Fragmentary Jewish Historians and Biblical History

Erich Gruen’s small study, the revised and extended Felix Jacoby Kiel lecture on the Jewish historians of the Hellenistic period, shows that their writings, which have survived only fragmentarily, displayed a remarkable breadth and diversity. Their handling of the biblical texts was at the same time very playful, consciously connected with a certain amount of idiosyncrasy and with the intention of placing Jewish traditions in a broader cultural context. The historians saw their task primarily not to elucidate it. To the biblical narratives they offered instead compelling twists, alternative versions and provocative variants. Almost always their representations also had a certain entertainment value. The sacredness of Scripture remained untouched.