Greeks,Egyptians and Jews in the Fragments of Artapanus

Abstract

Artapanus, an Egyptian Jew who wrote the treatise About the Jews, lived in a society in which tensions between the native Egyptians and the Greeks were strong. As elsewhere in the Hellenistic world, the Greeks formed the upper class and the natives the lower. If the Jews were numerous, as they were in Egypt, they would have tried to separate themselves from the native inhabitants and to seek contacts with the Greek population. Scholars dealing with Artapanus' fragments have seldom differentiated between Greeks and Egyptians, but the point of view is fruitful: this article shows that Artapanus never writes negatively about the Greeks, though he does consider the Egyptians to be a simple people led by wicked rulers. Moses has a role as founder of the Egyptian religious practices, but misunderstandings and errors led to a cult suited for lower people.