The identity of the Onias who founded a Jewish temple in Egypt during the Hellenistic age has been debated vigorously in the scholarly literature. Scholars assume that the founder was either Onias III in 175 BCE or his son Onias IV in c. 163 BCE. This study will suggest that there were Jewish temples in…
“The Ultimate Woman”: Cleopatra I Syra and the Ptolemaic Bias of Daniel 11:13–18
Daniel 11:17 calls Cleopatra I Syra bat-hanašym, “The Ultimate Woman,” based on the kind of reverence exemplified by the portrayal of the Egyptian queen as the incarnation of Isis. Despite the attempts of versions and commentators to obliterate the mythological nuances, Dan 11:13–18 can be understood in its Hellenistic historical context, allowing us to see…