Russell wrote:
" [.] .why would either Posidonius or Strabo start off their respective
books with an account of the Jews (and their three sects)?
(a) There is no fragment of either author that I know of that recounts
historical events in Judea of c. 146 BCE.
(b) Ant. 13.171 itself contains no fragment of history (such as either
Posidonius or Strabo might have written) in association with the mention of
the three sects of the Jews [.]
[..]
It seems to me more likely that Ant. 13.171 derives from some such later
essay than from the histories of either Posidonius or Strabo. [.]"
The question, however, is what the reason for the stringent schematism of
the three-philosophical-school presentation in Josephus might have been.
The source behind doesn't seem to be the Jewish-Hellenistic apologetic or
propaganda, but the Hellenistic tradition of e.g. Theophrastes (in:
Porphyrius, abst 2.26), Megasthenes {in: Clemens of Alexandria , Stromata
1.15) and Klearch (in: Josephus, c.Ap 1.179).
As regards content, the source is doxographic orientated, namely on the
stoic fact relation of heimarmene and self-determination. To its base stock
belongs the stringent enumeration and sequence: 1. Epicureans, 2. Stoics, 3.
Fatalists (i.e., those who teach the absolute fatum) - which directly leads
to its Jewish interpolation in Josephus: 1. Pharisees, 2. Sadducees, 3.
'Essenes' (i.e., those lifted philosophers of the Pythagorean bios
theoretikos, who prefer to 'sit down' - hessai - whenever polis and nation
stand up).
tot ziens,
Dierk
-------
Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (NL)
www.kun.nl
The son of Telamon, sweeping in through the mass
of the fighters
struck him at close quarters through the brazen cheeks
of his helmet...
and the brain ran from the wound along the spear by
the eye-hole... (Iliad 17.193-98)
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