Eupolemus

This article is about Jewish historian . For other uses, see Eupolemus (disambiguation) .

Eupolemus is the earliest[1] Hellenistic Jewish historian whose work survives only in five fragments (or possibly six fragments) in Eusebius of Caesarea's Praeparatio Evangelica (hereafter abbreviated as Praep.), embedded in quotations from the historian Alexander Polyhistor, and in the Stromata (hereafter abbreviated as Strom.) of Clement of Alexandria.

A sixth passage which Polyhistor attributes to Eupolemus in Eusebius' quotations of Polyhistor is usually considered spurious as being dissimilar to the other passages quoted and has come to be called Pseudo-Eupolemus.

Style and vocabulary indicate the writing as also originally in Greek and the date of composition of the seemingly genuine passages is about 158/7 BC. That the author dates his work by the Seleucids rather than the Ptolemies suggests Palestinian rather than Egyptian origin. It has been speculated that the author might be the Eupolemus who was ambassador of Judas Maccabeus to Rome as found in 1 Maccabees 8.17f and 2 Maccabees 4.11.[2]

Writings

The fragments usually considered Eupolemus' genuine work are:

Writing of Pseudo-Eupolemus

The fragment usually known as Pseudo-Eupolemus (Praep. 9.17.29) relates:

For the Babylonians say that the first was Belus, who is the same as Cronus, and that of him were born sons named Belus and Canaan. This Canaan fathered the father of the Phoenicians, whose son was Chum/Chus, called by the Greeks Asbolus and was the father of the Ethiopians and the brother of Mestraim, the ancestor of the Egyptians.
Traditionally many translators have emended Canaan to Cham, that is Ham since in Genesis 10.6 Ham is the father of Cush and Mizraim. However the author here claims to be relating Babylonian tradition, not Hebrew tradition, for whatever that is worth. Asbolus means 'sooty'.
R. Doran in his translation in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 2, emends einai Kronon 'is the same as Cronus' to einai Kronou 'is son of Cronus' noting that in no other text is anyone called Belus ever equated with Cronus.

R. Doran gives reason for believing that this fragment may be part of the genuine work of Eupolemus despite earlier doubts.

Notes

  1. Mercer dictionary of the Bible By Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard Page 272 ISBN 978-0-86554-299-0 (1990)
  2. Martin McNamara writes: "The writer is probably to be identified with Eupolemus, the son of John, the son of Accos, who according to 1 Macc 8:17 and 2 Macc 4:11 was sent together with Jason son of Eleazar on an embassy to Rome in 161 B.C. to negotiate a treaty between the resurgent Hasmoneans and the Roman Republic. Evidently Eupolemus was a friend of the Jewish ruler Judas Maccabee and a gifted diplomat as well, since he succeeded in his mission. He may have been a priest since he speaks at length in his writing of Solomon's temple. He composed his work in the year 158/157 B.C." (page 222 of Intertestamental Literature, Martin McNamara, Glazier (Michael) Inc., U.S.; New Ed edition, Feb 1991, ISBN 0-89453-256-1).

Selected bibliography and links

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