The Social and Historical Setting of the Septuagint

Abstract This chapter examines the civic status, political role, and social standing of the Jewish community in Egypt from its establishment under Ptolemy I until its destruction at the time of the Diaspora Revolt under Trajan, and beyond. It revises some debated issues, such as the relationship between Macedonian and Jewish status in Ptolemaic Egypt, the role of Jews as ‘guardians of the river’, the Augustan reforms and their consequences under Gaius and Claudius, the migration of Jewish rebels after 70 ce, and the traces of some Egyptian solidarity with the Jewish rebels under Trajan. Its aim is to show the complexities of a region where Egyptian and Jewish cultures were in close contact since the very ancient past, and which cannot be explained through a simplistic categorization ‘Judaism versus Hellenism’.