- HECATAEUS OF ABDERA°
- HECATAEUS OF ABDERA° (fourth century B.C.E.), Greek historian and ethnographer. He evidently visited Jerusalem and was the first pagan who wrote extensively on the history of the Jews, incorporating it into his account of Egypt. A summary of it has been preserved in Diodorusthe first-century C.E. historian (60:3)via the ninth-century Photius (Bibliotheca224). The following is a summary of Hecataeus' report. „ From time immemorial there lived minorities in Egypt whose manner of „ sacrificing differed from that of the general population. When a „ plague occurredthe Egyptians expelled them. Some found refuge in „ Greece; the majority fled to Judeathen uninhabited. Their leader, „ Mosesfounded Hierosolyma and its Templeestablishing a cult and a „ constitution which differed completely from any other. Because he „ believed that God is the master of the universeMoses prohibited the „ presentation of the divine in a human form. The laws of marriage and „ burial differed from those among other groups of mento whom the Jews „ adopted a hostile attitude. The Jews never had a kingbut Moses „ assigned a prominent role to the prieststhe chief of whom is said to „ receive messages from God. When he teaches the divine commandments, „ the assembled Jews prostrate themselves until the high priest „ concludes with these words: "Moses heard these words from God and he „ spoke them to the Jews." During the Persian and Macedonian „ occupationsHecataeus concludesmany of their ancient institutions „ were modified. Hecataeus' accountlike those of Megasthenes and Theophrastusis on the whole sympathetic to the Jews. He stressed the humaneness of such enactments as Moses' prohibition of infant exposure and his equal distribution of the land. His apparently high regard for the Mosaic constitution explains the popularity of pseudonymous books under his name. Hecataeusaccording to the Letter of aristeas (v. 31), wrote to ptolemy ii of Egypt asking him to invite 72 priests from Jerusalem to translate the Torah. This passage probably apppeared in Pseudo-Hecataeus' book called "On the Jews," from which Josephus has preserved extensive excerpts. The work treated conditions in Palestine during the period of Alexander's successorsthe Diadochimentioning the high priest hezekiah (not elsewhere mentioned) recording the extent of Judeaand describing Jerusalem's Temple and cult. Many scholarsincluding H. LewyTcherikoverand Guttmannattribute this work to the genuine Hecataeus. They pointfor exampleto the statement that the Persians deported the Jews to Babylona slip a Jewish forger was unlikely to have made. There is no questionhoweverthat Josephus' Contra Apionem1183–204is the work of a pseudographer. Hecataeus indirectly criticized the Jews for not mixing with other nations; Pseudo-Hecataeus displays the fervor of an ardent Jew. The suspicion of forgery was already raised in the second century C.E. by Philo of Bybloswho wondered whether Hecataeus had become a Jewish convert. The author of this work may be labeled "Pseudo-Hecataeus I." Also forgedthough by a different hand ("Pseudo-Hecataeus II")is the book "On the Time of Abramus and the Egyptians" to which there are two known allusions. Josephus (Ant.1:159) states that Hecataeus wrote a work about the patriarchAbraham. Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis5:113) quotes nine lines from a drama attributed to Hecataeusportraying the patriarch's smashing of the idols. The quotation was taken from a Jewish anthology of Greek poets and philosophers who purportedly subscribed to the truth or antiquity of biblical tenets. Scholarly opinion is divided over Pseudo-Hecataeus Ibut there is a general consensus that Pseudo-Hecataeus II is a forgery. Pseudo-Hecataeus I is certainly earlier than the Letter of Aristeasand was possibly written in the first half of the second century B.C.E. Pseudo-Hecataeus II antedates Josephusand is perhaps as early as or even earlier than aristobulus . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. JacobyFragmente der griechischen Historiker3a (1940), no. 264; Jaegerin: JR18 (1938)127–43; Klausner, Bayit Sheni2 (19512)1726106; N. Walther, Thoraausleger Aristobulos (1964). (Ben Zion Wacholder)
Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.