Wis 19:13-17 and the Civil Rights of the Jews of Alexandria

Abstract

Wisdom 19:13-17 constitutes a pericope which is undoubtedly a little surprising as well as not well known. What does it actually mean to put a passage containing a fierce polemic against the Egyptians, placed in direct comparison with the evil men of Sodom, as almost the conclusion of the book? What motives lie behind this passage? The aim of my work is twofold: first of all, it is a question of taking up again the examination of this passage, which has been studied only by M. Priotto in a study of 1984, apart from the classic commentaries of Larcher, Winston, Vílchez Líndez and Scarpat.1 Secondly, after the passage has been situated in the larger context represented by chapter 19 of the Book of Wisdom, it is used to shed light on a particular problem: what does this passage tells us about the difficult problem of the civil rights of the Jews of Alexandria? Priotto’s work has only touched on this question.2 It has been gone into more deeply in the commentary of Vílchez Líndez3 which refers to the classic studies on the problem of the civil rights of the Jews of Alexandria (cf. below). Let me say at once that it will not be possible to offer anything really new in the exegetical field. In fact, nothing has substantially changed, following the work of Priotto, apart from a few points which I am seeking to highlight. Moreover, as far as the problem of the rights of the Jews of Alexandria is concerned, it is a question, for the most part, of refining several aspects which have already been brought to light in existing work. However, in this type of work it is useful to do a bit of preliminary tidying-up. Before tackling the topic that most concerns us, that is the problem of the civil rights of the Jews of Alexandria, we must briefly take stock of the situation with regard to our pericope. Here it is in my own translation: