The literature

Every source worked up for the Intertestamental Judaism article, what each one is, how it was read, which way it cuts, and which sources were considered and not used.

This page lists every source the article rests on and every source considered for it.  The research dossiers are in research/:  lead-primary-texts.md (the lead's verified quotations and locators), classical-witnesses.md and classical-witnesses-2.md (Greek and Latin writers), documents-and-archaeology.md (papyri, inscriptions, Qumran site, radiocarbon), scholarship-hellenism-common-judaism.md (modern scholars) and orchestrator-review.md (subsequent source and argument checks).  The four helper dossiers are leads; nothing from them was used unless independently re-read in the source bytes.

How to read an entry

kind is primary (an ancient text, document or object), edition (a modern edition or translation of one), or study (modern scholarship).  direction says how the source bears on the claim it is cited for:  supports, undercuts, complicates or background.  verified is full when the passage was read in the source itself, abstract when only a summary was read, and citation when only the reference was seen.

Jewish literary sources of the period

  1. kjv-1611c. 1 Maccabees, King James Apocrypha (1611), Wikisource text. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The Hasmonean court history of the revolt to 134 BC, dated by the Seleucid era. Used for the gymnasium, the decree, the persecution's targets, the Sabbath debate, Hanukkah, Eupolemus's embassy, and three statements that no prophet was available.
  2. kjv-1611. 2 Maccabees, King James Apocrypha, Wikisource. verified: full. Considered and not used: the NETS translation (schaper-2007) was used instead, because its wording follows the Greek terms hellenismos, allophylismos and Ioudaismos.
  3. schaper-2007. Joachim Schaper, 2 Makkabees, NETS (2007). kind: edition direction: supports, complicates verified: full. Abridgment of Jason of Cyrene's five-volume Greek history. Used for Jason's gymnasium and citizen list, "hellenization," Ioudaismos, the Gerizim renaming, the martyrs' resurrection hope, prayer for the dead, and the translator's note on later additions. Its narrative order of Antiochus's death and the purification differs from 1 Maccabees; narrative order alone does not settle the historical sequence.
  4. wright-2007. Benjamin G. Wright, Sirach, NETS (2007). kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The grandson's prologue dates the translation to 132 BC and shows Greek versions of the Law, Prophets and other books. Ben Sira's lack of an afterlife reward and his identification of wisdom with the Torah are used in Part 7. The NETS introduction supplies the remark that 1 Maccabees was translated from Hebrew.
  5. mclay-2007. R. Timothy McLay, Daniel, NETS (2007). kind: edition direction: background verified: full. Daniel 12:2 in the Theodotion version.
  6. atkinson-2007. Kenneth Atkinson, Psalms of Salomon, NETS (2007). kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Psalm 2's description of Pompey's death dates it after 48 BC.
  7. martinez-1999. García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. kind: edition direction: supports, complicates verified: full. 1QS, CD, 1QpHab, 4QpNah and 4QMMT, with the editors' brackets for restorations. Pages anchored by running heads at pp. 17, 19, 21, 79, 89, 337, 551, 794 and 802.
  8. josephus-1737b. Josephus, Antiquities, Whiston (Gutenberg 2848). kind: edition direction: supports, complicates verified: full. The main narrative for the Hasmoneans and Herod, the Pharisee-Sadducee dispute over unwritten observances, the party sizes, the Idumean conversion, Aristobulus's "481 years" and the Jannaeus crucifixions. Niese section numbers confirmed through josephus-1737d.
  9. josephus-1737d. Whiston text keyed to Niese sections (Lexundria), downloaded for this article. kind: edition direction: background verified: full. Used only to confirm Niese numbers; not cited in the article.
  10. thackeray-1928. Josephus, Jewish War 1-3, Loeb, Thackeray (1928). kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. War 2.119-166 on the three "philosophies." English pages anchored by the folio lines in the OCR: p. 369 for 2.119, p. 385 for 2.159-163, p. 387 for 2.164-166. The library YAML's earlier note "pp. 386-388" is the Greek-page side and is off by one for the English.
  11. josephus-1737. Jewish War, Whiston (Gutenberg 2850). verified: full. Considered and not used: the Loeb was used for War, because it carries the Greek and Thackeray's notes.
  12. josephus-1737c. Josephus, Life, Whiston (Gutenberg 2846). kind: edition direction: complicates verified: full. Josephus's priestly family, his trial of the three sects and his choice of the Pharisees.
  13. whiston-1737. Josephus, Against Apion 1, Whiston, Thayer's text. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. 1.41 on the failed succession of prophets after Artaxerxes, and Agatharchides on the Sabbath at 1.209.
  14. niese-1889b. Greek of Against Apion 1.40-42, Perseus (saved by a helper). verified: full. Considered and used only to confirm that the prophets passage is 1.41; not cited.
  15. eusebius-1903. Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 9, Gifford. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Fragments of Eupolemus and Ezekiel the Tragedian.
  16. eusebius-1903b. Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 8, Gifford. kind: edition direction: complicates verified: full. Philo's two Essene accounts, which disagree on cities and villages, and his "above four thousand."
  17. philo-yonge-embassy-to-gaius. Philo, Embassy to Gaius, Yonge. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. §156 on first-fruit money sent from Rome to Jerusalem. A helper's guess that §216 concerns the money is wrong; §216 is about free men.
  18. wilson-1885. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1, ANF. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Eupolemus's chronology to "the fifth year of Ptolemy Demetrius," which places his history about 158 BC.
  19. origen-1885c. Origen, Against Celsus 1, ANF. kind: edition direction: complicates verified: full. 1.49, the earliest statement found that the Sadducees "receive the books of Moses alone."
  20. gutenberg-2024. King James Bible, Gutenberg. kind: edition direction: background verified: full. New Testament wording for Part 9.

Rabbinic sources

  1. sefaria-2026bc. Mishnah Yadayim 4, Kulp translation, CC-BY. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Sadducee-Pharisee disputes on scripture and on liquid streams.
  2. sefaria-2026bd. Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 11a, Davidson edition. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The end of prophecy after Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
  3. sefaria-2026be. Tosefta Sotah 13, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The same tradition, and Yohanan the high priest's heavenly voice. Sefaria's paragraph 4 is 13:3 in printed editions.
  4. sefaria-2026bf. Babylonian Talmud Yoma 9b, Davidson edition. verified: full. Considered and not used: its explanation of the Second Temple's fall by baseless hatred belongs to the Jewish Revolts article.

Greek and Latin writers

  1. diodorus-2005. Diodorus 40.3, usually attributed to Hecataeus of Abdera, Attalus.org. kind: edition direction: supports, complicates verified: full. A Greek description preserved through Diodorus and Photius; its closing attribution actually says Hecataeus of Miletus. The Attalus translation collates older English versions; its Greek was not checked. The page footer dates this web edition 5 January 2015, which corrects the source's metadata without changing the established key. The helper first saved it under smith-2005, a key already taken by an unrelated paper.
  2. diodorus-2005b. Diodorus 34/35.1, Attalus.org. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The siege of Jerusalem by King Antiochus. The footer dates the edition 20 February 2014; the established key is retained. The sow-sacrifice story was not used.
  3. polybius-1922b. Polybius 26.1, 29.27, 31.9, Paton. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. A contemporary check on Antiochus IV. The downloaded headers identify book 26 as Loeb volume 5 (1926) and books 29 and 31 as volume 6 (1927), correcting the earlier 1922 date while retaining the established source key.
  4. cicero-latinlibrary-flacco and yonge-1856. Cicero, Pro Flacco 67, Latin and Yonge's English. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Jewish gold sent yearly to Jerusalem, and Pompey touching nothing in the Temple. The helper dossier's statement that Pompey is absent from §§66-69 is wrong; he is in §67.
  5. cary-1916. Cassius Dio 37.15-17, Cary. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Pompey's capture of the Temple on the day of Saturn. Thayer's text reads "excavation" at 37.16.2 where the sense needs "exception"; that sentence is not quoted.
  6. jones-1929. Strabo 16.2.34-40, Jones. kind: edition direction: complicates verified: full. Names Alexander as the first Hasmonean king, against Josephus's Aristobulus.
  7. tacitus-1876c. Tacitus, Histories 5.2-9, Church and Brodribb. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. Antiochus, Pompey and Herod in a hostile Roman account. The helper's paraphrase "abolish superstition" is not Tacitus's wording; the article quotes the translation.
  8. pliny-1855e. Pliny, Natural History 5.73, Bostock and Riley. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. The Essenes on the west shore of the Dead Sea.

Documents, inscriptions and archaeology

  1. cowley-1923. A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. kind: edition direction: supports, complicates verified: full. No. 30 (408 BC by Cowley, 407 by others) and No. 21 (419 BC, heavily restored).
  2. cotton-2010. Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae I.1. kind: edition direction: supports verified: full. No. 2, the Temple warning inscription, p. 43; No. 9, the Theodotos inscription, p. 54. The volume gives no statistic for the share of Greek inscriptions, so none is claimed.
  3. elliott-2007. Tom Elliott, Current Epigraphy notice on the Heliodorus stele. kind: study direction: supports verified: full for the notice, citation for the stele. Considered and not used in the final article: replaced by the translated inscription (smith-2021). Elliott himself had not seen the edition.
  4. magness-2012. Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of the Holy Land (2012). kind: study direction: supports, complicates verified: full. Qumran's dates, scrolls, baths and cemetery, the Essene identification and its weaknesses, stone vessels, ossuaries, Jesus and John and the Essenes. Page = leaf - 16, anchored by the index.
  5. hirschfeld-2004. Yizhar Hirschfeld, Qumran in Context (2004). kind: study direction: undercuts the Essene identification verified: full for the passage used. His p. 222 argument compares the plan, tower and reinforced base with other estates. Page = leaf - 30, anchored by the index and scandata; parent review re-read leaf 252.
  6. golb-1996. Norman Golb, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? (1996 printing). kind: study direction: undercuts the Essene identification verified: full for pp. 382-383. He proposes collections from Jerusalem and emphasizes several Jewish currents. Page = leaf - 20, anchored by the index and scandata; parent review re-read leaves 402-403.
  7. jull-1995. Jull, Donahue, Broshi and Tov, Radiocarbon 37 (1995). kind: study direction: complicates verified: full. Radiocarbon and handwriting dates for 1QS and 1QpHab. The helper dossier's statement that these dates are only palaeographic is wrong; Table 2 gives both.
  8. popovic-2025. Popovic and colleagues, PLOS One (2025), S4 Appendix p. 5. kind: study direction: complicates verified: full. 4Q259 has several calibrated possibilities: 350-310 BC (24.3%), 210-100 BC (69.7%) and 70-55 BC (1.4%). The authors reject the first by comparing handwriting. Parent review restores the full result and removes the claim that the copy certainly existed by 100 BC.
  9. de Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1973), archive.org archaeologydeads0000vaux. verified: citation. Considered and not used: the helper read his earthquake passages by leaf only, with no anchored pages, and Magness reports his phases.
  10. Ya'akov Meshorer, Ancient Jewish Coinage (1982), archive.org ancientjewishcoi0000unse_g9r0. verified: citation. Considered and not used: read by leaf only, with no anchored folio. Listed as an open issue.
  11. Cotton and Worrle, "Seleukos IV to Heliodoros," ZPE 159 (2007), and Dov Gera, "Olympiodoros, Heliodoros and the Temples of Koile Syria and Phoinike," ZPE 169 (2009), 125-155. Original editions not obtained. Routes tried: Cologne ZPE download paths and web search. Their correspondence is used through the English edition smith-2021; it does not establish a visit to Jerusalem.
  12. Zenon papyri on Tobiah (CPJ 1, nos. 1-5). Not obtained in this session. Not used.
  13. smith-2021. Andrew Smith, ed., "Letter of Seleukos IV to Heliodoros," Attalus.org, SEG 57.1838, page dated 26 October 2021. kind: edition direction: supports, limits verified: full for the English text. Sections A-D name the officials, dates and regional sanctuary appointment; Jerusalem is absent. Its declared basis is Cotton and Worrle, Gera and Jones. Original Greek and journal apparatus are not independently collated.
  14. Magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002). Considered and not used: the helper did not obtain its relevant text, and the verified passages cited here come from Magness's 2012 book instead.

Modern scholarship

  1. cohen-2014b. Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 3rd ed. (2014). kind: study direction: supports verified: full. Hellenization of all forms of Judaism, the definition of a sect, Josephus's "philosophies," and the enigma of the persecution. Page = leaf - 18. No sentence saying most Jews belonged to no group was found, so none is attributed to him.
  2. sanders-1992. E. P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief (1992). kind: study direction: supports verified: full. "Common Judaism," party sizes, the number of priests and Levites. Pages from scandata, checked against Sanders's own cross-reference to p. 14.
  3. collins-1984. John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination (1984). kind: study direction: background verified: full. The genre definition and the dates of 1 Enoch's parts.
  4. charles-1913. R. H. Charles, ed., Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha vol. 2 (1913), G. H. Box on 4 Ezra. kind: edition direction: background verified: full. 4 Ezra's date, AD 100-135.
  5. hengel-1974. Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1974). verified: abstract. Considered and not used: the helper could not anchor pages because the OCR copy is out of order. Listed as an open issue.
  6. tcherikover-1959. Victor Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (1959). verified: abstract. Considered and not used: the helper read passages on the Tobiads but did not anchor them, and his theory of the persecution was not reached. Scandata gives page = leaf - 14.
  7. Elias Bickerman, The God of the Maccabees; Erich Gruen, Heritage and Hellenism; Louis Feldman on Hengel; James VanderKam; Lester Grabbe. Not reached in this session. Not used.
  8. mason-1991, mason-2003. Steve Mason on Josephus's Pharisees and on Josephus and the New Testament. Considered and not used: no passage was read for this article, and the claim about Josephus's Pharisaism that would have needed Mason was removed.
  9. neusner-1971, sanders-1990. Neusner and Sanders on rabbinic traditions about the Pharisees and their oral law. Considered and not used: that argument belongs to Is the Oral Torah from Sinai?.
  10. schiffman-1994. Lawrence Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. Considered and not used: the 4QMMT and Mishnah texts were cited directly instead of through his argument.
  11. nickelsburg-2006. George Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism. Considered and not used: the afterlife question is argued in a sibling article.
  12. vermes-1998. Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Considered and not used: the Study Edition was used for its brackets and facing text.
  13. charles-1913d. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha vol. 1. Considered and not used: NETS was used for the Apocrypha.