Category Archives: (05) Judeans (Jews) and Christians as participants in ethnographic culture

Amalekites: Josephos and Philo on a prototypical arch-enemy people (first century CE)

Arabians and Judeans: Jubilees, Molon, and Josephos on identifying the Ishmaelites (second century BCE on)

Arabians: Pseudo-Nilus on barbarian bandits and Saracens in the Sinai desert (early fifth century CE)

Assyrian / Babylonian wisdom: Sibyl of Babylon on the superiority of the Judean people (second century BCE)

Babylonian diasporas: Josephos and others on legends of migration from Babel (first-second centuries CE)

Barbarian and Judean wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [V] on the sources of Plato’s thought (late second century CE)

Barbarian peoples: Caesarius of Nazianzos’ and George the Monk’s collection of extraordinary customs (sixth / ninth centuries CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Celsus and Origen of Alexandria (second-third centuries CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [VI] on barbarian and Hebrew philosophy (late second century CE)

Barbarian wisdom: The Thunder, Perfect Mind (before the fourth century CE)

Canaanites / non-Judean peoples: Jubilees on the Dinah story and intermarriage (mid-second century BCE)

Chaldeans, Greeks, Egyptians, and Judeans: Aristides of Athens (second century CE)

Christians, Judeans, and Greeks: Christians as a descent group in the Epistle to Diognetos (second or third century CE)

Cretans: Stereotypes in the letter to Titus (early second century CE)

Eastern and northern peoples: Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries and the Pseudo-Clementines on astrology and peoples (second-third centuries CE)

Egyptians and Canaanites: Wisdom of Solomon on worship of animals and images (first century BCE)

Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians: Julius Africanus on competitive chronologies (ca. 222 CE)

Egyptians: Clement of Alexandria [II] on Egyptian animal worship as less offensive than Greek customs (late second century CE)

Egyptians: Josephos on animal worship (late first century CE)

Egyptians: Josephos on the envy of an inferior people (last-first century CE)

Egyptians: The Judean tale of Joseph and Aseneth on rejecting Egyptian gods and on intermarriage (ca. first century CE)

Ethiopians, Nubians, and Egyptians: Christian authors picturing darker-skinned peoples as “demons” (second century CE on)

Ethiopians: Artapanos and Josephos on Moses, intermarriage, and the Kushites (second century BCE-first century CE)

Ethiopians: Palladios and others on Abba Moses the former bandit with darker skin (fourth-fifth centuries CE)

Germans and Sarmatians: Josephos on impulsive and violent northerners (late first century CE)

Germans: Philo of Alexandria on fighting the tides (first century CE)

Greeks and Judeans: “Hellenizing” and “Judaizing” in 2 Maccabees (first century BCE)

Greeks and other peoples: Paul’s Judean stereotypes about non-Judeans (mid-first century CE)

Greeks, Barbarians, Judeans, and Christians: Eusebios’ framing of a way of life (early fourth century CE)

Idumeans and Judeans: Ptolemy the historian on the difference (late first century BCE)

Idumeans: Josephos on the Edomites’ origins and relations with Judeans (late first century CE)

Indian wisdom: Alexander Polyhistor and Clement of Alexandria (VII) on the Brahmans and naked sages (first century BCE / late second century CE)

Indian wisdom: Josephos integrates Indians into Eleazar’s Masada speech (late first century CE)

Indians: Bardaisan of Edessa on Indian ambassadors’ tales and the Brahmans (early third century CE)

Indians: Palladios and George on naked philosophers or Brahmans (fourth / ninth centuries CE)

Itureans among Arabians: Strabo and Josephos on a supposed bandit-people (first century CE)

Judean diasporas: Josephos on conflicts in Babylonia, ca. 40-66 CE (late first century CE)

Judean diasporas: Philo on conflicts with Greeks at Alexandria and on rebellious Egyptians (mid-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Anonymous on Abraham’s contributions (before the mid-first century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Aristoboulos on Moses and the Judean god as source for Plato and Pythagoras (mid-second century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Artapanos on contributions by Abraham, Joseph, and Moses (second century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Eupolemos on contributions by Abraham and Moses (before the mid-first century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on Abraham’s dissemination of astrological knowledge (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on philosophical sects among Judeans (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on Solomon as the ultimate wise man, controller of lower spirits, and healer (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos’ Against Apion in full (late first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos’ self-presentation as the optimum wise Judean (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Philo on the superiority of Moses and Judean ancestral customs (first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Philo on the Therapeutists’ lifestyle (first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Pseudo-Clement on a journey to Peter the Judean sage (third century CE and on)

Judean wisdom: Pseudo-Clementines on Abraham the astrologer and legends of migration (second-fourth centuries CE)

Judean wisdom: Tatian the Assyrian on the priority of Moses’ “barbarian wisdom” (second century CE)

Judean wisdom: Testament of Solomon on Solomon’s superiority in controlling lower spirits and in healing (first-third century CE)

Judean, Persian, and Indian wisdom: Philo on the freedom of Essenes and Kalanos (early first century CE)

Judeans and others: The Gospel of Philip (before the fourth century CE)

Judeans: Ignatius on Judaizing and Christianizing (early second century CE)

Libyans and Ausourianians: Synesios on years of incursions into Cyrenaica (early fifth century CE)

Libyans, Assyrians and Arabians: Kleodemos and Josephos on Abraham and Keturah’s descendants and their many colonies (second or first century BCE on)

Midianites and Moabites / Arabians: Josephos and Philo on intermixing and the dangers of acculturation (first century CE)

Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)

Parthians, Libyans, Egyptians and others: Acts of the Apostles on legends of Judean migration (early second century CE)

Persian wisdom: Lactantius and others on the Oracles of Hystaspes the Mede (third century CE)

Persians and Egyptians: Pseudo-Clementines on the origins and nature of Magian skill (second-fourth centuries CE)

Persians: Acts of Archelaos on Mani’s foreignness (early fourth century CE)

Persians: Heresy-hunters on Simon Magus and other Magians (second-third centuries CE)

Persians: Irenaeus on Marcus the Valentinian Magian (late second century CE)

Phoenicians: Gospel of Mark on Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman (late first century CE)

Pontic peoples: Tertullian on the Pontic “barbarian” Marcion (late second century CE)

Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and others: Minucius Felix’s ethnographic defence of the Christian people (early third century CE)

Samaritans and Judeans: Belonging to Israel in the Gospels (first century CE)

Samaritans: Josephos on Chuthean origins and relations with Judeans over centuries (late first century CE)

Scythians and barbarians: Colossians and others on ritual recitations (late first or early second century CE)

Scythians: Adventures of Andrew and Matthias among the Man-eaters as ethnographic fiction (third-fifth centuries CE)

Scythians: Clement of Alexandria [I] on the example of Anacharsis (late second century CE)

Spartans and Judeans: First Maccabees’ and Josephos’ claims about kinship ties (ca. 100 BCE / ca. 90s CE)