were not truly divine and we had wrongly held it to be divine, not even so would it be right for us to invalidate our reputation for piety. 5.19. Therefore do not suppose that it would be a petty sin if we were to eat defiling food; 5.20. to transgress the law in matters either small or great is of equal seriousness 5.21. for in either case the law is equally despised. 5.22. You scoff at our philosophy as though living by it were irrational 5.23. but it teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desires, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure any suffering willingly; 5.24. it instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we act impartially, and it teaches us piety, so that with proper reverence we worship the only real God. 5.25. Therefore we do not eat defiling food; for since we believe that the law was established by God, we know that in the nature of things the Creator of the world in giving us the law has shown sympathy toward us. 5.26. He has permitted us to eat what will be most suitable for our lives, but he has forbidden us to eat meats that would be contrary to this. 5.27. It would be tyrannical for you to compel us not only to transgress the law, but also to eat in such a way that you may deride us for eating defiling foods, which are most hateful to us.
30. Septuagint, 3 Maccabees, 1.12, 2.33, 3.4-3.7, 4.16 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

1.12. Even after the law had been read to him, he did not cease to maintain that he ought to enter, saying, "Even if those men are deprived of this honor, I ought not to be. 2.33. They remained resolutely hopeful of obtaining help, and they abhorred those who separated themselves from them, considering them to be enemies of the Jewish nation, and depriving them of common fellowship and mutual help. 3.4. but because they worshiped God and conducted themselves by his law, they kept their separateness with respect to foods. For this reason they appeared hateful to some; 3.5. but since they adorned their style of life with the good deeds of upright people, they were established in good repute among all men. 3.6. Nevertheless those of other races paid no heed to their good service to their nation, which was common talk among all; 3.7. instead they gossiped about the differences in worship and foods, alleging that these people were loyal neither to the king nor to his authorities, but were hostile and greatly opposed to his government. So they attached no ordinary reproach to them. 4.16. The king was greatly and continually filled with joy, organizing feasts in honor of all his idols, with a mind alienated from truth and with a profane mouth, praising speechless things that are not able even to communicate or to come to one's help, and uttering improper words against the supreme God.
31. Anon., Sibylline Oracles, 3.9-3.11, 3.20, 3.29-3.34, 3.36-3.45, 3.185-3.186, 3.192-3.193, 3.348-3.349, 3.547-3.548, 3.601-3.607, 3.652-3.654, 5.390-5.391, 5.393 (1st cent. BCE - 5th cent. CE)

3.9. But yet again will I proclaim all thing 3.10. 10 Which God commands me to proclaim to men. 3.11. O men, that in your image have a form 3.20. 20 But he, eternal Lord, proclaims himself 3.29. Imperishable fire, and days and nights. 3.29. O For these are all deceptive, in so far 3.30. 30 This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam 3.30. As foolish men go seeking day by day 3.31. The first one formed, and filling with his name 3.31. Training their souls unto no useful work; 3.32. East, west, and south, and north. The same is he 3.32. And then did they teach miserable men 3.33. Who fixed the pattern of the human form 3.33. Deceptions, whence to mortals on the earth 3.34. And made wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls. 3.36. But vainly go astray and bow the knee 3.37. To serpents, and make offering to cats 3.38. And idols, and stone images of men 3.39. And sit before the doors of godless temples; 3.40. 40 Ye guard him who is God, who keeps all things 3.41. And merry with the wickedness of stone 3.42. Forget the judgment of the immortal Saviour 3.43. Who made the heaven and earth. Alas! a race 3.44. That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile 3.45. 45 Ungodly, of false, double-tongued, immoral men 3.185. 185 And this is the beginning of dire war 3.186. Among all mortals. [For it is indeed 3.192. And of the Medes, and Ethiopians 3.193. And of Assyria and Babylon 3.348. And greatest glory, as the immortal God 3.349. Granted thee. But do thou wait and confide 3.547. Shall break off. And, Byzantium of Ares 3.548. Thou some time shalt by Asia be laid waste 3.601. of a holy God sink down in ocean depths 3.602. Great wonder to the of the sea. 3.603. Alas, alas, how many virgin maid 3.604. Will Hades wed, and of as many youth 3.605. 605 Will the deep take without funeral rites! 3.606. Alas, alas, the helpless little one 3.607. And the vast riches swimming in the sea! 3.652. And Lydians, Carians, Cappadocians 3.653. And Ethiopian and Arabian men 3.654. of a strange tongue shall fall. How now may I 5.390. 390 Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown 5.391. And ruined, and be also changed to dust. 5.393. Artremis' temple fixed at Ephesus . . .
32. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 1.13-1.16, 40.3.4 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

1.13. 1.  And besides these there are other gods, they say, who were terrestrial, having once been mortals, but who, by reason of their sagacity and the good services which they rendered to all men, attained immortality, some of them having even been kings in Egypt.,2.  Their names, when translated, are in some cases the same as those of the celestial gods, while others have a distinct appellation, such as Helius, Cronus, and Rhea, and also the Zeus who is called Ammon by some, and besides these Hera and Hephaestus, also Hestia, and, finally, Hermes. Helius was the first king of the Egyptians, his name being the same as that of the heavenly star.,3.  Some of the priests, however, say that Hephaestus was their first king, since he was the discoverer of fire and received the rule because of this service to mankind; for once, when a tree on the mountains had been struck by lightning and the forest near by was ablaze, Hephaestus went up to it, for it was winter-time, and greatly enjoyed the heat; as the fire died down he kept adding fuel to it, and while keeping the fire going in this way he invited the rest of mankind to enjoy the advantage which came from it.,4.  Then Cronus became the ruler, and upon marrying his sister Rhea he begat Osiris and Isis, according to some writers of mythology, but, according to the majority, Zeus and Hera, whose high achievements gave them dominion over the entire universe. From these last were sprung five gods, one born on each of the five days which the Egyptians intercalate; the names of these children were Osiris and Isis, and also Typhon, Apollo, and Aphroditê;,5.  and Osiris when translated is Dionysus, and Isis is more similar to Demeter than to any other goddess; and after Osiris married Isis and succeeded to the kingship he did many things of service to the social life of man. 1.14. 1.  Osiris was the first, they record, to make mankind give up cannibalism; for after Isis had discovered the fruit of both wheat and barley which grew wild over the land along with the other plants but was still unknown to man, and Osiris had also devised the cultivation of these fruits, all men were glad to change their food, both because of the pleasing nature of the newly-discovered grains and because it seemed to their advantage to refrain from their butchery of one another.,2.  As proof of the discovery of these fruits they offer the following ancient custom which they still observe: Even yet at harvest time the people make a dedication of the first heads of the grain to be cut, and standing beside the sheaf beat themselves and call upon Isis, by this act rendering honour to the goddess for the fruits which she discovered, at the season when she first did this.,3.  Moreover in some cities, during the Festival of Isis as well, stalks of wheat and barley are carried among the other objects in the procession, as a memorial of what the goddess so ingeniously discovered at the beginning. Isis also established laws, they say, in accordance with which the people regularly dispense justice to one another and are led to refrain through fear of punishment from illegal violence and insolence;,4.  and it is for this reason also that the early Greeks gave Demeter the name Thesmophorus, acknowledging in this way that she had first established their laws. 1.15. 1.  Osiris, they say, founded in the Egyptian Thebaid a city with a hundred gates, which the men of his day named after his mother, though later generations called it Diospolis, and some named it Thebes.,2.  There is no agreement, however, as to when this city was founded, not only among the historians, but even among the priests of Egypt themselves; for many writers say that Thebes was not founded by Osiris, but many years later by a certain king of whom we shall give a detailed account in connection with his period.,3.  Osiris, they add, also built a temple to his parents, Zeus and Hera, which was famous both for its size and its costliness in general, and two golden chapels to Zeus, the larger one to him as god of heaven, the smaller one to him as former king and father of the Egyptians, in which rôle he is called by some Ammon.,4.  He also made golden chapels for the rest of the gods mentioned above, allotting honours to each of them and appointing priests to have charge over these. Special esteem at the court of Osiris and Isis was also accorded to those who should invent any of the arts or devise any useful process;,5.  consequently, since copper and gold mines had been discovered in the Thebaid, they fashioned implements with which they killed the wild beasts and worked the soil, and thus in eager rivalry brought the country under cultivation, and they made images of the gods and magnificent golden chapels for their worship.,6.  Osiris, they say, was also interested in agriculture and was reared in Nysa, a city of Arabia Felix near Egypt, being a son of Zeus; and the name which he bears among the Greeks is derived both from his father and from the birthplace, since he is called Dionysus.,7.  Mention is also made of Nysa by the poet in his Hymns, to the effect that it was in the vicinity of Egypt, when he says: There is a certain Nysa, mountain high, With forests thick, in Phoenicê afar, Close to Aegyptus' streams.,8.  And the discovery of the vine, they say, was made by him near Nysa, and that, having further devised the proper treatment of its fruit, he was the first to drink wine and taught mankind at large the culture of the vine and the use of wine, as well as the way to harvest the grape and to store wine.,9.  The one most highly honoured by him was Hermes, who was endowed with unusual ingenuity for devising things capable of improving the social life of man. 1.16. 1.  It was by Hermes, for instance, according to them, that the common language of mankind was first further articulated, and that many objects which were still nameless received an appellation, that the alphabet was invented, and that ordices regarding the honours and offerings due to the gods were duly established; he was the first also to observe the orderly arrangement of the stars and the harmony of the musical sounds and their nature, to establish a wrestling school, and to give thought to the rhythmical movement of the human body and its proper development. He also made a lyre and gave it three strings, imitating the seasons of the year; for he adopted three tones, a high, a low, and a medium; the high from the summer, the low from the winter, and the medium from the spring.,2.  The Greeks also were taught by him how to expound (hermeneia) their thoughts, and it was for this reason that he was given the name Hermes. In a word, Osiris, taking him for his priestly scribe, communicated with him on every matter and used his counsel above that of all others. The olive tree also, they claim, was his discovery, not Athena's, as the Greeks say.
33. Philo of Alexandria, On The Decalogue, 52 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

34. Philo of Alexandria, On Giants, 11-18, 58-59, 6, 60-61, 67, 7-10 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

10. Since what shall we say? Must we not say that these animals which are terrestrial or aquatic live in air and spirit? What? Are not pestilential afflictions accustomed to exist when the air is tainted or corrupted, as if that were the cause of all such assuming vitality? Again, when the air is free from all taint and innocent, such as it is especially wont to be when the north wind prevails, does not the imbibing of a purer air tend to a more vigorous and more lasting duration of life?
35. Philo of Alexandria, On The Creation of The World, 25, 139 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

139. And that he is superior to all these animals in regard of his soul, is plain. For God does not seem to have availed himself of any other animal existing in creation as his model in the formation of man; but to have been guided, as I have said before, by his own reason alone. On which account, Moses affirms that this man was an image and imitation of God, being breathed into in his face in which is the place of the sensations, by which the Creator endowed the body with a soul. Then, having placed the mind in the domit part as king, he gave him as a body of satellites, the different powers calculated to perceive colours and sounds, and flavours and odours, and other things of similar kinds, which man could never have distinguished by his own resources without the sensations. And it follows of necessity that an imitation of a perfectly beautiful model must itself be perfectly beautiful, for the word of God surpasses even that beauty which exists in the nature which is perceptible only by the external senses, not being embellished by any adventitious beauty, but being itself, if one must speak the truth, its most exquisite embellishment. XLIX.
36. Philo of Alexandria, On The Special Laws, 1.13-1.14, 1.16-1.17, 1.20, 1.81, 3.83, 4.100-4.131 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

1.13. Some persons have conceived that the sun, and the moon, and the other stars are independent gods, to whom they have attributed the causes of all things that exist. But Moses was well aware that the world was created, and was like a very large city, having rulers and subjects in it; the rulers being all the bodies which are in heaven, such as planets and fixed stars; 1.14. and the subjects being all the natures beneath the moon, hovering in the air and adjacent to the earth. But that the rulers aforesaid are not independent and absolute, but are the viceroys of one supreme Being, the Father of all, in imitation of whom they administer with propriety and success the charge committed to their care, as he also presides over all created things in strict accordance with justice and with law. Others, on the contrary, who have not discovered the supreme Governor, who thus rules everything, have attributed the causes of the different things which exist in the world to the subordinate powers, as if they had brought them to pass by their own independent act. 1.16. for they who see that the different seasons of the year owe their existence to the advances and retreats of the sun, in which periods also the generation of animals, and plants, and fruits, are perfected according to well-defined times, and who see also that the moon is the servant and successor of the sun, taking that care and superintendence of the world by night which the sun takes by day; and also that the other stars, in accordance with their sympathy with things on earth, labour continually and do ten thousand things which contribute to the duration of the existing state of things, have been led into an inextricable error, imagining that these bodies are the only gods. 1.17. But if they had taken pains to travel along the straight and true road, they would soon have known that just as the outward sense is the subordinate minister of the mind, so in the same manner all the objects of the outward senses are servants of that which is appreciable only by intellect, being well contented if they can attain to the second place in honour. 1.20. So that, transcending all visible essence by means of our reason, let us press forward to the honour of that everlasting and invisible Being who can be comprehended and appreciated by the mind alone; who is not only the God of all gods, whether appreciable only by the intellect or visible to the outward senses, but is also the creator of them all. And if any one gives up the service due to the everlasting and uncreated God, transferring it to any more modern and created being, let him be set down as mad and as liable to the charge of the greatest impiety.IV. 1.81. For if it was necessary to examine the mortal body of the priest that it ought not be imperfect through any misfortune, much more was it necessary to look into his immortal soul, which they say is fashioned in the form of the living God. Now the image of God is the Word, by which all the world was made. 3.83. The name of homicide is that affixed to him who has slain a man; but in real truth it is a sacrilege, and the very greatest of all sacrileges, because, of all the possessions and sacred treasures in the whole world, there is nothing more holy in appearance, nor more godlike than man, the all-beautiful copy of an all-beautiful model, a representation admirably made after an archetypal rational idea. 4.100. Moreover, Moses has not granted an unlimited possession and use of all other animals to those who partake in his sacred constitution, but he has forbidden with all his might all animals, whether of the land, or of the water, or that fly through the air, which are most fleshy and fat, and calculated to excite treacherous pleasure, well knowing that such, attracting as with a bait that most slavish of all the outward senses, namely, taste, produce insatiability, an incurable evil to both souls and bodies, for insatiability produces indigestion, which is the origin and source of all diseases and weaknesses. 4.101. Now of land animals, the swine is confessed to be the nicest of all meats by those who eat it, and of all aquatic animals the most delicate are the fish which have no scales; and Moses is above all other men skilful in training and inuring persons of a good natural disposition to the practice of virtue by frugality and abstinence, endeavouring to remove costly luxury from their characters 4.102. at the same time not approving of unnecessary rigour, like the lawgiver of Lacedaemon, nor undue effeminacy, like the man who taught the Ionians and the Sybarites lessons of luxury and license, but keeping a middle path between the two courses, so that he has relaxed what was over strict, and tightened what was too loose, mingling the excesses which are found at each extremity with moderation, which lies between the two, so as to produce an irreproachable harmony and consistency of life, on which account he has laid down not carelessly, but with minute particularity, what we are to use and what to avoid. 4.103. One might very likely suppose it to be just that those beasts which feed upon human flesh should receive at the hands of men similar treatment to that which they inflict on men, but Moses has ordained that we should abstain from the enjoyment of all such things, and with a due consideration of what is becoming to the gentle soul, he proposes a most gentle and most pleasant banquet; for though it is proper that those who inflict evils should suffer similar calamities themselves, yet it may not be becoming to those whom they ill treated to retaliate, lest without being aware of it they become brutalized by anger, which is a savage passion; 4.104. and he takes such care to guard against this, that being desirous to banish as far as possible all desire for those animals abovementioned, he forbids with all his energy the eating of any carnivorous animal at all, selecting the herbivorous animals out of those kinds which are domesticated, since they are tame by nature, feeding on that gentle food which is supplied by the earth, and having no disposition to plot evil against anything.WHAT QUADRUPEDS ARE CLEANXVIII. 4.105. The animals which are clean and lawful to be used as food are ten in number; the heifer, the lamb, the goat, the stag, the antelope, the buffalo, the roebuck, the pygarga, the wildox, and the chamois, {19}{#de 14:4.} for he always adheres to that arithmetical subtilty which, as he originally devised it with the minutest accuracy possible, he extends to all existing things, so that he establishes no ordices, whether important or unimportant, without taking and as it were adapting this number to it as closely connected with the regulations which he is ordaining. Now of all the numbers beginning from the unit, the most perfect is the number ten, and as Moses says, it is the most sacred of all and a holy number, and by it he now limits the races of animals that are clean, wishing to assign the use of them to all those who partake of the constitution which he is establishing. 4.106. And he gives two tests and criteria of the ten animals thus Enumerated{20}{#le 11:3.} by two signs, first, that they must part the hoof, secondly, that they must chew the cud; for those which do neither, or only one of these things, are unclean. And these signs are both of them symbols of instruction and of the most scientific learning, by which the better is separated from the worse, so that all confusion between them is prevented; 4.107. for as the animal which chews the cud, while it is masticating its food draws it down its throat, and then by slow degrees kneads and softens it, and then after this process again sends it down into the belly, in the same manner the man who is being instructed, having received the doctrines and speculations of wisdom in at his ears from his instructor, derives a considerable amount of learning from him, but still is not able to hold it firmly and to embrace it all at once, until he has resolved over in his mind everything which he has heard by the continued exercise of his memory (and this exercise of memory is the cement which connects idea 4.108. But as it seems the firm conception of such ideas is of no advantage to him unless he is able to discriminate between and to distinguish which of contrary things it is right to choose and which to avoid, of which the parting of the hoof is the symbol; since the course of life is twofold, the one road leading to wickedness and the other to virtue, and since we ought to renounce the one and never to forsake the other.WHAT BEASTS ARE NOT CLEANXIX. 4.109. For this reason all animals with solid hoofs, and all with many toes are spoken of by implication as unclean; the one because, being so, they imply that the nature of good and evil is one and the same; which is just as if one were to say that the nature of a concave and a convex surface, or of a road up hill and down hill, was the same. And the other, because it shows that there are many roads, though, indeed, they have no right to be called roads at all, which lead the life of man to deceit; for it is not easy among a variety of paths to choose that which is the most desirable and the most excellent.WHAT AQUATIC ANIMALS ARE CLEANXX. 4.110. Having laid down these definitions with respect to land animals, he proceeds to describe what aquatic creatures are clean and lawful to be used for food; distinguishing them also by two characteristics as having fins or Scales.{21}{#le 11:9.} For those which have neither one nor the other, and those which have only one of the two, he rejects and Prohibits.{22}{#de 14:10.} And he must state the cause, which is not destitute of sense and propriety; 4.111. for all those creatures which are destitute of both, or even of one of the two, are sucked down by the current, not being able to resist the force of the stream; but those which have both these characteristics can stem the water, and oppose it in front, and strive against it as against an adversary, and struggle with invincible good will and courage, so that if they are pushed they push in their turn; and if they are pursued they turn upon their foe and pursue it in their turn, making themselves broad roads in a pathless district, so as to have an easy passage to and fro. 4.112. Now both these things are symbols; the former of a soul devoted to pleasure, and the latter of one which loves perseverance and temperance. For the road which leads to pleasure is a down-hill one and very easy, being rather an absorbing gulf than a path. But the path which leads to temperance is up hill and laborious, but above all other roads advantageous. And the one leads men downwards, and prevents those who travel by it from retracing their steps until they have arrived at the very lowest bottom, but the other leads to heaven; making those who do not weary before they reach it immortal, if they are only able to endure its rugged and difficult ascent.ABOUT Reptile 4.113. And adhering to the same general idea the lawgiver asserts that those reptiles which have no feet, and which crawl onwards, dragging themselves along the ground on their bellies, or those which have four legs, or many feet, are all unclean as far as regards their being eaten. And here, again, when he mentions reptiles he intimates under a figurative form of expression those who are devoted to their bellies, gorging themselves like cormorants, and who are continually offering up tribute to their miserable belly, tribute, that is, of strong wine, and confections, and fish, and, in short, all the superfluous delicacies which the skill and labour of bakers and confectioners are able to devise, inventing all sorts of rare viands, to stimulate and set on fire the insatiable and unappeasable appetites of man. And when he speaks of animals with four legs and many feet, he intends to designate the miserable slaves not of one single passion, appetite, but of all the passions; the genera of which were four in number; but in their subordinate species they are innumerable. Therefore, the despotism of one is very grievous, but that of many is most terrible, and as it seems intolerable. 4.114. Again, in the case of those reptiles who have legs above their feet, so that they are able to take leaps from the ground, those Moses speaks of as clean; as, for instance, the different kinds of locusts, and that animal called the serpentfighter, here again intimating by figurative expressions the manners and habits of the rational soul. For the weight of the body being naturally heavy, drags down with it those who are but of small wisdom, strangling it and pressing it down by the weight of the flesh. 4.115. But blessed are they to whose lot it has fallen, inasmuch as they have been well and solidly instructed in the rules of sound education, to resist successfully the power of mere strength, so as to be able, by reason of what they have learnt, to spring up from the earth and all low things, to the air and the periodical revolutions of the heaven, the very sight of which is to be admired and earnestly striven for by those who come to it of their own accord with no indolence or indifference.CONCERNING FLYING Creature 4.116. Having, therefore, in his ordices already gone through all the different kinds of land animals and of those who live in the water, and having distinguished them in his code of laws as accurately as it was possible, Moses begins to investigate the remaining class of animals in the air; the innumerable kinds of flying creatures, rejecting all those which prey upon one another or upon man, all carnivorous birds, in short, all animals which are venomous, and all which have any power of plotting against others. 4.117. But doves, and pigeons, and turtle-doves, and all the flocks of cranes, and geese, and birds of that kind, he numbers in the class of domestic, and tame, and eatable creatures, allowing every one who chooses to partake of them with impunity. 4.118. Thus, in each of the parts of the universe, earth, water, and air, he refuses some kinds of each description of animal, whether terrestrial, or aquatic, or a'rial, to our use; and thus, taking as it were fuel from the fire, he causes the extinction of appetite.CONCERNING CARCASSES AND BODIES WHICH HAVE BEEN TORN BY WILDBEASTSXXIII. 4.119. Moreover, Moses Commands{25}{#le 5:2.} that no man shall take of any dead carcass, or of any body which has been torn by wild beasts; partly because it is not fitting that man should share a feast with untameable beasts, so as to become almost a fellow reveller in their carnivorous festivals; and partly because perhaps it is injurious and likely to cause disease if the juice of the dead body becomes mingled with the blood, and perhaps, also, because it is proper to preserve that which has been pre-occupied and seized beforehand by death untouched, having a respect to the necessities of nature by which it has been seized. 4.120. Now many of the lawgivers both among the Greeks and barbarians, praise those who are skilful in hunting, and who seldom fail in their pursuit or miss their aim, and who pride themselves on their successful hunts, especially when they divide the limbs of the animals which they have caught with the huntsmen and the hounds, as being not only brave hunters but men of very sociable dispositions. But any one who was a sound interpreter of the sacred constitution and code of laws would very naturally blame them, since the lawgiver of that code has expressly forbidden any enjoyment of carcasses or of bodies torn by beasts for the reasons before mentioned. 4.121. But if any one of those persons who devote themselves wholly to meditations on and to the practice of virtue were suddenly to become fond of gymnastic exercises and of hunting, looking upon hunting as a sort of prelude to and representation of the wars and dangers that have to be encountered against the enemy, then, whenever such a man is successful in his sport, he ought to give the beasts which he has slain to his dogs as a feast for them, and as a reward or wages for their successful boldness and their irreproachable alliance. But he ought not himself to touch them, inasmuch as he has been previously taught in the case of irrational animals, what sentiments he ought to entertain, respecting his enemies. For he ought to carry on war against them, not for the sake of unrighteous gain like those who make a dishonest traffic of all their actions, but either in revenge for some calamities which he has previously suffered at their hands, or with a view toward some which he expects to suffer. 4.122. But some men, with open mouths, carry even the excessive luxury and boundless intemperance of Sardanapalus to such an indefinite and unlimited extent, being wholly absorbed in the invention of senseless pleasures, that they prepare sacrifices which ought never be offered, strangling their victims, and stifling the essence of life, {26}{#le 17:11.} which they ought to let depart free and unrestrained, burying the blood, as it were, in the body. For it ought to have been sufficient for them to enjoy the flesh by itself, without touching any of those parts which have an connection with the soul or life. 4.123. On which account Moses, in another passage, establishes a law concerning blood, that one may not eat the blood nor the Fat.{27}{#le 3:17.} The blood, for the reason which I have already mentioned, that it is the essence of the life; not of the mental and rational life, but of that which exists in accordance with the outward senses, to which it is owing that both we and irrational animals also have a common existence.CONCERNING THE SOUL OR LIFE OF MANXXIV. For the essence of the soul of man is the breath of God, especially if we follow the account of Moses, who, in his history of the creation of the world, says that God breathed into the first man, the founder of our race, the breath of life; breathing it into the principal part of his body, namely the face, where the outward senses are established, the body-guards of the mind, as if it were the great king. And that which was thus breathed into his face was manifestly the breath of the air, or whatever else there may be which is even more excellent than the breath of the air, as being a ray emitted from the blessed and thricehappy nature of God. 4.124. But Moses commanded men to abstain from eating fat, because it is gross. And again, he gave us this injunction, in order to inculcate temperance and a zeal for an austere life: for some things we easily abandon, and without any hesitation; though we do not willingly encounter any anxieties or labours for the sake of the acquisition of virtue. 4.125. For which reason these two parts are to be taken out of every victim and burnt with fire, as a kind of first fruits, namely, the fat and the blood; the one being poured upon the altar as a libation; and the other as a fuel to the flame, being applied instead of oil, by reason of its fatness, to the consecrated and holy flame. 4.126. The lawgiver blames some persons of his time as gluttons, and as believing that the mere indulgence of luxury is the happiest of all possible conditions, not being content to live in this manner only in cities in which there were abundant supplies and stores of all kinds of necessary things, but carrying their effeminacy even into pathless and untrodden deserts, and choosing in them also to have markets for fish and meat, and all things which can contribute to an easy life: 4.127. then, when a scarcity arose, they assembled together and raised an outcry, and looked miserable, and with shameless audacity impeached their ruler, and did not desist from creating disturbances till they obtained what they desired; and they obtained it to their destruction, for two reasons: first of all, that it might be shown that all things are possible to God, who can find a way in the most difficult and apparently hopeless circumstances; and secondly, that punishment might fall on those who were intemperate in their gluttonous appetites, and obstinate resisters of holiness. 4.128. For a vast cloud being Raised{28}{#ex 16:13.} out of the sea showered down quails about the time of sunrise, and the camp and all the district around it for a day's journey for a well-girt active man was overshadowed all about with the Birds.{29}{#nu 11:31.} And the height of the flight of the birds was distant from the ground a height of about two cubits, in order that they might be easily caught. 4.129. It would have been natural therefore for them, being amazed at the marvellous nature of the prodigy which they beheld, to be satisfied with the sight, and being filled with piety to nourish their souls on that, and to abstain from eating flesh; but these men, on the contrary, stirred up their desires even more than before, and pursued these birds as the greatest good imaginable, and catching hold of them with both their hands filled their bosoms; then, having stored them up in their tents, they sallied forth to catch others, for immoderate covetousness has no limit. And when they had collected every description of food they devoured it insatiably, being about, vain-minded generation that they were, to perish by their own fulness; 4.130. and indeed at no distant time they did perish by the purging of their bile, {30}{#nu 11:20.} so that the place itself derived its name from the calamity which fell upon them, for it was called the graves of their lust, {31}{see #Nu 11:34: "And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people that lusted."} than which there is not in the soul, as the scripture teaches, us, any greater evil. 4.131. For which reason Moses says with great beauty in his recommendations, "Let not every man do that which seemeth good to his own Eyes,"{32}{#de 11:8.} which is equivalent to saying, let not any one gratify his own desire, but let each person seek to please God, and the world, and nature, and wise men, repudiating self-love, if he would become a good and virtuous man.XXV.
37. Philo of Alexandria, Allegorical Interpretation, 3.96 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

38. Strabo, Geography, 16.2.35 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

16.2.35. An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called the Lower [Egypt] * * * *, being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing the Divinity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; that the Greeks also were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God [said he] may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things. Who then of any understanding would venture to form an image of this Deity, resembling anything with which we are conversant? on the contrary, we ought not to carve any images, but to set apart some sacred ground and a shrine worthy of the Deity, and to worship Him without any similitude. He taught that those who made fortunate dreams were to be permitted to sleep in the temple, where they might dream both for themselves and others; that those who practised temperance and justice, and none else, might expect good, or some gift or sign from the God, from time to time.
39. Aristobulus Milesius, Fragments, 4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

40. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 1.188, 1.217-1.218, 2.45-2.47, 2.236-2.254 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

1.188. although, as he says, all the priests of the Jews took tithes of the products of the earth, and managed public affairs, and were in number not above fifteen hundred at the most.” 1.217. It is true, many of the men before mentioned have made great mistakes about the true accounts of our nation in the earliest times, because they had not perused our sacred books; yet have they all of them afforded their testimony to our antiquity, concerning which I am now treating. 2.45. And for his successor Ptolemy, who was called Philadelphus, he did not only set all those of our nation free, who were captives under him, but did frequently give money [for their ransom]; and, what was his greatest work of all, he had a great desire of knowing our laws, and of obtaining the books of our sacred scriptures: 2.46. accordingly he desired that such men might be sent him as might interpret our law to him; and in order to have them well compiled, he committed that care to no ordinary persons, but ordained that Demetrius Phalereus, and Andreas, and Aristeas; the first, Demetrius, the most learned person of his age 2.47. and the others, such as were intrusted with the guard of his body, should take the care of this matter: nor would he certainly have been so desirous of learning our law and the philosophy of our nation had he despised the men that made use of it, or had he not indeed had them in great admiration. /p 2.236. 34. Yet do the Lysimachi and the Molones, and some other writers (unskilful sophists as they are, and the deceivers of young men) reproach us as the vilest of all mankind. 2.237. Now I have no mind to make an inquiry into the laws of other nations; for the custom of our country is to keep our own laws, but not to bring accusations against the laws of others. And indeed, our legislator hath expressly forbidden us to laugh at and revile those that are esteemed gods by other people, on account of the very name of God ascribed to them. 2.238. But since our antagonists think to run us down upon the comparison of their religion and ours, it is not possible to keep silence here, especially while what I shall say to confute these men will not be now first said, but hath been already said by many, and these of the highest reputation also; 2.239. for who is there among those that have been admired among the Greeks for wisdom, who hath not greatly blamed both the most famous poets and most celebrated legislators, for spreading such notions originally among the body of the people concerning the gods? 2.241. and for those to whom they have allotted heaven, they have set over them one, who in title is their father, but in his actions a tyrant and a lord; whence it came to pass that his wife, and brother, and daughter (which daughter he brought forth from his own head), made a conspiracy against him to seize upon him and confine him, as he had himself seized upon and confined his own father before. /p 2.242. 35. And justly have the wisest men thought these notions deserved severe rebukes; they also laugh at them for determining that we ought to believe some of the gods to be beardless and young, and others of them to be old, and to have beards accordingly; that some are set to trades; that one god is a smith, and another goddess is a weaver; that one god is a warrior, and fights with men; 2.243. that some of them are harpers, or delight in archery; and besides, that mutual seditions arise among them, and that they quarrel about men, and this so far that they not only lay hands upon one another, but that they are wounded by men, and lament, and take on for such their afflictions; 2.244. but what is the grossest of all in point of lasciviousness, are those unbounded lusts ascribed to almost all of them, and their amours; which how can it be other than a most absurd supposal, especially when it reaches to the male gods, and to the female goddesses also? 2.245. Moreover, the chief of all their gods, and their first father himself, overlooks those goddesses whom he hath deluded and begotten with child, and suffers them to be kept in prison, or drowned in the sea. He is also so bound up by fate, that he cannot save his own offspring, nor can he bear their deaths without shedding of tears.— 2.246. These are fine things indeed! as are the rest that follow. Adulteries truly are so impudently looked on in heaven by the gods, that some of them have confessed they envied those that were found in the very act; and why should they not do so, when the eldest of them, who is their king also, hath not been able to restrain himself in the violence of his lust, from lying with his wife, so long as they might get into their bed-chamber? 2.247. Now, some of the gods are servants to men, and will sometimes be builders for a reward, and sometimes will be shepherds; while others of them, like malefactors, are bound in a prison of brass; and what sober person is there who would not be provoked at such stories, and rebuke those that forged them, and condemn the great silliness of those that admit them for true! 2.248. Nay, others there are that have advanced a certain timorousness and fear, as also madness and fraud, and any other of the vilest passions, into the nature and form of gods, and have persuaded whole cities to offer sacrifices to the better sort of them; 2.249. on which account they have been absolutely forced to esteem some gods as the givers of good things, and to call others of them averters of evil. They also endeavor to move them, as they would the vilest of men, by gifts and presents, as looking for nothing else than to receive some great mischief from them, unless they pay them such wages. /p 2.251. but omitted it as a thing of very little consequence, and gave leave both to the poets to introduce what gods they pleased, and those subject to all sorts of passions, and to the orators to procure political decrees from the people for the admission of such foreign gods as they thought proper. 2.252. The painters also, and statuaries of Greece, had herein great power, as each of them could contrive a shape [proper for a god]; the one to be formed out of clay, and the other by making a bare picture of such a one; but those workmen that were principally admired, had the use of ivory and of gold as the constant materials for their new statues; 2.253. [whereby it comes to pass that some temples are quite deserted, while others are in great esteem, and adorned with all the rites of all kinds of purification]. Besides this, the first gods, who have long flourished in the honors done them, are now grown old [while those that flourished after them are come in their room as a second rank, that I may speak the most honorably of them that I can]: 2.254. nay, certain other gods there are who are newly introduced, and newly worshipped [as we, by way of digression have said already, and yet have left their places of worship desolate]; and for their temples, some of them are already left desolate, and others are built anew, according to the pleasure of men; whereas they ought to have preserved their opinion about God, and that worship which is due to him, always and immutably the same. /p
41. Juvenal, Satires, 14.103-14.104 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

42. New Testament, 1 Corinthians, 1.18-1.26 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

1.18. For the word of the cross isfoolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is thepower of God. 1.19. For it is written,"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing. 1.20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyerof this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 1.21. For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdomdidn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness ofthe preaching to save those who believe. 1.22. For Jews ask for signs,Greeks seek after wisdom 1.23. but we preach Christ crucified; astumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks 1.24. but to thosewho are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God andthe wisdom of God. 1.25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser thanmen, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1.26. For you seeyour calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh,not many mighty, and not many noble;
43. New Testament, Acts, 21.27-21.31 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

21.27. When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him 21.28. crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place! 21.29. For they had seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 21.30. All the city was moved, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut. 21.31. As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
44. New Testament, Ephesians, 2.11-2.22 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.11. Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by that which is called "circumcision," (in the flesh, made by hands); 2.12. that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covets of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 2.13. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. 2.14. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition 2.15. having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordices, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; 2.16. and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. 2.17. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. 2.18. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 2.19. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God 2.20. being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; 2.21. in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 2.22. in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
45. New Testament, Galatians, 2.11-2.14 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.11. But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to the face,because he stood condemned. 2.12. For before some people came fromJames, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back andseparated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 2.13. And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy; so that evenBarnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 2.14. But when I sawthat they didn't walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, Isaid to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live as theGentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles tolive as the Jews do?
46. New Testament, Romans, 1.18-1.32 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

1.18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness 1.19. because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. 1.20. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. 1.21. Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 1.22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools 1.23. and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 1.24. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves 1.25. who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 1.26. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 1.27. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. 1.28. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 1.29. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers 1.30. backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents 1.31. without understanding, covet-breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 1.32. who, knowing the ordice of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
47. New Testament, John, 5.24-5.25 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

5.24. Most assuredly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn't come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 5.25. Most assuredly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God's voice; and those who hear will live.
48. Ps.-Philo, Biblical Antiquities, 25.10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

49. Tacitus, Histories, 5.5.1-5.5.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

50. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 7.135 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

7.135. Body is defined by Apollodorus in his Physics as that which is extended in three dimensions, length, breadth, and depth. This is also called solid body. But surface is the extremity of a solid body, or that which has length and breadth only without depth. That surface exists not only in our thought but also in reality is maintained by Posidonius in the third book of his Celestial Phenomena. A line is the extremity of a surface or length without breadth, or that which has length alone. A point is the extremity of a line, the smallest possible mark or dot.God is one and the same with Reason, Fate, and Zeus; he is also called by many other names.
51. Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation For The Gospel, 2.2, 9.38 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)

52. Origen, Against Celsus, 2.55, 4.51, 5.55, 6.63, 7.62, 7.68, 8.12, 8.17-8.18 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

2.55. The Jew continues his address to those of his countrymen who are converts, as follows: Come now, let us grant to you that the prediction was actually uttered. Yet how many others are there who practise such juggling tricks, in order to deceive their simple hearers, and who make gain by their deception?- as was the case, they say, with Zamolxis in Scythia, the slave of Pythagoras; and with Pythagoras himself in Italy; and with Rhampsinitus in Egypt (the latter of whom, they say, played at dice with Demeter in Hades, and returned to the upper world with a golden napkin which he had received from her as a gift); and also with Orpheus among the Odrysians, and Protesilaus in Thessaly, and Hercules at Cape T narus, and Theseus. But the question is, whether any one who was really dead ever rose with a veritable body. Or do you imagine the statements of others not only to be myths, but to have the appearance of such, while you have discovered a becoming and credible termination to your drama in the voice from the cross, when he breathed his last, and in the earthquake and the darkness? That while alive he was of no assistance to himself, but that when dead he rose again, and showed the marks of his punishment, and how his hands were pierced with nails: who beheld this? A half-frantic woman, as you state, and some other one, perhaps, of those who were engaged in the same system of delusion, who had either dreamed so, owing to a peculiar state of mind, or under the influence of a wandering imagination had formed to himself an appearance according to his own wishes, which has been the case with numberless individuals; or, which is most probable, one who desired to impress others with this portent, and by such a falsehood to furnish an occasion to impostors like himself. Now, since it is a Jew who makes these statements, we shall conduct the defense of our Jesus as if we were replying to a Jew, still continuing the comparison derived from the accounts regarding Moses, and saying to him: How many others are there who practise similar juggling tricks to those of Moses, in order to deceive their silly hearers, and who make gain by their deception? Now this objection would be more appropriate in the mouth of one who did not believe in Moses (as we might quote the instances of Zamolxis and Pythagoras, who were engaged in such juggling tricks) than in that of a Jew, who is not very learned in the histories of the Greeks. An Egyptian, moreover, who did not believe the miracles of Moses, might credibly adduce the instance of Rhampsinitus, saying that it was far more credible that he had descended to Hades, and had played at dice with Demeter, and that after stealing from her a golden napkin he exhibited it as a sign of his having been in Hades, and of his having returned thence, than that Moses should have recorded that he entered into the darkness, where God was, and that he alone, above all others, drew near to God. For the following is his statement: Moses alone shall come near the Lord; but the rest shall not come near. We, then, who are the disciples of Jesus, say to the Jew who urges these objections: While assailing our belief in Jesus, defend yourself, and answer the Egyptian and the Greek objectors: what will you say to those charges which you brought against our Jesus, but which also might be brought against Moses first? And if you should make a vigorous effort to defend Moses, as indeed his history does admit of a clear and powerful defense, you will unconsciously, in your support of Moses, be an unwilling assistant in establishing the greater divinity of Jesus. 4.51. Celsus appears to me to have heard that there are treatises in existence which contain allegorical explanations of the law of Moses. These however, he could not have read; for if he had he would not have said: The allegorical explanations, however, which have been devised are much more shameful and absurd than the fables themselves, inasmuch as they endeavour to unite with marvellous and altogether insensate folly things which cannot at all be made to harmonize. He seems to refer in these words to the works of Philo, or to those of still older writers, such as Aristobulus. But I conjecture that Celsus has not read their books, since it appears to me that in many passages they have so successfully hit the meaning (of the sacred writers), that even Grecian philosophers would have been captivated by their explanations; for in their writings we find not only a polished style, but exquisite thoughts and doctrines, and a rational use of what Celsus imagines to be fables in the sacred writings. I know, moreover, that Numenius the Pythagorean- a surpassingly excellent expounder of Plato, and who held a foremost place as a teacher of the doctrines of Pythagoras - in many of his works quotes from the writings of Moses and the prophets, and applies to the passages in question a not improbable allegorical meaning, as in his work called Epops, and in those which treat of Numbers and of Place. And in the third book of his dissertation on The Good, he quotes also a narrative regarding Jesus - without, however, mentioning His name - and gives it an allegorical signification, whether successfully or the reverse I may state on another occasion. He relates also the account respecting Moses, and Jannes, and Jambres. But we are not elated on account of this instance, though we express our approval of Numenius, rather than of Celsus and other Greeks, because he was willing to investigate our histories from a desire to acquire knowledge, and was (duly) affected by them as narratives which were to be allegorically understood, and which did not belong to the category of foolish compositions. 6.63. Celsus, not observing the difference between after the image of God and God's image, next asserts that the first-born of every creature is the image of God - the very word and truth, and also the very wisdom, being the image of His goodness, while man has been created after the image of God; moreover, that every man whose head is Christ is the image and glory of God - and further, not observing to which of the characteristics of humanity the expression after the image of God belongs, and that it consists in a nature which never had nor longer has the old man with his deeds, being called after the image of Him who created it, from its not possessing these qualities, - he maintains: Neither did He make man His image; for God is not such an one, nor like any other species of (visible) being. Is it possible to suppose that the element which is after the image of God should exist in the inferior part - I mean the body - of a compound being like man, because Celsus has explained that to be made after the image of God? For if that which is after the image of God be in the body only, the better part, the soul, has been deprived of that which is after His image, and this (distinction) exists in the corruptible body - an assertion which is made by none of us. But if that which is after the image of God be in both together, then God must necessarily be a compound being, and consist, as it were, of soul and body, in order that the element which is after God's image, the better part, may be in the soul; while the inferior part, and that which is according to the body, may be in the body - an assertion, again, which is made by none of us. It remains, therefore, that that which is after the image of God must be understood to be in our inner man, which is also renewed, and whose nature it is to be after the image of Him who created it, when a man becomes perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect, and hears the command, Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy, and learning the precept, Be followers of God, receives into his virtuous soul the traits of God's image. The body, moreover, of him who possesses such a soul is a temple of God; and in the soul God dwells, because it has been made after His image. 7.62. Let us now see what follows. Let us pass on, says he, to another point. They cannot tolerate temples, altars, or images. In this they are like the Scythians, the nomadic tribes of Libya, the Seres who worship no god, and some other of the most barbarous and impious nations in the world. That the Persians hold the same notions is shown by Herodotus in these words: 'I know that among the Persians it is considered unlawful to erect images, altars, or temples; but they charge those with folly who do so, because, as I conjecture, they do not, like the Greeks, suppose the gods to be of the nature of men.' Heraclitus also says in one place: 'Persons who address prayers to these images act like those who speak to the walls, without knowing who the gods or the heroes are.' And what wiser lesson have they to teach us than Heraclitus? He certainly plainly enough implies that it is a foolish thing for a man to offer prayers to images, while he knows not who the gods and heroes are. This is the opinion of Heraclitus; but as for them, they go further, and despise without exception all images. If they merely mean that the stone, wood, brass, or gold which has been wrought by this or that workman cannot be a god, they are ridiculous with their wisdom. For who, unless he be utterly childish in his simplicity, can take these for gods, and not for offerings consecrated to the service of the gods, or images representing them? But if we are not to regard these as representing the Divine Being, seeing that God has a different form, as the Persians concur with them in saying, then let them take care that they do not contradict themselves; for they say that God made man His own image, and that He gave him a form like to Himself. However, they will admit that these images, whether they are like or not, are made and dedicated to the honour of certain beings. But they will hold that the beings to whom they are dedicated are not gods, but demons, and that a worshipper of God ought not to worship demons. 7.68. After all that we have already said concerning Jesus, it would be a useless repetition for us to answer these words of Celsus: It is easy to convict them of worshipping not a god, not even demons, but a dead person. Leaving, then, this objection for the reason assigned, let us pass on to what follows: In the first place, I would ask why we are not to serve demons? Is it not true that all things are ordered according to God's will, and that His providence governs all things? Is not everything which happens in the universe, whether it be the work of God, of angels, of other demons, or of heroes, regulated by the law of the Most High God? Have these not had assigned them various departments of which they were severally deemed worthy? Is it not just, therefore, that he who worships God should serve those also to whom God has assigned such power? Yet it is impossible, he says, for a man to serve many masters. Observe here again how he settles at once a number of questions which require considerable research, and a profound acquaintance with what is most mysterious in the government of the universe. For we must inquire into the meaning of the statement, that all things are ordered according to God's will, and ascertain whether sins are or are not included among the things which God orders. For if God's government extends to sins not only in men, but also in demons and in any other spiritual beings who are capable of sin, it is for those who speak in this manner to see how inconvenient is the expression that all things are ordered by the will of God. For it follows from it that all sins and all their consequences are ordered by the will of God, which is a different thing from saying that they come to pass with God's permission. For if we take the word ordered in its proper signification, and say that all the results of sin were ordered, then it is evident that all things are ordered according to God's will, and that all, therefore, who do evil do not offend against His government. And the same distinction holds in regard to providence. When we say that the providence of God regulates all things, we utter a great truth if we attribute to that providence nothing but what is just and right. But if we ascribe to the providence of God all things whatsoever, however unjust they may be, then it is no longer true that the providence of God regulates all things, unless we refer directly to God's providence things which flow as results from His arrangements. Celsus maintains also, that whatever happens in the universe, whether it be the work of God, of angels, of other demons, or of heroes, is regulated by the law of the Most High God. But this also is incorrect; for we cannot say that transgressors follow the law of God when they transgress; and Scripture declares that it is not only wicked men who are transgressors, but also wicked demons and wicked angels. 8.12. In what follows, some may imagine that he says something plausible against us. If, says he, these people worshipped one God alone, and no other, they would perhaps have some valid argument against the worship of others. But they pay excessive reverence to one who has but lately appeared among men, and they think it no offense against God if they worship also His servant. To this we reply, that if Celsus had known that saying, I and My Father are one, and the words used in prayer by the Son of God, As You and I are one, he would not have supposed that we worship any other besides Him who is the Supreme God. For, says He, My Father is in Me, and I in Him. And if any should from these words be afraid of our going over to the side of those who deny that the Father and the Son are two persons, let him weigh that passage, And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul, that he may understand the meaning of the saying, I and My Father are one. We worship one God, the Father and the Son, therefore, as we have explained; and our argument against the worship of other gods still continues valid. And we do not reverence beyond measure one who has but lately appeared, as though He did not exist before; for we believe Himself when He says, Before Abraham was, I am. Again He says, I am the truth; and surely none of us is so simple as to suppose that truth did not exist before the time when Christ appeared. We worship, therefore, the Father of truth, and the Son, who is the truth; and these, while they are two, considered as persons or subsistences, are one in unity of thought, in harmony and in identity of will. So entirely are they one, that he who has seen the Son, who is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person, has seen in Him who is the image of God, God Himself. 8.17. Celsus then proceeds to say that we shrink from raising altars, statues, and temples; and this, he thinks, has been agreed upon among us as the badge or distinctive mark of a secret and forbidden society. He does not perceive that we regard the spirit of every good man as an altar from which arises an incense which is truly and spiritually sweet-smelling, namely, the prayers ascending from a pure conscience. Therefore it is said by John in the Revelation, The odours are the prayers of saints; and by the Psalmist, Let my prayer come up before You as incense. And the statues and gifts which are fit offerings to God are the work of no common mechanics, but are wrought and fashioned in us by the Word of God, to wit, the virtues in which we imitate the First-born of all creation, who has set us an example of justice, of temperance, of courage, of wisdom, of piety, and of the other virtues. In all those, then, who plant and cultivate within their souls, according to the divine word, temperance, justice, wisdom, piety, and other virtues, these excellences are their statues they raise, in which we are persuaded that it is becoming for us to honour the model and prototype of all statues: the image of the invisible God, God the Only-begotten. And again, they who put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that has created him, in taking upon them the image of Him who has created them, do raise within themselves a statue like to what the Most High God Himself desires. And as among statuaries there are some who are marvellously perfect in their art, as for example Pheidias and Polycleitus, and among painters, Zeuxis and Apelles, while others make inferior statues, and others, again, are inferior to the second-rate artists - so that, taking all together, there is a wide difference in the execution of statues and pictures - in the same way there are some who form images of the Most High in a better manner and with a more perfect skill; so that there is no comparison even between the Olympian Jupiter of Pheidias and the man who has been fashioned according to the image of God the Creator. But by far the most excellent of all these throughout the whole creation is that image in our Saviour who said, My Father is in Me. 8.18. And every one who imitates Him according to his ability, does by this very endeavour raise a statue according to the image of the Creator, for in the contemplation of God with a pure heart they become imitators of Him. And, in general, we see that all Christians strive to raise altars and statues as we have described them and these not of a lifeless and senseless kind and not to receive greedy spirits intent upon lifeless things, but to be filled with the Spirit of God who dwells in the images of virtue of which we have spoken, and takes His abode in the soul which is conformed to the image of the Creator. Thus the Spirit of Christ dwells in those who bear, so to say, a resemblance in form and feature to Himself. And the Word of God, wishing to set this clearly before us, represents God as promising to the righteous, I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the Saviour says, If any man hear My words, and do them, I and My Father will come to him, and make Our abode with him. Let any one, therefore, who chooses compare the altars which I have described with those spoken of by Celsus, and the images in the souls of those who worship the Most High God with the statues of Pheidias, Polycleitus, and such like, and he will clearly perceive, that while the latter are lifeless things, and subject to the ravages of time, the former abide in the immortal spirit as long as the reasonable soul wishes to preserve them.
53. Anon., 2 Enoch, 34

54. Anon., Joseph And Aseneth, 7.1, 8.5, 13.11

55. Anon., Letter of Aristeas, None

1. Since I have collected Material for a memorable history of my visit to Eleazar the High priest of the Jews, and because you, Philocrates, as you lose no opportunity of reminding me, have set great store upon receiving an account of the motives and object of my mission, I have attempted to draw up a clear exposition of the matter for you, for I perceive that you possess a natural love of learning


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
(great) library of alexandria Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 59
abraham, biblical character Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
abraham Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197
agent Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145
alexandria, capital of ptolemaic egypt Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216
alexandria Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144; Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 151, 152, 153; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54
alexandrian library Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
allegorical interpretation/allegory Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54
allegory, allegorical interpretation, letter of aristeas Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
allegory, allegorical interpretation Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51
andreas, companion of aristeas Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258, 259, 268
andreas Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
apologia Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 35, 54
arabia Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
aristeas, letter of, allegorical interpretation Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of, aristotelian mean Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of, critique of pagan religion Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51, 55
aristeas, letter of, egypt portrayal Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
aristeas, letter of, eleazars apology for the law Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of, food laws Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of, hellenistic accommodation Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of, mediating position Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristeas, letter of Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51, 55; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
aristeas Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39; Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 151, 152, 153
aristeas (narrator) Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 258, 259, 268
aristobulus, cultural superiority of judaism Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
aristobulus, hellenistic accommodation Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
aristobulus, philosophical outlook Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
aristobulus Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190; Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
aristobulus (= aristobulos) Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
aristotle, doctrine of the mean Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
aristotle Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256
asia Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
audience Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 220
ben sira Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
bible, books Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and 'Canonic' Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (2006) 40
bickerman, e. Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
book of judith, and greek writings Gera, Judith (2014) 369
boundary Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 151, 153
bowls Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
canonical text Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
celsus Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
chewing the cud Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 287
children Gera, Judith (2014) 369
chreia Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258
circumcision Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151
citadel Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
city of alexandria, city walls Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 60
city of alexandria, island of pharos Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 59
clean/unclean Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 289
cleanthes of assos Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 152
cleopatra iii Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
cloven-hoofed animals Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 287
community, borders of Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
compassion, conversion, significance of deSilva, Ephesians (2022) 141
contagion and touch Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
contradiction Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
cornelius tacitus Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
court Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 151
creation, essentially good Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
cubit Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193
culture, hellenistic Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and 'Canonic' Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (2006) 40
daniel, figure of Gera, Judith (2014) 369
dedications, temple Gera, Judith (2014) 369
deities Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 152
demarcation Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145
demetrius Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
demetrius colleagues Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
demetrius of phalerum Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 59; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
deputation to eleazar, deuteronomy, book of Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 268, 289
deuteronomy Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
diet Gera, Judith (2014) 369
dietary laws ascetic role of Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
dietary laws biblical Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
dietary laws social role of Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
dietary laws symbolic interpretation of Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
diodorus siculus Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
dionysus Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
dis Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258
education (paideia) Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216
egyptians Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 257, 258, 268, 289
ekphrasis Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
eleazar, high priest Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 220, 223; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 54, 193, 256, 258, 259, 268, 287, 289
eleazar, jewish high priest Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51, 55
eleazar (high priest in letter of aristeas) Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
eleazer Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151, 152
embassy Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258, 259
emendation Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 193
environment, cultural Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 220, 223
esther, in lxx / additions Gera, Judith (2014) 369
ethnicity Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
euhemerism Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 219, 220
euhemerus of messene Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 259
eusebius Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
eusebius of caesarea Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 193, 257, 259
exodus, event/story Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 268
exodus, not mentioned by pseudo-hecataeus Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
ezekiel, tragedian, general profile Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
ezekiel, tragedian, letter of aristeas and aristobulus comparison Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
ezekiel, tragedian Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
fame Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193
fear of god Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256
flavius josephus, t. Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
food, impurity of among jews Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
food/dietary laws Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256, 258, 259, 268
food Gera, Judith (2014) 369
fringes Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
furnishings, dishes and equipmentnan Gera, Judith (2014) 369
genesis Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
gentiles, and idolatry Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146
gentiles, impurity of Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
gentiles Gera, Judith (2014) 369; Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 146
gentiles (ethnē) Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
gifts, royal Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 289
god, of the jews Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 257, 258, 265, 268, 287
god, representations of, creator Rogers, God and the Idols: Representations of God in 1 Corinthians 8-10 (2016) 53
gods Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 153
gold, and silver Gera, Judith (2014) 369
greek, culture/religion Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 259
greek Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 193, 265, 268
greeks/hellenes, and jews Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146, 197
harmonizing of verses Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
hero-agent Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145
herodotus Gera, Judith (2014) 369
hezekiah story, role in on the jews Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
high priest Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 151, 152, 153
high priests, vestments Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
high priests Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 289
hillel, rabbi Levine Allison and Crossan, The Historical Jesus in Context (2006) 361
holophernes Gera, Judith (2014) 369
hymn Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 152
identity, construction of Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 219, 220, 223
idol/idol worship/idolatry Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 256, 258, 259, 265, 268, 287
idolatry, denounced in jewish texts Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146
idolatry, in paul Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197
idolatry Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
image of god Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
image vi Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 153
innate capacity as determining ethnicity, avoided by paul Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197
interpretation Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54
israel, biblical, people Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
iunius iuvenalis, d. Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175
jerusalem, as imagined in the letter of aristeas Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 60
jerusalem, temple Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 60
jerusalem Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146; Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 223; Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 153; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 54
jew Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 153
jews, alexandrian Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
jews, judeans, law Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
jews/judeans/ioudaioi, and circumcision Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197
jews/judeans/ioudaioi, and ethnicity in post-biblical texts Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146
jews/judeans/ioudaioi, and idolatry Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146, 197
jews and gentiles, hostility between deSilva, Ephesians (2022) 141
jews in alexandria, jewish district/delta quarter Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 59
joseph (son of jacob) Levine Allison and Crossan, The Historical Jesus in Context (2006) 361
josephus Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197; Levine Allison and Crossan, The Historical Jesus in Context (2006) 361; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 193
judaeans, of alexandria Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 219, 220, 223
judaism, alexandrian Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 35, 287
judaism, attitudes toward pagans Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
judaism in egypt, jewish responses to hellenistic culture Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51, 55
judaism in egypt Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 51, 55
judea Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 193
judith, complex character Gera, Judith (2014) 369
judith, eloquence and irony Gera, Judith (2014) 369
justice Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256
king Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 193, 265, 289
kingdom Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151
kosher food Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287; Gera, Judith (2014) 369
kosher law / food laws Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
ktisis (foundation story), on the jews not Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
language and style, book of judith, wordplay Gera, Judith (2014) 369
law, jewish/of moses Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 54, 258, 265
legislation, jewish/moses Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 265
legislator/lawgiver Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 257, 259, 265, 268
leontopolis Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
letter of aristeas, eleazar Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 60
letter of aristeas Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (2011) 279; Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190; Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
leviticus, book of Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 289
life Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 152
locusts Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 289
logos, burning bush Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
lord, and lord Gera, Judith (2014) 369
lycurgus Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 265
maccabean revolt Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
maccabees, third, letter of aristeas Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
maccabees, third, view of paganism Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
maccabees, third Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
manumission/liberation of slaves Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
meals, joint Gera, Judith (2014) 369
memorandum Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
memory Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 287
mezuzot Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
middle platonism Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
mines of arabia Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
monotheistic Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151, 152, 153
moses, as lawgiver Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
moses, omitted by pseudo-hecataeus Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
moses Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 146; Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (2011) 279; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar, Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity (2021) 175; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258, 259, 265, 268
narrative (διήγησις) Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34
nebuchadnezzar, biblical Gera, Judith (2014) 369
nomos, law of the judaeans Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 219, 223
non-jew Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 146, 152
offering Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
origen Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190
origo or origo-archaeologia, lacking in pseudo-hecataeus Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
panara, panchaea, island of Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 259
paraphrase Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
paul Gruen, Ethnicity in the Ancient World - Did it matter (2020) 197
pentateuch Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
petition Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
philo Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
philo of alexandria Gunderson, The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White (2022) 190; Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256, 265, 287, 289
philocrates Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 153
philomatheis Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and 'Canonic' Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (2006) 40
philosophy Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
philosophy peripatetic/aristotelean Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256
phylacteries Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
physis, as natural law Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
piety Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 256
plutarch, historian Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 220
polis Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
politeia, of judaeans Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
polytheism Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 153
priesthood, judaean Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216, 223
priests, jewish Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 193
priests Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151
prologue (to ben sira) Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and 'Canonic' Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (2006) 40
prophets Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
provence, proverbs, book of Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
ps.-aristeas Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 256, 258, 265, 268, 287, 289
pseudo-aristeas, audience of Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
pseudo-hecataeus, on the jews, exodus not mentioned Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
pseudo-hecataeus, on the jews, moses not mentioned Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
pseudo-hecataeus, on the jews, not ktisis Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
pseudo-hecataeus, on the jews, origo lacking Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 230
pseudo-phocylides Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 287
ptolemaic king Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 146, 151
ptolemaios ii Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
ptolemy i Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 55, 59
ptolemy i soter Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
ptolemy ii Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 55, 59
ptolemy ii philadelphus Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54, 258, 259
ptolemy iv philopator Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 51
ptolemy vi philometor Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
purity Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 151
pythagorean/neopythagorean Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
question and answer, style Niehoff, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (2011) 39
questions Gera, Judith (2014) 369
ramparts Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145
reconciliation, ethnic deSilva, Ephesians (2022) 141
reminders Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
representation Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145
reputation Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193
revelation Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and 'Canonic' Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (2006) 40
rhetoric, inclusio Rogers, God and the Idols: Representations of God in 1 Corinthians 8-10 (2016) 53
rite/ritual Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
ritual, washing Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35
ritual Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35
sacrifice/offering Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193, 257, 265
scripture Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 287
second temple judaism Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
separation, jewish Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258
separatism, jewish Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (2011) 279
septuagint, efforts to legitimize Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
septuagint Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 216
septuagint (lxx) Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
sexual encounters Gera, Judith (2014) 369
shammai, rabbi Levine Allison and Crossan, The Historical Jesus in Context (2006) 361
sibylline oracle, third, leontopolis provece Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
sibylline oracle, third, letter of aristeas comparison Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46
sibylline oracle, third, pro-ptolemaic view Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
sibylline oracle, third, view of egypt, egyptians Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 55
sibylline oracle, third Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 55
sibylline oracles Potter Suh and Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays (2021) 46, 55; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 259, 287
signs Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
slaves/enslavement Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
solomon Salvesen et al., Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (2020) 144
solon Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 265
space v Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 146, 153
spartans Gera, Judith (2014) 369
student v, vi Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 152
superiority, jewish Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 258
symbol and symbolic interpretation Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 48
symbols' Lidonnici and Lieber, Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (2007) 11
symposium/symposia Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34
table Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
tcherikover, v. Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 287
tefillin/phylacteries Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54
temple, jerusalem deSilva, Ephesians (2022) 141
temple, jewish, altar Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193
temple, jewish, curtain Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 193
temple, jewish, water system Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54
temple, jewish Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54, 193
temple Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
tobit Gera, Judith (2014) 369
torah deSilva, Ephesians (2022) 141
translation, literal Stavrianopoulou, Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images (2013) 223
translation Weissenrieder, Borders: Terminologies, Ideologies, and Performances (2016) 145, 151; Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 54, 265
translators, jewish Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 54
travelogue Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 34, 35, 54
twelve tribes Wright, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (2015) 54