Antiochus III’s Edicts to Jerusalem: Between Imperial Stress and Local Agency

Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street,, Cambridge, MA 02138

Antiochus III’s Edicts to Jerusalem: Between Imperial Stress and Local Agency

Harvard University, April 20–21, 2023

Rotem Avneri Meir and Julia Rhyder (co-organizers)

Join diverse scholars of Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic history as we reassess Antiochus III’s decrees to Jerusalem and their significance for understanding Jewish history in the initial years of Seleucid hegemony in Judea. Drawing on recent studies of ancient empires that emphasize the importance of local elites and their lifeways, this two-day symposium aims to shed new light on the imperial dynamics captured in the edicts and their importance for reconstructing Jewish-Seleucid relations.

Symposium Program:

THURSDAY, APRIL 20Chair:
SHAYE COHEN
Harvard University
1 :30 p.m. – 1 :45 p.m.
Welcome and Introduction

1 :45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
The Gerousia of Jerusalem: Who Were the Judean Elites in Early Hellenistic Times?
Sylvie Honigman, Tel Aviv University
2:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Break
Chair:
DAVID STERN
Harvard University
3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
The ‘Charter for Jerusalem’ and the Seleucid Conquest
of the Southern Levant: Problems of Authenticity and Exemplarity

Benedikt Eckhardt, University of Edinburgh

4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Antiochus Ill and Jerusalem -A Seleucid Paradigm?
Paul Kosmin, Harvard University
FRIDAY, APRIL 21Chair:
ANGELA KIM HARKINS
Boston College
Representing the Journal of Ancient Judaism, publisher
of the proceedings
9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Purity, Cult;·and Empire: The Proclamation of Antiochus III Concerning the Temple and City of Jerusalem
Julia Rhyder, Harvard University
10 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Break

Chair:
ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED
Harvard University
10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
The Afterlife of Antiochus’ Edict in Hasmonean Ideology

Rotem Avneri Meir, University of Helsinki/Harvard University

11 :15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Between Resistance and Collaboration: Architecture, Archive, and the Politics of Memory

Anathea Portier-Young, Duke Divinity School
photo of program flyer

This event is co-sponsored by Ancient Studies at Harvard and the Center for Jewish Studies. Its proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Ancient Judaism.