Pagans in Early Jewish Literature

Hellenistic Jewish texts deride idolatry as religiously and morally corrupting. The denunciation of pagan religion in the Wisdom of Solomon is followed by a description of “idolaters” in terms reminiscent of the stereotype of the barbarian, the quintessentially depraved Other denounced in the late antique period. Josephus echoes criticism of popular mythology leveled by Greek philosophers. The Letter of Aristeas, a Hellenistic letter from the third or second century BCE, warns against the morally corrupting influence of gentiles and extols the wisdom of Israel’s lawgiver for erecting barriers to interaction. Separatism is encouraged by both Philo and Josephus, who deplore intermarriage with idolaters because of the moral corruption it will bring, although they permit marriage to converts. By contrast, the separatism found in works from the sectarian community at Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls), including Jubilees and the Damascus Document, is grounded in an ontological conception of non-Israelites and Israelites as distinct seeds—one profane, one holy—that can never be mixed.