Jewish Greek allusion in theory and in practice: Aristobulus and the Letter of Aristeas

Abstract

This article examines how two Jewish Greek prose writers refer to aspects of the Greek and Jewish literary traditions. The first section studies the fragments of Aristobulus and the multiple models of reading and making meaning that they exhibit and the extent to which this aimed at aligning Greek and Jewish ideas. In the second section, I turn to the Letter of Aristeas. In this text, I propose that an application of Aristobulus’s theorizing can be observed in practice. Through three case studies of under-appreciated and previously unobserved allusions, I demonstrate that the entire range of allusive strategies implied by Aristobulus’s discussions are to be found in the Letter’s narrative and I argue that their use demands a readership able to set Greek and Jewish literary traditions in various configurations. What will emerge is a Jewish Greek literature attuned to the cultural politics of allusion.