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98 Aristobulus of Paneas Aristotle in Jewish Literature

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

The second fragment (" Praep. Ev." xiii. 12) deduces from certain previous discussions (no longer extant) that both Plato and Pythagoras drew upon a translation of the Mosaic Law before the time of Demetrius of Phalerus (and this before the Septuagint ; Aristeas, 8 311, also refers to an older translation). God's creative " words " are stated to denote simply His activities. Similarly, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, when they claim to hear " the voice of God," mean this creative power. Then follows, in testimony of the Geia SvVap.19, the spurious Orphic quotation, in which the Stoic idea of God's permeating the world (v. 11, Abel) is especially remarkable (fragm. 6, Abel). The u quotation " is taken from the spurious poems of the forger Hecateus (Schiirer, ib. iii. 453 et seq.), as many resemblances indicate, but is considerably elaborated. Thus in fragm. 10, Abel, Aristobulus eliminates the original's pantheistic idea ; in v. 11, 12, he substitutes for the inscrutability of God the Platonic concept of the knowledge of God through the vovt, reason, and interpolates this idea also in v. 40. In v. 13 et seq. he reverses the deduction of " evil " from " God." V. 14 should read <h)t<ks Se «' epis, as in the Theosophy of Aristokritos. Against Schiirer's putting Hecateus in the third century B.C. is to be remarked, as Elter has pointed out, that v. 8 of the .<Eschylus quotation «ai na.tr a Trrjyri Ka'i voaroq (TvaTriLa.Ta. is identical With Ezekie], in EUSeblUS, " PrEep. Ev." ix. 29, 13, irvjyai re naaai /cat voarutv crucrTijuaTa. Since Ezekiel connects this verse with Ex. viii. 19, it must be said to have originated with him; and, therefore, Ezekiel's drama would also have to be placed in the third century before Christianity, along with pseudo-Hecateus This agrees with Aratus' pantheism (in the discussion of which Aristobulus admits that he has substituted God for Zeus), which he adopts in order to show that God's power penetrates and permeates all things. Reverent conceptions of God are demanded by all philosophers and especially by >? «a0' rjp.as ai'peo-is, "our school," by which he no doubt means Judaism, not Peripatetic philosophy ; for he immediately points out the earnest inculcation of virtue by the Jewish law. In the next excerpt in Eusebius, the meaning of the Sabbath (c/3Sojllt7> is discussed, designated also as the first day. The Sabbath is, as it were, the birthday of light and also of wisdom, for out of wisdom comes all light. Quite similarly to this, Peripatetic philosophers call wisdom a light (or lamp), and Solomon (Prov. viii. 22) teaches the existence of wisdom before creation. God's resting on the seventh day does not denote idleness, but the stable order of the universe ; so the results of the creative acts do not signify the mere temporal results, but the lasting value of the creations. The e/356p.7j (Sabbath) has also its deeper significance, because the human " Logos," called the €/35o/no?, is its symbol. The number "seven," moreover, exerts great influence upon the development of living beings and plants. Verses (genuine as well as spurious ; see Schiirer, ib. p. 461) from Homer, Hesiod, Linos, attest its holiness. When Homer says, €/35o/xaT7) 5' rjol Kiiro^v poov tff 'AxepovToy, he means that through the Aoyos as e'060^09 man frees himself from forgetfulness and from the wickedness of the soul, and attains to a perception of truth. !

It is to be supposed that Aristobulus was familiar with the abstract Platonic and Aristotelian idea of God. This conception necessarily implies a special Divine Power, acting on the world and in the world. In addition to this he makes use of the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers. The statement that he belonged to the Peripatetic school may be ascribed to the fact that, in xiii. 12, 10, he cites from a Peripatetic source Taking into consideration again (Schiirer, p. 387). his reference to Orpheus and other poets, it is seen that he was an eclectic, the first partial approach to which is to be met with in Posidonius (Ilepl k6o/m>v), in the first century B.C., but which can not be traced to an earlier date (see Alexandrian Philosophy).

style of the work of Aristobulus, intentionally obscure and mystical mode of expression, offer considerable difficulty to the reader. This is not to be attributed to those who quote from

The desultory

and the

it,

but to the author himself, and has frequently led

to grave misconceptions.

A

further examination of the works attributed

98

ineness aroused by their eclectic character. The exchange of thought between the king who suggests the problems and the Jewish scholar on the Torah is quite impossible. But if it is as fictitious as the reputed colloquy between the king and the

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"Seventy," narrated by Aristeas, a contemporary of Philometor can not have been its author, as also the pseudo-Orphic poetry in Aristobulus shows. somewhat shorter and more original form of the same has been preserved among a large number of

A

forgeries, all traceable to one source, the pseudo-

named by Clemens on first quoting him. This Orphic fragment (" De Gnomologiorum Graecorum Historia atque Origine," parts v.-ix. Program of Bonn University, 1894-95) betrays a strong resemblance to the Sibylline Books (Abel, 23. 24; John, That Aristobulus made use of Philo a referi. 18). ence to whose works is the only means of rendering intelligible many of the passages has been pointed out by Elter (" Sp. " 229-234). Grounds for doubting Hecatseus,



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Schiirer's belief that the literary forger

Quotations Hecatams flourished

in the third cenare given in the "ByzanSpurious. tinische Zeitschrift, " vii. 449, and the belief is expressed that Hecatasus and Aristobulus belong to the second century of the com-

Probably tury

b.c.

of Aristobulus may have been i. 10. Schlatter's suggestion that the commentator of Ecclesiasticus derives his

mon

The name

era.

taken from II Mace.

philosophy from Aristobulus ("Das Neugefundene Hebraische Stuck des Sirach," pp. 103 el seq., Giltersloh, 1897) is not convincing, for the agreement between them exists only in opinions which can not with certainty be ascribed to Aristobulus. Most historians, however, adhere to Schiirer's view. Bibliography Schiirer,

For the list of writers upon this topic, see Geseh. 3d ed., iii. 391, 392.

P.

a.

ARISTOTLE IN JEWISH LEGEND: the Greek

As who most impressed his influence upon the

development of the Jewish mind, Aristotle is one of the few Gentiles with whom Jewish legend concerns itself. Some 200 years b.c, the Jewish philosopher Aristobulus, made the positive assertion that Jewish revelation and Aristotelian philosophy were identical. Hardly had 200 years elapsed before this opinion was modified to such an extent that it was claimed that Aristotle derived his doctrine directly from Judaism. Josephus on this point says (" Contra Apionem," ii. 17): "I do not now explain how these no-

God are the sentiments of the wisest among the Grecians, and how they were reared upon the principles that he [Moses] afforded them." Of Aristotle himself Josephus has preserved ("Contra Apionem," i. 22) a very interesting passage from the writings of Clearchus, the pupil of Aristotle, the authenticity of which is maintained by such authorities as Lobeck, Bernays, von Gutschmid (" Kleine Schriftions of

ten, " i v. 578), and Theo. Reinach (" Textes d' Auteurs Grecs et Romains Relatifs au Judaisme," 1895, pp. 10-12). This passage, prefaced by the remark of Jo-

sephus,

is

as follows:

" In his first book on Sleep he relates of Aristotle, his master, that he had a discourse with a Jew and his own account was that what this Jew said merited admiration and showed philo;

to Aristobulus confirms the suspicion as to their genu-

W.