Krystyna Stebnicka
Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 12, 2014, pp. 47 - 57
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.14.004.2810
At the end of the fourth century and beginning of the fifth century AD, there were numerous acts of violence between Christians and Jews. This background exposes the especially interesting, isolated message of Socrates Scholasticus concerning the events at Inmestar in Syria (HE VII 16), where some drunken Jews murdered a Christian boy. Although many details of Socrates’ narrative seem unclear, it appears that the murder itself did not occur on the occasion of the feast of Purim, as was often assumed in the older literature concerning this topic. Consequently, the event is further proof of the local conflicts between believers of the two religions.
Krystyna Stebnicka
Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 12, 2014, pp. 25 - 32
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.14.002.2808
A fragment of the Epicurean account of Diogenes of Oinoanda (2nd century AD), which was found in 1997, revealed a mention of the most superstitious and abominable Jews and Egyptians. The fragment is part of A Treatise on Physics and repeats the Epicurean view that gods do not interfere in people’s lives. The aforementioned peoples serve the exemplification that the world of humans is separated from the world of the gods. Both expressions refer to the stereotypical perception of the Jews and Egyptians that is well-known from Greek-Roman literature. However, it seems that the way both ethne imagined their gods – in the form of animals (the Egyptians’ view) and without any cultic statues (the Jews’ view) – was meaningful for Diogenes, who like other Epicureans attached great importance to the worship of images of gods.