Alexandria, Diaspora, Politeuma and Patrioi Nomoi: The Sharing and Hiding of Jewish Identity

Abstract

Despite the process of ethnic, cultural and linguistic fusion that marked the cosmopolitan atmosphere of ancient Alexandria, the important Jewish community living there managed to obtain, according to literary tradition, significant advantages from the Ptolemies, especially the right to “live according to their ancestral laws”. In this process of identitarian resistance, a determinant role must have been played by the translation of the Torah by the Septuaginta, because it enabled the sacred text with the possibility of reaching a position comparable to that of the Greek patrioi nomoi. It represented therefore a notable example of acculturation and cultural resistance by the way it managed to balance an ingenious sharing and hiding of deeply rooted religious traditions. A possible parallelism between the legal situation of the Jews and that of the Greeks is analysed in the paper, taking as reference the Jewish politeuma of Alexandria, whose existence, if historically accepted, embodies an elucidative example of the way the Jews from the Diaspora could organize themselves into stable communities, from a religious, political and legal standpoint.