The Oniad Sibyl

How a Greek Prophetess Became a Revolutionary Mouthpiece for Egyptian Jews
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72266-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 29, 196 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 470 g

Reihe: Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha

The Oniad community was a mercenary and priestly Jewish settlement in Greco-Roman Egypt. This community recognized an exiled high priest of the Jerusalem Temple as its founder and met its end after a Mediterranean-wide uprising that shook the foundations of the Roman Empire. This monograph attributes a group of rather puzzling prophetic narratives—filled with coded language, reused lines from Greek and Jewish literature, and confused historical references—to the Oniads. The thesis of this study is that each prophetic treatise responds to crises experienced by the Oniad settlement and, as a result, evidences its unfolding historical consciousness and hybrid literary culture in distinct phases of its existence.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vargas, Miguel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Heilige & Traditionstexte: Torah, Talmud, Mischna, Halacha
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1 A Jewish Sibyl and the Oniads of Egypt 1 Introduction 2 The Oracula Sibyllina 3 The Oniad Community 4 Research on the Oracula Sibyllina and the Study of Ancient Judaism 5 Egyptian Judaism(s)?

2 Oracular Divination in the Ancient Mediterranean 1 Introduction 2 Temples, Priests, and Cult 3 Crisis 4 Characteristics of Literary Oracles 5 History, Crisis, and Minor Literature

3 Oracula Sibyllina 3 1 Introduction 2 Structure of Oracula Sibyllina 3 3 Compositional History 4 CPJ 4.614 5 Oracula Sibyllina 3 as a Response to Crisis

4 Oracula Sibyllina 4 1 Introduction 2 Compositional History 3 Crisis in Oracula Sibyllina 4 4 The Fourth Sibyl’s Historical Consciousness 5 The Provenance of Oracula Sibyllina 4

5 Oracula Sibyllina 5 1 Introducing the Text 2 Composition and Dating 3 Crisis in Oracula Sibyllina 5 4 Provenance of Oracula Sibyllina 5 5 The Fifth Sibyl’s Historical Consciousness

6 The Oniad Sibyl 1 Toward an Oniad Sibyl 2 Oniad Literature

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Miguel M. Vargas, Ph.D. (2022), is a historian of ancient Mediterranean Jewish communities and Greco-Roman religions. His current projects focus on notions of prophecy in blended communities and interactions between ancient Jews and pagans, with an emphasis on cultural contact, exchange, and conflict.