Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/130

92 Aristai Aristeas

the reason for the identification is found in II Kings xxv. 8, which offers a parallel to Dan. ii. 14). It may be mentioned that the amora Samuel is often called by the name of Arioch (Shab. 53«, and elsewhere), which, however, is derived from the Old Persian arjak ("ruler "). J. SR. L. G.

ARISTAI (abbreviated form

of

ARIST-ffiUS):

A Palestinian scholar of

the third amoraic generation colleague of R. Samuel b. Naiiman. The latter, commenting on Gen. xix. 24, " The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, " remarks " unto the wicked who cause the seat of mercy to become a place of punishment! For inPs. cxlviii. 1-6, David exhorts, 'Praise ye the Lord from the heavens, and does not mention either fire or hail or brimOur colleague, R. stone as included in the heavens. (third century)



Wo



'

confirmsour view by citing Ps. xcvi.6, 'Honor and majesty are before Him strength and beauty are in His sanctuary " (Tan. Wayera, ed. Buber, 23). R. Aristai reports the following observation of R. Berechiah in reference to the Iladrianic persecutions " Isaiah cries unto the Lord, 'Let thy dead live those who have died for (Isa. xxvi. 19), meaning thee.' One man has been crucified; why? because he circumcised his son another has been burnt why ? because he kept the Sabbath a third was slain why ? because he was found studying the Torah. God's answer is: (Isa. I.e.) My dead shall arise " (Tan., ed. Buber, p. 19; Bacher, " Ag. Pal. Amor." hi. 660). S. M. j. sr. Aristai,



'

'

'









'

'

ARISTEAS, THE HISTORIAN Writer on Jewish history mentioned in Eusebius, "Prsep. Ev." ix. 25, who quotes from Alexander .Poly histor's collection of fragments, a passage from a work of Aristeas (in many manuscripts " Aristaios "), entitled Kepi 'lovdaiuv, which contains the history of Job almost as it is given in the Biblical narrative, but offers much that is noteworthy in regard to the names of personages. Job's original name was " Jobab " that is, Aristeas identifies Job with the Jobab mentioned in



33,

a great-grandson of Esau.

He

bases

his identification on the fact that Eliphaz recurs in the generations of Esau in Gen. xxxvi. 10, 11 that his appellation "Temanite" (Job ii. 11) is found in

Gen. xxxvi. 11, 34; that Job's dwelling-place, Uz, is suggested by Gen. xxxvi. 28; and that Zophar occurs at least in Septuagint of Gen. xxxvi. 11, 15. In point of fact, the author of Job simply borrowed the names from Genesis. Now, in the Septuagint " additions " to Job, which agree almost word for word with Aristeas, are found the same substitutions; Jobab stands for Job, Uz is placed in Idumea, and Job's If the " addition " to Gen. friends are called kings. xxxvi. 33, 'Iu/3a/5 vibe Zapa e/c Boaoppac, designates Job's parents, mistaking the last name for that of his mother, it enables us to remedy an error, not of Aristeas, but of Alexander (tov 'Raav yr/uavra Baaaapav Freuev E&ju yevvijaai 'Iu/3) (Preudenthal, p. 138). denthal holds it for certain that the author of the " additions " made use of Aristeas. Possibly the reverse his ck

is

more

likely, that the translator

Tijc

supplemented

these "additions," as he himself says, Tiupiaxnc fiipVwv, from the Syriac, and that they

work with

were used by Aristeas. For, in the first place, all uncial manuscripts contain the "additions," and we have no tradition that any one has ever denied that they belonged to the Septuagint (Field, "Hexapla," that ii. 82); secondly, Freudcnthal (p. 137) points out when the translator, in Job ii. 11, makes Job's friends kings, in opposition to the original text, he takes a liberty similar to many which appear in the "additions of the Septuagint." Aristeas' era must be placed between the time of the translation of Job and the epoch of Alexander Polyhistor, probably, therefore, in the second cenAristeas' work bears no relation to the Letter tury. of Aristeas, although the author of the letter very probably borrows his name from the historian. Bibliography The text of his work is given by C. Milller, Fraqmenta HMorienrum Qrmcorum, iii. 230; Freudenthal, Alexander PolyhMor, 1875, p. 231, compare pp. 136-143;

Schiirer, Geseh. 4th ed.,

iii.

356, 357.

P.

K.

ARISTEAS, LETTER OF



W.

In the guise of a

a brother Philokrates, " Aristeas

letter to

,



Gen. xxxvi.

92

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

"

writes

.

"

By the advice of Demetrius Phalereus, chief librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king decided to include in his library a translation of the Jewish Lawbook. To secure the cooperation of the high priest Eleazar at Jerusalem, Aristeas advises him to purchase and set free the numerous Jews who had been sold

He Into slavery after his father's campaign against them (312) sends Andreas, a captain of his body-guard, and Aristeas, laden with rich presents, and entrusted with a letter, asking Eleazar to send him seventy-two elders to undertake the translation. The envoys see Jerusalem, inspect the Temple and the citadel, and admire the high priest and his assistants at their service in the sanctuary ; they are instructed, moreover, by Eleazar in the deeper moral meaning of the dietary laws, and Contents return, with the seventy-two elders, to A lexanof the dria. The king receives the Jewish sages with distinction, and holds a seven-day banquet, at Letter. which he addresses searching questions to.

The wisdaily, always receiving appropriate answers. dom of their replies, though it seems to the modern reader rather trivial, arouses general astonishment. Three days after the feast, Demetrius conducts the sages to the island of Pharos, where in seventy-two days of joint labor they complete their work. Demetrius reads the translation aloud in a solemn assembly of the Jewish congregation it Is accepted and sanctioned by them, and any change therein officially forbidden. The king, to whom the translation is also read, admires the spirit of the Law-giver, and dismisses the translators with costly gifts."

them



The author of this letter declares himself (§ 16) a heathen as such, in §§ 128, 129, he asks Eleazar concerning the purport of the Jewish dietary laws and in § 306 consults the translators about the meaning of the ceremony of washing the hands before prayer



But it is universally (see Schurer, ii. 444, note 57). recognized that in point of fact his panegyrizing tendency towai'd Judaism throughout shows him to be a Jew (Kautzsch, "Die Apokryphen,"i. 16); it is also certain that he can not have lived in the time of PhilaHowever important and reliable his gendelphus. eral information may be concerning Egyptian affairs, government, and court-ceremonial in the times of the Ptolemies (Wilcken, in " Philologus," iii. Ill), his historical statements about the time of Philadelphus are unreliable. In § 180 he changes Philadelphus' defeat at Cos into a victory he does not know that Demetrius was banished on the accession of Errors in Philadelphus, or that the latter's marthe Letter, riage with his sister was childless (§§ 41, 185) he transplants the philosopher Menedemus arbitrarily to the court of the Ptolemies (§ 201), and lets the historian Theopompus and the