Dr. Anthony Keddie is co-author with L. Michael White of a new book entitled Jewish Fictional Letters from Hellenistic Egypt (SBL Press, 2018).
Publication Notice from SBL Press
Jewish Fictional Letters from Hellenistic Egypt: The Epistle of Aristeas and Related Literature
The first Greek text of the Epistle of Aristeas published in more than a century. The Greek text Epistle of Aristeas is a Jewish work of the late Hellenistic period that recounts the origins of the Septuagint. Long recognized as a literary fiction, the Epistle of Aristeas has been variously dated from the third century BCE to the first century CE. As a result, its epistolary features, and especially those in which the putative author, Aristeas, addresses his brother and correspondent, Philocrates, have largely been ignored. In light of more recent scholarship on epistolary literature in the Greco-Roman world, however, this volume presents for the first time a complete Greek text and English Translation with introduction, notes, and commentary of the Epistle of Aristeas with key testimonia from Philo, Josephus, and Eusebius, as well as other related examples of Jewish fictional letters from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.
Features:
• Relevant excerpts from Eupolemus, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, and the Greek
Additions to Esther with translations and introductions
• A critical introduction to ancient Greek letter-writing
• An outline of epistolary features in the text
L. Michael White is the Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Religious Studies and
Classics and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian
Origins at the University of Texas at Austin. His publications include The Social
Origins of Christian Architecture, From Jesus to Christianity, and Scripting Jesus.
G. Anthony Keddie is Assistant Professor of Early Christian History and Literature
at the University of British Columbia. He is also the author of several articles on
Hellenistic Jewish literature.
