From the Ptolemies to the Romans: Empire in Jewish Literature from Egypt

Abstract

This article studies the use of τὰ πράγματα in Jewish literature written in Ptolemaic and early Imperial Egypt. While there was no Greek term for “empire” that aligns with the modern sense of an empire as a territorial polity, τὰ πράγματα most closely resembles our modern notion of empire. First, we analyze the range of meanings of πράγματα in Ptolemaic documents and literature. Next, we examine the uses of this concept in Jewish sources from Ptolemaic Egypt. Then, we investigate the shifting understandings of πράγματα in the Jewish sources from Roman Egypt. We conclude that Jewish texts have much more complex views of empire than the descriptors pro- or anti-empire allow. This approach redirects our attention from empire as a static and tangible entity to a dynamic suite of practices through which power is exercised and derived.