Hellenism and the Primary History

The Imprint of Greek Sources in Genesis - 2 Kings

Robert Karl Gnuse

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000164923
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Arts & Humanities

This collection of essays seeks to demonstrate that many biblical authors deliberately used Classical and Hellenistic Greek texts for inspiration when crafting many of the narratives in the Primary History.

Through detailed analysis of the text, Gnuse contends that there are numerous examples of clear influence from late classical and Hellenistic literature. Deconstructing the biblical and Greek works in parallel, he argues that there are too many similarities in basic theme, meaning, and detail, for them to be accounted for by coincidence or shared ancient tropes. Using this evidence, he suggests that although much of the text may originate from the Persian period, large parts of its final form likely date from the Hellenistic era.

With the help of an original introduction and final chapter, Gnuse pulls his essays together into a coherent collection for the first time. The resultant volume offers a valuable resource for anyone working on the dating of the Hebrew Bible, as well as those working on Hellenism in the ancient Levant more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: An intellectual odyssey
• 1 A Hellenistic First Testament?: The views of minimalist scholars
• 2 Spilt water: Tales of David in 2 Sam 23:13–17 and of Alexander in Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 6.26.1–3
• 3 Abducted wives: A Hellenistic narrative in Judges 21?
• 4 From prison to prestige: The hero who helps a king in Jewish and Greek literature
• 5 Divine messengers in Genesis 18–19 and Ovid
• 6 Greek connections: Genesis 1–11 and the poetry of Hesiod
• 7 Genesis 1–11 and the Greek historiographers Hecataeus of Miletus and Herodotus of Halicarnassus
• 8 Heed your steeds: Achilles’ horses and Balaam’s donkey
• 9 Samson and Heracles revisited
• 10 The sacrificed maiden: Iphigenia and Jephthah’s daughter
• 11 The maximalist/minimalist debate over historical memory in the primary history of the Old Testament
• Primary sources index
• General index