A Jewish Historian in Hellenistic Egypt
The Fragments of Demetrius the Chronographer’s “On the Kings
of Judaea”
By Jared L. Olar
Among the communities of the Jewish Diaspora during the centuries before
the coming of Christ, one of the greatest and most influential was that located
in the city of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. As a bustling cultural
center and crossroads during the height of Hellenistic culture, Alexandria was
an ideal environment for an exchange of ideas between Jews and Gentiles. It was
in Alexandria where the five books of the Torah
were first translated into Greek during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.), followed not long after by the
translation of the remaining books of the Old Testament – the ancient Bible
translation known as the Septuagint (“the Seventy,” from the tradition that 70
expert Jewish scribes did the translation work). The Septuagint was a cultural
milestone of the highest significance, enabling widespread access to Israel’s
Holy Scriptures to Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles throughout the Hellenised Near East – a development that in time would
facilitate the spread of the Gospel.
As a matter of course, it was the first or second generations
following the creation of the Greek Septuagint version that saw the appearance
of the earliest Jewish histories in the Greek language. Our first known
Greek-language Jewish history was a work entitled, “On the Kings of Judaea,” written in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 B.C.) by a man named Demetrius, known from his work as “the
Chronographer” to distinguish him from other ancient writers name Demetrius.
Unfortunately the work of Demetrius no longer exists in its
entirety, surviving only in a series of six fragments preserved by the pagan
historian Alexander Polyhistor, the Christian
historian Eusebius, and the early Church Father Clement of Alexandria. However,
those fragments do permit us to discern that Demetrius was a Jew almost certainly
of Alexandria who wrote his work circa 220 B.C., that his work was concerned
with biblical chronology and the history of Israel’s ancient rulers and
patriarchs, and that he relied upon the Septuagint translation. Demetrius is
identified as Alexandrian not only because he wrote in Greek and used the
Septuagint (facts which of themselves would not require Demetrius to be
Alexandrian), but because he used the beginning of the reign of the Egyptian
monarch Ptolemy IV as a baseline for his chronological calculations. On the
other hand, in those days the Holy Land was under Egyptian rule, so even if
Demetrius lived in Jerusalem it still would have been natural for him to count
time from the start of Ptolemy IV’s reign.
Demetrius’ reliance on the Septuagint is shown by the specific Grecianised spellings of his biblical names and by his
stated total of years from Adam’s creation to Israel’s entrance into Egypt –
3,624 years, a chronological figure that can only be calculated from the
Septuagint tradition of the numbers found in Gen. 5 and 11. As we have noted
previously, Demetrius is the earliest extra-biblical witness for the Septuagint
chronological tradition, preceding the earliest known witnesses for the
proto-Masoretic tradition by some three centuries or more. The Masoretic total
for the years from Adam to the entrance into Egypt is 2,298 years. Despite the
apparent Alexandrian milieu of Demetrius’ work, though, the 1906 Jewish
Encyclopedia noted that, “For the determination of certain dates he relied on the
Biblical exegesis in use among the Palestinian Jews.” For that reason, some
have suggested that Demetrius may in fact have lived in Judaea rather than
Egypt. It seems more likely, however, that in the 220s B.C. there was no
significant difference between the method of exegesis
preferred in Jerusalem versus that preferred in Alexandria.
Of the six fragments of Demetrius’ work, five of them are found in
Book 9 of Eusebius Pamphilii’s Praeparatio Evangelica (“Preparation of the Gospel,”
a work in which Eusebius endeavored to show how God worked throughout human
history to lay the groundwork for the preaching of the Gospel and the
conversion of the Gentiles). Eusebius did not quote directly from Demetrius’
work, but rather excerpted it from Alexander Polyhistor’s
“On the Jews,” which had incorporated
extensive verbatim quotes from Demetrius. The first fragment is a brief,
annalistic-style summary of the Binding of Isaac (Gen. 22:1-14). The second
fragment is by far the longest, being an extended chronological schema of the
life of Jacob, supplying dates for the events of Jacob’s life that are related
in Genesis, including dates for the births of Jacob’s children down to the
month and concluding with the genealogy of Levi down to Moses and Aaron. The
third fragment deals with the life of Moses, presenting a remarkable genealogy
of Moses’ Midianite wife Zipporah. The fourth and fifth fragments are excerpts
from Demetrius’ account of Israel’s trek to Mount Sinai, telling of Moses’
miraculous healing of the bitter waters of Marah, and explaining where Israel
got the weapons it used in the battle with the Amalekites. The sixth and final
fragment comes from Clement of Alexandria’s Stromata,
in which Demetrius calculates the periods of the Assyrian and Babylonian
captivities of the tribes of Israel down to the reign of Ptolemy IV.
Below are J. Hanson’s English translations of the
six fragments of Demetrius the Chronographer’s “On the Kings of Judaea” (with bold emphasis added),
followed by my own comments and observations.
Fragment one
“So much
says Polyhistor; to which he [rather, Demetrius] adds, after other (sentences), saying; But
not long after, God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a whole burnt offering
to him. And when he led his son up to the mountain, he heaped up a pyre, and
placed Isaac on it. But when he was about to sacrifice him, he was prevented by an
angel, who provided him with a ram for the offering. And Abraham took his son
down from the pyre and offered the ram.”
Demetrius’ remarks here are a factual summary of
this significant episode in Abraham’s life. Entirely absent is any kind of
theological reflection on, for example, the question of why God, who abhorred
human sacrifice, commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac only to send an
angel to intervene and provide a ram in Isaac’s place. The point of this
fragment is simply Demetrius’ assertion that the near-sacrifice of Isaac really
did take place. An accurate setting forth and clarification of Israel’s history
(as best as Demetrius understood it) was the purpose of Demetrius’ chronicle,
not providing deeper theological reflection on the biblical texts under
consideration.
Fragment two
“Let us
return again to Polyhistor: Demetrius Concerning
Jacob, from the same writing of Polyhistor.
Demetrius says that Jacob was (77)
years old when he fled to Haran in Mesopotamia, having been sent away by his
parents on account of the secret enmity of Esau
towards his brother (which was due to the
fact that his father had blessed him thinking that he was Esau), and in order
that he might acquire a wife there.
“Jacob, then, set out for Haran in Mesopotamia,
having left his father Isaac, who
was 137 years of age, while he was himself 77 years old.
“Then after
spending 7 years there, he married two daughters of Laban, his maternal uncle, Leah
and Rachel, when he was 84 years
old. In seven more years, 12 children were born to him. In the
10th month of the 8th year, Reuben
(was born); and in the 8th month of the 9th year, Simeon; and in the 6th month of the 10th year, Levi; and in the 4th month of the 11th year, Judah. And since Rachel did not bear, she became envious of her
sister, and gave her own handmaid (Bilhah
to Jacob as a concubine, who bore Dan
in the 4th month of the 11th year, and in
the 2nd month of the 12th year, Naphtali.
And Leah gave her own handmaid) Zilpah to Jacob as a concubine, at the same time as Bilhah
conceived Naphtali, in the 5th month of the 11th year, and he begot a son in the 2nd month of the 12th year, whom Leah named
Gad; and of the same month in the
12th month of the same year he begot another son, whom Leah named Asher.
“And in return for the mandrake apples which
Reuben brought to Rachel, Leah again
conceived, as did her handmaid Zilpah at the same
time, in the 3rd month of the 12th year, and bore a son in the 12th month of
the same year, and gave him the name Issachar.
“And again Leah bore another son in the 10th
month of the 13th year, whose name was Zebulun; and in the 8th month of the
14th year, the same Leah bore a (daughter) named (Dinah). And at the same time as Leah (conceived) a daughter, Dinah,
Rachel also conceived in her womb, and in
the 8th month of the 14th year she bore a son, who was named Joseph, so that in the 7 years spent
with Laban, 12 children were born.
“But when Jacob wanted to return to his father
in Canaan, at Laban’s request he stayed six more years, so that in all he
stayed for twenty years with Laban in Haran.
“And while he was going to Canaan, an angel of
the Lord wrestled with him, and touched
the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and he became numb and went lame; on account of
this the tendon of the thigh of cattle is not eaten. And the angel said to him
that from that time on he would no
longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
“And he came to (Salem, a city) of the land of
Canaan, having with him his children,
Reuben, 12 years and 2 months old; Simeon, 11 years and 4 months; Levi, 10
years and 6 months; Judah, 9 years and 8 months; (Dan 9 years and 8 months
;) Naphtali, 8 years and
10 months; Gad, 8 years and 10 months; Asher, 8 years; Issachar, 8
years; Zebulon, 7 years and 2 months; Dinah, 6 years and 4 months; Joseph, 6
years and 4 months old.
“Now Israel lived beside Hamor for 10 years, and Israel’s
daughter, Dinah, was defiled by Shechem the son
of Hamor, when she was 16 years and 4 months old.
And Israel’s son Simeon, at 21 years and 4
months, and Levi, at 20 years and 6 months of age, rushed out and slew both Hamor and his son Shechem, and
all their males, because of the defilement of Dinah; and Jacob was 107 years old at the time.
“To resume, when he had come to Luz (which is)
Bethel, God said that he was no longer to be called Jacob, but Israel. From
that place he came to Chaphratha, and after that to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem, and there he fathered Benjamin; and Rachel died after giving
birth to
Benjamin, and Jacob lived with her for 23 years.
“From there, Jacob came to Mamre,
(which is) Hebron, to his father, Isaac,
Joseph was then 17 years old, and he was sold into Egypt, and remained in
prison 13 years, so that he was then 30 years old. And Jacob was 120 years of
age, one year before Isaac’s death at 180 years of age.
“And Joseph, having interpreted the king’s
dreams, governed Egypt for 7 years, in which time he married Aseneth,
daughter of Pentephres
the priest of Heliopolis, and begot Manasseh
and Ephraim, and 2 years of famine
followed.
“But
though Joseph had prospered for 9 years, he did not send for his father,
because he was a shepherd, as were Joseph’s brothers; and to the Egyptians it
is disgraceful to be a shepherd. That this was the reason why he did not send
for him, he himself had made clear, for when his relatives came, he told them
that if they should be summoned by the king and asked what their occupation
was, they should say that they were breeders of cattle.
“And they were at a loss as to why Joseph gave
Benjamin at breakfast a portion 5 times
as much as theirs, since he was not able to consume so much meat. He had done
this because his father had had (six) sons by Leah, and two by his mother,
Rachel; therefore, he set five portions
before Benjamin, and he himself took one; accordingly they had (six) portions,
as many as the sons of Leah received.
“Similarly, while he gave two garments to each,
to Benjamin he gave five, and three
hundred pieces of gold; and he sent (him) to his father likewise, so that his
mother’s house might be equal to the other.
“And they lived in the land of Canaan from the
time when Abraham was chosen from among
the gentiles and migrated to Canaan; Abraham for 25 years; Isaac 60 years;
Jacob, 130 years. All the years in the
land of Canaan were (thus) 215.
“And in the third year of the famine in Egypt,
Jacob came into Egypt when he was 130
years old; Reuben, (44 years and 10 months); Simeon, 44 years; Levi, 43 years
(and 2 months); Judah, 42 years, and (4) months; (Dan, 42 years and 4 months);
Naphtali, 41 years and (6) months; Gad,
41 years and (6) months; Asher, 40 years and 8 months; (Issachar, 40 years and
8 months); Zebulun, (39 years and 10 months); Dinah, 39 years; and Benjamin,
(22) years old.
“But Joseph (he says) was already there in
Egypt, (at age) 39; and from Adam until Joseph’s brothers came into Egypt
there were 3,624 years; and from the Deluge until Jacob’s coming into Egypt,
1,360 years; and from the time when
Abraham was chosen from among the Gentiles
and came from Haran into Canaan until Jacob and his family came into Egypt
there were 215 years.
“But Jacob came into Haran to Laban when he was
(77) years old, and begot Levi (….) And Levi lived on in Egypt for 17 years,
from the time of his coming from Canaan into Egypt, so that he was 60 years old
when he begot (Kohath). And in the
same year in which (Kohath) was born, Jacob
died in Egypt, after he had blessed the sons of Joseph, when he himself was 147 years old, leaving Joseph at the age
of 56 years. And Levi was 137 years old when he died. And when (Kohath) was 40
years old he begot Amram,
who was 14 years old when Joseph died in Egypt at the age of 110; and (Kohath) was 133 years old when he
died. Amram took
as his wife his uncle’s daughter Jochebed, and when he was 75 years old he begot Aaron (and Moses). But when he begot
Moses, Amram was 78 years old, and Amram was 136 years old when he died.”
This fragment addresses matters that are related
in Genesis 27-47, concluding with a chronological elaboration on the genealogy
of Moses and Aaron in Exodus 6:16-20. Demetrius’ focus here is on chronology, but
along the way he comments on a few aspects of the biblical narrative – we will
explore the fragment’s chronological schema first, then look at Demetrius’
other comments.
It is in this fragment where we find Demetrius’
total of 3,624 years from Adam’s creation until Israel’s entrance into
Egypt, a figure that, as discussed previously, is calculated from the
Septuagint’s long chronology. In his Eupolemus: A Study of Judaeo-Greek Literature, pages 102-104, Ben Zion Wacholder suggested that the Septuagint’s long chronology
was probably the invention of Demetrius himself, or at least of someone in his
“school.” Wacholder even speculated that Demetrius
may have been one of the Seventy who had produced the Septuagint, which
traditionally was produced a generation or two before Demetrius wrote.
Nevertheless, Wacholder admitted that, “There is no
direct proof that Demetrius had tampered with the biblical texts to lengthen
the antediluvian and pre-Abrahamic periods.” Not only is there no direct proof
of Wacholder’s suggestions, but, as Henry B. Smith
Jr. has cogently demonstrated, there is no evidence whatsoever that the
Septuagint numbers in Genesis 5 and 11 were inflated (See “The Generations of
Adam” in Grace and Knowledge, Jan.
2018, Issue 32).
The main point of the fragment is an attempt to
discern the chronology of the life of Jacob, working out a schema of dates for
significant events such as when Jacob went to Mesopotamia, when he married Leah
and Rachel, when his children were born, when he returned to Canaan, and when
he and his family migrated to Goshen in Egypt. Demetrius also provides the sums
that he worked out for the total years from Adam to the Flood, from the Flood
to Israel’s entrance into Egypt, and from the Call of Abraham to Jacob’s
entrances into Egypt, concluding with a chronological framework for the lineage
from Levi to Moses. Along the way, Demetrius offers scriptural exegesis of
various aspects of the historical narrative of the Patriarchs in Genesis – in
addressing those aspects, he made use of a literary form known as aporiai kai luseis
(“difficulties and solutions”), a form that was popular among Demetrius’
contemporaries.
The fragment begins by fixing Jacob’s departure
for Mesopotamia to his 77th year, a statement not found in the text of Genesis,
which indicates that Jacob obtained his older twin brother Esau’s birthright at
some point after Esau married two Hittite women when he was 40 (i.e., when
Isaac was 100 years old, for Esau and Jacob were born when Isaac was 60).
Demetrius may be following an old tradition in dating Jacob’s departure, but
that date may simply be Demetrius’ own speculation, favoring the numerically
significant number 77 as being especially fitting. Jacob’s departure for
Mesopotamia could be placed earlier than that without contradicting the
biblical data (for some suggest that Jacob was in Mesopotamia for 40 years
rather than 20 years).
From that point, Demetrius follows the biblical
narrative which describes Jacob working for his uncle Laban for seven years,
after which he married Leah and Rachel, followed by seven more years working
for Laban during which time, according to Demetrius, most of Jacob’s children
were born. The dates of birth for Jacob’s children were calculated by Demetrius,
who sought to fit the births of 11 of Jacob’s sons and his daughter Dinah into
the second seven years of Jacob’s service to Laban (which is, in fact, probably
when most of Jacob’s children were born). Demetrius was able to arrive at these
dates by following the order of births in Genesis and then taking account of an
expectant mother’s normal nine months of pregnancy, allowing for sufficient
time between pregnancies.
Demetrius then says Jacob worked another six
years for Laban before he finally returned to Canaan with his wives,
concubines, and children (cf. Genesis 31:38, 41). Genesis 35:28-29 says Isaac
died at the age of 180 at some point after Jacob’s return to Canaan and the
defilement of Jacob’s daughter Dinah – the biblical data shows Jacob was 120 when
his father died. From this we know that Jacob went to Mesopotamia after Isaac’s
100th year and returned before Isaac’s 180th year. Going further, the biblical
data allows us to determine that Joseph was 39 or 40 years old when his father
and his kinsfolk entered Egypt, at which time Jacob was 130. This is known
because Joseph was 30 years old when Pharaoh appointed him second over Egypt,
after which there were seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine
– and two years after the famine began is when Joseph’s brothers first came to
Egypt seeking food. Consequently Joseph was born when Jacob was 90 years old,
which means Jacob could not have returned to Canaan until after that date, but
before Joseph was 17, when Jacob was 107, for Jacob and his family were
certainly established in Canaan by then.
Considering the remainder of Demetrius’ dates for
Jacob’s life, it is evident that most of these latter dates conflict with the
biblical narrative. For instance, while Demetrius says Benjamin was only 22
when he entered Egypt, Genesis 46:21 says Benjamin already had nine sons by
that time. Furthermore, Benjamin was born before 17-year-old Joseph was sold
into Egypt, but Demetrius’ statement that Benjamin was only 22 when his father
was 130 would mean Benjamin wasn’t even born until a year after Joseph was sold
by his brothers. How then could Joseph in Egypt have known of the existence of
his baby brother Benjamin? Clearly Benjamin was born before Joseph was sold but
after Jacob’s return to Canaan – the biblical data does not permit us to fix
the date of Benjamin’s birth any more precisely than that, but Benjamin must
have still been a child when Joseph was sold. If Benjamin was, say, 10 years
old when Joseph was sold (Benjamin may even have been a couple years older at
the time), Benjamin would have been 33 when he entered Egypt, which would allow
more than enough time (about 15 years or so) for Benjamin’s nine children to
have been born by then.
Again, while Demetrius says Levi’s son Kohath was
born 17 years after Israel arrived in Egypt, Genesis 46:11 says Kohath was born
prior to Israel’s coming to Egypt. It is evident that Demetrius’ figures for
the genealogy from Kohath to Moses are not founded on any authentic tradition,
but were crafted by Demetrius to cover the period from the entrance into Egypt
to the Exodus. Thus, 17 + 40 + 78 = 135, and since Exodus 7:7 says Moses was 80
at the time of the Exodus, we find that Demetrius believed Israel sojourned in
Egypt for 215 years. This contradicts Genesis 15:13, which prophesies that
Israel would be in bondage in a foreign land for 400 years, as well as Exodus
12:40-41 in the Masoretic text and in the vast majority of ancient Bible
translations, which say Israel dwelt in Egypt for exactly 430 years.
However, the reading of Exodus 12:40-41 in most
Septuagint manuscripts and all extant Samaritan Pentateuch manuscripts adds
words that change the meaning of verse 40. Whereas the Masoretic and the vast
majority of ancient Bible translations say “Now
the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred
and thirty years,” the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch show either “. . . who dwelt in the land of Egypt and in
the land of Canaan . . .” or “. . .
who dwelt in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt . . .” The
Samaritan Pentateuch also adds the words “and
their fathers” to the words “the
children of Israel.” These alternate readings interpret the 430 years as
extending from the Call of Abraham until the Exodus: 215 years from Abraham’s
arrival in Canaan until Jacob’s coming to Egypt, and then a second 215 years
from Jacob’s coming to Egypt until the Exodus. It also would appear at first
glance that St. Paul in Galatians 3:17 interpreted the 430 years in the same
way that Demetrius and the majority of Septuagint manuscripts did, for St. Paul
refers to the Torah being made 430
years after God confirmed the covenant with Abraham.
Nevertheless, the words “and in the land of Canaan,” etc., are obviously a gloss or
interpolation in Exodus 12:40. Note that Moses referred to the dwelling or
sojourn not of “the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” but rather specifies
the sojourn of “the children of Israel.”
No possible chronological schema can find 430 years in the period from the
birth of Jacob, father of the Israelites, until the Exodus. Besides that, the
family of Abraham was never in bondage to the Canaanites during the days of the
Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not even for a single year let alone for
nearly two centuries. Finally, the alternate readings of Exodus 12:40 do not
account for the time that Jacob lived in Mesopotamia – if the 430 years really
encompassed the entire period from Abraham’s 75th year until the Exodus, the
text ought to have said “in Egypt and
Canaan and Haran.”
The fact that the Bible shows only four
generations from Levi to Moses would seem to support the shorter sojourn of 215
years in Egypt (cf. Genesis 15:16, which says “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again”).
However, the very large numbers of Kohathites counted
in the two Israelite censuses in the Book of Numbers proves beyond all doubt
that there were several more generations between Levi and Moses besides Kohath
and Amram. Obviously Moses was not literally a son of
Amram son Kohath, for it is impossible that Moses,
Aaron and Miriam had 2,000 literal brothers. That Moses’ genealogy only summarises his descent from Levi is confirmed by comparing
other Israelite genealogies that span the period of the Egyptian sojourn,
especially that of Moses’ assistant and successor Joshua the son of Nun (I
Chronicles 7:22-23, 25-27), which extends 11 generations inclusive from Joseph
to Joshua. Other genealogies, such as those of Nahshon
and Bezaleel of the Tribe of Judah, and Zelophehad of the Tribe of Manasseh, show more generations
than the genealogy of Moses. If we interpret the biblical data to mean that
Moses’ parents were really named Amram and Jochebed, then Moses’ father Amram
must have been named after his ancestor Amram, son of
Kohath, son of Levi, and that Jochebed was a
“daughter” of Levi only in the sense of being a descendant of Levi. This does
not contradict Genesis 15:16, for that verse should more accurately be
rendered, “But in the fourth ‘era’ they
shall come hither again” – the point being the same as Genesis 15:13, that
Abraham’s descendants would suffer bondage and oppression in a foreign country
for four centuries.
But if the Israelite sojourn in Egypt lasted 430
years, why did St. Paul say the Law was given to Israel 430 years after God
confirmed the Abrahamic covenant? The explanation, according to the late
Gleason Archer, is that St. Paul counted the 430 years from God’s renewal of
His promises to Abraham in Jacob’s vision immediately prior to the entrance
into Egypt, as recorded in Genesis 46:1-4. Archer held that St. Paul’s point
wasn’t specifically to calculate the period from the inauguration of the
Abrahamic covenant until the giving of the Law, but rather to show the great
passage of time separating the Patriarchal era, when God made a covenant with
Abraham and reconfirmed it several times to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the
era of the Torah which began at Mount
Sinai soon after the Exodus.
Returning to Demetrius’ chronography,
then, he was likely the first of many exegetes to notice that the period from
the Call of Abraham to Jacob’s coming to Egypt added up to 215 years, which is
exactly half of 430, and to reason from that fact that the 430 years of Exodus
12:40 must include not only the sojourn of Israel in Egypt, but to all of the
sojourning in both Canaan and Egypt from Abraham’s 75th year until the Exodus.
We cannot say whether or not the Septuagint in Demetrius’ day already had the
interpolation “and in the land of Canaan.”
It could well be that the text was not interpolated until later – i.e., later
scribes or copyists glossed Exodus 12:40 in order to insert Demetrius’
interpretation into the biblical text. In the second century A.D., the Seder Olam (followed by the great
medieval Jewish scholar Rashi) reduced the period of
the Egyptian sojourn to just 210 years. In the early 200s A.D., the Christian
writer Tertullian held to a 215-year sojourn, but his contemporary Hippolytus
of Rome held to a 430-year sojourn. Soon after that, Origen in his Hexapla marked the
Septuagint’s words “and in the land of
Canaan” in Exodus 12:40 as an “obelus” (doubtful or disputed reading). As already noted,
the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch support variant forms of this
reading – the variant forms being telltale evidence that they are independent
interpolations. However, the Masoretic reading of this verse is supported by
seven ancient Bible versions and even one Septuagint manuscript. We must
conclude, then, that Demetrius’ interpretation of the 430 years is erroneous.
In addition to the chronological schema in this
fragment, Demetrius also tackled the question of why Joseph delayed nine years
before sending word to his father that he was alive. Some interpreters see
Joseph’s delay as arising from a deep emotional alienation from his brothers
who had betrayed him: though he may have wished to reunite with his father,
perhaps Joseph was not yet able to forgive his brothers and his aversion to
them overpowered his love for his father. Demetrius, however, used a common
Jewish exegetical method that seeks the answer to a question pertaining to one
biblical passage by looking at another biblical passage. Thus, Joseph’s
knowledge of the disdain that Egyptians had for shepherds, mentioned in the
story of how Joseph enabled his father and brothers to settle in the fertile
territory of Goshen, is used by Demetrius to explain why Joseph didn’t send
word to his father for nine years: Joseph was worried that the Egyptians might
not welcome his family since they were shepherds. Demetrius’ exegesis here is
not convincing, though – surely Joseph did not have to wait nine years before
he could arrange to bring his family to Goshen?
Demetrius makes a further exegetical comment in
this fragment, regarding the great portions of food and the gifts that Joseph
lavished on his younger brother Benjamin. Though the biblical text does not
plainly support Demetrius’ explanation, neither does the text contradict what
Demetrius says. The exegesis of Demetrius here is a plausible and reasonable
explanation, though of course one may suppose instead that Joseph merely wished
to show his affection for his younger brother whom he had not seen in 22 years.
We may also guess that Joseph’s actions were a subtle hint to his older
brothers that he held nothing against Benjamin, who had not taken part in the
conspiracy to kill or sell him.
Fragment three
“Demetrius
described the slaying of the Egyptian and the quarrel with the man who disclosed the information about the one who
dies in the same way as the writer of the Sacred Book. He says, however, that
Moses fled into Midian and there married Zipporah the daughter of Jethro, who was, as far as it may be conjectured from
the names of those born from Keturah of the stock of
Abraham, a descendant of Jokshan, who was the son of
Abraham by Keturah. And from Jokshan
was born Dedan, and from Dedan,
Reuel, and from Reuel,
Jethro and Hobab, and from Jethro, Zipporah, whom Moses married.
“The generations also agree, for Moses was seventh
from Abraham, and Zipporah, sixth. For
Isaac, from whom Moses descended, was already married when Abraham, at the age
of 140 married Keturah, and begot by her a second son
(Jokshan). But he begot Isaac when he was 100 years
old, so that (Jokshan), from whom Zipporah derived
her descent, was born 42 years later.
“There is, therefore, no inconsistency in Moses
and Zipporah having lived at the same time. And they lived in the city of
Midian, which was named from one of the sons of Abraham. For it (i.e.,
Scripture) says that Abraham sent his sons to the East to settle there. And (it
says that) for this reason also, Aaron
and Miriam said at Hazeroth that Moses had married an
Ethiopian woman.”
This fragment was excerpted from the portion of
Demetrius’ work where he related the story of Moses. Here Demetrius presents a
remarkable genealogy of Moses’ wife Zipporah, one of the seven daughters of Reuel, priest of Midian. Especially noteworthy are the
names Reuel, Jethro, and Hobab,
all of which are linked to Zipporah and Moses in Holy Scripture. In Exodus 2:18
and elsewhere, Zipporah’s father is called “Reuel,”
but in Exodus 3:1 the father-in-law of Moses is called “Jethro,” priest of
Midian. Meanwhile in Numbers 10:29, “Hobab” is
identified as the son of Moses’ father-in-law “Reuel.”
Hobab, ancestor of the Kenites,
also appears in Judges 4:11, where he is identified as Moses’ brother-in-law,
but in the King James Version and other versions is misidentified as Moses’
“father-in-law.” This was due to later erroneous vowel pointing that confused
the Hebrew word chathan,
brother-in-law, for chothen,
father-in-law. As a result, some exegetes have mistakenly identified Reuel, Jethro, and Hobab as the
same man, while others have followed Demetrius in identifying Reuel as Zipporah’s grandfather rather than literal father.
Evidently, however, “Jethro” was simply another name for Reuel,
or perhaps was an honorific (since “Jethro” means “Excellency”), and Hobab was Zipporah’s brother. Demetrius’ solution to this
exegetical difficulty is clearly unsatisfactory, since it results in
identifying Hobab as Zipporah’s uncle rather than
brother, a contradiction that is avoided by equating Reuel
with Jethro.
As for Demetrius’ genealogy of Reuel, as a Midianite one would expect Reuel
to have been a descendant of Midian, son of Abraham by his second wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). While Demetrius does trace
Zipporah’s paternal lineage back to Abraham, he takes the line back not to
Midian, but to Midian’s older brother Jokshan.
Apparently Demetrius explained the description of Zipporah’s family as
“Midianite” as indicating not an actual descent from Midian himself, but as a
resident of the territory and “city” of Midian – or perhaps there was a
levirate marriage involving Jokshan and Midian that
resulted in Reuel being “Midianite” even though he
was biologically descended from Jokshan.
We cannot tell whether this genealogy of Zipporah
was derived from an authentic extrabiblical tradition
or rather was fabricated by Demetrius himself. It may be partly traditional and
partly fabricated. The fact that Zipporah is traced back to Jokshan
rather than Midian is a point in favor of its authenticity, for if the
genealogy had been fabricated simply to supply a genealogy for Reuel and to explain the biblical names of Reuel, Jethro, and Hobab, the
fabricator would have taken the line back to Midian rather than Jokshan. Perhaps, then, it is simply Demetrius’ exegesis of
the names Reuel, Jethro, and Hobab
that is mistaken, while the genealogy of Reuel is
correct. On the other hand, it is possible that Demetrius opted for Jokshan as Zipporah’s ancestor due to the Kushite
associations of Jokshan’s sons Sheba and Dedan. Even if we accept the genealogy as correct, it
likely skips some generations as is common in biblical genealogies. Demetrius
was at pains to show that his genealogy for Zipporah was chronologically
plausible, but his calculations are based on a 215-year sojourn and on his
distinguishing Jethro from Reuel. Even if Reuel was a descendant of Jokshan,
we are not obliged to hold that Reuel was literally Jokshan’s grandson.
This fragment concludes with a statement
identifying Moses’ wife Zipporah as “the Ethiopian woman” mentioned in Numbers
12:1. Thus, Demetrius asserted that Moses had but one wife, and that Zipporah
was called “Kushite” or Ethiopian because the descendants of Keturah had settled in “the East,” i.e. Arabia, where
descendants of Kush, son of Ham, are also known to have lived (namely Sheba and
Dedan – Genesis 10:7; Genesis 25:3 – given the names
of Jokshan’s sons, he must have married a descendant
of Sheba or Dedan, son of Raamah,
son of Kush). Besides Demetrius’ explanation, however, other Jewish writers
have explained “the Ethiopian woman” as an earlier wife whom Moses had married
either before he fled from Egypt or soon after his flight. For example,
Josephus identifies her as Tharbis, daughter of the
King of Kush, whom Moses married during his days as an Egyptian prince. A later
Jewish midrash, however, places Moses’ marriage to the
Ethiopian princess immediately after his flight from Egypt – the midrash says
Moses separated from her, though, and moved to the land of Midian where he
married Zipporah. In this tradition, Miriam and Aaron later discovered Moses’
earlier Ethiopian wife and disapproved of his having separated from her
(Zipporah herself meanwhile also having separated from Moses, who from then on
lived in holy celibacy). Other rabbis held to a view like that of Demetrius,
that Moses married but once, that Zipporah for whatever reason was known as
“Kushite” (in this regard, it is perhaps significant that in the animated movie
Prince of Egypt, Zipporah is
represented as dark-skinned), and that Moses and Zipporah were alienated after
she objected to the circumcision of their son, Moses remaining celibate from
then on. With the evidence currently at our disposal, it is not possible to
tell which tradition is the correct one – but it should at least be noted that
Demetrius’ explanation of this difficulty is the earliest we have on record.
Fragment four
“And again
after a little. From there they went for three days, as Demetrius
himself says, and the Sacred Book agrees with him. Since he (i.e. Moses) found
there not sweet but bitter water, when God said he should cast some wood into
the fountain, the water became sweet. And from
there they came to Elim, where they found 12 springs
of water and 70 palm trees.”
This is comparable to the first fragment, in that
it merely restates the biblical record without comment or embellishment. This
once again shows that the purpose of Demetrius’ chronicle was the accurate
setting forth and clarification of Israel’s history (as best as Demetrius could
understand it), not providing deeper theological reflection on the biblical
text.
Fragment five
“And after a
short space: Someone asked how the Israelites had weapons, since they
came out unarmed. For they said that after they had gone out on a three-day
journey, and made sacrifice, they would return again. It appears, therefore,
that those who had not been drowned made use
of the others’ arms.”
In this fragment, Demetrius provides an
explanation for how the Israelites came to have weapons when they fought Amalek
soon after the Exodus. The answer, according to Demetrius, is that most likely
the Israelites had retrieved them from the bodies of the Egyptian soldiers who
had drowned in the Red Sea.
Fragment six
“But
Demetrius says, in his (work) ‘On the Kings of Judaea,’ that the tribe of Judah
and (those of) Benjamin and Levi were not taken captive by Sennacherib, but
from this captivity to the last (captivity), which Nebuchadnezzar effected out
of Jerusalem, (there were) 128 years and 6 months. But from the time when the
ten tribes of Samaria were taken captive
to that of Ptolemy the 4th, there were 573 years and 9 months. But from the
time (of the captivity) of Jerusalem (to Ptolemy the 4th), there were 338 years
(and) 3 months.”
The
final fragment of Demetrius’ work On the
Kings of Judaea comes from the Early Church Father Clement of Alexandria.
It is from this fragment that we learn the title of Demetrius’ work. Notably,
though the title refers to the kings of Judaea, none of the surviving fragments
of Demetrius directly deal with any of the ancient kings of Israel and Judah.
It is true, of course, that Moses is described as “king in Jeshurun”
in Deuteronomy 33:4-5, but otherwise we find no reference to Saul, David,
Solomon, or any other Israelite king in the extant fragments of Demetrius.
It
is, however, merely an accident that the fragments of Demetrius that survived
the ravages of time deal almost exclusively with the ages from Adam to
Moses. Even so, this particular fragment
shows that Demetrius did write about the reigns of the kings, for in this
fragment are chronological calculations that attempt to show how much time
elapsed from the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities (when the kingdoms of
Israel and Judah ended) until the reign of Ptolemy IV, King of Egypt.
We
cannot be sure that the numerical figures in this fragment have been preserved
without corruption. As they stand now they are certainly incorrect, for it was
actually 125 years from the Assyrian captivity in 722 B.C. to the Babylonian captivity
in 597 B.C., not 128 years and 6 months. Again, it was 501 years, not 573 years
and 9 months, from the Assyrian captivity to the reign of Ptolemy IV in 221
B.C. Finally, it was 366 years, not 338 years and 3 months, from the fall of
Jerusalem in 587 B.C. to the reign of Ptolemy IV. It is likely that the numbers
in this fragment are corrupt, but besides that it is also probable that
Demetrius did not have accurate dates for the ends of the Northern and Southern
kingdoms.
Summing Up
From
this review of the six surviving fragments of Demetrius’ work, we are able to
glimpse the beginnings of Greek-language or Hellenistic Jewish historiography
and chronography, which would continue to be
developed in the second and first centuries B.C. and the first century A.D. by
such Jewish writers as Cleodemus Malchus,
Eupolemus, Jason of Cyrene, Artapanus,
Philo of Alexandria, and Flavius Josephus. (Josephus, writing in the latter
first century A.D., knows of Demetrius only by way of Polyhistor,
and mistakenly believed Demetrius was a Gentile historian.) These later writers
wrote for both a Jewish and a Gentile audience. Demetrius, however, shows no
interest in historical apologetics or in synchronizing Jewish and Gentile
history. Rather, he simply sought to clarify biblical chronology and history,
probably as an aid to his fellow Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria and
elsewhere. But his work would soon come to the attention of Gentile writers –
especially Alexander Polyhistor, to whose broad
interest in the histories of the peoples of his day we chiefly owe the
preservation of most of the fragments of Demetrius’ work, which then found
their way from Polyhistor to Eusebius Pamphilii in the fourth century A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The
Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, London, 1851,
2001.
Josephus –
Complete Works, translated by William Whiston,
Kregel Publications, 1960, 1985.
The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Yale University Press,
Hendrickson Publishers, 1983, vol. II.
The Jewish
Encyclopedia, “Demetrius,” article by Joseph Jacobs and
Isaac Broyde, 1906 -- http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5079-demetrius
Eupolemus: A Study of Judaeo-Greek
Literature, by Ben Zion Wacholder,
Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, M. Dworkin and Co., New
York/Jerusalem, 1974.
Answers Research Journal, 2 Aug. 2017, “Methuselah’s Begetting Age in Genesis 5:25 and the
Primeval Chronology of the Septuagint: A Closer Look at the Textual and
Historical Evidence,” Henry B. Smith Jr.
– https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/genealogy/methuselah-primeval-chronology-septuagint
Associates for Biblical Research, 18 Feb. 2019,
“Setting the Record Straight on the Primeval Chronology of the Septuagint: A
Response to Cosner and Carter” (Parts 1-4), Henry B.
Smith Jr. – http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2019/02/18/Setting-the-Record-Straight-on-the-Primeval-Chronology-of-the-Septuagint.aspx
Associates for Biblical Research, 27 July 2018, “The
Case for the Septuagint's Chronology in Genesis 5 and 11,” Henry B. Smith Jr.
-- http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2018/07/27/The-Case-for-the-Septuagints-Chronology-in-Genesis-5-and-11.aspx
Associates for Biblical Research, 5 Jan. 2012,
“The Duration of the Israelite Sojourn in Egypt,” Paul J. Ray Jr. -- http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2012/01/05/The-Duration-of-the-Israelite-Sojourn-In-Egypt.aspx
Ask the Rabbi, Aish
Ha Torah,
“Moses’ Cushite Wife,” Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld -- https://www.aish.com/atr/Moses-Cushite-Wife.html
Grace Theological Journal
12.1, Winter 1971, “The Length of
Israel’s Sojourn in Egypt,” Jack R. Riggs -- https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/OTeSources/02-Exodus/Text/Articles/Riggs-EgyptSojourn-GTJ.pdf
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, by Gleason L. Archer,
Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1982 -- https://archive.org/details/B-001-014-054